New section request - forum development

[B33R]

It would be great to have a section dedicated to forum development, where we can discuss forum software, mods, development, advertising and promotion, spammers, anti-spam techniques, styles, smilies, promoting members, money-making ideas, on-site advertising and positioning ads, how to get a new board off the ground, search engines and SE friendly links, contests.... the list goes on and on.

I definitely think there's enough members here who would use it, and there's no end to the amount of experienced forum staff here, and those who run their own boards, that have a wealth of info we can all share.

Right now, NP doesn't really have anywhere to cater for forum owners, with forum related posts spread right across the development sections and the advertising sections, even some up in domain discussion, it would be great if those could be consolidated into one section.

There's plenty of other forum related topics too which could be included in the new section which don't really get posted on NP now, or do get posted but in places where they don't really belong.

By the way, I'm not posting this because I need help, rather that I have a lot of knowledge and info about modding, development and spam (or rather anti-spam), that other people would find useful. I'm sure a lot of other forum owners/staff here also have knowledge that is currently not being utilised, which in the spirit of NP and helping each other out, could be.

Thanks for reading this. Comments, suggestions and agreement/disagreement welcomed.

 

[RickM]

If this is put into place I would love to be involved as i ran a community called whichBB, which was bought out by Adminfusion. Its a very wide subject and I've used pretty much all the popular bulletin board systems and know their weak and strong points.

Good suggestion B33R.

 

[Hitch]

It could be a good idea B33R.

There is a few Forum related threads in Website Development already, but not a huge amount.

It could be a worth a try, see what happens, maybe a sub forum in Website Development for something.
If it doesn't work out, you could always mass move the threads back into the "Website Development" forum.

It could en encourage more users to post in there, and get advice on their forums.

Adrian

 

[deleted984054565403]

I personally see the growth and development of forums, as opposed to other types of websites, going downward. I'm a former owner of a mid-size forum (~700 members) and I've noticed it's becoming increasingly difficult to start a new forum. In other words, what I'm saying is that forums are starting to take a backseat to many sites that are based around content and use comments as means of communication among members.

If a board for forum development really has that much support, maybe it'd do well as a subforum of website development, just to keep the threads separated.

 

[Joe]

i suggested this ages ago
or something similar

if not, i was going to

oh well
sounds like an awesome idea

although most things can fit into other sections of the site, e.g. smilies is design
and code is programming
and seo in seo :p

:santa: Joe

 

[JBebbington]

I'm an experienced administrator, I'm one of the top posters and ex-staff on www.theadminzone.com (the largest forum admin community in existence). I have ran over 12 communities, moderated countless more. I'm considered an authority on this subject in a lot of places.

I would love to see this put in. If you need a forum leader, you know who to PM

JB

 

[CrazyTech]

There are a lot of forums out there, for sure, but I've experienced success recently in two niches that are fairly saturated. I don't think forums are dying out but my suggestion would be maybe to expand this section to include Forums and other types of community websites such as myspace-like websites and so forth. Community/Forum websites tend to be different from more mainstream websites for obvious reasons. There are many sites that use forums more in an auxiliary role and many others that are just forum websites.

I know you can add me to the list of those who would both visit and participate.

 

[Hitch]

Another point to think about is advertising.

I always see forums get advertised quite competitively, maybe because it shows member counts etc, and "they have to be up", because lets face it, it's not like a site, you need regulars to make a forum work.

I can just image users with 1 post, posting there saying "Is my forum ok? Link".
There is quite a few 1 postcount members asking similar questions in the Webdesign Review forum, ok, so it's not too bad, as it's a "review" forum...but, in a forum section...?

I'm guessing you can see where i'm going with this...

There might be alot of advertising :hehe:

Also, you can't really put a required post count on the forum, in-case some first-time posters do have something to say. :hehe:

 

[B33R]

I'm not too worried about excessive advertising, this site (and most others like it) is already crammed full of one-posters wanting something for nothing.
According to about half of the posters in this thread, there's already suitable places to discuss forums and forum development, combining them into one forum and then having a dedicated group of individuals on hand to help with anything forum related, shouldn't make much difference to the current situation.

I'm actually rather disappointed with the response so far, I expected some negative responses but not this many.

I figure while a large number of members have some forum knowledge and experience, we might as well use that to our advantage. Help each other out and expand the expertise offered by NP in the process, maybe even recruit some new NP members by properly catering to the large number of forum owners out there.

There's plenty of stuff related to forums that we could cover, sure other places cover similar things but none of them has a base, great staff, friendly community, willingness to help and knowledge on an incredible array of subjects like NP does.

I for one don't feel like finding a forum owners forum just so I can offer help in a lesser environment to people I don't know.

I guess it was just the Christmas spirit getting the better of me, wanting to help people etc.... yup, I definitely should've stayed away from the Christmas spirits until Christmas day. :p

 

[Hitch]

I'm actually rather disappointed with the response so far, I expected some negative responses but not this many.

There was actually only 2 negative responses, with good reasons.

And i mentioned good and bad points...so...:hehe:

I'm still for the idea though as a subforum! :tu: