Several Questions about forums

[Greg]

Hi,

I plan on developing 2 different forums in the next year. I have a couple of questions at the end of this post but I will explain what I want to do with each forum first:

StAugustineTrip(domain name)- The oldest continuously developed city in North America. Located in between Jacksonville Florida and Daytona Beach.
This forum will offer advice and information about the area for tourists and sections for locals (doctors, dentists, schools, churches).

YourFloridaTrip(domain name)- Everything that I set up for StAugustineTrip will be broken into sub-categories for each tourist city in Florida.

I have dot com, net, org for each domain.

I plan on developing StAugustineTrip forum 1st, YourFloridaTrip forum 2nd, then I will hopefully be finished developing the supporting websites to go with each forum and launch both of those as phase 3 and 4.

Now for the questions:

1. Should I set up the forum as a dot net and the future websites as a dot com. This is how I thought I would precede but any advice here is appreciated.

2. I have narrowed down choice of forum license to either vbulletin or IPB. Any comments about either forum type being better than the other?

3. Any comments about this development strategy would be appreciated as well.

Thanks in advance,

Greg

 

[Xavier_3D]

I don't think you should be going for Forum in the first place, try a simple site. Or Wordpress maybe. However if you are consistent on your point, then go for vBulletin and customize it like sitepoint has done. The site should be interactive to actually wow the people to visit the place. And Forums don't tend to serve that purpose unless customized ofcourse.

 

[DDC_Cyn]

I'm also wondering why a forum. The topics you mention seem better suited to a straight forward website.

 

[RTM]

Forums can provide for solid consistent traffic - but the initial community building effort (attracting, engaging and keeping the first x amount of members) should not be underestimated.

Rob