Starting a forum

[RLW]

Hi,

If you are starting a forum, do you think it is better to

1) Start off with fewer categories/topics in your forum, and then add more as the activity in the forum picks up.

2) Start off with all the categories/topics you will want in the forums straight off the bat.

With option 1, the forums will look busier because there are fewer categories. Which I think is a good thing - people are more likely to post on an active forum, right?

With option 2, there will be some forum categories that are empty, but with more categories, it is more likely that visitors will see a category that piques their interest, encouraging them to post a new thread or reply.

What are your thoughts?

 

[ColorsDeluxe]

I'm going with the second option. Your members will know that is a new forum, but they will have the oportunity to open threads and make posts where they want.
It will be easier for them.

 

[tristanperry]

Always the fewest possible boards to start.

It's been proven (can't find the articles and all now) - and logically this is quite obvious IMO - that potential members will get 'scared off' if they see loads of boards which are relatively in-active.

I know what you are getting at when you say a potential member may see a category that interests them... but if the board/category has barely any posts in it, that'll just put them off even more.

Much better to have a few active boards

 

[RLW]

Thanks fellas.

I was hoping to get a bit of a unanimous response... but I have one person who is for option 1, and 1 person who is for option 2...

Thats no help

 

[Lithium]

I would say start off with a few boards, and increase it based on which threads seem to be popular. That way potential users will see alluring board categories eventually, but only once you know your current members will post in them.

 

[mhdoc]

Fewer.

 

[bobeweele]

I would have to go with fewer categorys first to make it look more active:talk:

 

[RLW]

Awesome.

Thanks everyone.

 

[ponting]

I don't think starting a forum is that much difficult. I have many online forums that I made. If you buy Vbulletin latest version you will have all facility integrated with forum. So just try yourself. Hope you will do it.

 

[RLW]

I don't think starting a forum is that much difficult. I have many online forums that I made. If you buy Vbulletin latest version you will have all facility integrated with forum. So just try yourself. Hope you will do it.

Did you read the opening post? You haven't given me an answer to my question. Do you think optioin 1, or option 2 will work better?

 

[Larry Fling]

More is better, although they may be empty at 1st it alteast make the forum look more full and it also give your members more options. Less might look too boring and simple, they will be scared off that way..

 

[exponent]

Fewer categories. Plus, I have two computers that I use for making posts. Each one has:

Internet Explorer
Firefox
Flock
Safari
Opera
Chrome

Thus, I can have 12 users logged in at once, making and responding to posts.

 

[HappyDay]

Option 1 is really better in my opinion.
I´m running a board with 20.000 registered members and added more forums in my main forum because my member asked for it. Some more categories I added because I thought that would be interesting stuff for my target group but it seems this was wrong because they don´t post much there.