Running a forum preserve of mad webmasters like Temi?

[temi]

Crowebird recently started a forum, this reminded me of when I started this forum and why it was started. Before I go into why, I just want to know how many members here run their own forum and what their experience of running a forum is, positive, negative?

Running a forum seem to be a thankless task which does not bring any money (except for very few large forums) I wonder why mad webmasters like me (And Eric still go ahead and start a forum on a topic that hundreds of existing forums already cover, since its pretty obvious that there is not money in forums.
What could the reward be; kicks, backlinks to you main website or for power?

Temi

BTW Crowebird, I will like to help promote your forum, please send me a 468x60 banner and I will place it at the top of this forum free of charge for about 2 weeks.

hmmm, so why do we start these forums Temi?

persanlly, I enjoy it!

[OldWelshGuy]

I run a rugby forum that is as busy as hell, It is great fun, it is MY community and it is a place online where I can go and be happy.

Sometimes it can get a bit yuk, like yesterday when a Kiwi decided to come online and slag the Welsh rugby team off, but by and large it is greta fun.

I do not run any pro web forums, I moderate on a few though Robert Clough's forum - smalbusinessbrief
AArdvark Business
OX1.net business forum in the UK,
and my busiest forum is Jill Whalen's Highrankings forum .

I post in loads of other small business forums as well as it gives me a buzz to help people succeed in their business dealings.

As far as my running a business forum, well I am not sure. I was thinking about setting up a business forum for Wales, but I think it will end up being abused, spammed to high heaven with crap, and be more work than the worth.

[temi]

Originally Posted by backpackearth

hmmm, so why do we start these forums Temi?

persanlly, I enjoy it!

Eric,
I used to hang out in a lot of forums a while back, most of the moderators then seem to be watching your every move, ready to bash you on the head if put a foot wrong, I really hated that.
One day I just though hey, starting a forum is not rocket science, its takes time to pick up but I can do it, about a year later when I had some free time I install phpbb and started this forum.

Secondary benefits (for me) is the fact that I have hundreds if not thousands of ranked pages I can use to give my core sites back links if required. I also get to meet nice people like you, and some not so nice people like ********* (you remember him, you and lots of other members complained about him to me a while back

Loads of forum go out of business all the time, most forum owners are not prepared for the long haul, I usually enjoy buying such forum for fun (the last three I bough : webmasterserve.com , batalk.com, battleguild.com , pretty sad isn't' it

Temi

[temi]

OWG,
Yes Spam is a serious issue in most busy forums. I have seem you in some of those busy forums you mentioned, when I say you here I was (very pleased) but surprised that you had the time post in a growing forum like this.
I am sure if I ever become a high fling Internet guru like you I will remember to give growing forums a leg up like you are doing for this forum and greatnexus.com

Long live OWG

Originally Posted by Old Welsh Guy

I run a rugby forum that is as busy as hell, It is great fun, it is MY community and it is a place online where I can go and be happy.

Sometimes it can get a bit yuk, like yesterday when a Kiwi decided to come online and slag the Welsh rugby team off, but by and large it is greta fun.

I do not run any pro web forums, I moderate on a few though Robert Clough's forum - smalbusinessbrief
AArdvark Business
OX1.net business forum in the UK,
and my busiest forum is Jill Whalen's Highrankings forum .

I post in loads of other small business forums as well as it gives me a buzz to help people succeed in their business dealings.

As far as my running a business forum, well I am not sure. I was thinking about setting up a business forum for Wales, but I think it will end up being abused, spammed to high heaven with crap, and be more work than the worth.

[crowebird]

Thanks for the offer temi.
Im going to hold out a couple days, or until whenever I think its ready for promotion (basically when I get all the categories in and any other coding I think it may need).

Thanks,
mike

EDIT::
heres the banner, im still not ready though, I got all the forums and coding done but im still setting up images

http://www.wtflash.com/files/forum/ad_468x60_forum.jpg

I run a forum and website that covers topics in a whole different way than any other family site on the net. I have yet to see another forum that allows family members of all ages to post in an open forum. I only have 48 members or so because the site's still very new, but the age demographic ranges from 10 years old to almost 50, male and female.

Not to mention, I wanted to do something good on the net and help promote strong family morals through improved understanding of each other.

Plus, I think it's helped me deal with my own inner deamons growing up the son of an alcoholic father.

[temi]

Duke,
I completely agree with you, your forum is rather unique and there isn't that many forums out there covering the topics your forum covers

Originally Posted by Duke

I run a forum and website that covers topics in a whole different way than any other family site on the net. I have yet to see another forum that allows family members of all ages to post in an open forum. I only have 48 members or so because the site's still very new, but the age demographic ranges from 10 years old to almost 50, male and female.

Not to mention, I wanted to do something good on the net and help promote strong family morals through improved understanding of each other.

Plus, I think it's helped me deal with my own inner deamons growing up the son of an alcoholic father.

[OldWelshGuy]

Wow duke I can feel for where your coming from. I had two alcoholic parents to deal with, and a kid sister 9 yeasr younger than me. I have just put up a phpbb based portal called aroundresolven.co.uk it is a village portal where people can get together, and, get this, I also thought about having somewhere the whole family can post,. We have a range of forums from up to 10, 10-15 16-25 over 25. It has no members as yet, as I have not marketed it to any one. although locals are viewing the site, none of them are posting. They need educatig lol.

We are going to take it into the schools so that they know it exists, and hopefully it will grow from there. I have used all the mods available so they can chat live, upload photographs etc, and also there is a directory on there as well.


Temi, the beauty about the web is that we are all equal. I found this forum, and liked the way it felt, nice and relaxed, a good blend of people as well. I thought that maybe there would be some who I might be able to help with regard web marketing, so joined. I have added it to me forum favs, and will visit daily and check out the new posts. Glad to be of help , and thanks for having me here.

Originally Posted by Old Welsh Guy

We are going to take it into the schools so that they know it exists, and hopefully it will grow from there. I have used all the mods available so they can chat live, upload photographs etc, and also there is a directory on there as well.

I can't describe how gratifying it is to post this type of content on the net for others to see. If it helps one person then it's paid itself off.

One of my members kids has her teacher interested in using my site for some kind of socialogical experiment. I belive it entails having a class (or part of one) register and have their parents register as well and view the results of such communication after a pre-determined amount of time. I'm not clear on the details as of yet (not even sure if it will actually happen) but it is exciting to think about.

The one suggestion I do have for you is to remove any chat software you may have on your site. Any site I've been to that has it seems to lose out in the forums. Why post, if you can chat?

If you're interested in having members chat, get a Teamspeak Server. I'll be getting one once I reach around a hundred members or so, that is, if they vote to have one.