Name factors that are important for forums?

[Meti]

I started this thread as I want to extend my knowledge; and for experienced forum owners that manage, well-established forums.

What factors do you consider the most important in order to gain a established forum, with a decent amount of users and good activity?

Personally, I think the following factors are very important, have a look below;

• Forum Navigation
• Forum Content
• Forum Features
• Web Design
• Good Management

Please proceed and add factors that I might have missed; and let's turn this into a thread for both newcomers and advanced forum owners

Regards,
Meti

[SkinnerW]

I think for the forum to be successful as a "community" you must have this community feeling.
There are many forums out there with tons of useful information but that's about it...

You must give visitors reason to join, make them feel welcome, invite them to participate in the discussion.

Another crucial point - never leave questions unanswered. If someone came for help or advise - try to answer or at least acknowledge the question, so person don't feel ignored. Of course it does not apply to obvious spammers...

Regarding design - people are getting very comfortable with VB because most large forums run on it. I would customize a look (colors/images) to give it a bit of "personal touch" and brand recognition but leave general structure just like it is...

[Meti]

Regarding design - people are getting very comfortable with VB because most large forums run on it. I would customize a look (colors/images) to give it a bit of "personal touch" and brand recognition but leave general structure just like it is...

I agree, minor CSS changes and a custom header works for many forums, I think vB is great due to the small changes make it look unique

- Meti

[Mars Guitars]

I agree with Skinner - a sense of community keeps people coming back and genuinely engaged.

My other 'must have' is a proper focus - I see lots of start-up forums that have a zillion different categories... basically covering everything the author is interested in - but why would anyone join? You need a narrow subject matter to start with, whether it be web authoring, motorbikes or guitars. When you've got an established forum community then it's fine to add on less obviously connected 'community interest' categories, such as football.