Creating and running a discussion forum

Hey crowebird, which is that domain - hosting company name? can you tell it to me?

And people, can you please give me feedback for my forum???

http://s3.invisionfree.com/Saurons_Forces_SF

I know it is pretty bad, and is almost dead...

[crowebird]

hey, I found a way to get a phpbb forum up for 100% free for as long as you like it...

freefronthost.com

it takes a little work to get it set up, but you dont have to worry about paying for anything until you get alot of traffic then maybe you will need a bandwidth upgrade...

for example the forum i made... skycapva.freefronthost.com/phpBB2/

as for the site to host 29.99 a month

readybb.com

hope that helps

cheers,
mike

Thnx! That really helped!

Though I'm not planning to host my site.... yet, cause I'm gonna wait until my alliance in a game (Darkthrone.com) grows, and they will come, and when I get 1000 members and I get about 10 posts a day, I will host it and pay $$ for it

Mike did you get all set up? I can help out on this if you need. Pm me and lets talk.

Eric

Here is some useful advice for people in moderating forums they have set up.
members.aol.com/intwg/trolls.htm

Its fairly long but it really is worth a read.

I've run quite a busy forum in the past and it can be a challenge at times to keep a lid on things when arguments break out.

[Paul_KY]

Looks like a guide on, "how to be a heavy handed mod". Excellent recipe' for a, "dead" board.

No, really, it was a good read. Loved the, "troll" section. LOL

[adamphones]

hi all,

how do you go about filling in your forum with content?
is there some sort of strategy? do you start off with liittle number of categories and then start building more? and how do you get more people to visit?

please help.

thanks a lot
T

Originally Posted by adamphones

hi all,

how do you go about filling in your forum with content?
is there some sort of strategy? do you start off with liittle number of categories and then start building more? and how do you get more people to visit?
T

In forums that I've run I usually find it best to start off with a small number of categories then add categories based on what is commonly discussed. I've seen forum's where they try to predict what types of discussion will happen and all you end up with is a long list of forums with no posts in and users being confused as to where the subject they want to discuss should be posted.

I think the worst mistake is not having a "general" or "other" category.

As for getting more people to visit and post: Apart from the usual ways of getting more traffic to your site I'd say one of the best ways is to make sure you check the forum regularly and reply to threads as helpfully as possible. When your forum is still young this will make the person you are replying to more likely to come back and people viewing the thread more likely to post themselves as they can see there are discussions going on and people getting useful replies.

Other things you could try once you have a few users are a referral scheme or perhaps some kind of competition.

Another thing to try when starting a fourms is paid posting. There are a few companie which you can pay usually a small fee and they will arrange writters to come and do some posts on your forum.

paidpostingcentral.com

I have found that having lots of friends in the topic related to your forum is VERY beneficial.

Run your forum like a company, do "special offers" and incentives for recommending others. It might involve a tiny bit of spending, but it can be worth it.

Be really nice, and don't leap straight in with a page full of rules. People like to start somewhere with very little, and see it develop.