What type of forum should I open?

[∞ ConqueringWolf ∞]

I consider this to be one of the main points for whether or not a board is going to be successful or not on Proboards. What kind of a topic can you make a board around that is at least semi-unique and what will you offer people to make them want to join your board instead of someone else's?

A good example of this is the amount of Graphics Design and Harry Potter boards that have been opened in the past and even currently. While these are great topics to build a board around I do not consider them practical to open unless you are going to be able to offer your members something the other boards do not already have.

Another big problem is the lack of effort that people are putting into these types of boards and they expect to compete against the established successful boards. They expect they can throw on a monochrome grey template with designs that have been used a million times already and *Poof* they magically have a great design board...I don't think so. Why would someone join a board that is either templated or looks like it took 5 minutes to make when there are other boards already established they can go to. Or the Harry Potter boards that are bland and don't even look like HP except for the fact they have 1001 boards made you can post in.

The subject of your board is something that needs to be thought of if you seriously want to have a successful board. Making one that is just another also ran with 1000 others is not going to give you a very high success chance.

Now what do you think?

[Ímþ®óvîšâ†ó®]

conqueringwolf said:

I consider this to be one of the main points for whether or not a board is going to be successful or not on Proboards. What kind of a topic can you make a board around that is at least semi-unique and what will you offer people to make them want to join your board instead of someone elses?

A good example of this is the amount of Graphics Design and Harry Potter boards that have been opened in the past and even currently. While these are great topics to build a board around I do not consider them practical to open unless you are going to be able to offer your members something the other boards do not already have.

Another big problem is the lack of effort that people are putting into these types of boards and they expect to compete against the established successful boards. They expect they can throw on a monochrome grey template with designs that have been used a million times already and *Poof* they magically have a great design board...I don't think so. Why would someone join a board that is either templated or looks like it took 5 minutes to make when there are other boards already established they can go to. Or the Harry Potter boards that are bland and don't even look like HP except for the fact they have 1001 boards made you can post in.

The subject of your board is something that needs to be thought of if you seriously want to have a successful board. Making one that is just another also ran with 1000 others is not going to give you a very high success chance.

Now what do you think?

Well, before I created my forum, here's what I tried to figure out...
If I created a forum that already existed (a.k.a Star Wars forum), I'd be accused of copyright, so I settled for the next best thing = A Social forum (No not SoCal, that's taken already lol). I believe forum's get the most active members if their forum's are either a general forum, or a buisness forum (i.e. A Forum promoting say an accounting buisness or something - that would be good). I would NEVER use a *pre-made* template, cause that will show how lazy of an admin that I would be (added to that, the template would be copyrighted and the onus will be on the main admin that uses it on their forum).

If you ask me, I've seen WAAAYYYYYY TOOOOO many RPG forum's and wouldn't recommend a new proboards member to create one. Why? because they're the type of boards that lose members easily, as most of them think that role-playing on a forum-based service is somewhat 'boring'. Furthermore to that, I've learned that WAAAYYYY TOOOO MAAANNNNYYY proboards members are creating the same type of board. In my view, if this keeps up, only about 2 out of say 1,000 will have alot of members (The HP role-play forum's are the best examples for this sort of scenario).

That's all from me on this sort of situation

[Drewz]

I beleive it's up to the creater to create whatever they want. There's heaps of Harry Potter, Runescape, Wrestling Efeds, RPG forums, so if someone was thinking of creating one to discuss those topics, I'd suggest simply joining an already established forum. Why? Becuase you won't have to wait and premote for your forum to grow, you can get right into it.

OK that might be a bit hypocritical of me, seeing as I created a wrestling forum. Why did I? Becuase I've gone to way to many wrestling forums with either massive flaming, suck-ups, cornyness, or boringness. I made mine to make something diffrent, so I would suggest others do the same.

In the long run it's up to you what you make. To my knowledge there's not alot of ristrictions of what type of forum you can make. If you want a Runescape forum, then make one. It's not up to anyone else to tell you otherwise. On that same note, I'd suggest joining an already established Runescape forum rather than make yet another one.

[D]

I'm getting sick of HP and GD forums, I recently started a general forum which is going really well

I think other people are sick of them to, there are only s few GD forums I am a members at and those are the big ones, people also start GD forums and can't even do gfx, like me

But I always have a designer on hand ready to make and images for me.

I'd like to see more big general forums which I would be happy to join

[mrsyukisohma]

Furuba role-playing is very popular, but only one of them have been really successful. There are way too many Furuba role-play boards out there. Everyone starts them. One of the reasons why they aren't successful is because they take everyone else's ideas pretty much. There's nothing original so no one wants to join them. I've heard others say they quite joining them after a while for that reason. If you're going to create a forum that's already been done, try and bring them something original. I don't mean individual boards that have been renamed (i.e. General Discussion = Babble) -- that's not the original quality that I am talking about. Although, it is nice to see forums named differently.

I got very tired of Furuba boards, but I still wanted to role-play. A lot of people like to role-play Furuba. I came up with the idea of having groups that inspired me from another website, and I also added a few other anime/manga to role-play besides one itself. It helps bring more of a variety to the forum. It can be boring talking about one subject, even if there is just a "General Discussion" area. You want to have a variety of discussions.

[Raptor]

Originally, my board was simply a method of contacting me in the event I coulndn't access email. After I met a few friends on another messageboard, I decided to set it up as an alternative board for us to hang out as friends. It's officially a forum for my site, but most of the members there are people I know personally, and so far that hasn't been a problem. I don't focus on any one subject, except maybe friendship.

[ChaosCormag]

Hi, I am new to this proboard thing, but I started my proboard last night. Now I was wondering where I could find out how to change the folder images. I have an image I want to put in the folder spot, but I can't find out how to switch the images.
Please can you assist me in my dilemma. ;D

[ChaosCormag]

Also, I agree with you guys. I know that I made a forum based on Fire Emblem, but that was only because I like Fire Emblem and didn't think anyone else had thought of what I had. Even though I started yesterday I got 2 of my friends to start on it, both of which are now members. One of them doesn't even know about the game, and the other one does but is really interested. I don't know what GD's are, but it seems like they are put together a lot better than the other types of proboards I have seen.
Hope you guys can go to more forums that are more original, and I hope that you visit mine some time, cause I visited yours and they seem interesting. ;D

[∞ ConqueringWolf ∞]

chaoscormag said:

Hi, I am new to this proboard thing, but I started my proboard last night. Now I was wondering where I could find out how to change the folder images. I have an image I want to put in the folder spot, but I can't find out how to switch the images.
Please can you assist me in my dilemma. ;D

You need to ask this in the Support Board, this is not the proper place, thanks

[Artemis]

I think a person should create a forum based on their own interests, something they know well, but also something that isn't too widely done already. For example, Harry Potter roleplays... there are tons of those. Not many more should be made.

I know before making a forum, now that I have more experience, I would probably look around the internet or even GOAYB to see what boards have (and haven't) already been made or thought of. This would narrow down my ideas as to what kind of forum I could make.

Although, if I were sure that, if making a HP roleplay, I could offer something no other HP board could offer, I'd go with it. However, I'd make completely sure I had a good idea I could work off of, and something I could work with well, and see through to a successful board.

[XjakeX]

Myne is based on VOW wrestling game, we call boards efeds

[∞ ConqueringWolf ∞]

wwedgehead05 said:

Myne is based on VOW wrestling game, we call boards efeds

Be sure to read the rules...

Your posts should be at least 4 sentences long. Anything less shows that not enough thought was taken in the post, and is most likely not productive towards the conversation.

Thanks

[Molly Weasley]

From reading this debate I have come up ith an idea myself. If people like HP but there are too many of these boards and they like role-playing but they find it boring and there are too many HP RPGs then how about a different school? I created Knightsen just now and thik this may grow to become quite a good board since it is original. It just goes to show you that if you put a few different ideas together then in the end you will have a fun, original board.

Gemma

[britt86]

Well, I guess I'll go against the grain and say there aren't too many Harry Potter boards. Now, before I get crucified (especially since I have an HP board), there aren't enough active Harry Potter boards. Too many of them do the exact same thing as everyone else, down to pretty much the same graphics. We don't have enough variety. And the ones that do have variety tend to die quickly so what we really have are thousands of boards that just exist out there, but are completely dead. I bet if Proboards went around and deleted all the inactive ones, there'd barely be any left.

The biggest problem that comes out of a few successes is that people look only at those successes and then copy them, hoping it'll bring them success. It's a pain for the people that copy them, because originality is truly the key in these types of boards. And then boards end up getting deleted and people just see it as one more of that type.

What people really need to consider when making a board is their motivation behind it. If they want to have a lot of members, they have to realize that it'll take quite a while to build up and a lot of work. You can't just set up a board and expect it to *poof* take off as soon as it's made. Also, just setting up a board to get a lot of members, doesn't work. It's the ones that are truly passionate about their subject that tend to do the best. You have to want to work, have patience, etc...

So, to sum up my point, be passionate about what you want to create your board on. Don't do something just because it's a popular subject and might garner members immediately (who most of the time don't stay) and keep in mind what's already out there on that subject and if you can offer something better than that or not.

[Kmylove]

When I opened my first forum, I mainly did it because I wanted to see if I was capable of doing a forum all by myself. When picking the theme, I thought I should combine my interests with something that people also are interested in. So, since I was a moderate fan of The Matrix, and I though people might still be interested in the movies, I opened a Matrix forum. It turned out people weren't that interested any more, as I've only gathered 9 members.
Then, being a member on so many forums I thought it might be great that a general forum existed, on which to post for various subjects. So I picked a topic: Movies and Celebrities. I figured that people might be more happy to be members of one board and talk about all their favourite movies and actors than be members of one board for each movie and actor they like.
This one didn't have too much success either.
A conclusion is hard to be drawn in my case...
I would recommend something very original, something which hasn't been done too often.