What type of forum should I open?

[Former Member]

I find that fan sites (such as football clubs) are the most popular with fans posting news on recent transfers, results, upcoming games, etc.
Once you have a good set of members you will find that they keep the boards running with news and new threads. I even have one member who has set up a prediction league on my forum. That has kept lots of members coming on each week, also meaning they post replies to other threads while they are there.
One lesson I have also learned is: Just because you don't have many members at first doesn't mean your idea has failed, you wait, 6 months down the line you will look back and think WOW look where this board is now.

All the best with starting a new forum, and remember to make it about something you enjoy / keep up-to date with. No use not knowing what people are talking about on your own board =p

[Graham]

I took over a general forum 2 years ago. At first i thought it was going to be a really popular place, and something unique but after becoming more familiar with Proboards i found it to be just like a lot of other sites. It's still going strong now (over 100 members).

Recently i wanted something to really sink my teeth into, and on something that i knew a lot about - thus i made a forum about Pink Floyd. It also helps as there are very few (that i've seen) forums about Pink Floyd. I think i've found a niche

[jj07053]

my pop music forum has been doing great...and im very pleased

[James Campbell]

Someone above me didn't read the rules. =]

I hate it when people do that.

Anyhow, back on topic. I've noticed, as I'm sure all of you have, that, well, 9/10 Harry Potter RPG's fail. Why is this? A lack of variety, dedication, and remaining active from the admin. Also, a lack of knowledge on how to promote a website may also relate to the matter.

However, people do like change. It's part of the reason I opened my fourm, an experiment (per say). You can't make your forum like everyone elses. Even if your opening a General Forum, it needs to stand out. Of course, that's a no-brainer.

An admin should take this one sentence into mind, "Will I keep my forum alive?" 9.9999/10 will say yes, and about 1/10 actually do. Being an admin obviously isn't cookies and creme` (ooh yummy). It obviously takes a lot of work and dedication.

So, basically, open a forum with variety, Hogwarts is too overused, so, why not a General Discussion forum? A place that provides Pre-Made skins is always cool. However, leave MySpace layouts to MySpace. Don't bring it to Proboards, because, in my opinion, UBBC and HTML don't mix. =]

[Saxor]

I think that role play forums are not too bad to make if they are unique. You have to put the members in an environment where they almost forget that they are role playing. Having rules that restrict bad posting help to do this. Having things that other people wouldn't think of also help and you should have a section that isn't role playing to give members something to do when they're not role playing. I obviously failed at this, because my forum has had 9 members for the last 2 months, all you can do is try, right?

[Gamoc]

Well, personally, I think that people should brainstorm things that they REALLY like. If they want to do something popular, but they don't like it, then they would do a terrible job on administrating it, they should choose a type of forum that they enjoy using. If they keep looking, they will find members. It is much much better to make a forum on what you like that what most other people like. Just have some fun, don't make it terribly boring.

[Thundermew]

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 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?

My board isn't a discussion, its an RPG, thats because I thought I would enjoy it. So, its important that the admin on a forum enjoys having it

[DestinyDefect]

i generally had opened up my board not only due to the mass rpg school boards I have seen popping up but on numerous times when i join a site such has harry potter many members can not spell correctly, rpg correctly or are unsure of themself. So I separated mine but making it exactly like other but more dark and more of a general scale so everyone is interested or may view.

Honestly not everyone knows what rpg is, not everyone likes harry potter, not everyone has proboards and so on. So i made a proboards that can transition to other sites and I think many new boards are lacking that qaulity now a days

[rockingrock]

General forums are usually not popular enough, you must have a specific topic to attract members and visitors.

My site, which mainly helps people to remove malware from their systems, is I believe quite a unique one as far as proboards goes.

chiawaikian.proboards78.com

[WunderBunny]

If you have a niche subject, members will come looking for you. Our forum succeeds because it was opened for a specific purpose: getting into medical school to become a doctor/physician. The forum owner did not start by thinking: "I want to open a forum. What type of forum should I open?" It was more like: "I want to go to med school. Where do I find some information?"

That in itself is not enough to make a forum successful. A forum succeeds when it is well-moderated. Staff have to be active and engaging with the members. We have to look ahead to the future needs of our members. People stay because they get the information they want and they make friends.

If you are going to open a forum another HP rpg forum, you have to offer the members something which the other fora do not have. It is not good to open a forum for the sake of being head honcho. The forum must have a purpose and you must believe in it.

[Flufferz]

Before making a forum, a person should think abut the subject before even trying to create a site. Furthermore, they should wonder how many other sites that are just like theirs. Personally, I know there are many Naruto RPGs (which I have one), but a lot of people used the same colored skins and areas as well as the same plot all the time.

If a board is a roleplaying board, a person should have ideas what will be offered on the board, an idea of a skin that could be original, and a plot. Plots are one thing that attracts people to a board. So, people should think what is going to be on their board before they even open, or even create it.

[»»[Ava]n0x«--]

I opened a general forum last year in February... so 1 year ago. First there were only 7 people but it was fun and familiar. Then the board grew with the members and I got many people to join after only 8 weeks (because I am a moderator at the official Rupert Grint forum, Rupe's Party Place). The board was very active, but then in summer people didnt visit the board very often. and in the middle of september the board was dead, except the mods. so i decided i have to come up with something new. i have been thinking much and wanted to turn it into a hp forum first. but my friends maybe would call me gay or whatever. asi am a dj, i decided to turn it into a music forum. we have always had two music sections and we had an own charts list, The ClubbingCUBE Charts Top 25, (while the board was active, but we had to stop them). So i took some time during my winter holidays and worked on new icons, banner and headers and footers. i kicked out some sections and built up more different music sections. we have a music song index with a lot of links to the newest songs (listen only of course) and i want to add the song videos too.
my latest idea was to offer my members my own, selfmade music and remixes to download. but i'm still working on it.
So from a general forum we turned into a music forum.

And after advertising our board on several sites and making affiliates we get more members every week ;D
my aim is to get at least 3 new members per week soon.

[kelendria]

^ I did exactly the same thing, I had a themed forum on a music group, but since they disbanded, I turned it into a general music forum.
Since we're not very active I cut some of the boards down. I'm personally more familiar with hip hop, pop & R&B, so those are the main boards, but we do have a board for all other kinds of music.
I'm always open to growing & building more boards should we become active again

[Weasley Twin]

People create message boards because they want to meet people who have similar tastes in what they do. Creating a message board about someone or something you like is always a plus.

I've noticed that there are a lot of Harry Potter boards that get posted but most of them are RPG's not that I have anything against, them, it would just be nice to see a HP board that isn't an RPG, where fans can come together and talk about the books/films withouth having to do any type of role playing.

[animeanimal]

Me too. Most RPG site I go to are Warriors. Not that I don't like them but c'mon nothing else but WARRIORS!! THre should be a place that fans can talk about their.. well whatever they fan.