What draws you to a forum?

[cisleader]

It depends on what the forums topic is, whoes on it, is it active? Does it have the potential to be an active, succesful forum?

I general join all good Star Wars forums, as thoes are what i'm drawn to. Also, forums that have a Support or Graphics board are an instant win and make me wanna join, although I still check to make sure i'm not joining a dead forum.

[mrhotshotbillup]

What wins me, is a simple, clean, effective design. You don't have to be extremely elaborate because sometimes that can just get really annoying. (Like the v4 alternate 2007 )

Another thing is it has to have something to offer to me or my interest. Sorry, but even if your site is the best Pony site in the world I won't join. I'm mostly centered around coding and graphics, and that is what I want my future to revolve around so I am going to most likely be drawn to these type of forums.

[zypurdotcom]

zypur makes a forum.

[DragonGirl]

What attracts me to a site is simple light layout and organised posts

I don't like bright skins and one board for over 2 things

[therevolution]

What draws me to a forum are these two things;

1.) Active members. No-one wants to join a forum which has 100+ members, but no-one had posted anything within a week, right?

2.) The skin. Nobody wants to get their eyes burnt out by a hideous forum, eh?

[Cazzie]

So, looking back at this post, it's more like a list of things that make me not drawn to a forum, some of them are probably not things that bother the vast majority, and I'll put up with them if there's something really good to be had, but if there are enough small things, it still adds up to "Agh. No. *back button*".

What draws me to a forum is easy, something I'm interested in, a skin I can read on, and a nice welcoming community of interesting people. The biggest thing I notice initially is whether I can read it or not. (By which I mean, read easily, without wanting to skim stuff because of poor text layout/colour choice.)

First off, I have to have an interest in the subject matter, if I don't then I'm not gonna stay. The community has to be good, and welcoming, I don't mind the in-jokes, I know that any forum of sufficient age will have them, and I know that eventually I'll be in on them.

I've been on forums that had a distinct sense of "us" and "them" and I definitely wasn't one of "us," I don't think I've logged into that particular forum in about a year. (Y'know, when you never have a post replied to, rarely get work critiqued, feel like you're missing something all the time..? Yea. I hate that.)

The skin doesn't have to be the next wonder of the design world, but if I can't read it (especially on an RP forum) or it's just eye-bleedingly bad, I'll just hit the back button. The same goes for grammar and spelling, especially on the part of the admin. I know that English isn't everybody's' first language and that some people don't click with grammar the same way I don't click with algebra, and I'm willing to just ignore the grammar/spelling as long as I can follow the conversation, but when the admin is riting leik dis u no wat i meen..? (Especially in board titles and descriptions.) It... doesn't really make me want to stick around.

On the flip-side of that, when every post is picked apart for it's technical quality rather than its content, that is also not particularly welcoming. I've been on forums with a limit on this or that and every question is considered stupid or replied to with "READ THE FAQS NOOB!" and after a while, you don't want to post, because you're never gonna be "good enough" and it's unlikely to achieve anything more than another round of insults, so why bother, y'know?

I think those two paragraphs could be summed up as; I like good grammar, but not to the point where every other post is "OMG SPELL CHECK NOOB!"

Back to graphics for a second... forums without any limitations on signature sizes, (again, especially in an RP forum) just become frustrating. When the average sig is longer than the average RP post and I have to scroll through a mass of distracting flashy gifs and pixellated jpgs just to get to the plot, it's really frustrating, and I'm not likely to join in. I don't even know if it's the size that's an issue, I've seen tiny-but-distracting and I've seen huge-and-barely-noticed. This is a minor one, in most cases I'll ignore it and put up with it if the community is good. There is a limit to that though, I've seen sigs taller than my screen.

I think that's it. I guess... the admin has to be involved in the community; not just in the sense of running events and making skins and graphics and moderating, but, finding the time to just.... be a member, chat, RP, joke or whatever with the members. It makes the admin much more approachable when things are going wrong, and in some cases you don't need to tell the admin, because s/he's been reading the thread and already knows and is acting to put things right. It's not a vital thing, but it definitely helps. Of course it only works if tey treat all the members this way, if they're clearly favouring one group of "veterans" or whatever, you tend to get the "us" and "them" situation I mentioned earlier.

Whew! Long post is Long!

[SilverEyes]

Good layout and more than 50 members.

[Goldenheart]

What makes me want to join a forum? Well...

The first thing that I see is the colors. I do not want to post on a forum where the background is magenta, thank you very much. I like the color magenta, but eyewatering forums drive me away with a mental, "I'm sorry, but no matter how nice your site is otherwise, I do not want to give myself a headache looking at that skin!"

Even if it's not eyewatering, some skins make me leave pronto. For instance, I don't like sites with really dark skins. To be honest, they scare me a little. So if all the skins revolve around the color black, I usually won't join. Also, PB Support is the only site that can pull off the default skin, simply because it's run by the people who came up with the look. For all other sites, it makes it look unfinished, like the admin hasn't bothered making the skin match their topic.

Speaking of topic, that matters a lot to me too. I usually stick with RPGs and writers' forums, because anything else simply isn't interesting to a storyteller.

What I really look for in a forum is often embodied in the rules. I don't want to go on a site where it seems that the admin is making rules just because they like placing impossible restrictions. Actually, I look for rules that uphold common sense. Ideally, I prefer sites that ban foul language and references to "adult" behavior.

In short, what I look for in a forum is sites similar to the kind I would make myself. Wow, this post was longer than I intended it to be.

[Support KL]

Aug 4, 2007 20:32:37 GMT -8 Martyn Dale said:

What draws you to a forum?

Aside from a well developed community, with many members, what is it that draws you to a forum? Which of those things are the most important to you?

Is it purely the colors? Perhaps the use of simple gradients? Or is it more than that.

Is it possible to draw someone in with just the use of simple colors, and basic gradients, or does it have to be something really flashy.

In addition, is there anything about the ProBoards "default" look (not colors) which could help improve the first impressions?

Again, please dont discuss member counts, or subjects, as those are obvious. This is with regards to the look, with the subject aside.

The thing that catches my attention when I see a forum is the color and font size. If the font size is too tiny, I will not read it. If the font color is too light, then I will not read it. If the font color matches the background color, then I will not read it. I will only visit a forum and join, if and only if, the font size fits my style--nice and big--and the background color contrasts the font color; otherwise, I will not join no matter how big the forum is or how sophisticated it is or the subject matter.

[aliensnail]

Apart from the main reasons (subject, genre etc) the helpfulness and general feel of the community is what does it for me.

But going on the actual forum itself I would say the ease of use. It needs to be easy on the eye, easy to navigate and a pleasure to use.

Garish or hard to read colour schemes are a put-off.

[bleachrps]

What draws me into a forum is first and formost, the subect. Then it's the layout of the forum, basically the background and the image on the homepage (If it's all bad blurry or something its bad and if it's on of thos backgrounds that has one small picture that repeats like 100 times, its a turn off). Also if there is too much animation on it, it is a turnoff. After that, I look at how many people are/were on and when the last post was on. Then I go look at the chat box (if there is one) and see if someone is spamming, being mean to someone, flaring, which tells me that this site probly isn't that good at making friends or something like that. If I decide to join onto a forum, and everyone is like in a group and no one says hi to the new guy, it makes me feel that I don't belong here. When the rules in a forum are too too strict, it annoys me. That's basically the start of the things that draws me in to forums there is also more but they are small things.

[Chadwick]

These are some of the things that draw me to a forum:

• A well organized board. I hate when a board is messy and unorganized.
  
• Informative threads. Such as a rules or rank thread.
  
• Skin. A nice skin is always nice, especially a good use of gradients.
  
• Friendly staff and members.
  
• Good activity. If only one or tow people have been on in 24 hours it's not very active.
  

I also won't join a forum that's about something I'm not interested such as "High School Musical" or something. I mainly join Nintendo or Graphics forums.

[jobrofever]

I will join if the admin isn't rude (cause if they are I won't join)
If they are on usually
And if they make an effort...
That's all I really care about

[Master KNARF]

Something that has a very interesting design with lots of banners and images, but nothing confusing. Also, I like strict rules, but strict rules that let a new member to participate with ease, and not feel like a newbie.

[cyanide]

Well how active the members are and a very faint skin issue. Depending on how well teh site looks overall pretty much draws me in too xD