What draws you to a forum?

[podling78]

Firstly, the subject has to be of interest to me. The board doesn't have to sport fancy graphics and gradients for me to join. As long as it's fairly attractive to look and the colours don't give me a migraine then I'll sign up. I also don't like too many boards. There's nothing worse than lots and lots of boards wth no posts. And ofcourse the staff and other members have to friendly. I can't stand loads of drama, but a good admin would hopefully stamp that out pretty quickly.

[Shotty2YaBody]

I join a forum on how well the skin is, the banner, the staff, how many members the forum has and many other things, but i mostly look for forums i enjoy, and would post alot on.

[warioman24]

i say both of what the forum is about and how good the colors are. if both are good, then i'm tempted to sign up.

[Maddi]

What's about and what the skin looks like. Also, if it hasn't been posted on for days, I will not join it. I don't really care how many members it has, because it we judged it on that. No one would have any members.

[Enchant]

shotty2yabody said:

I join a forum on how well the skin is, the banner, the staff, how many members the forum has and many other things, but i mostly look for forums i enjoy, and would post alot on.

warioman24 said:

i say both of what the forum is about and how good the colors are. if both are good, then i'm tempted to sign up.

maddicharmed said:

What's about and what the skin looks like. Also, if it hasn't been posted on for days, I will not join it. I don't really care how many members it has, because it we judged it on that. No one would have any members.

Please try and be a bit more indepth with your post...Simple comments are not contributing to the discussion.Clarify your comments with personal experience or reasons. Thank you.

[nintendo360]

The subject of a board will be the first thing to draw my attention, and I will admit that if the skin looks professional I’ll be even more drawn to a certain site. But if it’s not a subject I’m interested in the best skin in the world wouldn’t help you in getting me to join. In the end it all leads down to the content, and subject of the board. The skin only helps add “appearance appeal” in my mind. I could be interested enough to join a site that has a simple skin as long as it covers the two basics I’m always talking about. Easy on the eyes and blends well. The fancy skins are just bonuses. The site topic is what interests me most of the time.

For example I like Metroid, so if I see a Metroid site I’ll be interested in checking it out. If it has good topics, good content and the likes I may even join and be a part of that board. Now if the skin blinded my eyes, I wouldn’t join however, because I can’t stand joining a site that has a awful skin. Something that hurt your eyes isn’t something I, or perhaps, anyone here would join even if it is a topic I love.

So in the end it boils down to a topic I enjoy, and a skin decent enough on the eyes that would give me enough interest to join and truly enjoy a site.

[Malfoy_jr]

Well of course, like when you meet people for the first time, first impressions really do count.
I see it in terms of 'hooks' to a board. Personally, I like a board to 'look' good first, that some effort has gone into customizing it.
I would say the first impression hooks are 1. aesthetics 2. content. 3. activity and 4. unique/special features.
Of course, the subject would have to appeal to the guest, but I think this discussion is assuming you have found a board whose subject appeals to you and is asking you why you would choose it over another or what would prompt you to join that particular one when there is usually at least several other boards of the same subject.
All the 4 hooks are what decides this. If you can spark the imagination/inspiration somehow within the viewer, than I think it's likely they will join.
Whether they stay as a long term member or not is an entirely different conversation!

[Kristina]

• How friendly the community is.
  
  Far too many forums I've visited and left in the past have been rather heated, taking on the "if I can't see you, I have the right to abuse you" approach, which is a real turn off when trying to find a community to get along with. Also whether or not people noticeably target a particular person continuously, and extreme use of sarcasm (to the point of rudeness) is irritating.
  
  
  
• How often people visit (both members and staff)
  
  A decent forum is no use without frequently visiting members, obviously. If people only log in once or twice a week I won't register, simply because I'm more likely to forget about the forums existence because of lack of activity. Staff visiting is important, mainly because leaving threads open for argument turns the board sour.
  
  
• That most users use proper punctuation and grammar.
  
  Nothing annoys me more than people who don't know how to use capital letters, full stops, commas and how to spell simple words. If the person has trouble with English, or it isn't their first language then it doesn't bug me too much, but it is usually the laziness of people who sit and use text talk that really gets to me. My closest friend does it on MSN, and some nights I (guiltily) block her because I can't put up with it for too long.
  
  
  
• How much leeway the admin gives. Nothing too strict, but not too lightly either.
  
  Basically the rules. I hate it when members get away with things they've (most of the time) deliberately done wrong, and don't even get a small warning. But also when staff are too uptight, really if you lean too much in either direction it's bad.
  
  
  
• How clean and easy on the eyes the layout and skin are.
  
  Obnoxiously bright skins are hell on the eyes, and if they are difficult to navigate around (EG: unlabeled buttons, no link back to the main page, etc) it just confuses me. As long as the skin is easy on the eyes it's fine. I prefer forums with very dark or pale skins, with light/dark text to create some contrast between them, mainly so you can read the board without having to highlight every post to read. I know one person on an EA board I use that always colours her text yellow on a white background.

[D.reamtide]

What brings me to a forum is usually what its about. Such as a Wild Horse RPG, and yes, it must be active! I know that in some forums, the only way to make it active is if you join, and thats fine, I just want like at least 2 other members to start off with. I know the troubles admins go through to try and get their site going (I stand as one) And believe me, advertising is prolly the most boring, and hardest thing to do... I dunno even why I guess it just is. Anyways, well, thats what was said from me! lol

[~Slizy~]

What draws me to a forum?
I don't always look at the site to see how good it looks, though I admit that sometimes I do. If the plot is displayed on the home page, I like to look and see if it interests me or not. I'm often drawn to roleplaying forums more often then discussion. Why? Disscusions can often run dry in my opinion, and roleplaying gives me a chance to practice me writing. Activity is another thing. My own forum may not be very active, but I like sites with active members, who log on daily and not monthly so I have someone to chat/roleplay with. ^^

I've read other people's posts in this, and I agree with the most of you about colors. I HATE bright colors on a forum, whenever I create a skin on my own, I often use alot of black and darker colors, with white text.

[Ќĩɳĝ]

Aug 29, 2007 13:06:27 GMT -8 Yada said:

Hi, my first post here... One thing that would draw me to a forum is their ability to offer something different

Personally, I think this is one of the more profound statements of the thread.

Along with colors and layout, uniqueness is the most vital part to me joining a forum. My forum is growing bigger and it's a lot to take care of, not to mention my life is really hard right now, so I don't have time to belong to a bunch of forums. I'll only join ones that are worth my time and effort.

The skin is what draws me in. The content, member count/activity, and organization are what interest me. The attitude of the forum and the unique factors are what keep me there. If you aren't nice and you don't offer something that I haven't seen before, I won't join.

What does your forum have that the others of that theme don't?

That's very important to me.

[QAlert]

Wow, tough thing to comment on. 'What draws you to a forum?' The very first thing is the content, theme, and type of forum for me. A friend started me out on a Wolf RPG site and it was really fun. A nice simple layout with kind enough coding to make the site more attractive appealed to me. I was really new to it all, but the friendly admin easily welcomed me in and I really enjoyed it.

Inactive staff however really brought the site down to the point where the Admin was in a Real Life situation of her own and was not able to get online at all. Once the admin disappears and there's no co-admin to help out, the site died and members left.

I began looking into other forums, Wolf RPGs more specifically. After searching for that type of forum, I looked at the colors of the skin, graphics and coding used. Those are the very first things that you notice on a site. If things like that aren't appealing, it shows that the admin did not take time into making the site the best it could be. However, not everyone has skills in coding or graphics. If I notice that the site is active with kind and welcoming Staff and members, I'll consider joining depending on the story of the site. “What is the reason to Role Play on this site?” I like to go by plots and outlines instead of just RPing randomly. [And posting one-liners, I hate those.]

If I notice a site that is struggling to develop an attractive site with a potential RPG story line, I'll join to help out with my skills in coding and graphics, plot and board making.

After noting the type of forum, skin, coding, and storyline, I'll look at members and how active it is. If the admin is active, I'll join to help him/her out with the site. An admin needs to be kind and caring but strict for those who don't follow the rules. I am a kind admin I would think on my site. A new member commented that he really enjoyed being on my site because I responded to his introduction post. There's a board made for intros for new members, and I respond to every single one of them. Being welcomed by the Staff is a great thing. Members also help out by inviting guests to join. However, when there's that idiotic newbie that thinks s/he's the best RPer around and demands someone to reply to his or her posts, I get ticked off. I still act calmly and politely to the point where if the person starts to break rules, I give out warnings before banning in a polite but demanding manner.

Staff members need to be calm and kind, but strict when needed. If the admin or staff were to speak rudely to me about a profile or a post, I would leave the forum without second thoughts.

I also look at the posting length…I disapprove of one-liners or anything below five lines. If the limit to posting is five lines to fifteen lines, I’ll join. I like posting more then just five lines, but we all get our off days. I restrict people from posting any less then five lines, but encourage them to post page-long responses because I’m that kind of RPer.

[Magic Mist]

First of all it's the topic that draws me to the forum. It can be something I've always been interested in or something that is so original and unseen before. But topic is not the only thing. The organisation of the board is important to me, it doesn't have to be flashy but it has to be neat and tidy. Bad grammar and spelling is a complete turn off, so those things are important too.

Now what about graphics. They do help, although it's not all about flashiness, like I've mentioned before. I once joined the board whose admin started customising the forum and stopped after having done half of it. They might have been new to the whole thing but after I offered help they said that if i like the topic - the looks of the forum should not be important. In my opinion, if one doesn't know how to customize the forum, they should leave it default as the skin fits my definition of neat.

The number of the members isn't quite important. It is nice to have about 10-30 active members though. This way the board is always sizzling with posts but it isn't overflooded with them like the forums that have hundreds of people using them.

So to sum up, what attracts me to the board is the subject of it and tidiness. Overloading the forum with codes and overcustomizing it just doesn't do the trick for me.

[†Mason Fett†]

I'm usually drawn to forums by the quality of it, as well as the type of topics and board setup. I guess the looks do matter a little bit. I'm not as picky about the looks, though. The music would actually lure me to the forum depending on what it is.

Let's just say it's a video game site. If the theme music was some kind of techno remix of some sort, it could actually be comforting while reading through the threads and browsing around the forums.

[xoxKakiesxox]

what draws me to a forum is the skins/how they designed/how they decorated their forum. this is special because sometimes i cannot read the words if they are a lighter or darker color. also, another thing that draws me to a forum is the amount of members and the topic. i will usually join a forum about a celebrity or animal or activity i like.