What kind of boards & categories are good for forums?

[Former Member]

This is the hardest part for me in designing forums. I can never think of good categories & boards to put up. I feel like sometimes I have too many, or not enough. Can anyone help? My forum is a forum that plays a bunch of online games, find cool glitches & stuff in games, etc. 

I've heard that having an offtopic is good, but as a category or board?

My forums usually have, in this order:
News Board
includes Updates, Events & Annoucements, Rules, Support boards

Community
Unknown boards; maybe a discussion and offtopic?

The rest? No idea...


If this is in the wrong category, please fix But for those who know anything about this, can you help?

Also, what do you think is good for a roleplay, coding, and general chatting forum, etc.?

[Kami]

This is a really subjective question with no one right answer. The two most common factors that determine these things (but by far not the only factors) are: 1) the genre of forum you're creating, 2) your goals for the forum / intended target audience.

A general rule of thumb I have is: what are the bare essentials you will need? If you're making an RP forum, for instance, you know you will need:

- a place for profiles to be posted
- a place for accepted profiles to be placed
- at least one board to RP
- either a custom page for the rules / faq / plot
- a board for the rules / faq / plot
- a help board
- an announcements board
- a staff board

but that setup doesn't make sense for a general chat forum, or a graphics forum, or a coding forum... you get the picture.

[Former Member]

Ah, sorry, I'm new here...I'll edit it and clarify that, sorry.

[Kami]

I'm not sure what you clarified.

[Tanya]

@tumbler , No need to edit your first post ever unless asked to edit it. What you're asking is for a general idea for each type/genre of forum. That is clear in your first post.

So basically your forum is a 'Gaming Forum'. <just getting facts straight in my head before I continue>

What Kami gave was a general idea for a 'RP Forum'. She also wanted you to be aware that what she gave doesn't apply to every type/genre of forum. Her mini paragraph told you something more from the start and that there are two key things to consider. That is the type of forum you are making/made and who you want to take part in that forum. (basically what kind of members do you want)

Understand so far?

Moving along...
A lesson I learned was adding too much too soon. I created several categories and several boards but there was very little content in them. Several boards would have went months without anything in them to be truthful. But it was what I wanted for the forum to be like if/when it was full of activity. The problem with that though is it makes it look like a dead forum. Too much empty space so I condensed everything but made a note of what i wanted later and hid it.

What I suggest that you do and keep in mind it is only a suggestion, my opinion, is have a staff board, either a board or webpage for your forum introduction and rules, a board for member introductions. Those are needed no matter what kind of forum you create.

Beyond that, I can't really give you a general idea because everyone has different ideas even those that are within the same type/genre of forum. The best thing to do is to look at the different types of boards out there already to gain a better idea of what each type feels is necessary. Since you have a Gaming Forum, I would focus on those types of forums. There is a forum directory here you can browse through to help you sort out the different types of boards and give you a better idea of what to add to your own. 

Oops, almost forgot to address this:

I've heard that having an offtopic is good

The thing about offtopic, rather it be a thread, board or Category is it depends on the type of forum you have. In some cases, the idea is bad but for most forums... either a board or thread will do. For forums that have a singular idea, an off topic thread in a General Discussion Board would suffice. Some even make a Board for it. But Keep in mind, most General Conversation boards added to a forum are off topic from the type of forum so an actual offtopic isn't necessary. 

[Mandoli]

May 29, 2017 15:49:15 GMT -8 Tanya said:

The thing about offtopic, rather it be a thread, board or Category is it depends on the type of forum you have. In some cases, the idea is bad but for most forums... either a board or thread will do. For forums that have a singular idea, an off topic thread in a General Discussion Board would suffice. Some even make a Board for it. But Keep in mind, most General Conversation boards added to a forum are off topic from the type of forum so an actual offtopic isn't necessary. 

I think an OT board is semi-important. It's not the "meat and bones" of someone's forum, but what if I don't want to talk about (name of theme)? It doesn't necessarily have to be one huge section. Just "OT" in its own category works just as well. You don't need so many boards in this. Just as long as you can give your members a little place to talk about anything not about the theme (you mean ROMs?), then it shouldn't be a problems.