Setting up a forum

[Ashley Evans]

Hi Guys

I'm looking to set up a forum and I've never done this before. I have bought my domain name through Godaddy and want to know how best to do this? It's not a business forum btw!

I think it will be best to move the hosting to a UK based company. Most users will be in the UK. Is this a good idea? I predict heavy traffic. It's a mainstream subject.

What is the best platform? Some sort of Wordpress plugin? Some other software?

Now to the running of the forum? Any pointers on this would be welcome. I'm completely new to it.

I don't particularly want to write content but is it standard practice to invite writers?

How do I go about moderating it? I guess it can be very time consuming. Do you start doing it yourself and then just appoint moderators after that?

Thanks for reading.

 

[arnydnxluk]

Hi Ashley,

I think it will be best to move the hosting to a UK based company. Most users will be in the UK. Is this a good idea? I predict heavy traffic. It's a mainstream subject.

Yup that's a good idea. Latency will be reduced and your website will load more quickly. If you're genuinely expecting heavy traffic early on, then a managed server could be a good idea, otherwise it's probably best to start with shared hosting.

What is the best platform? Some sort of Wordpress plugin? Some other software?

XenForo is pretty popular these days, although it's paid software. If you would prefer something free, phpBB is quite popular - I think the paid options are better personally.

Now to the running of the forum? Any pointers on this would be welcome. I'm completely new to it.

I don't particularly want to write content but is it standard practice to invite writers?

Building up membership will be difficult. Advertising via your signature on other forums can help (where permitted). However nobody is going to join if the place appears to be dead - you'll almost certainly need some friends to help populate the place during your early days. Are you a member of an existing community (e.g. Facebook Group) related to your target subject?

How do I go about moderating it? I guess it can be very time consuming. Do you start doing it yourself and then just appoint moderators after that?

Pretty much! As the website becomes busier you'll notice certain members are more active, those prominent members of the community are good candidates for moderator positions.

You have a tough task ahead of you, forums aren't as popular as they once were before the rise of social media etc, however as is evident right here there's still an audience out there!

Mike

 

[fisicx]

Now to the running of the forum? Any pointers on this would be welcome. I'm completely new to it.

A forum for what?

I don't particularly want to write content but is it standard practice to invite writers?

No, it's standard proactive to market the forum and let new members post as you have done here. You can pay people to write content but unless you have members responding to the threads the forum will soon die.

How do I go about moderating it? I guess it can be very time consuming. Do you start doing it yourself and then just appoint moderators after that?

You begin by doing the moderating yourself then if the forum becomes popular you can ask members if they want to help out.

But as Mike suggested, marketing and getting people to sign up and contribute is hard work and will continue to be so for many years if the forum survives.

 

[TomJ83]

If you will target UK people with the forum, then go with a hosting provider that has its servers in the UK. It will give the users a quicker loading time.

If you want something professional, such as the platform used for this forum, then you should choose Xenforo. It's a paid software which costs around $140.

It's possible to create a forum with Wordpress. But often the design and quality lack. There is a forum focusing on start-ups that uses wordpress startups.co.uk/forum/ but because of it's outdated design it's abandoned.

I guess running a forum will be time consuming in the beginning. You will have to write interesting posts that trigger discussions. It would be good if you could initially invite family
or friends (if relevant) to become members, write posts and engage in discussions. This will make the forum populated which is important because nobody wants to become part of a forum that looks dead and where they can't get answers to the questions they have. People hate monologues and situations where it feels like they're talking to themselves.

Regarding moderating the forum, I think you would be capable to do it yourself in the beginning. But then when the forum grows, the moderating tasks could be delegated to users that spend a lot of time on the forum.

 

[Kat Haylock]

Everyone's bang on with their advice, as usual. I'd also recommend reading this article on how UKBF started. It was first written back in like 2007/2008, but I think the process and advice would still apply.

 

[Ashley Evans]

Thank you for your replies everyone. Very useful.

@Mike - Thanks for your suggestion and advice.

@fisicx - Yes you are right. No need to think about articles yet. The members need to be built up first. I don't want to mention the subject at the moment before I've got it up and running. Don't mean to sound childish!

@Tom - Thank you for responding. Yeah Wordpress is obviously not the way to go.

@kat - I look forward to reading that article!

 

[Scott@KarmaContent]

I'd be very cautious of investing money and time into a new forum @Ashley Evans as they're getting less and less popular. Of about eight I used to use, all are dead apart from one or two (including this one), and even this one is much quieter than it used to be.

Then there's the fact they can be difficult to monetize, take up an awful amount of time and you have to somehow get over the chicken and egg situation of a new forum (how do you attract new members when you don't have many members and engagement).

Seriously, I wouldn't bother if you're trying to make money out of it.

 

[TomJ83]

I think it's a broad generalization to say that forums are dying. Of course there is some competition from social media, but forums still have a place on the Internet. A forum has to be relevant, encourage users to contribute and have a nice design. That are some of the secret recipes for a successful forum.

Right now the leading business forum in the UK is UKBF. Taking a look at the competitors, it's easy to know why. For example look at https://startups.co.uk/forum/ Its forum has an outdated design and isn't user friendly. Compare it with UKBF. The difference is like day and night.

 

[Ian J]

Right now the leading business forum in the UK is UKBF. Taking a look at the competitors, it's easy to know why. For example look at https://startups.co.uk/forum/ Its forum has an outdated design and isn't user friendly. Compare it with UKBF. The difference is like day and night.

The Startups forum is a classic example of what can happen to a forum if there is a lack of interest by the owners as a dozen years ago it was bigger and more active than UKBF yet lack of interest and input from the owners saw it dwindle away to a fraction of what it was.

I'm sure that it still serves a purpose for the owners though which is an important point for the OP to consider as it all depends on what one wants a forum to do.

I did once toy with the idea of setting one up myself to discuss all things relative to invoice finance until I realised that all of my competitors would pile in and try and use it for their own new business marketing so the idea was quickly abandoned

 

[fisicx]

A forum has to be relevant, encourage users to contribute and have a nice design. That are some of the secret recipes for a successful forum.

The not so secret recipe for a successful forum is the members. Without them the forum will fail no matter how up to date the design.

 

[TomJ83]

The not so secret recipe for a successful forum is the members. Without them the forum will fail no matter how up to date the design.

Agree with you that a forum is nothing without its members, regardless of how modern and sleek the design is. As a moderator, what factors do think have contributed to UKBF being the leading business forums in the UK?

 

[TomJ83]

The Startups forum is a classic example of what can happen to a forum if there is a lack of interest by the owners as a dozen years ago it was bigger and more active than UKBF yet lack of interest and input from the owners saw it dwindle away to a fraction of what it was.

I'm sure that it still serves a purpose for the owners though which is an important point for the OP to consider as it all depends on what one wants a forum to do.

I did once toy with the idea of setting one up myself to discuss all things relative to invoice finance until I realised that all of my competitors would pile in and try and use it for their own new business marketing so the idea was quickly abandoned

Well, it serves as an example of how important it is for the forum owner to take care of the forum.

The Startups forum seems to put more emphasis on the stories and guide part of their site and they have made it difficult to get to their forum. On a desktop it's in a small section in the header. Not featured in a way that encourages its use. On a mobile, I'm struggling to even find out how to get access to it. Maybe they will remove it altogether. I'm amazed that they still have users however, in many sections of their forum they have posts that are recent.

Also, I understand the scenario that you describe when one start their own forum. There is a risk of competitors, or even spammers, that will use one's forum for their own marketing purposes.

 

[fisicx]

Agree with you that a forum is nothing without its members, regardless of how modern and sleek the design is. As a moderator, what factors do think have contributed to UKBF being the leading business forums in the UK?

Why do you visit and post on UKBF?

I'd put money on it being the topics under discussion and the variety of posts made by the members.

Pistonheads and Mumsnet are no different.

 

[Ian J]

I'm struggling to even find out how to get access to it. Maybe they will remove it altogether. I'm amazed that they still have users however, in many sections of their forum they have posts that are recent.

Google likes it and a post that I made there a few years ago is still one of my biggest source of enquiries

 

[TomJ83]

Why do you visit and post on UKBF?

I'd put money on it being the topics under discussion and the variety of posts made by the members.

Pistonheads and Mumsnet are no different.

It has a wide variety of topics. It's not limited in that sense. Also it caters to the whole UK, instead of being regional, and therefore more people find it relevant. Then it shouldn't be forgotten that there are plenty of skilled people here who are happy to spend their time helping others and keeping discussions alive and interesting. What I hate most is forums that are dying. You post a question or two and you never get a reply. Moreover UKBF has a good SEO value. You can google basically anything business related, and on the first page there will almost always be a link to a discussion on UKBF.

 

[Ashley Evans]

Great advice everyone. I'll probably refrain from investing in to Xenforo. Maybe I could use free software and then if I get any traction import the forum into Xenforo. I assume transferring a forum from free software to paid won't be much hassle?

I currently have shared hosting. I'm hoping that will be OK for the initial period.

I guess it's critical to get the user friendliness bang on. Additionally the categories need to be created within the spirit of the forum. I need to get the angle right. Really think about the type of people that will be using the forum. Is it highly technical? Is it for the general public? More fun? More serious?

Then I probably need something very useful to to draw people in. A section where people can trade things related to the subject.

I appreciate that I haven't disclosed the forum subject so it's hard to comment.

 

[fisicx]

I assume transferring a forum from free software to paid won't be much hassle?

Ha! You wish. It took UKBF a long time to make the change to zenforo

I guess it's critical to get the user friendliness bang on.

It's more critical to get some great content on the forum to make it worth visiting. This the hardest part and can take years to build up a decent following. There are thousands of forums that have just fallen by the wayside simply because people went posting or moved on or just lost interest.

 

[Darren C]

Then I probably need something very useful to to draw people in. A section where people can trade things related to the subject.

Worth a listen - how reddit got started

http://one.npr.org/?sharedMediaId=545635014:555389162

 

[Colin Forrest]

Without trying to repeat what has already been said, I think it is worth a note of caution investing in a UK forum. The forum world got pretty saturated and now there are only a few places that most people go to get advice and chat about their topics (notably here, stack, and reddit). It would be well worth researching the larger forums already to see if your topic exists within them, and if there is an active participation in them. If it is a mainstream topic, there might already be a reason why a specific forum for your subject doesn't already exist.

 

[DontAsk]

I appreciate that I haven't disclosed the forum subject so it's hard to comment.

Exactly! treat all the advice as being worth what you paid for it E.g. "most people go to here, stack and reddit". Not for the subjects I am interested in. I even still visit one or two Usenet (now Google) groups occasionally.

 

[Ashley Evans]

Hi Guys. I decided to go for PHPBB to begin with. I actually quite like the basic design. It's up and running but I'm sure I have a steep learning curve ahead of me.

If anyone is curious, it's a uk bitcoin forum.

uk bit coin forums . co . uk

 

[arnydnxluk]

Fantastic - no better way to start than to get stuck in! Good luck.

 

[shabbadoof13]

I'd be very cautious of investing money and time into a new forum @Ashley Evans as they're getting less and less popular. Of about eight I used to use, all are dead apart from one or two (including this one), and even this one is much quieter than it used to be.

Then there's the fact they can be difficult to monetize, take up an awful amount of time and you have to somehow get over the chicken and egg situation of a new forum (how do you attract new members when you don't have many members and engagement).

Seriously, I wouldn't bother if you're trying to make money out of it.

Well hello there

 

[shabbadoof13]

Hi Guys. I decided to go for PHPBB to begin with. I actually quite like the basic design. It's up and running but I'm sure I have a steep learning curve ahead of me.

If anyone is curious, it's a uk bitcoin forum.

uk bit coin forums . co . uk

Forum looks fine, my advice would be to have as few subforums as you can at the start until your scale everything based on the size of your community

If people visit and see a dead forum with lots of empty sections that won't inspire them to post

In terms of earning from it or turning in into a business that is still very easy to do once you get an engaged enough community who are happy to click on your links etc.

 

[Ashley Evans]

Cheers Shab. I have taken your advice and got rid of a couple of subforums.

 

[Ace Light]

Hello Ashley.

Forum software, I like Vanilla Open Source: https://open.vanillaforums.com/

There are some nice themes out there, either in that aforementioned community or here for a small price: https://themeforest.net/category/forums/vanilla

If it's a mainstream topic, then you have a fight on your hands, to get noticed, get members, drag them away from social media and other places that will have groups catering to it.

I think forums still have a place:
1. Facebook and what-have you mining the shit out of peoples data. Not everyone wants to be on Facebook, I only joined mid last year, due to business reasons.

2. The conversations on social media, other than FB, are a complete waste of time, there is very little to none. Few lines here or there, everybody selling. Even FB, bar two groups I am in, the rest is just a spam fest, annoying.

Cheers, Ace.

 

[Ace Light]

Opps late to the party, seen you went with PHPBB.

 

[Ashley_Price]

Its forum has an outdated design and isn't user friendly.

It's funny, because I remember when UKBF updated to the current design and just how many members complained about it and some even said they were going to leave because they didn't like it.