What do you look for in a forum?

[Aiwa]

When looking on forums, what do you look for in order to register and participate on them?

Do you look for a certain brand of software being used to run the forum, a certain niche, certain users already using the forum? What makes you stay around?

 

[DcSelby]

Out of interest - why are you asking this?

 

[Aiwa]

Out of interest - why are you asking this?

A few various reasons, back in 2008 I used to run a large general discussion forum - it reached 800,000+ posts and was pretty active with a decent user base... but eventually people grew up and parted in different ways away from the forums. Plus I personally only liked to use vB 3.8.X software and a lot of people wanted to move to IPB or vB4 etc. (This was before Xen) But now there seem's to be new forums popping up every other day with the same niche as each other... none of them seem to be any different apart from a handful of rules of what you can post and possibly the style. (none of which are custom)

Also because I'm going to start the process of resigning from the police service and want to go full time in to a media company, which me and a few friends have been dabbling around with for 9 months and we're making a killing from local business in the area.

Finally, another reason is that someone has asked me to design them a forum skin - but I'd like to know what entices people to use the forum so that I can hopefully reflect that in the design(s) of the site and the way in which it's laid out.



-- Shit, long post.

 

[Magic]

The forums have a nice smooth finish, it's easy to use. A good community and a lot of new knowledge.

 

[Ghost]

Aiwa This forum interested me to join because of the users with the brains and the amount that are there. Also another thing is how to Forum is designed and build, If I see this crappy site with no effort I wouldnt waste my time to Join it :]

I'm the one that that brought you here.

When looking on forums, what do you look for in order to register and participate on them?

Do you look for a certain brand of software being used to run the forum, a certain niche, certain users already using the forum? What makes you stay around?

The amount of people get people interested.

 

[Queef]

A Gaming Section and Porn Dump.

 

[MxRE]

Theme is so important because of first impressions in my opinion. If somebody has a good first impression they're more likely to join.

Good topics/categories where people with different likings can post in.

 

[Lirinya]

For me usually it's some kind of basis for discussion that I am interested in. Devbest was due to Habbo retros and the likes. I haven't joined a forums and stuck around since I joined an MC server I ended up moderating for a year. Their community, at the time was easy to get to know and we shared a common interest.

The one prior to that was Gaiaonline, I use the GD and life forums a lot but I mainly stuck there for the avatar.

Ultimately it depends. It's either got some quirky games, avatar creation etc or it has a fairly decent community.

 

[LoW]

Have a daily/weekly/monthly comp. with great prizes

 

[Aiwa]

Have a daily/weekly/monthly comp. with great prizes

What gets classified as a great prize aha?

 

[Magic]

What gets classified as a great prize aha?

A days free pass to the porn dump.

 

[LoW]

What gets classified as a great prize aha?

Like Free 1 Month Forum VIP/Sub. or $10.00 in Paypal

 

[Kieren]

TALENT. SEXY TOPICS OF MY INTERESTS. SEXY STAFF.

That is all.

(No other forums has them).

 

[Sysode]

A nice looking theme (I know you're capable of that ), a friendly community of a decent size who are active. Not too large, friendly staff and above all an owner(s) who's very active, applying decent updates etc.

 

[iRekan]

Friendly Users,

 

[Ignorance]

Sexiness all year round.

 

[Aiwa]

Then why do so many forums suck :3

 

[Sysode]

Then why do so many forums suck :3

Because they lack what is required to make a decent forum

 

[zMagenta]

Firstly, some nice sections. They've got to have the Spamzilla, General discussion, Life, Entertainment and Music. And the forum has to have little to no bugs to make me stay.

Aswell as that, no major dickheads in the forum community. Every forum community has a dickhead.. And if you're sat there thinking, 'there's no dickheads at DevBest'.. Well..

 

[Leader]

Mostly the users and whatever else. I just joined whatever forums I found with a Habbo Section as a habbotard