I know this is probably a bad place to ask, but I created a forum called [url=http://www.epicforum.net]EpicForum[/url], and it's a base canvas on phpBB3 basically. You are likely to get a reply fairly quickly after posting, and the community is nice and polite, but a lot of the time, the members don't come back.
So, in your opinion, what makes a forum good enough to come back to?
Should be a forum with a subject that people enjoy. Facepunch is a gamers haven, hence the thousands of users.
They have no reason to go to your forum. There is no common interest. This forum was built off of Gmod and has expanded since then. Most forums work the same way.
So my idea of a general/gaming forum probably wasn't the best idea?
Should have things people want to talk about. Things that don't get old.
A forum has to be built up from something. You need to find one subject and stick to that for the first few stages of your forum. Then you build up from that.
Captain Bald.
It needs to have a focal subject, this is a Gmod forum primarily. People who played Gmod came here, then it expanded to Gamers etc etc etc.
Do people want to talk about Video Games, do Video Games get old?
(It's main focus is video games, and I try not to be elitist and give them several consoles to converse about)
There are thousands of forums that talk about video games.
It's not exactly groundbreaking.
Proboards
I like a nice simple design like Facepunch!
that has to be the most original name for a forum ever thought of.
well done.
edit; also it needs a lot of sarcasm.
Community
[b]Me.[/b]
It has to be good. And nice.
It shouldn't be advertised in quality threads like this
[editline]11:42AM[/editline]
your GD is full of shit threads to be honest
If it uses bright colours like Facepunch does, it's good in my books.
Tits
Has to convey a sense of community where everyone feels like they fit in, no matter where they stand in the real world.
Good admins
Select one subject, not every subject.
Admins that do not include the word 'Awesome' in their name.
"EpicForum"
It isn't going to last too much.
Let me give you a lesson I have learned on my own.
As of circa 2005-ish (when quick forum creation and free webhosts got massive), you can't make just a general forum and somehow invite people on it. Nobody comes on a new forum just because it's a new forum; for a new forum, you need something significant that you're doing, i.e. a game mod or mappack or program or whatchimacallit.
Something awful I don't really know how it started, but as it grew the forums became more and more general purpose. Same with FP forums: At first this was a gmod forum and non-gmod discussions were a small minority. As it grew to what it is today, more and more people joined, with different interests, making FP sort of "poor man's SA". Now people come here more for the forum than the Gmod part.
Expect failure. Unless you have something totally rad up your sleeve you might aswell stop planning so big.
Forums need a purpose for existing. Facepunch wasn't created to become a chatplace for gamers. It was the place for everything Garrysmod related. A forum created just because won't succeed.
You ever get it (If your lucky) or you don't, If you make something big and suggest to the users of the big thing that they join the forum, your likely to make it big otherwise it's pure luck, you just don't hear of the failures (with exceptions).
You may have noticed that only recently has Facepunch become such a massively general forum, originally it was Gmod with some off-topic discussion and now it's flipped. With new sections with TV & Film the front page may begin to resemble Something Awful :v:
General gaming forums get nowhere, there's about seventy made per day and none succeed. Give them a reason to go, not just more specific gaming... Create something, have something unique and appealing. Otherwise it's like trying to fill bottles with tap water and compete with drinks brands.
I cant believe that youreply serious to this thread
His forum name is "EpicForums"
You need something unique.
An innovative feature, famous personality or product (GMod), etc.
It really helps.
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