Starting a Forum Questions - Page 2

blacklab · 05-27-2012, 03:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChopperOP

thank you for your response. for someone like me just starting out, do you recommend downloading phpbb and create a free forum using that program or forking the cash and pay for vbulletin from the start? i have zero experience with programming, is it better to just go with vbulletin from the start? if i do create a forum using phpbb, is it easy to transfer everything over to vbulletin when i decide to buy it?

I'd just start with phpbb. That way if you think it sucks you can quit without a large expenditure. The move isn't too bad, it took about 4 hours on my big site when we had 2 million posts.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChopperOP

also when do you recommend i start using google ads? should i use it from the start?

Yes. We've tried dozens of ad companies and nothing has been as good as google.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChopperOP

since i'm starting from new, should i go for a hosting company like hostgator or hawkeye? do you recommend i sign up for a whole year to get a cheaper price per month or just do it month by month?

Much like the answer above, I'd go month to month to see if this is something you really want to do. You can jump from month to month to year when you're ready. Take a good look at the terms of service for the hosting company. Many have clauses forbidding forums from using their cheap accounts.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChopperOP

do you manage your 3 forums as a full time job? are you constantly blocking spammers as well or are the current versions of phpbb or vbulletin are updated enough to block spammers full time for you?

No. I have moderators that handle most of the moderation and they work for free. We've set up several spam blocking plugins in both phpbb and vb to keep the spammers in check.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChopperOP

also for vbulletin, do you recommend buying publishing suite or just stick with the forum version? i read that the company stopped answering questions and the customer service is bad. is that true?

I've never looked to hard into the publishing suite as we build our own pages when we need them. I've been happy with the responses I've received from their support.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChopperOP

what i'm really interested in is the related threads feature. i know vbulletin has that in both their forum and publishing suite and phpbb has it as a plugin. if i want to avoid all the hassle when i transfer phpbb to vbulletin with the related threads feature, am i better off just buying vbulletin from the start?

The vb import tool will transfer over the posts and thread information. Once it's done with the import you'll just need to turn on related threads and it will build them up.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChopperOP

i would love to see the links to your forums if you want to provide it, but if not, thank you again for answering the questions for me!

vb forums
http://www.shaggybevo.com/board/forum.php
http://www.landthieves.com/board/

phpbb forum
http://www.woollyal.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=2

ChopperOP · 05-27-2012, 12:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by blacklab

I'd just start with phpbb. That way if you think it sucks you can quit without a large expenditure. The move isn't too bad, it took about 4 hours on my big site when we had 2 million posts.

Yes. We've tried dozens of ad companies and nothing has been as good as google.

Much like the answer above, I'd go month to month to see if this is something you really want to do. You can jump from month to month to year when you're ready. Take a good look at the terms of service for the hosting company. Many have clauses forbidding forums from using their cheap accounts.

No. I have moderators that handle most of the moderation and they work for free. We've set up several spam blocking plugins in both phpbb and vb to keep the spammers in check.

I've never looked to hard into the publishing suite as we build our own pages when we need them. I've been happy with the responses I've received from their support.

The vb import tool will transfer over the posts and thread information. Once it's done with the import you'll just need to turn on related threads and it will build them up.

vb forums
http://www.shaggybevo.com/board/forum.php
http://www.landthieves.com/board/

phpbb forum
http://www.woollyal.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=2

wow, great answers here! thanks for your replies again.

do you have a regular full time job then? on average, how much time would you say you're on your forums maintaining and contributing back to it in a single day?

how much time did you spend in the beginning of the forums? wasn't it like a full time job to launch your forum and attract traffic?

thank you again for the helpful replies. i'm already expanding my networks before i even started!

oh and great forums btw!

blacklab · 05-27-2012, 02:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChopperOP

wow, great answers here! thanks for your replies again.

do you have a regular full time job then? on average, how much time would you say you're on your forums maintaining and contributing back to it in a single day?

You're welcome. It comes in bunches. Some weeks I won't spend any time. Others I'll spend 10-15 hours. A hard drive crashed last week on one of the servers and I've already spent 30-40 hours getting everything back up and working right, and still have about 10 hours left to go. As far as moderation I spend 1-5 hours a week doing stuff.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChopperOP

how much time did you spend in the beginning of the forums? wasn't it like a full time job to launch your forum and attract traffic?

thank you again for the helpful replies. i'm already expanding my networks before i even started!

oh and great forums btw!

Not much more than I do now. Big events such as sever moves and software upgrades have stolen entire weekends from me, but 10 or so hours a month is normal.

All three of the forums listed above were born out of other forums where the owners got power mad and or censored the hell out of the boards. Fans need a place to vent and if they get banned for saying something about the coach they will find another board.

ChopperOP · 05-27-2012, 03:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by blacklab

You're welcome. It comes in bunches. Some weeks I won't spend any time. Others I'll spend 10-15 hours. A hard drive crashed last week on one of the servers and I've already spent 30-40 hours getting everything back up and working right, and still have about 10 hours left to go. As far as moderation I spend 1-5 hours a week doing stuff.

Not much more than I do now. Big events such as sever moves and software upgrades have stolen entire weekends from me, but 10 or so hours a month is normal.

All three of the forums listed above were born out of other forums where the owners got power mad and or censored the hell out of the boards. Fans need a place to vent and if they get banned for saying something about the coach they will find another board.

very interesting to see answers from someone who created successful forums.

do you do all the work yourself or have you hired a computer person for instances like when the hard drive crashed?

blacklab · 05-27-2012, 03:23 PM

I do most of that myself but I have one guy that helps when he can and am hoping to hire a full time server manager soon to off load it completely. He'll spend most of his time on my hosting and other business servers and the forums will be secondary for him.

ChopperOP · 05-27-2012, 05:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by blacklab

I do most of that myself but I have one guy that helps when he can and am hoping to hire a full time server manager soon to off load it completely. He'll spend most of his time on my hosting and other business servers and the forums will be secondary for him.

i see. thanks again for your replies. i think you covered most of what i was looking for, but i'll be sure to post more questions if i have any.

enjoy the rest of your weekend!

ChopperOP · 05-28-2012, 09:49 AM

hey blacklab, one more question.

do you think its possible to start a forum with a full time job? don't you have to be active with the forum to attract visitors? if you have a full time job, is that possible?

__w__ · 05-28-2012, 10:22 AM

It's possible to start a forum with a full time job. Keep in mind, the hardest part about the whole process is getting the users to come and post. You can have the best subject matter, software, try to drive conversation, etc. And none of it matters if you can't get the users to be involved and make things run on their own.

My only successful forum took nearly 4 years to stand on its own, and it's tiny. I tried to jump ahead of the curve and get a mario kart forum going before the opening of Mario Kart Wii. I even owned www.mariokartforum.com, created a mii named Wiimkf.com and played the crap out of the online game as soon as it was release. Forum never took off. Someone else started the same basic forum on a different site, users came, made tons of money. Them's the breaks.

blacklab · 05-28-2012, 03:25 PM

Yes, it's possible.
The key is to post and get other people to post. You don't need to spend 10 hours a day there. Spend 15 minutes every few hours and you should be good. There are also companies out there that will help seed your forum with posts. There are people with no life that post to forums dozens of times a day. Hopefully you'll get lucky and find a few of those people right off the bat.

dc_publius · 05-28-2012, 11:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by blacklab

Yes, it's possible.
The key is to post and get other people to post. You don't need to spend 10 hours a day there. Spend 15 minutes every few hours and you should be good. There are also companies out there that will help seed your forum with posts. There are people with no life that post to forums dozens of times a day. Hopefully you'll get lucky and find a few of those people right off the bat.

Those "people with no life" who post to forums dozens of times per day already have forums that they hang out on all day. It's their community. And it's not easy to just grab those people away to post away on forums with no content and no history. They will not care that you are using vbulletin 4.07.

As for companies that will seed your forum with posts, can you name some? The only ones I've ever found basically fill your forum with junk and random valueless noise. And junk content doesn't magically draw real audiences and real posters. This would only work for very general content, but most forums are the exact opposite - they are some community of people with very specific shared interest.

ChopperOP · 05-29-2012, 12:08 AM

thanks for the answers. so my consensus is that it wouldn't hurt to give it a try in the future.

thanks for the help guys. much appreciated.

blacklab · 05-29-2012, 06:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dc_publius

Those "people with no life" who post to forums dozens of times per day already have forums that they hang out on all day. It's their community. And it's not easy to just grab those people away to post away on forums with no content and no history. They will not care that you are using vbulletin 4.07.

As for companies that will seed your forum with posts, can you name some? The only ones I've ever found basically fill your forum with junk and random valueless noise. And junk content doesn't magically draw real audiences and real posters. This would only work for very general content, but most forums are the exact opposite - they are some community of people with very specific shared interest.

They do, but many hang out on multiple forums. You are right, it takes an event of some kind for them to move.

I'd have to go through my email to find them, as I do not remember their names. Let me know if you want the name and I will find them.

dc_publius · 05-29-2012, 07:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by blacklab

They do, but many hang out on multiple forums. You are right, it takes an event of some kind for them to move.

I'd have to go through my email to find them, as I do not remember their names. Let me know if you want the name and I will find them.

Yes, if you could share some experiences with these companies, it would be very helpful.

It seems like most of the forums I've participated in fragmented from some other forum that pissed off its users and the top posters decided to start fresh with their own forum.

I'm trying to revive what used to be a very popular, hobby and region specific forum and it's very tough to get enough quality posts and interactions to get more regulars that come back.