Many suggest that forums are something that belong to the past. Personally I disagree. In my opinion, there is still a place for good forums as a place to interact with others, to make friends, to receive support should you need it, and also to offer support to others. The problem with forums these days is that it is not easy to find the good ones.
Just what makes a forum a good forum?
1. Trustworthy and knowledgeable admins, mods and members.
One of the reasons for joining a forum is to have a place where one can go and get your queries and/or questions answered. You can only trust any support you receive if you have faith in the person(s) giving the advice.
2. FUN, Fun and fun
Forums are supposed to be more than just another task one needs to get through every day. They are supposed to be fun.
3. Easy to register
If the entire process of registration for membership is too complicated or takes too long, I normally would not even bother to register.
4. Forum bullies not tolerated
You all know the type I am referring to. Many forums in the past have fallen flat because they have allowed those bad mannered types to hijack the forum.
5. Not over-moderated
Forums should be well controlled but this does mean that they have to be moderated in such a way that anyone is scared to say anything.
6. Wide variety of topics
On a good forum I expect to find a number of different boards covering a wide selection of topics.
7. Not only WordPress
Obviously I am interested in WordPress but I do not want to register for a WordPress only forum. This will quickly become very boring.
8. Adequate support provided
I need a forum where I know I can go to if I have any blogging queries albeit it, Wordpress related or not.
9. Opportunity to assist others
A good forum will also offer its members an opportunity to try and help others. One cannot just always ask for assistance, there are times when it is nice to offer assistance as well.
10. Members from across the time zones
This might seem like a strange requirement but it is quite an important one. A good forum will have members from across the spectrum of time zones. If all the members come from the same time zone a forum quickly develops ‘dead’ times when nothing really happens.
Phew, that was a mouthful. Does a forum that meets these criteria actually exist. For sure it does. By now most of you (especially the Entrecarders) has recognized the face. Ben Barden has got a forum going that goes far beyond all these specifications. I registered as a member a while ago and I can truly say that here we have a good one. Just check out the different topics catered for on the forum:
Just follow this link to register and come and enjoy the experience.
If you are not already a member of this forum, allow me just one little question. Why not?
Till next time.
Yay! This was a great way to promote the forum.
I notice you had problems on your site. Good to have you back. See you at the forum.
A forum, not just in the case of Wordpress, but in any other context is always a good place to find the solutions for the most common issues.
I am not sure but I have not seen your face around this forum. Why don’t you give it a whirl, this is a nice one.
I’m in Lyndi! The form will now get bombarded with lot’s of queries!
Hey Lyndi – thanks for the great review.
It’s good to see the forums have been doing well recently. Long may this continue!
Pleasure, I just had to go ‘decimal’.
Lindy, you can convert decimals to Imperial on convert-to.com in case it was needed
I’ll keep it in mind
Nice post Lyndi,
I think you covered most bases there. The only thing I would add, as a forum admin myself, is that it should be hosted with a good provider and backed up every night (off-site). Members posts should be treated with value and respect… if a poor backup strategy means the whole lot gets lost then you are doing them, not just yourself, a disservice.
I will register on the forum, seems like a great resource!
Jim
Thanks Jim, see you there. Your input can only be an asset to any forum.
I will confess to not making the time to visit forums often enough. I’m quick enough to search there if I have a problem but don’t tend to “hang out” in them. I know I’ve neglected Ben’s forum lately. Between researching and writing the SEO series of posts and keeping up the other 4 blogs and that thing I have to do 5 days a week called “work”, my time is stretched just a little bit
I will make a point of visiting the forum soon.
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If only we all had about 4 extra hours in every day. And you have not even mentioned the chores coupled to the household, the hubby, the children, the pets, the meals and all that. You have just got me all depressed
You made it sound so good that I checked it out, and signed up.
I noticed, I am sure you will enjoy it. Any forum can only be as useful as what its members allow it to be. The more people who participate in the forum the more successful it will be. Hoping to see you there every now and then.
I look for active discussion and members as well. A lot of forums are lying there with a few thousand members but yet less than 10 new posts everyday. I find it defeating the purpose of a forum.
Wei Liang
Welcome here. You are correct but some forums are still fairly new (like the one featured here) and they need people like you to register and take part. Looking forward to seeing you at the forum.
Hi Lyndi – one thing I forgot to ask earlier. As your site is WordPress-focused, do you have your own reasons for being interested in other systems besides WordPress? Just out of curiosity!
In a way I am interested in all the different blogging platforms. I only like the self-hosted stuff where one can do your own thing.
I have always had this dream of one day developing this super duper theme that could be used by thousands (what the heck, millions, it is my dream after all). This theme will have versions available for use across multi platforms. I am allowed to dream aren’t I?
As soon as I have a bit of time I will have a look at Injader,
it is on my to-do list.
#4 is my biggest pet peeve. In fact, I’ve stopped posting inquiries on the wordpress.org forums for just this reason. My experience there has been one where the people who respond are more interested in showing off their superiority than they are helping someone in need.
I’ve also had the pleasure of belonging to great forums as well (saabcentral being one of them
). I’ll be heading over to Ben’s forum to sign up.
I will see you there. They are slowly growing in numbers and things are getting very interesting as more and more folks become active on the forum.
will keep that in mind,thanks for sharing