Post by Tené on Sept 6, 2006 4:21:12 GMT 10
You are Generic SVer #143, and you wish to make and show off a forum, right? Right. You’re not the first one. Forums are generally looked down upon by the members here. This is not because people here hate forums. You’d have to be pretty masochistic to hate forums and post on one. It is because most (if not all) of the forums here do not meet the standard required to become popular.
So how can you make yours? In simple terms, you probably can’t. If you are advertising it as a forum, and not as a mere supplement to a website, then it’s unlikely to work due to there being nothing to pull members in. There are other things to pull in members, however they are hard to create:
Also, the appearance of your forum is a crucial part of its success:
Management is everything. Once you have members, you want to keep them. As such, there are some guidelines you should follow:
In short, don’t pretend to have a huge, popular, famous forum. You don’t. Humility is everything at the start. It looks professional, and is hence more likely to attract members.
Follow this advice, and you are likely to get a good forum with at least a few returning members. When your forum needs to grow and expand, you will be experienced enough to know it. Until then, remember KISS:
Keep It Simple, Stupid!
So how can you make yours? In simple terms, you probably can’t. If you are advertising it as a forum, and not as a mere supplement to a website, then it’s unlikely to work due to there being nothing to pull members in. There are other things to pull in members, however they are hard to create:
- Hosting some sort of project on your forum, for example, can help, although you’ll need a popular project to host. It certainly worked for mine (until the project died).
- Forums with roleplays and other communal activities can attract people, but roleplayers are not known for being common. You may have to market it to a wide audience.
- If you give your forum elements that make it like a website, it could also be successful (ie a locked forum which contains all of your opinions, content, features, etc). This is effectively making a website the lazy way without having it suck totally.
- Finally, simply having a thriving community can attract more people, but you’re going to need a thriving community first.
Also, the appearance of your forum is a crucial part of its success:
- Highly-contrasting eye-searing colours are not going to help. Tone them down. Drab colours may not be exciting, but they are comfortable.I found a useful tool for those of us with no colour theory knowledge at all, with mind towards picking a not-horrifying colour scheme.
websitetips.com/colortools/sitepro/
If you're totally unsure of what colours go well together (e.g. you're colourblind and physically can't tell; you've been told your colour scheme is atrocious but you can't tell why), then use either a monochromatic or an analogic (base + neighbours) colour scheme.
The others are best used by those of us who have semi-decent eye of what colours work well in what places.
For text, make sure it's either the lightest of the five colours given on the right against the darkest, or vice-versa - the contrast in shade of the colour has to be high or it won't be readable. (If you're using a analogic-base+neighbours scheme, try not to make the background and text different colours - just different shades of the same colour.) - The font you use can have an effect. It does not appear large, so intricate fonts will either lose their intricacy or become unreadable. Fonts that use all capitals can be uncomfortable to some – you may not need to remove them, but be sure to provide a standard alternative if you use them. And for pity’s sake don’t use Comic Sans. Nobody likes it.
- Your banner is the first image people will see on your forum. Hence, there are certain guidelines you should follow. The most crucial point is the size. Huge square banners that take up half the screen are not interesting or attractive. The size should have a width of between 400 and 700 and a height of between 100 and 200. Resized sprites are a bad thing, and try to keep its contents as original as possible. Note; these sizes are based on Proboards standard design. Other sizes may work for different fora.
- A background is not that important. You don’t have to have one, but if you do, make sure it tiles.
- Icons are the last aesthetic point to mention. Generally, unique icons are good and show personality. However, try to keep them roughly the same size as the standard icons, and avoid bad resizing, dithering, artefacts or coloured outlines. Also, be sure to make them transparent – nobody likes to see coloured blocks.
Management is everything. Once you have members, you want to keep them. As such, there are some guidelines you should follow:
- Have a solid ruleset and punishment system. Let people know when they’re going wrong. Make your rules neither too strict nor too lenient, and try to leave as few grey areas as possible. If in doubt, either forbid something completely or not at all. The rules of SV are a good example to follow, though there are certainly possible improvements upon them.
- Don’t have too many sub-forums, certainly in the forum’s early stages. You’ll want to make your forum look popular, so having posts spread out as little as possible helps. Supercondense your forum to start with, so that you have a forum for discussion, one for off-topic discussion/forum games/randomness/advertising, and one for whatever your forum’s focus is. Split your forums when they get too large, but until them keep them as few as possible. SV started with just three forums: you can do the same.
- Keep the number of mods proportionate to the number of members. There will always be you, the admin, and you will at most need one global mod in the early stages, as a second opinion can help. Do not have any more. Only promote people to modhood when they are needed and deserving of it. Don’t just mod your friends, or the first people to join. It cheapens the whole thing.
In short, don’t pretend to have a huge, popular, famous forum. You don’t. Humility is everything at the start. It looks professional, and is hence more likely to attract members.
Follow this advice, and you are likely to get a good forum with at least a few returning members. When your forum needs to grow and expand, you will be experienced enough to know it. Until then, remember KISS:
Keep It Simple, Stupid!
