Running a forum preserve of mad webmasters like Temi?

[temi]

Crowebird recently started a forum, this reminded me of when I started this forum and why it was started. Before I go into why, I just want to know how many members here run their own forum and what their experience of running a forum is, positive, negative?

Running a forum seem to be a thankless task which does not bring any money (except for very few large forums) I wonder why mad webmasters like me (And Eric still go ahead and start a forum on a topic that hundreds of existing forums already cover, since its pretty obvious that there is not money in forums.
What could the reward be; kicks, backlinks to you main website or for power?

Temi

BTW Crowebird, I will like to help promote your forum, please send me a 468x60 banner and I will place it at the top of this forum free of charge for about 2 weeks.

 

[Eric]

hmmm, so why do we start these forums Temi? :lol:

persanlly, I enjoy it!

 

[OldWelshGuy]

I run a rugby forum that is as busy as hell, It is great fun, it is MY community and it is a place online where I can go and be happy.

Sometimes it can get a bit yuk, like yesterday when a Kiwi decided to come online and slag the Welsh rugby team off, but by and large it is greta fun.

I do not run any pro web forums, I moderate on a few though Robert Clough's forum - smalbusinessbrief
AArdvark Business
OX1.net business forum in the UK,
and my busiest forum is Jill Whalen's Highrankings forum .

I post in loads of other small business forums as well as it gives me a buzz to help people succeed in their business dealings.

As far as my running a business forum, well I am not sure. I was thinking about setting up a business forum for Wales, but I think it will end up being abused, spammed to high heaven with crap, and be more work than the worth.

 

[temi]

hmmm, so why do we start these forums Temi? :lol:

persanlly, I enjoy it!

Eric,
I used to hang out in a lot of forums a while back, most of the moderators then seem to be watching your every move, ready to bash you on the head if put a foot wrong, I really hated that.
One day I just though hey, starting a forum is not rocket science, its takes time to pick up but I can do it, about a year later when I had some free time I install phpbb and started this forum.

Secondary benefits (for me) is the fact that I have hundreds if not thousands of ranked pages I can use to give my core sites back links if required. I also get to meet nice people like you, and some not so nice people like ********* (you remember him, you and lots of other members complained about him to me a while back

Loads of forum go out of business all the time, most forum owners are not prepared for the long haul, I usually enjoy buying such forum for fun (the last three I bough : webmasterserve.com , batalk.com, battleguild.com , pretty sad isn't' it

Temi

 

[temi]

OWG,
Yes Spam is a serious issue in most busy forums. I have seem you in some of those busy forums you mentioned, when I say you here I was (very pleased) but surprised that you had the time post in a growing forum like this.
I am sure if I ever become a high fling Internet guru like you I will remember to give growing forums a leg up like you are doing for this forum and greatnexus.com

Long live OWG

I run a rugby forum that is as busy as hell, It is great fun, it is MY community and it is a place online where I can go and be happy.

Sometimes it can get a bit yuk, like yesterday when a Kiwi decided to come online and slag the Welsh rugby team off, but by and large it is greta fun.

I do not run any pro web forums, I moderate on a few though Robert Clough's forum - smalbusinessbrief
AArdvark Business
OX1.net business forum in the UK,
and my busiest forum is Jill Whalen's Highrankings forum .

I post in loads of other small business forums as well as it gives me a buzz to help people succeed in their business dealings.

As far as my running a business forum, well I am not sure. I was thinking about setting up a business forum for Wales, but I think it will end up being abused, spammed to high heaven with crap, and be more work than the worth.

 

[crowebird]

Thanks for the offer temi.
Im going to hold out a couple days, or until whenever I think its ready for promotion (basically when I get all the categories in and any other coding I think it may need).

Thanks,
mike

EDIT::
heres the banner, im still not ready though, I got all the forums and coding done but im still setting up images

http://www.wtflash.com/files/forum/ad_468x60_forum.jpg

 

[Duke]

I run a forum and website that covers topics in a whole different way than any other family site on the net. I have yet to see another forum that allows family members of all ages to post in an open forum. I only have 48 members or so because the site's still very new, but the age demographic ranges from 10 years old to almost 50, male and female.

Not to mention, I wanted to do something good on the net and help promote strong family morals through improved understanding of each other.

Plus, I think it's helped me deal with my own inner deamons growing up the son of an alcoholic father.

 

[temi]

Duke,
I completely agree with you, your forum is rather unique and there isn't that many forums out there covering the topics your forum covers

I run a forum and website that covers topics in a whole different way than any other family site on the net. I have yet to see another forum that allows family members of all ages to post in an open forum. I only have 48 members or so because the site's still very new, but the age demographic ranges from 10 years old to almost 50, male and female.

Not to mention, I wanted to do something good on the net and help promote strong family morals through improved understanding of each other.

Plus, I think it's helped me deal with my own inner deamons growing up the son of an alcoholic father.

 

[OldWelshGuy]

Wow duke I can feel for where your coming from. I had two alcoholic parents to deal with, and a kid sister 9 yeasr younger than me. I have just put up a phpbb based portal called aroundresolven.co.uk it is a village portal where people can get together, and, get this, I also thought about having somewhere the whole family can post,. We have a range of forums from up to 10, 10-15 16-25 over 25. It has no members as yet, as I have not marketed it to any one. although locals are viewing the site, none of them are posting. They need educatig lol.

We are going to take it into the schools so that they know it exists, and hopefully it will grow from there. I have used all the mods available so they can chat live, upload photographs etc, and also there is a directory on there as well.


Temi, the beauty about the web is that we are all equal. I found this forum, and liked the way it felt, nice and relaxed, a good blend of people as well. I thought that maybe there would be some who I might be able to help with regard web marketing, so joined. I have added it to me forum favs, and will visit daily and check out the new posts. Glad to be of help , and thanks for having me here.

 

[Duke]

We are going to take it into the schools so that they know it exists, and hopefully it will grow from there. I have used all the mods available so they can chat live, upload photographs etc, and also there is a directory on there as well.

I can't describe how gratifying it is to post this type of content on the net for others to see. If it helps one person then it's paid itself off.

One of my members kids has her teacher interested in using my site for some kind of socialogical experiment. I belive it entails having a class (or part of one) register and have their parents register as well and view the results of such communication after a pre-determined amount of time. I'm not clear on the details as of yet (not even sure if it will actually happen) but it is exciting to think about.

The one suggestion I do have for you is to remove any chat software you may have on your site. Any site I've been to that has it seems to lose out in the forums. Why post, if you can chat?

If you're interested in having members chat, get a Teamspeak Server. I'll be getting one once I reach around a hundred members or so, that is, if they vote to have one.

 

[crowebird]

duke you fly for real? Thats sweet if you do. Im planning on getting my pilots license along with my drivers next year. Oh and I would be happy to support your forum at my site or forum if I can get ads in there, if you have a banner 468x60 send it to me and I will get it up as soon as I can\

cheers,
mike

 

[Duke]

duke you fly for real? Thats sweet if you do. Im planning on getting my pilots license along with my drivers next year. Oh and I would be happy to support your forum at my site or forum if I can get ads in there, if you have a banner 468x60 send it to me and I will get it up as soon as I can\

cheers,
mike

I only fly in combat flight sims such as IL 2 Forgotten Battles.

I'd be more than happy to exchange banners with you but I have a bit of a dilemna. My front page is already horribly overcrowded but I still add smaller buttons to the bottom of it at 110 x 56. I also have a Web Links area where you get the same banner and a site description of your chosing here.

Maybe I can place your banner in the blocks at the bottom of the page but I'll have to shorten it to 460 x 60. If this is good enough, please let me know.

I've also been thinking, what if we all (as webmasters) had a .swf banner that showed all of our banners in a rotating movie on all of our sites?

Just a thought.

 

[OldWelshGuy]

I have the live chat on there so that people can speak to family in private from around the world, so although the forums will suffer from it, That really does not worry me, as the strength will be the communication power of the forum via newsletters and the shoutbox. You have to be registered to use the chat, so as long as I have a point of contact via email to sedn out the village times, I am happy.

On another point, I have a rugby website forum that is qutoie busy considering. Anyhow many of the Welsh boys that visit are currently serving i Iraq, and this week three of them posted to say thank you, and explained that it is hell out there, but the forum has allowed them to mentally get away, and be back with their friends at home. I had tears in my eyes reading that thread, and it made me remember again just how much we take for granted, and how much good a forum can do.

 

[temi]

. Anyhow many of the Welsh boys that visit are currently serving i Iraq, and this week three of them posted to say thank you, and explained that it is hell out there, but the forum has allowed them to mentally get away, and be back with their friends at home. I had tears in my eyes reading that thread, and it made me remember again just how much we take for granted, and how much good a forum can do.

I never though a forum could be a useful tool at giving our personnel in Iraq a boost, I am pleased to hear your rugby forum is being used that way its being used by the boys in Iraq.

 

[OldWelshGuy]

Temi, nor did I, It just goes to show that often times we do more good than we realise. It is quantum thought, that everyone at some time or other will do something that will impact on someone the world over. Everyone it seems is 6 steps away from everyone else, such is the power of social networking.

We just do not realise how big, the little things we do, are. I have a friend, and he was once homeless. He was at one stage suicidal, and stood on a road bridge looking straight ahead. He turned toward the road, to build up the courage to throw himself off into the river below. A guy walking toward him made eye contact, something he said rarely happened. Then the guy spoke to him Something that happened ever more rarely they chatted for a few moments turns out they shared the same taste in music, discovered when my friend asked what the guy was listening to on his Walkman. After a few minutes the guy said to my friend, "hey look take these few pennies, I have not got my wallet with me today, but I will buy you a drink tomorrow, and we will chat again, same time? same place?

My friend then said that he believed that to throw himself off the bridge would be wrong, as he had an agreement to meet someone, but decided he would have as much free beer of this guy as possible to make it easier to throw himself off the day after.

To cut a long story short, they met up, went for a drink in a local pub, had a chat, and suddenly my friend realised that he was a real person, with opinions that were allowed to be heard, and respected. He had a few beers bought for him that night, and he left with the thought of killing himself gone, and a sense of self worth injected. At what cost? maybe £20 worth of beer from half a dozen people. I doubt any of those people were do gooders, I doubt they even considered their actions, as most of them were drunk at the time. I doubt that any of them ever knew that they had saved the lives of another human being.

I doubt the guy who originally stopped to chat realised that it was his selfless action that saved anothers life! Small things mean a lot.

 

[temi]

OWG,
Thank is heavy and what a coincident that that guy stopped for a chat with the suicidal gent and what a difference it made.
Temi

 

[Darksat]

It just goes to show that when you need it most fate always seems to come through.


Anyway back on track

I believe in forums more than I do chat rooms because you dont have to worry about being on at the same time, forums allow you to converse with people from around the world regardless of time zone location, etc
I also think they are very rewarding, I always feel happy when someone chooses my forum to post in, makes me feel like I am doing a good job and it gives me a chance to impart some knowledge and help a few people along the way.