Foundation Do you have a community pre-launch checklist?

[Cedric]

We've talked before about having an audience to begin with. But there's more! Do you have a community pre-launch checklist?

No one wants to go gung ho on anything without careful planning, especially when you're planning to launch a new community. You can't expect to become an instant success just by launching a site. There are several things any admin should do to make a community a success.

It will be quite helpful to have a community pre-launch checklist just so you don't forget small details you might overlook. It is important for you as an admin to follow through on the items in your checklist prior to your big launch day. Your community launch and its eventual activity will not necessarily be perfect, but with a list of things to do in place, you can be sure you have covered all the bases, thus avoiding many potential problems.

A community pre-launch checklist will contain the items below. The items you'll find below need not be exhaustive since you might come up with things unique to your planned site. Make sure you go over each item and, if possible, make detailed notes of what you have done and what else needs doing for each item in the list.

Establish Your Identity​

A forum should not become a jack of all trades and thus be a master of none. Not only will information and posts coming into your forums become a wildly mixed bunch, but your entire site will also lose its identity. You should establish what your intended forum is for. You should also establish why people should visit and use your site.

In line with that, you should also decide on who will be your targeted audience of people is to join your community. You should also put all this in a document for you to follow and to also work as a reminder. Establishing your community's identity will be one of the good places to start while you're still in the planning phase.

Plan the Dirty Work​

This part of your checklist should, of course, be thoroughly detailed. Admins will see this as the part of your community pre-launch checklist that contains all the crazy subheadings of subheadings and so on. There's nothing wrong with putting down all the details in this section since your site's well-oiled first run depends on the things you'll put in here.

This part should include the documents you have planned to use. Include the design of your interface in here as well. It will also be very helpful to include your site's skin and who should design and improve it. Include details of costs and work timetables to make sure you're not behind schedule. All hosting requirements should be covered here.

This is the part of your community pre-launch checklist where you decide on an otherwise catchy domain name. Make sure you also visit your competitor's site and see what they have and add to your site what they don't have. You should also compose your privacy agreement and terms of use. You should also take measures to secure your forum and server software.

You might want to make initial forum rules and sticky the necessary threads. You should also have some sort of base content in place so guests will have a reason to stay and check out your site.

Honestly, run it through ChatGPT and you get a check list like below:

Platform & Hosting​

• Choose reliable forum software (self-hosted vs. cloud-based).
• Select a hosting provider that meets your forum's needs.
• Secure a domain name that is catchy and easy to remember.

Design & Functionality​

• Choose or design a forum theme that aligns with your brand.
• Optimize navigation and layout for usability.
• Set up categories and subforums logically.

Security & Policies​

• Draft a Privacy Policy & Terms of Use.
• Implement anti-spam measures and CAPTCHA.
• Ensure SSL certificates and basic security protocols are in place.

Content & Engagement​

• Write forum rules and sticky them in key sections.
• Create starter threads to make the forum look active.
• Recruit moderators or early contributors to seed discussions.

BETA Testing

Since you have everything etched out with something like a barebones structure that's already working, it's high time to BETA test all your current work. This is, of course, your pre-launch test to see what bugs you still have to patch up.

Smooth the Rough Edges

After the BETA test, you should be able to gauge what modifications and additions you need to make. Make all the necessary changes before opening. This is also a good time to decide where and how to advertise your upcoming site. You can either modify or add to any rules or any of the content in your community pre-launch checklist. You then double-check if you’ve got everything on your checklist covered before you launch.

Keeping a community pre-launch checklist will help a lot with all the messy details before launching your site. Be sure to add items not mentioned above just to make sure you have everything covered before your big launch.

Hope this was a good help to ya.

 

[InMyOpinion]

Amazing post as always @Cedric, I find having a community pre-launch checklist necessary for success. If you don't really know exactly what you need to work on then you may forget to do a few key things whereas if you have a thorough checklist you can go through the list and see what there still needs to get done. Here's my little pre-launch list if ever I were to create another community.

The first step for me would be to define the forums purpose & audience such as what's the forums main purpose, who is the target audience and what kind of discussions and interactions do I want to encourage.

Next would be to find the right platform & setup such as a software that fits my needs & the forums needs. I would then set up hosting, domain etc. as well as customize the design to reflect the forums branding as well to make the navigation easy.

The third thing that would be on the checklist would be set up key categories & content as well as sub-categories/sub-forums, writing clear welcoming guidelines so new members can get the feel and vibe of the forum and then to post some engaging discussions so it doesn't feel empty on launch day.

The fourth thing on list would be to implement any features & gamification I would decide to have on my forum. Features such as likes, reactions, ranks or badges to encourage participation. I'd also add gamification elements like points, leadership & contests to boost engagement. Then I would set up essential plug-ins or integrations for security, spam protection as well as moderation.

The fifth thing on my list would be to build a small core group to help create posts, start discussions and help create a welcoming environment.

The sixth thing would be to plan a launch strategy so I can have a solid marketing plan whether it be on social media, partnerships, email lists etc. I'd also plan an initial event, giveaway and/or contest to draw people in. I'd want to make it as easy as possible for people to join the forum. Make sure there are no complicated signups or unnecessary barriers.

The seventh and last thing on the list would be to prepare for moderation & growth by setting clear rules and appoint moderators as necessary. I'd be ready to engage, reply and keep the community active and well as to monitor analytics to see what's working and what needs to be adjusted or changed.


Creating a forum from scratch is A LOT of work but can be extremely rewarding. It is definitely a lot easier when you have a checklist and know exactly what needs to get done before launching the forum. If done incorrectly it can harm the forums growth and deter people from wanting to sign up. I'd definitely encourage anyone who is thinking of opening their own forum to have they own to do or checklist to ensure the best possible outcome.

Thanks again Cedric for creating this thread because this is a very important step to creating a successful forum.