Growth If you could go back and create your forum again, what would you do differently?

[Al]

As title, "If you could go back and create your forum again, what would you do differently?"

Looking back on how you built your community, do any of these mistakes sound familiar? It’s easy to get carried away in the early days of launching a forum, but hindsight is a great teacher. Here are a few common missteps that might resonate with you:

• Overcomplicating Categories: Did you create too many subforums at the start, only to find them mostly empty? Keeping it simple can help focus discussion and avoid a cluttered look.
• Chasing Quantity Over Quality: Did you spend too much time trying to increase member count instead of nurturing a core group of dedicated users? Building a solid foundation can drive more sustainable growth.
• Using Cheap or Free Tools: Did you cut corners on software or plugins, only to deal with constant bugs and limitations later? Investing in reliable tools early on often saves a lot of pain down the line.
• Lack of Clear Rules or Direction: Did you skip setting clear guidelines or a vision for your forum, resulting in confusion or inconsistent behavior in your community?

What’s your take? Did you experience any of these issues? What would you change if you could go back to day one? Let’s discuss the lessons we’ve learned from our early forum-building days.

 

[Bryn]

The only mistake I made was using a forum software I wasn't all too familiar with (ZetaBoards), when I previously used InvisionFree. Back then, I should've used Jcink where that had some closeness to it...

Also, if this counts, RX Community would've been completely different... where it would've been a forum dedicated to bootleg games as I had a YouTube channel with that focus but, due to my limited knowledge of them, I would've spliced general gaming and tech in it as well.

 

[Cedric]

The only mistake I made was using a forum software I wasn't all too familiar with (ZetaBoards), when I previously used InvisionFree. Back then, I should've used Jcink where that had some closeness to it...

Also, if this counts, RX Community would've been completely different... where it would've been a forum dedicated to bootleg games as I had a YouTube channel with that focus but, due to my limited knowledge of them, I would've spliced general gaming and tech in it as well.

To be fair, Jcink wouldn’t be what it is today if ZetaBoards still lived. I say that with respect for John, he’s incredibly dedicated to his platform, I’ve literally never seen that before.

It’s always been more or less a one man show and he never revealed much about himself, but most would’ve given up long time ago. Myself including.

I remember the transition to ZetaBoards like it was yesterday. It was a huge improvement from InvisionFree despite its development flaws and false promises by Brandon.

 

[Bryn]

To be fair, Jcink wouldn’t be what it is today if ZetaBoards still lived.

How so? Would you mean that Jcink would still be fairly rudimentary if ZB was still around? I ask because, I get the feeling that several improvements were done on it as soon as ZB was at death's door, and that John may have known that many flocked to Jcink as a result.

 

[Wise Owl]

Well, hard for me to say because I've recently opened forum. I am unsure if the failures of my forums are based on non-unique nishe, lack of advertisement or just dull content.. Still, I've failed plenty of times so far

 

[Shawn Gossman]

I finally get to create them how they should be created.

I used to run a lot of forums back in the old days. I left it for health reasons. When I came back, I learned from that experience and mitigated the mistakes I made before. Of course, we're only human. We make mistakes regardless.

I think experience goes a long way!

 

[Al]

Well, hard for me to say because I've recently opened forum. I am unsure if the failures of my forums are based on non-unique nishe, lack of advertisement or just dull content.. Still, I've failed plenty of times so far

Well all have, Mon ami, we all have.