Anyone here run a forum?
Discussion
yes - I own www.advanceddrivinghub.com and have run a number of forums over the years...
It sits on PHPBB 3 because when I took it on (someone bought the old forum for the domain but didn't want the forum!) that was the software in use, so to make it easy I kept the same software... not sure that I would choose that now - it is okay as long as you keep it up to date, and easy to stop spammers by simply approving all registrations manually... but it is not the most modern in terms of software...
times past I would have chosen IPB (Invision Power Board) or vBulletin who were the big two, but there are plenty of options now - I would probably go with something like XenForo - all can be run on any general php hosting
whatever you do I would avoid Proboards at all costs - they lock you in and you won't be able to move away - they believe that all posts belong to the person posting so if you want to export the forum every user has to manually export their own posts - nightmare, wouldn't touch it.
It sits on PHPBB 3 because when I took it on (someone bought the old forum for the domain but didn't want the forum!) that was the software in use, so to make it easy I kept the same software... not sure that I would choose that now - it is okay as long as you keep it up to date, and easy to stop spammers by simply approving all registrations manually... but it is not the most modern in terms of software...
times past I would have chosen IPB (Invision Power Board) or vBulletin who were the big two, but there are plenty of options now - I would probably go with something like XenForo - all can be run on any general php hosting
whatever you do I would avoid Proboards at all costs - they lock you in and you won't be able to move away - they believe that all posts belong to the person posting so if you want to export the forum every user has to manually export their own posts - nightmare, wouldn't touch it.
I'm one of the admins for our club forum which used to be hosted on Yuku until they were taken over by Tapatalk. Generally it's OK, I'm not sure what's involved in the costs as I don't touch that side of it. They have a similar attitude - there's no option to take a backup of your forum and download it. That said, when they had some server trouble a couple of years back (perhaps while they were still Yuku) there was no data lost, just some connectivity trouble which wasn't the end of the world for a club.
I run a FB Group which used to be a forum. For several years after setting up it was a traditional forum with Tapatalk for mobile users. The cost of hosting was pretty cheap (c.$50 pa) and most hosting companies offer a forum package which will include the DB, etc you need for the forum software to run.
However, we moved about two years ago to running as a FB Group instead of a traditional forum. The forum got hacked a couple of time and the provider and forum software provider were forever updating things which either caused downtime or hassle.
In contrast, the FB Group is free, robust and so far hassle free. Everything that people were doing on the forum can still be done on the FB Group. Most forum members were already FB users so that was straightforward and even a number of the non-FB members signed up for FB just to access the Group (they still don’t use FB for anything else so no different for them than signing up for anything else online).
The advantages for running the Group are huge and it has made my life much easier. I spend my time managing the content and helping the members rather than late night server and software patching.
Obviously, it depends on how your forum will be used and the scale of it but for a small-medium casual purpose it could be well worth considering.
However, we moved about two years ago to running as a FB Group instead of a traditional forum. The forum got hacked a couple of time and the provider and forum software provider were forever updating things which either caused downtime or hassle.
In contrast, the FB Group is free, robust and so far hassle free. Everything that people were doing on the forum can still be done on the FB Group. Most forum members were already FB users so that was straightforward and even a number of the non-FB members signed up for FB just to access the Group (they still don’t use FB for anything else so no different for them than signing up for anything else online).
The advantages for running the Group are huge and it has made my life much easier. I spend my time managing the content and helping the members rather than late night server and software patching.
Obviously, it depends on how your forum will be used and the scale of it but for a small-medium casual purpose it could be well worth considering.
The only problem with Facebook instead of forums is that it is strongly focused on current posts and it is far far more difficult to go back historically / to see threads building over time / to see a visual picture of the content and structure of the forum...
The big advantage of Facebook is how easy it is to upload images and videos but modern forum software matches that pretty well and offers much more of a community feel...
There is also the fact that as the forum owner you own an asset - not sure that has been tested in the same way on Facebook - on your forum you are in control of selling advertising / commercialising it - try getting the ad revenues for your Facebook group!
The other advantage of Facebook is of course one location and the user gets all their interests together but that is not necessarily an advantage for the forum / group owner...
The big advantage of Facebook is how easy it is to upload images and videos but modern forum software matches that pretty well and offers much more of a community feel...
There is also the fact that as the forum owner you own an asset - not sure that has been tested in the same way on Facebook - on your forum you are in control of selling advertising / commercialising it - try getting the ad revenues for your Facebook group!
The other advantage of Facebook is of course one location and the user gets all their interests together but that is not necessarily an advantage for the forum / group owner...
Fair point about the ad revenue but that was never a consideration with the forum as the running costs were low. It was the maintenance overhead that was the bind.
In our case it’s mainly asking for help and once an answer has been given generally the discussion winds down. Occasionally, discussions rumble on and/or get pinned. People do search for answers too and the FB search works well enough for that. Generally, we find that the search in FB does the job and allows members to find what they want.
If you just want to browse I agree that they are quite different beasts but it does depend on the nature of the forum and what the members want.
Just putting it out there as another (easy) option.
FYI - When the forum was a forum (if you know what I mean) it was based on SMF (Simple Machines Forum) and the provider was TMD hosting
In our case it’s mainly asking for help and once an answer has been given generally the discussion winds down. Occasionally, discussions rumble on and/or get pinned. People do search for answers too and the FB search works well enough for that. Generally, we find that the search in FB does the job and allows members to find what they want.
If you just want to browse I agree that they are quite different beasts but it does depend on the nature of the forum and what the members want.
Just putting it out there as another (easy) option.
FYI - When the forum was a forum (if you know what I mean) it was based on SMF (Simple Machines Forum) and the provider was TMD hosting
rriggs said:
People do search for answers too and the FB search works well enough for that.
It's the bane of FB groups that people don't search them for answers. Some groups I am on have the same question so many times it is a standing joke. I don't think people are really aware of the search function operating within the group. FB groups have decimated the smaller forums in recent years without a doubt.
What kind of revenue is there from forums, FB groups? I guess very small?
Equus said:
rriggs said:
...running costs were low. It was the maintenance overhead that was the bind.
Can anyone comment on these aspects, specifically?What sort of cost is involved in a non-free platform, and what's involved with maintaining them?
hosting - varies hugely but c. £10 - £12 p/m will get you reasonably good commercial hosting - you can get cheaper, and you can pay more... if your forum is a few hundred people of whom 20 are regular and not hugely media heavy, then hosting on a shared server works just fine - if you are running a photography forum of 20,000 people of whom several thousand are regular contributors and uploading images, then you might need to have your own hosting etc - at that point you are into probably Amazon S3 web services or similar and starting to rack up monthly hosting costs. But - there is an advertising / commercialisation opportunity with larger forums...
Frimley111R said:
rriggs said:
People do search for answers too and the FB search works well enough for that.
It's the bane of FB groups that people don't search them for answers. Some groups I am on have the same question so many times it is a standing joke. I don't think people are really aware of the search function operating within the group. FB groups have decimated the smaller forums in recent years without a doubt.
What kind of revenue is there from forums, FB groups? I guess very small?
akirk said:
Varies - I know of someone who ran a very niche forum but in a hobby where people spend a lot of money on kit and holidays and generally a certain wealthy set of people partaking - so the spending power was disproportionate to the numbers of people... and he was bringing in c. £50k p/a without too much effort - get it right and forums can actually have quite a value...
Was he selling stuff on there or was it from ads?Frimley111R said:
akirk said:
Varies - I know of someone who ran a very niche forum but in a hobby where people spend a lot of money on kit and holidays and generally a certain wealthy set of people partaking - so the spending power was disproportionate to the numbers of people... and he was bringing in c. £50k p/a without too much effort - get it right and forums can actually have quite a value...
Was he selling stuff on there or was it from ads?Equus said:
Can anyone comment on these aspects, specifically?
What sort of cost is involved in a non-free platform, and what's involved with maintaining them?
When I took the forum over it was costing about $500 a year for hostingWhat sort of cost is involved in a non-free platform, and what's involved with maintaining them?
I changed providers and got that down to about $50 a year for the hosting
Most of the forum software available is free
rriggs said:
I run a FB Group which used to be a forum. For several years after setting up it was a traditional forum with Tapatalk for mobile users. The cost of hosting was pretty cheap (c.$50 pa) and most hosting companies offer a forum package which will include the DB, etc you need for the forum software to run.
However, we moved about two years ago to running as a FB Group instead of a traditional forum. The forum got hacked a couple of time and the provider and forum software provider were forever updating things which either caused downtime or hassle.
In contrast, the FB Group is free, robust and so far hassle free. Everything that people were doing on the forum can still be done on the FB Group. Most forum members were already FB users so that was straightforward and even a number of the non-FB members signed up for FB just to access the Group (they still don’t use FB for anything else so no different for them than signing up for anything else online).
The advantages for running the Group are huge and it has made my life much easier. I spend my time managing the content and helping the members rather than late night server and software patching.
Obviously, it depends on how your forum will be used and the scale of it but for a small-medium casual purpose it could be well worth considering.
Interesting. Do you get access to peoples emails if they subscribe to your forum?However, we moved about two years ago to running as a FB Group instead of a traditional forum. The forum got hacked a couple of time and the provider and forum software provider were forever updating things which either caused downtime or hassle.
In contrast, the FB Group is free, robust and so far hassle free. Everything that people were doing on the forum can still be done on the FB Group. Most forum members were already FB users so that was straightforward and even a number of the non-FB members signed up for FB just to access the Group (they still don’t use FB for anything else so no different for them than signing up for anything else online).
The advantages for running the Group are huge and it has made my life much easier. I spend my time managing the content and helping the members rather than late night server and software patching.
Obviously, it depends on how your forum will be used and the scale of it but for a small-medium casual purpose it could be well worth considering.
My friend ran the Vw caddy forum and it helped him build a great customer base to sell his items to, back then the forum captured most of the market as people flocked there, got free advice and people bought his items indirectly. He still has a thriving business but all traffic is on Fb now really.
of course we are all discussing this on a forum...
why? for me because I come to one place to find ongoing discussions on subjects of interest... on fb, the topic would have vanished or it would be promoting items from a group in which I have no interest... fb is good for instant access to a group with a niche interest, but as a sense of community etc. it falls well behind forums
why? for me because I come to one place to find ongoing discussions on subjects of interest... on fb, the topic would have vanished or it would be promoting items from a group in which I have no interest... fb is good for instant access to a group with a niche interest, but as a sense of community etc. it falls well behind forums
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