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Forums / Newsgroups
An integral part of a community; a forum also called a ‘web’ or ‘message’ board is a discussion area where subscribers/members can post and reply to messages. These messages are usually sorted under topics or discussion categories, chosen by the host, or possibly the visitor.
A community may well have several forums and a forum could equally have several different topics.
Getting the forum started: The biggest hurdle in starting a community.
• Give them a reason to start talking, if it isn’t a topic anyone particularly is interested in, there is even less chance they will be interested enough to leave a comment.
• Get friends and colleagues to participate in discussions
• Have links to the forum on every web page.
• Run competitions where users can win prizes for ‘forum ideas and topic’
Once active, a forum should be monitored for any non -topical or disruptive behaviour. This could be in the form of advertising or as simple as swearing or aggressive comments. The forum moderators will decide what is suitable or not and remove messages accordingly.
Users will remember and trust you with forums kept topical and of interest, asking users for feedback to keep you on the right track and for any future ideas and development to the forums.
A busy thriving forum will itself become a lead generator for your products and services and repeatedly come back again and again.
Forums can be built from scratch to your own specifications, or there are plenty of off the peg programs that can be used. In either case have an idea of further enhancements or which direction you hope to be heading overtime. Some software packages will be more flexible or have more functionality than others.
Here is a list of some of the most popular programs available, and the pros and cons of each.
Ultimate Bulletin Board:
+ Plenty of features.
+ Clean and intuitive user interface.
+ Static pages, meaning less server load.
+ Easy to install and maintain.
- Free upgrades are available only for one year.
- Many people won't be able to afford it.
Available at www.ultimatebb.com
BigTalker:
+ Speed improvements.
+ Compact layout.
+ Clean code, easy to modify.
+ Built-in ICQ feature.
- Dynamically generated pages.
- extra server load.
- Less features when compared to UBB.
Available at www.bigtalker.com
UltraBoard:
+ Many features (including stats).
+ Price tag (free).
+ Very customizable without having to edit the code.
- Dynamically generated pages.
- Layout may confuse 'newbies'.
- Grammar errors throughout the program.
Available at www.ultrascripts.com
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