/forum or /forums?

Discussion in 'Managing Your Online Community' started by Imperial, May 25, 2009.

  1. Imperial

    Imperial Adept

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    I picked up a new domain tonight and I'm thinking about moving around one of my current licenses and essentially press the reset button on my patience (heh).

    Anyways, I started mentally going through all the basics of launching a forum fresh and thought that some forums use a /forum folder for their scripts while others use /forums. Still others use a /community folder or simply have their forum scripts located in the web root.

    What have you named your forum folder (if not on your web root)? Is it personal preference or something specific to your individual forum? Do you think that this makes a difference to your users?
     
  2. Bundy

    Bundy Admin Talk Staff

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    I have always used forums. It just seems more logical for some reason :p
     
  3. Mike

    Mike Adept

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    I really don't think the majority of average users even notices the folder the forums are in. I've used both, myself.
     
  4. Nick

    Nick Regular Member

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    I've used both as well. Here it is /forum and on my other forum it is /forums. Never do I place it in the root, as I'd like to have room to expand my site in the future.

    You could also consider forum.domain.com or forums.domain.com. But I'd just go with a sub-directory.
     
  5. John

    John Regular Member

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    Most time i have the script in webroot but if i use them in a subfolder then its forum that im using.
    When i have it in webroot its mostly because when i create an site with vbulletin then i like to integrate everything into the software.
     
  6. Chris

    Chris Regular Member

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    I think that I've almost always used /forums - it's what I'm used to.
     
  7. Peggy

    Peggy Regular Member

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    I use /forums on TbD, but Joey used /forum on vBFAQ.

    I know that in most of the installation instructions for major installations, such as vBulletin, vBadvanced, etc. you'll see /forum as the example, so I'm guessing that is their suggested folder name.
     
  8. Justin S.

    Justin S. Regular Member

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    I use forums.rctgo.net, because I call them the "RCTgo Forums" - it just sounds more natural, in my opinion. It's really just personal preference, I think.
     
  9. Tyler

    Tyler The Badministrator

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    I always use /forum. And I always use /forum over forum.site.com. It may be just me but I think the non-plural version looks cleaner.
     
  10. Tom

    Tom Regular Member

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    I use /forum/ for Setsou Design, and /index.php for Bird is the Word.
     
  11. Green Cat

    Green Cat Adept

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    Always /forum as it just doesnt sound right in plural for some reason.
     
  12. DarkWarriorXII

    DarkWarriorXII Addict

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    I keep my forums in the web root. Index.php is the homepage and forum.php is the forum home. Everything else is the same for the forums. If I need to add more pages, I do so as needed. This way I don't have to worry about whether to put new pages in the forum/forums directory or root. It's all in one place.
     
  13. Tyler

    Tyler The Badministrator

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    That's one way of doing it that I think is becoming more and more common.
     
  14. gnatster

    gnatster Regular Member

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    /forums

    I'm anal though and want everything in nice compartments when it comes to file locations.
     
  15. Havok

    Havok Regular Member

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    I don't see why it would matter? A difference between 1 letter?
     
  16. Tyler

    Tyler The Badministrator

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    You still need to choose when you're uploading the software to your directory.
     
  17. Chris

    Chris Regular Member

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    It all depends on how you want your members (and future members) to see it.
     
  18. Havok

    Havok Regular Member

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    Ya, I know that. But, I do not get why it would matter whether it was /forum or /forums.
     
  19. Nick

    Nick Regular Member

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    To some people (like those with OCD), it makes a world of a difference.
     
  20. Tyler

    Tyler The Badministrator

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    I, for example, could never tolerate having /forums on my own site. If I have no control over it on a site that I am just a member, I couldn't care less.
     

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