Is it worth it to start a short-term forum?

Discussion in 'Managing Your Online Community' started by Soliloquy, Jul 15, 2009.

  1. Soliloquy

    Soliloquy Regular Member

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    If there was a good chance the subject of your new forum would not be popular or long-lived (say, about a TV show that flops or a political candidate that doesn't win), is it worth it to put a lot of energy into it?
     
    Soliloquy, Jul 15, 2009
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  2. kev

    kev Regular Member

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    I dont think so. It usually takes months, maybe even a year before traffic picks up to a good level. So when the project is coming to an end, the forums traffic will just be starting to go up.

    For that type of event, I would start a blog instead of a forum.
     
    kev, Jul 15, 2009
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  3. Kakeru

    Kakeru Addict

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    If I knew the forum was short term as a member, I wouldn't invest time posting or writing good posts.

    Forums (sites in general) should have effort put into it...
     
    Kakeru, Jul 15, 2009
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  4. kneel

    kneel Regular Member

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    if its free and u have nothing but time...sure...maybe if its "good" enough...you can make it work...

    other than that...no..lol..
     
    kneel, Jul 16, 2009
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  5. Dan

    Dan Future Proof

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    I've started to launch one construction related forum each year and it can take a year for it to get really busy and usefull. After-all, content is king.

    I've started a few before now that I thought should be popular and they have just never taken off, you win some you loose some as they say.

    I did a 'fan-forum' once for a person (I forget who it was now, like an actor or something) and they never made it big so I just closed it. It costs a lot in time managing spam of old unvisited forums, and it can give you some bad kudos with the search engines if you're sharing the IP with ones you've got that are popular. So I just tend to close them if I know it's not working and cut the losses as soon as I can.
     
    Dan, Jul 16, 2009
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  6. FullMetalBabe

    FullMetalBabe Zealot

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    No, I really don't think it's worth it. As said, most of the time you need more than a couple of months to truly gain traffic. Not only that, but creating and managing the forum takes time, so basically in the end you might not have had fun at all!
     
    FullMetalBabe, Jul 16, 2009
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  7. torque

    torque Regular Member

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    i think it depends on what sort of forum - if for example the short term forum you are talking about is 2-5 years then it could be but if you are talking about 2-3 months then hell no :D hope my post was as useless as the rest haha :D
     
    torque, Jul 17, 2009
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  8. Soliloquy

    Soliloquy Regular Member

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    Really? I hadn't heard that. I'm sure there are many other sites, both successful and unsuccessful, sharing my IP.
     
    Soliloquy, Jul 17, 2009
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