The Ultimate Online Forums How To...

If you were going to create the ultimate "how to" book for forums what would your table of contents/chapter structure look like? What topics would you cover?

 

Chapter I: Why do you want to start a forum?

Alternately, read this chapter or fail. The most important secret behind any successful forum is serving and underserved niche. There has to be a need - a desire for people to talk and communicate ideas. If this need does not exist, it will not drive your forum.

This ties very closely with finding help - if you do not find help to built your community, you will fail. It can be easy, or difficult, to find such help.

Chapter II: Choosing a Webhost

Primarily, separating fly-by-night outfits and real hosting companies. The main questions you want to consider are adult content policies, overselling (successful forums always get kicked out of oversold hosts, sometimes with lost databases), features, and does your host own the server?

Chapter III: Choosing a Software Package

Matching your needs to known software packages. I'd also put in my benchmark stats, and do a lot of comparing and contrasting. Since I doubt anyone would buy me vB or IPB licenses I would probably focus on the most promising sets - Drupal, SMF, MyBB, Vanilla, and WordPress/bbPress, giving mention to PunBB and phpBB as appropriate, though the management realignment at phpBB might bring them back into relevance.

Chapter IV: Forum Organization

A.k.a You Do not need a bajillion forums, effective divisions of responsibility and so on.

Chapter V: Member Behavior and Conduct

How to guide member behavior on your forum to maintain growth and a desired atmosphere, whether hostile or caring. This is quite subtle, especially if you want to build a large, tightknit community.

Chapter VI: Addressing the Glass Ceiling

You will eventually reach a peak level of civil activity, whether you want to or not. Your community will fall apart, stagnate, change purpose or thrive based on how you handle this transition. When this occurs depends significantly on how your community is structured, but when it happens it will be quite obvious as the social fabric of your community strains.

 

Vek -

Wow... great outline! I agree with your points. I especially like the alternate title for the first chapter - READ THIS OR FAIL. Awesome.

Why do you think that choosing a webhost needs to be whole chapter? Other than the warning not to be "bamboozled" what would you include?

The only things I can think to add right now would be "Forum Promotion" and "Monetization."

Thoughts?
RR

 

buy the book "Managing Online Forums" By Patrick O'Keefe. Its a good read. He's got some viewpoints I don't agree with, but he backs up all his ideas with examples.

 

Promotion, yes. That would come before breaking the glass ceiling bit. It's never an easy topic.

Choosing a webhost would be a short topic but there's a lot of advice to give - methods to check how many sites the hosts stores on a server, whether or not they own their own servers, and so on.

 

I have this book and have read it. As you said there are a few viewpoints that one could question. I was just wondering what people thought should be included if they were to write their own book.

What points don't you agree with from Pat's book that you might want to address?

Thanks!!
RR

 

i think it would need chapters on:

different forum softwares and hosts, free or ones you have to pay for, advantages and disadvantages of each one...

how to promote your forum

how admin and mods must behave, how to choose good staff for your forum, dealing with trolls and spammers (definitions of these words too)

security-how to keep your forum safe from being hacked, how important it is to have a strong password...

 

There should be a section on basic html and CSS.

 

Those are great ideas! I love the one on security measures. You are certainly right. I know there are a few members here that have had their site hacked in the past. I am sure they would agree!!

You are absolutely right. This is very important... especially the CSS part (at least for me ).

So in all I would summarize and say the perfect guide would have the following chapters (in no particular order):

1. Basic forum overview: Why do you want to start a forum?

2. Choosing a Webhost

3. Choosing a Software Package - what platform to use/pros & cons

4. Basic HTML & CSS Coding

5. Security

6. Forum Organization

7. Advertising Your Forum

8. Member Behavior and Conduct -including privacy policies, moderators, etc.

9. Addressing the Glass Ceiling - forum longevity

Any additional thoughts?

 

Addressing the glass ceiling is not always about forum longevity. Many forums will exist for years at that ceiling, losing a member for every one they gain. It's about the causes behind that, the paths you can take - staying cozy with it is an option - etc. It involves some tough decisions and keeping certain things in mind.

Bananaqueen's comment about staff behavior should probably be a separate chapter, though I might use 'key member' instead - there are people who will take on authoritative roles on a sufficiently large community even if you do not hand out the power. It's a better segue into the glass ceiling because it covers a lot of why social divisions and pruning occur.