Run Your Own Forum - Critiques Needed and Welcomed

Dan

Well-known member
Not "Officially" Opened Yet. Looking for any feedback you can provide, good or bad.

Our Mission Statement
We think everyone should experience the satisfaction of running a forum. Everyone has a specific subject matter that they are passionate about, however, not everyone has the knowledge and/or funds to start their own site. Or perhaps, you are just unsure about how to gain traffic or how popular your subject matter will be. Some subjects may be to obscure to dedicate a complete forum to. This is where we come in. We are making it possible for members of this site to run their own forum. With having multiple "mini" forums of all types of subjects and with members from all over the world, we expose your subject to all members of this site. So, our members are more apt to post across multiple subject matters, thus gaining members you may have not had otherwise.

So the model is quite simple, we are building a community consisting of a multitude of smaller communities with varying subjects with a central member base, in effect aiming to be the net's largest "general" forum available.


What does it all mean?
It simply means that members can request to "administer" their very own category. When I say administer, I mean that they will have moderator rights restricted to their category only, allowing them to run it the way they want to.

About Us Page - http://runyourownforum.com/pages/about_us/

Site - http://runyourownforum.com

I personally think that this idea is quite ingenious :p. It is, however, very possible I am off my rocker. I would like to know before going live. Thanks!!

Dan
 
I'm like "Run Your Own Forum?" Because its an odd. Odd. ODD name for a domain. Very odd. *Scratches places on head.*
Not sure how to handle this feedback. Could you be more specific possibly? The name fits exactly the purpose of the forum. :confused:
 
It does, it does...it's just odd. Not that its bad. ;)

And might want to be careful with giving users "power" so to speak, though. Some people out there are trouble makers, so just be mindful about situations that may arise that cause trouble for a site like yours.
 
No doubt. This is something that I have though about. We will have admins (coaches) that are checking in everyone's categories, making sure that everything is :cool:
 
Forum - runyourownforum.com
  • Subforum - My forum
  • Subforum2 - Someone else's forum

Is this how it is going to work ?
I think this could be messy. Certainly I wouldn't want to read other people's forums.

As well, I'm not sure Xenforo can be setup such that each forum is relatively independent.
I certainly think you need to wait for 1.1 when ignore comes out !
 
ugh even as a rookie admin i wouldnt want to subscribe to something i didnt own. i build it up, bring in traffi,c and then out grow what you offer. My data is tied to your DB.. Im either stuck with you or have to start totally over.. What happens when a member admin calls it quits and 25% of your membership joined because of my niche and dedication to traffic? it seems complicated and could not only get messy but down right nasty and leave a very sour taste in the communities mouth if not handled correctly.. Plus without the ability to add my own plugins id find myself bored within weeks.

Although i like the idea and suppose it could work but def seems like one of those things that looks better on paper then in actual practice.. Good luck and all the best i would certainly like to see how something like this would progress.
 
It will be set up as:

Category Node
  • Sub Forum
  • Sub Forum 2
Each category node will be separate and independently operated by category owners. And yes, you can grant a user permissions to moderate on a per node basis.
 
ugh even as a rookie admin i wouldnt want to subscribe to something i didnt own. i build it up bring in traffic and then out grow what you offer my data is tied to your DB.. Im either stuck with you or have to start totally over.. What happens when a member admin calls it quits and 25% of your membership joined because of my niche? it seems complicated and could not only get messy but down right nasty and leave a very sour taste in the communities mouth if not handles correctly.. Plus without the ability to add my own plugins id find myself bored within weeks.

Although i like the idea and suppose it could work but def seems like one of those things that looks better on paper then in actual practice.. Good luck and all the best i would certainly like to see how something like this would progress.
The target audience really wouldn't be anyone from here. Established admins, if you will. The target audience is the novice without any webmaster experience at all.
We do offer all of your content if you out grow the current structure. The only problem I see is that i cannot export users for obvious reasons, only providing a redirecting link from your old node to your new site so your members know where to find you again. This is obviously a sticking point but I think could be managed.
Not sure about any of this, hence this thread. I tried to think of everything but it is your feedback that will be the determining factor of whether I put any more time and energy into something that may not be feasible.
 
thats just the thing your only going to be a rookie admin for so long before you crave more, and you will be forced to either leave and start over or tough it out in a very limited capacity.. My first forum was on an IPB free host and i went to a premium IPB license after only one month because i was so restricted and compared to what yuou offer i actually owned the world.. I do believe it can work but i can not see this being pleasant expierance for you.. Just my opinion of course but then thats what you asked for.. i seriously intend to watch this pan out with a great deal of interest.. I do think its feasable but like i said i think it has a lot of potential to cause a lot of hard feelings.. again just my 2 pennies.
 
I actually do something similar to this on a niche specific forum allowing premium members to moderate there own member forums on whatever subject matter they like it can work and does. but even though what i do and what your attempting are similar they are still very different.
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thats just the thing your only going to be a rookie admin for so long before you crave more, and you will be forced to either leave and start over or tough it out in a very limited capacity.. My first forum was on an IPB free host and i went to a premium IPB license after only one month because i was so restricted and compared to what yuou offer i actually owned the world.. I do believe it can work but i can not see this being pleasant expierance for you.. Just my opinion of course but then thats what you asked for.. i seriously intend to watch this pan out with a great deal of interest..
Frankly, your feedback is exactly what I am after. I am still on the fence about whether to proceed with this or scrap it. I can definitely see the issues that may arise.
 
I actually do something similar to this on a niche specific forum allowing premium members to moderate there own member forums on whatever subject matter they like it can work and does. but even though what i do and what your attempting are similar they are still very different.
Allow me to add a bit more detail. The problem is going to be keeping the category owners on my site and not take the content with them. Solution, to provide them reasons not to move.
  1. revenue sharing
  2. we will possibly have a huge member base cross posting across multiple genres, thus exposing the owners to more traffic than they would have if they owned their own forum.
 
I would give it a go, just be sure to have a rock solid TOS.. and of course your rev sharing idea is golden.. Like i said i do like the idea and can see it working you have obviously gave it much more thought then me.. I say ill be watching with interest because its a good idea, albeit one that requires more thought then your average single niche forum..
 
I tried to do this before, twice before actually. It comes down to the automation of your system, if you can not automate forum creation like freeforums or others can your not going to bring the traffic in like they can. I think admins would need to be able to change their own forum's features and make it seems like their own site, maybe allow sub-domains using a free forum software so that they can manage their own environment :).
 
Interesting one this. Firstly I'd say to definitely give it a try. Although I agree with some of the objections above, quite often what happens in real life bears no relation to all the debate and opinions. I think this concept is like marmite as we say in the UK (you either love it or hate it).

I can see how this would really appeal to people who simply want a quick and easy way to set up a discussion group without any of the technical knowledge or admin hassle.
 
Hmm, so let me get this right! You are running a forum to get others to join and run a forum there? :confused:

Neat concept already done of course. One problem I see with this, most people putting a lot of time into running a forum want to own that forum. You could also take that same principle down another road, like offering "Gaming Clan" forums for a certain popular game, used for different clans to set-up for clan member discussion.

Seen all these type of things done in the past, problem is they never really work out that well.

And like another said above, if a person cannot come along and auto create a forum to use quick, your going to struggle with it all. People expect that type of thing today, not waiting around for some admin to set it all up later for them.
 
I have very much wanted this concept ... able to give a forum member their own category to moderate.

In addition, I would like them to be able to have sections within their subforum where they can restrict viewer access - that is, the equivalent of their own private mod forum.

I have experimented in my own test site, and it works as soon as an admin challenge is solved. How to organize many, many subforums AND permissions for many users? The list of forums needs folders, at the very least. I have not yet explored Xenforo's permissions administration, but in other softwares the ability to organize and manage permissions is the other necessity.

It is the admin's ability to organize the administration of the forums & permissions that is the challenge. The concept is one I see being large in the future. :)
 
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