I do understand the part of beeing harder then facebook groups for example.
Do you own or participate (beside xenforo) in any forum?
Thomas Corbett
Member
I appreciate what Facebook can do but you don't have the same amount of control over it to make it feel as focused as a forum. Just my opinion. I started my own less than two years ago and I'm quite happy with the growth. It's not massive but once you get to a certain number of contributors, the forum does kick into life. The challenge for me is finding ways to make it more attractive to members and ways of getting your forum out there. I wouldn't be too ready to sound the death bell for forums just yet. 
I understand you and agree with your thoughts.I appreciate what Facebook can do but you don't have the same amount of control over it to make it feel as focused as a forum. Just my opinion. I started my own less than two years ago and I'm quite happy with the growth. It's not massive but once you get to a certain number of contributors, the forum does kick into life. The challenge for me is finding ways to make it more attractive to members and ways of getting your forum out there. I wouldn't be too ready to sound the death bell for forums just yet.
I had a gaming community once and loved it. Problem is fighting facebook groups. After a while, even with some contributors, you start going down because the lack of activity on forum.
I do believe creating a forum nowdays has alot to do with niche. Gaming and Youtube community for example are a red flag for me. I had a taste of it and they are just to focused on social networks and thats it.
I am now blogging about phones, and love it. Thats use to be my actual real life job, and i just love helping people. I miss alot the community/discusson between members, and thats something you can't get only from blogging. So my idea of creating a forum would be to post constant tutorials about how to things works.
Honestly, i came here to collect opinions and experiences. Before i went back to this world
Plus, this new xenforo version is killing me. SO beautifull and modern. I saw some examples, and i don't feel too away from wordpress. Then i saw UI.X2, and i just want to go and start rigth away! Ahah.
Thomas Corbett
Member
I have found that you need to really work the forum yourself in order to keep activity going. Especially in the early days. However, as your membership grows and you start pulling some of the less active members out of the woodwork, you can back off a bit.
I've watched a couple of my competitors who have been on the go for a lot longer than me and they seem to be flagging. One thing that is missing is participation from the founders / more established members. You can't afford to expect your members to do all the hard work in keeping the discussion topics interesting and moving. You need to be working the forum yourself to try and keep conversations fresh.
Another point is that in winning hard earned new members, you have to remember that some newbies are a little uncomfortable in coming forward so again you need to generate the kind of friendly environment to encourage them to participate.
I love the challenge and am constantly looking for ways to make the forum more visible and make it as engaging as possible once I get folks through the door.
I am currently in the process of changing my current forum from UltraBB software to Xenforo software and upgrading my hosting facilities as well. my forum has reached a stage where I think it's out grown the capability of its current facilities and the bigger hosting and more modern and adaptable software will help future proof the forum going forward. ............. I'm in it for the long term regardless of Facebook.
Cheers
Tom
I've watched a couple of my competitors who have been on the go for a lot longer than me and they seem to be flagging. One thing that is missing is participation from the founders / more established members. You can't afford to expect your members to do all the hard work in keeping the discussion topics interesting and moving. You need to be working the forum yourself to try and keep conversations fresh.
Another point is that in winning hard earned new members, you have to remember that some newbies are a little uncomfortable in coming forward so again you need to generate the kind of friendly environment to encourage them to participate.
I love the challenge and am constantly looking for ways to make the forum more visible and make it as engaging as possible once I get folks through the door.
I am currently in the process of changing my current forum from UltraBB software to Xenforo software and upgrading my hosting facilities as well. my forum has reached a stage where I think it's out grown the capability of its current facilities and the bigger hosting and more modern and adaptable software will help future proof the forum going forward. ............. I'm in it for the long term regardless of Facebook.
Cheers
Tom
Altoid
Member
Currently run prowrestlingforum.net, just made it actually. Used to run it's predecessor but felt it was time for a more focused approach.
And yeah, you tend to have more control, and allow you to make more comforting change that you and your users can appreciate. Facebook Groups are just for the discussion, forums are for building communities with discussion.
oO5 Dynasty
Well-known member
This is my honest opinion, Facebook is boring and corny in so many ways. The world is always looking for the next big thing. Do not look at forums as just only being forums. Now what these developers have created is a powerful tool that goes beyond a forum. It is up to us to be creative enough to open up this software and be that next big thing the world is waiting for. This is what i am doing with my website, which is the reason it has taken me so long to launch. Gotta Dig deep inside to come out with creative websites that the world will love. To me Xenforo is not a forum only software. It is a starting point to something New!I understand you and agree with your thoughts.
I had a gaming community once and loved it. Problem is fighting facebook groups. After a while, even with some contributors, you start going down because the lack of activity on forum.
I do believe creating a forum nowdays has alot to do with niche. Gaming and Youtube community for example are a red flag for me. I had a taste of it and they are just to focused on social networks and thats it.
I am now blogging about phones, and love it. Thats use to be my actual real life job, and i just love helping people. I miss alot the community/discusson between members, and thats something you can't get only from blogging. So my idea of creating a forum would be to post constant tutorials about how to things works.
Honestly, i came here to collect opinions and experiences. Before i went back to this world
Plus, this new xenforo version is killing me. SO beautifull and modern. I saw some examples, and i don't feel too away from wordpress. Then i saw UI.X2, and i just want to go and start rigth away! Ahah.
You said it all. Agree with what you said, and thats it's trully whats a forum owner should think about his creation
I was trying to use PHPbb, even bought a theme for it (sad story xD) but that ACP from them IS JUST HORRIBLE!
I had a chance to test xenforo and its TOO DAMN easy and clean. everything looks alot more smother and fresh/modern. I am looking for a theme now, to start my new forum, but don't know when the new UI.X will be available. Just awaiting for it.
You forum is beautifull, good job. At looks really full and dynamic in terms with content and discussions too. But, i am trying to enter it, and it's TOO SLOW. I too me more then 10 minutes for the content of the forum to appear. And then, when i tried to enter a topic, it nows taking a quite to loading too. The loading favicon is on, and the page is blank.
You said it all with that!
Yeah, xenforo plataform looks and feels amazing. I love also the community behind it, the developers suports and content deliver.
I understand what you are saying and i agree. Xenforo is the begining of something new. We just need to grab it with pation.
p.S: I checked your website, i see that you are still working on some things, but it does look awesome. Good job!
Altoid
Member
Not sure, no other member has complained about it being slow.
Rubber Jesus
Member
Yes .. FORUMS ARE STILL RELEVANT.
Anonymity and TRUE freedom of speech is what takes me to forums since the days of the bulletin board systems and this is what I also hear from thousands of people over the years that I have seen this same question asked.
People want, maybe NEED, a place they can let their hair down and the F bombs fly, facebook has become its own worst enemy with the friends and family and constant, never ending connectivity to every heart beat of everyone you ever knew.
I've been running my own show since 2007, I've never had more than 300 members on ANY of my projects and yet I still spend time and money in my projects.
Anonymity and TRUE freedom of speech is what takes me to forums since the days of the bulletin board systems and this is what I also hear from thousands of people over the years that I have seen this same question asked.
People want, maybe NEED, a place they can let their hair down and the F bombs fly, facebook has become its own worst enemy with the friends and family and constant, never ending connectivity to every heart beat of everyone you ever knew.
I've been running my own show since 2007, I've never had more than 300 members on ANY of my projects and yet I still spend time and money in my projects.
Yeha, and it still the same. Don't want to get more into this, at this topic, but you should check that
It's not loading fast, or sometimes, not loading at all.
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So, thats a quite an investimentYes .. FORUMS ARE STILL RELEVANT.
Anonymity and TRUE freedom of speech is what takes me to forums since the days of the bulletin board systems and this is what I also hear from thousands of people over the years that I have seen this same question asked.
People want, maybe NEED, a place they can let their hair down and the F bombs fly, facebook has become its own worst enemy with the friends and family and constant, never ending connectivity to every heart beat of everyone you ever knew.
I've been running my own show since 2007, I've never had more than 300 members on ANY of my projects and yet I still spend time and money in my projects.
Do at least those "almost 300 members" are quite active ?Whats drives you everyday to you project? Whats makes you not just give up ?
Did the test, same happening.
Check this: https://tools.pingdom.com/#!/ddyjrT/https://forums.prowrestling.com
Altoid
Member
prowrestlingforum.net is the place to go, not forums.prowrestling.com
Well, i have no idea what happen there. That was... LOL!
Dnyan
Well-known member
Last month i just wokeup and so the beauty of xenforo.
And decided to start a new forum.
Time is gone for those who keeps on thinking, they are way behind and fb utube and other going advance.
Fb groups of millions of people have very few active members, rest never visit the group after joining.
Its my personal experiance with fb, i am ember of many groups there.
Hardly few are active in all group most of them are posters.
So fb groups are waste and also do contains mqx waste post in it and no one have time to find gems in the human waste created post on fb.
My opinion is forums are Best, fb and other things are just for visiting once, once you turn of new notification from this member or this group, you are already a dead asset in that group which never get used.
Fb is for doing business only create page group and cluck on boost page or group
Fb will earn money by showing it to dead assets. They will join or like and then forgets about it.
If fb is not boosting there are other peoples who does this job for few $
1k like cost xyz
1k comment cost abc likewise.
So in my opinion FB is moving towards its dead end and they are further developing it to reach faster to that end.
Peoples now started to denying fb coz lot of spamming.
I m on right platform and thats the reason for creating a forum.
The time is gone only for those who are feared of everything and dont have guts.
To stand out qnd make differance you should be in position to knock the doors of all without hesitating.
Else you are too late to start forum or using this technology in 2017.
I know i can make differance and i can fight with fb twitter and other social media.
This is reason why i made forum and i am happy with it.
People use to listen old songs
Its become old is gold
People wear there old cloth
New fashion comes up saying old is better.
Its not about old is always good but people like the thing due to its usability and getting satisfaction from it.
And decided to start a new forum.
Time is gone for those who keeps on thinking, they are way behind and fb utube and other going advance.
Fb groups of millions of people have very few active members, rest never visit the group after joining.
Its my personal experiance with fb, i am ember of many groups there.
Hardly few are active in all group most of them are posters.
So fb groups are waste and also do contains mqx waste post in it and no one have time to find gems in the human waste created post on fb.
My opinion is forums are Best, fb and other things are just for visiting once, once you turn of new notification from this member or this group, you are already a dead asset in that group which never get used.
Fb is for doing business only create page group and cluck on boost page or group
Fb will earn money by showing it to dead assets. They will join or like and then forgets about it.
If fb is not boosting there are other peoples who does this job for few $
1k like cost xyz
1k comment cost abc likewise.
So in my opinion FB is moving towards its dead end and they are further developing it to reach faster to that end.
Peoples now started to denying fb coz lot of spamming.
I m on right platform and thats the reason for creating a forum.
The time is gone only for those who are feared of everything and dont have guts.
To stand out qnd make differance you should be in position to knock the doors of all without hesitating.
Else you are too late to start forum or using this technology in 2017.
I know i can make differance and i can fight with fb twitter and other social media.
This is reason why i made forum and i am happy with it.
People use to listen old songs
Its become old is gold
People wear there old cloth
New fashion comes up saying old is better.
Its not about old is always good but people like the thing due to its usability and getting satisfaction from it.
Lucas
Well-known member
If you are not going to provide original and valuable content, then I believe there is no point in opening a forum. If you open it for people to "discuss" what they like, they will never do. People only participate where they feel comfortable and are likely to share their thoughts with like-minded people.
You have to provide incentives that actually attract a user to participate. Opening it up just to have them discuss a topic seems pointless to me nowadays, although it's kind of always been like this, it is even harder now with social media being so predominant.
You have to provide incentives that actually attract a user to participate. Opening it up just to have them discuss a topic seems pointless to me nowadays, although it's kind of always been like this, it is even harder now with social media being so predominant.
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