I have started a phpBB3 Fan Forum, which i am getting ready to fully open when they release the stable version of phpbb3.

At the moment i have not got much to offer to people as there is not much interest as it's not a stable software.

I need ideas about how i can make the forum more appealing to users.
I want something to get users in whilst phpbb3 is being made and for when it is released.

It will be much better when they finally release phpbb3 but until then i do not have much to offer for users.

Maybe a mod of some kind would be good that i could intergrate and which phpbb3 users would like to use and would help them.

Or maybe more boards?

Any ideas?

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If you are looking at a longterm solution and want gain members and have the technical know-how then my suggestion would be to make a custom version of phpbb with few mods add like quick reply, rss feeds, seo friendly urls etc.

People will surely love it cause they wouldn't have to do the modding themselves and you will gain traffic out of it and members who want support for the custom phpbb

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Thats quite a good idea, i will take it into consideration.

Any other ideas?

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Try and get one of the developers or some one who has been associated with phpbb3 for some time to come on board. Try to offer a test board for phpbb3 where people can try it out. Best option would be to start offering these things soon so you get indexed by the search engine so that the moment phpbb3 is released and people start searching for it, your site comes out on top.

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I have got a demo forum for people to use, the link is at the top of the forum.

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Is it significantly different as far as skinning for it? If so, definitely track down and kidnap people who have figured out how to as early as possible. Once people start looking for skins for the new software, they'll hunt down your forum.

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- Check out our interviews with people in the design industry

Well i got lots of work to do, as i am trying to get as much as i can for people to use before they release it

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When you talk to IM or something like that, give them the URL of the forum and ask them to refer people. And if you want, I'll refer a few people

~Sean

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I do ask people to join and refer people but as it's small, not many people join and so i am seeking any help i can get.

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You might want to improve the grammar on your forum descriptions
That's always a turn-off for me and it's very rare that I register at a forum with poor grammar on the forum descriptions.

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