[snowgoose]

Ok ,

Before any of you let the public in on your forums, What do u make sure it has?

What do u think every forums needs before public viewing?

[mh0825]

Organization and a good style. Those are key. Features can be added as needed.

You need to go over the organization make sure you have everything you need to at least start. Don't bog it down with too much forums, or your site will just look too empty.

[snowgoose]

thanks for the reply Mh,

lol i write everything i want to see my forum have / acheive, down in a book and check it off when its done.

[mh0825]

That's not a bad idea but here's something we use here locally in our business:

If you aren't having to update and improve things, it means one of two things:

1. You over developed to start.

or

2. You're not growing anymore and you don't need too.

There's no reason to throw all efforts right away unless it's key to it's success. With my GamerThumbs we aren't going all out first release, we're making sure we have enough to get started and adding things as we go.

We think we've thought of everything each time, but there's always something that you don't think of that you can do to make the site better.

Thus why I said just good organization, good style and only key modifications (if any) at the beginning.

[snowgoose]

Hmmm interesting post Mh, cheers

[Chris Suyeda]

While forum organization and styling is important, I believe that content is key.

Without that unique content or just content in general, what's going to make someone want to register and engage in discussions?

Content, content, and content are usually my main focus when launching an online community.

[mh0825]

Uniqueness is key. This day and age there are sites that cover just about everything so unless you have something unique or different, chances of people coming to your site rather than the other one are slim.

[Dustin]

A good forum skin, and style. A good banner on the forums, and some posts by me. Rules, etc. And most of the mods I'd want on my forum.