[rockinaway]

What do you think is the correct number of a forums a new forum should start off with? Possibly 7 or 8?

[Jman]

I would say no more than 8, its better to start of low and work you way up as the forum grows and progresses.

[AzH]

One General, one OT or newbie, one News. 3 max.

[MrKielington]

I think 8 is a good number as well.. you want to keep conversations together at the start so you have stuff to build on. If everything is spread to thin you won't generate long discussion threads, just ones with 3 or 4 responses...

[rockinaway]

Originally Posted by AzH

One General, one OT or newbie, one News. 3 max.

Don't you think 3 is a very small number? Won't things get too concentrated?

[Moelman]

8 is usually a good number I agree, definitely no more than 10. I usually start off with even less than that and add more as I go.

[AzH]

Originally Posted by rockinaway

Don't you think 3 is a very small number? Won't things get too concentrated?

No. The question was "correct number of a forums a new forum should start off with" and three is perfect. Even with the best of planning intentions you cannot know exactly which direction your forum or community will grow in. With a new forum the idea is to give at least an impression of activity in order to entice new members.

20 threads spread amongst 8 forums is 2 or 3 per forum. It also means you have to update 8 threads just to keep the frontpage looking current.

With my three forum idea I only need to post in three to maintain the impression and each of my forums looks considerably busier than yours.

As 8 appears to be the consensus around here, let me ask you a question: What would those 8 forums be? Allow me to answer it for you too "News/Announcements, something off topic or a welcome forum and a General Forum releted to the niche plus...." what? 5 other forums of...?

Start small, expand in the direction your community grows in. You can't render the growth of an organic community into an artificial process without problems.

What if they don't want to talk about blue potatoes and instead want red potatoes? Keep things very general and very tight until you start getting regular visitors and reglar contributions. Then expand.

I started this Left 4 Dead Forums with news/general/welcome.

I later expanded and expanded as I knew the community needed to go based upon the content they supplied rather than the content I expected them to supply.

Right now I only have 11 main forums (with a couple of minor specialist subs) for a memberbase of over 1000.

I guess, if I may conclude, that it is totally down to personal preference and if you have the time to keep 8 forums going in the early initial stages of development, then good on ya. I have a fulltime job and family and not alot of hours in the day. The smaller start suited me, made me look busier than I was and now I can sit back and watch the place develop.

Good look, whichever way you choose to roll.

[Shawn Gossman]

I think keeping it under 10 would be fine (not including your hidden staff forums). I always hate seeing new forums with like 30 boards and no posts!