Why do you run a forum?

Is it an addictive hobby or an online business, perhaps as an extention of a website?

Did it start as a hobby and develop into somthing more?

Tell us why you started it...

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The main idea of my forum spurred from two favorite hobbies of mine - art and writing.

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I would have to say that the forums I've run have all been hobby sites so far, I have run five of my own forums since I've been online, and all of them were hobby sites.

I just do it in my spare time because I was an idiot once and started messing around with them, only to become addicted to coding templates and coming up with new themes all the time, not to mention posting.

Eventually I'd love to run a board like this one but I figure if there is already a forum like this there's no point in my running a competitor, so I like helping out here.
I might put the same question to you though Shellspeare.

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I started my forum cuz the admin of another forum didn't look after the board anymore.
result: all kinds of error, spam,...
So I started a new forum for the members of that forum.
Then I developed it more and it became a hobby

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Hmmm... originally because I was bored .... then because I like fiddling with different forum software, then after falling in love with vbulletin and moving all forums over to VB, it's now due to hobbies or ideas.... altho I admit ALL of my forums are getting neglected at the moment

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I'll echo AZ on this one. I originally started mine because I was bored. I also started it as a hobby and because another board that was similar to mine went down when it got hacked. I was able to offer somewhere else for the members to come to and continue talking.

I'm not trying to make a profit from mine. The only thing I want out of it (other than good conversation) is an I-pod! See the link at the bottom of my boards! <----Shameless plug!

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I do it as a hobby... I've been doing this since my BBS'ing days back in the 80s, so it's kind of just what I do. ;-)

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I didn't cast a vote, as it verries too greatly.

Example: The site I'm launching for my school. While a little bit of the influence is its potential appearance on a college app, its primariy reason is so that I can give something back to the community.
Other forums I've run to work on my modding and skinning, though those were more often than not test boards.
Some have been a neccessity to facilitate semi-private discussion between a group of friends.
And one was both for interest and to help me showcase my knowledge on a given subject so I could land a film review job that paid its staff in movies.
Never run one for profit, though I could forsee doing that at some point. Especially in the "make to sell" capacity.

lol busted

I fell in love with forums the very first day i joined one. But the more i participated the more i noticed things i didn't like relating to board management. (Only on one board, i'd not really visited others at this point) so i decided to create my own community, one that was both welcoming and friendly for all and none of the "google it nOOb" crap i saw elsewhere.

I went at it like a bull in a china shop, learning design, promotion, management and every other aspect at once, whilst my site was growing.

I met alot of other admins who helped me greatly. Once i was more comfortable i started helping others to start forums and got more into the 'admin' circle especially at excoboard.com where i later become one of their support staff.

Then i met miner and heard about his project and jumped in with both feet and the rest is yet to be written.....

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My forum is both. It's a hobby, but I also do plan on earning some revenue from it. (Wheather it's ads, paid memberships, affiliates) If you dedicate enough time and effort into your forum, I'm sure you could earn some extra revenue on the side if you really wanted too.

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