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<!-- google_ad_section_start -->When Modifications and Addons Become Overkill<!-- google_ad_section_end -->
When Modifications and Addons Become Overkill
Published by Ryan
10-27-2005
When Modifications and Addons Become Overkill

When Modifications and Addons Become Overkill


What is the purpose of a forum?
First we need to understand the concept of a "forum". A forum is a place for people of similar interests to get together and converse. Since when were forums a place for people to maintain their personal planner or play arcade games? This is obviously not an uncommon belief when visiting various forums. Have you ever felt bombarded by flashy colors, banner ads, mods, or multiple blocks of information? If you have visited a handful of forums, odds are - yes.

When things make a turn for the bad side
Many forum creators are under the impression that an attractive forum is one that looks nice and one that has a plethora of neat features. While such features are nice, these owners will unfortunately forget the very basic asset of a forum - content. Statistics have shown that people seeking forums for the most basic reasons do not return for the features; they return to forums for the information. Take a look at some of the most successful forums today (as ranked according to big-boards.com).They don't have all the bells and whistles that many forums have these days, yet members continue to return every day and post thousands of messages.

When is enough in terms of modifications?
The answer to this question will depend partly on the type of community you are building and the audience that will be visiting. If you are marketing towards a computer-savvy yet laid back audience, you will get away with more modifications than if you are marketing towards information-driven viewers. If it is clear that your members are coming to the forums for information, stay away from too many features. If it is clear that your members are coming to the forums for a good time, with little concern of information, a few modifications are in line. However, if your members get lost in the many modifications you have provided them, do not be surprised if they do not return out of confusion as to what your forum is about or how to use your forum.

What about my design?
Once again, I refer you to the successful forums previously mentioned. Each of those forums utilizes bold colors with very strong contrast. Do not succumb your visitors to bright, flashy colors that are hard to read. Nobody is going to return to any website that hurts the eyes or is not logically organized. Blues, reds, greens, blacks, and whites have proven to be successful colors for any website, but do not combine colors that do not go well together or do not contrast well next to each other.

How do I decide what needs to be changed?
Ask your members! Remember, your members are what make your forums what they are. Your job as the owner and administrator is to give them what they are looking for. Ask your members whether or not they would like to see additional features, and before you go about adding one of these special features - ask them if they want it first and whether or not they would even use it if available.

What can I do instead of adding features?
Now that you have all of this extra time on your hands from not modifying your forums, focus on the forum aspect of it. Encourage your members to respond to thought-provoking threads by yourself. Advertise your forums all over the web. Help your members with trouble they run into. Be constantly on the lookout for changes in your industry and adjust accordingly.


In Conclusion
Forums are created for discussion, but this is a concept often forgotten or ignored these days. Do not turn your back on the content aspect of your forums. If you find yourself spending too much time adding new features to your forums, you will not have much time for the topics themselves. Regardless of how many features a forum has, nobody is going to be interested in one with no conversation. Think about your forums and what might interest the members. If information is the number one priority, you should spend the majority of your time on developing content and thought-provoking posts. If entertainment is the number one priority, you should spend the majority of your time on ensuring that they enjoy themselves. Do not get wrapped up in the bells and whistles we are bombarded with these days; your job is to create a place of discussion. So, forget these databases of hundreds upon hundreds of modifications. Spend your time sparking discussion and then promote, promote, promote! Good luck!

© Ryan Royal, AdminFusion.com 2005

==================

This article may not be republished under any circumstances.
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By LOW on 02-18-2006, 07:52 PM
now this is a good post. i hope new forum admins and old read this.
will think about the things you said and re evaluate my site. thanks
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  #1  
By filth on 02-18-2006, 09:01 PM
1 thing to remember if you do add alot of modifications and have alot of templates installed is that when phpBB gets updated it can be a complete pain to upgrade. Always keep copies of the modifications that you install so you do not have to hunt about for them or forget which ones you installed.

I run a forum host using sebs script andup until recently I offered support for it, I had 1 user who did not keep tabs on the mods he installed and came to me for help and seemed to expect me to know which ones he had.
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  #2  
By David on 02-19-2006, 04:07 AM
At times I think any mod is overkill. I've had to upgrade so many forums with even simple mods and it's a pain no matter what. My new technique is keep mods to none or a minimum. It's a nightmare when you're using some kind of forum software then you have to upgrade and there is no compatible version for your mod and you have to wait for that to upgrade. I'd rather just get a decent skin and keep it simple. Of course some mods are great and I do use mods when I think it will help the forum.
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  #3  
By Evandr on 09-21-2006, 02:54 PM
keep good records

I run a phpbb board and upgrades are common. I do have quite a few mods. I keep exact records of what mods effect what files. When I upgrade I pull down only the changed files installation and then extract it to a temp folder. From there I reinstall only those mod modifications associated with those files. Sometimes I have to re-download a mod that has been upgraded to accomodate the phpbb upgrade but that does not happen very often.

Two important things to remember.

One: Make sure that an upgrade to a board is worth the effort. Some upgrades are minor and will not benefit you enough to justify the hassell.
I like to wait until an upgrade is a major undertaking. Funny as it may sound you can save yourself a lot of work that way.

Two: Before you begin any upgrade always, always, always back up your entire forum file structure (inclucing your sql database) to disk before beginning any upgrade. Don't think, just do it, you may be glad you did!

For minor upgrades, after preparing the forum upgrade file with you mod changes, rename any files on your server being upgraded. Do not delete them just yet. (I like to add the word "old" directly after the file name but before the dot). Next upload the new upgraded and modified file. Once you have determined that the upgraded file has no bugs, delete the renamed old files. You can do this with confidence because you have your entire forum on disk, You do don't you?


For major upgrades always copy the entire forum to an upgrade file on your server and work from there leaving my original forum in tact and operating. This can get a little tricky with regard to links but the small added effort to be able to test run your upgraded forum from a testing folder is very much worth the effort. Either way, I still back up my forum to disk before I do anything.

Evandr
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  #4  
By dojo on 09-21-2006, 04:08 PM
The article is quite good, as usually, but I would still have something to comment on: MOST of those big-board forums were started few years ago. When there wasn't the huge competition we have today. many of those default skin or ugly skins big boards would stand NO chance in the forum world we live today. Our members are more educated: demand a good script, good modifications and all the features that might keep them interested. It's true that content is what makes a board, but skinning a forum with a unique look and installing some hacks on it would take 30 hours of work (maximum) .. I don't think we can aford NOT taking this into account. If we keep on telling ourselves that we don't need to improve the looks and features we might end up with less knowledge (all the modifications make us more specialized and ready to deal with everything) and with a forum people won't like. It's not the 90's anymore.
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