Comments on: Three Things I’ve Learned Building A Forum

By: janiceenberg

janiceenberg — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 19:08:58 +0000

Hello everyone i am completely new to this forum. Interested in learning many new things. Hope we all will share our knowledge and talk about different concepts in this forum.

By: Biapabapy

Biapabapy — Fri, 01 May 2009 20:58:13 +0000

I have tried sevral over-the-counter teeth whitening products but have not found one that works well.

Does anyone have any advise or experience with some of the products offered online? I prefer using a paste solution instead of the strips.

Thanks in advance…

By: BypeFlelm

BypeFlelm — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 17:37:25 +0000

Hi,

I’ve recently joined this website

There are some great posts here to learn

I’ve just setup my blog and am hoping to use these link building methods

will like to make some new friends

Thanks all

By: LJ

LJ — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 07:18:49 +0000

I’m sorry you went with VBulletin.

SMF will do everything VBulletin does — and more — and it’s free. http://www.simplemachines.org is where you can download it.

I’ve been using SMF for years and had looked at VBulletin several times over the years trying to figure out what the big deal was. I recently took over a forum that was set up on VBulletin. After several days of navigating the unnecessarily cluttered Admin and unintuitive names for items in VBulletin, I quickly converted it to SMF. Couldn’t be happier.

By: Barbara J.

Barbara J. — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 06:50:08 +0000

I am still learning about the wonders of WordPress. I too would go with VBulletin for a full fledged forum, but it sounds like SimplePress might be good for an extended FAQ section.

By: Denis Baldwin

Denis Baldwin — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 12:14:07 +0000

Great ideas! I’ve been PHPBB running a forum for about 2 years for my work and it’s an utter failure. We suffer from a combination of “too much to do/too little time” and a forum that isn’t a bad idea, just not enough resources to make it successful. That said, I’m tempted to put more time into it in the few weeks to see if I can get it back up and running.

I know, just from participating in many other forums, that it’s very much a full time job to be a good forum admin. Perhaps in the future, I’ll be able to dedicate this time.

By: kiran

kiran — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 00:25:36 +0000

Nice post.Very useful for newbee.

By: Daniel Molano

Daniel Molano — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 17:14:36 +0000

Hey Jeff, I just checked out vbulletins pricing and its actually pretty reasonable. I was expecting it to be much more expensive so I might just give it go and not mess with the simple press plugin. Thanks and keep us posted on how the forum is doing.

By: Steven Bradley

Steven Bradley — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 10:46:48 +0000

Just wanted to echo everything you said Jeff. A few months ago I started a small business forum (My name above links to it) and did the same as you, looking into the software. In the end I came to the same conclusion that vBulletin was the best option. One alternate I thought I had possibility was bbPress, though I think it will work better for a smaller forum off your main site at the moment.

I was lucky in the sense that we started because another forum had dropped the ball. The active community followed us over right away, which helped to fill up the place with posts. I think the hardest part of getting started with a forum is finding the initial group of core members.

And yes it is a lot of work. The first week I was creating about 40% of all the content. I was posting non-stop through the day in order to make it feel more active. Over time I’ve been able to scale back, but in the beginning expect to spend a lot of time creating threads and posts. After awhile you can post less and take on a more nurturing role, but in the beginning expect to be writing a lot.

By: Erwin Chua

Erwin Chua — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 00:44:50 +0000

Hi Jeff,

Good advice, thanks for the insight. I havea forum of my own and want it to be part of the blog activity I have.

I use Simple Press for the ease and convenience of its use. So far it has done great, just need the traffic to come and build up.

All the Best!

Regards,

Erwin Chua
Internet Marketing Advice & Smart List Building
w/ Alex Jeffreys & Erwin Chua! – Winning To Win!
http://winning2win.com

By: Patrick O'Keefe

Patrick O'Keefe — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 18:09:57 +0000

Thanks so much, Jeff, for the kind words. They mean a lot and I am really happy that I was able to help you in some way.

Thanks,

Patrick

By: PPC Coach

PPC Coach — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 17:19:17 +0000

Hey, thanks for the plugin suggestion. I’ve been looking to start a forum myself, and being able to do it from within wordpress seems like a great idea.