Confusion..

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XcapeX

Madly Diligent
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I'm quite confused. Sorry if this offends anyone..

But I see forums that look like total crap. They use the worst forum software, have clashing colors, admins that can hardly speak English, and have 500 forum categories that look like a mess. The thing is, they have thousands of posts!? How!?

Then I see good looking forums with admins, such as myself and my own forum, that know what they are doing but can't seem to get many people to come and post on their forum.

Forgive me if I am wrong, but that's ridiculous. I've seen at least 10 forums today that use some of the worst software, in my opinion (like I said..MY OPINION; this thread isn't for arguing on what software is best), such as MyBB, SMF and Zetaboards that have utterly TERRIBLE looking themes (or are quite overused, thus terrible) and get thousands of posts..

What is wrong with this? Does anyone else agree with me or am I just oblivious to certain things that I have never heard of before? Maybe most of these posts are from 10 year-old kids that wouldn't know the difference between a good looking forum and a bad looking forum.
 
They may not be attractive now but may have been at some point ages ago.... Maybe they never were. However a community exists or there is enough useful information to entice others to keep coming back.
 
Would you rather go to apretty looking forum or a forum where you can actually discuss matters with other users like you?

Those ford are already established, and modifying a establishment is a tough job. As a starter. Yes, look pretty but guarantee you once your Site becomes popular with millions of posts, the theme won't be such a big issue.
 
Will.. As ForumCon said (The Ecestive) Forums are not sex so a design does not make a forum its the people that make the content as for the spelling maybe there from India and other countries like that.

And what do you mean by crap software?? Free software's like mybb run the largest forums.
 
First of all, it's worth mentioning that the largest forum on the internet runs phpBB2.

In the past, I've run forums that looked like utter trash (to be honest) and still got more posts than a lot of the forums on here that have beautiful themes. Running a forum isn't about having the best software, the best themes, or even an organized layout. Those things can sometimes help attract users who don't know anybody on the site, but the best way to attract users to a site (by far) is by having people invite their friends. What makes people invite their friends? Well, a great community, of course! The community is the biggest asset any forum can have. My aforementioned forum (now gone) was great fun, and we grew simply by having people invite friends. We weren't the biggest, but we were happy with our forum, and that's ultimately all that matters. Success comes from having a stable and happy community. The posts don't even matter, in fact. A roleplaying forum with twenty posts per day, for example, may make every member of that forum perfectly happy.
 
As has been stated, community is the largest asset of a forum.

Often, however, it's a matter of luck.
 
@Dean - When did I ever say millions of posts?

@Spudster - LIKE I said..I'm not arguing on best software.

I guess its just me and probably some others, not everyone, who doesn't join forums that looks like crap lol. I just don't get why some people don't care..oh well. I mean, I have Never joined a forum that looks like a POS..and I never will.

This thread isn't to bash on anyone in particular, so don't take it personally. Meaning you should not bash on me. ^^
 
Sorry, I didn't mean for you to take it the wrong way, I was exaggeration to show that when your forum grows large, the theme doesn't really matter as much. Please don't feel attacked 🙂.
 
Spudster said:
as for the spelling maybe there from India and other countries like that.
Click to expand...

Some Indians have better spelling than native English speakers. Vocabulary doesn't depend on the country the speaker is from.

Back to the topic, i don't think there is a problem with visitors view. If a site doesn't succeed, it would be because of many reasons such as wrong forum selection (even if you have only a few), over saturated niche, bad administrative practices, unstability, etc.
 
Well they started off small with the same terrible looking theme, unsure of how they got big looking so bad.

And if there grammar is bad, that is obviously their fault.
 
kavin said:
Spudster said:
as for the spelling maybe there from India and other countries like that.
Click to expand...

Some Indians have better spelling than native English speakers. Vocabulary doesn't depend on the country the speaker is from.
Click to expand...
Not really true, different areas use a different version of English thus people thinking it's wrong when in fact it's just how the local area do it. Most English people by 13 have pretty decent spelling/grammar, only a small amount of people who's primary language isn't English can match the standards of someone who's primary language is English. These are the people that learn it from a young age.

Back to on topic, first thing like you said it's your opinion so therefore why the topic? And your right some crappy forums are massive that is because of the community feel,size and attitude, designs and organization are an added bonus.
 
Well your grammar isn't the greatest either lol. You were arguing about how certain people have better grammar and it just came to me. (I Kid)

Anyways..I have the topic because it's my opinion. How many posts on here relate to someones opinion? Just about all of them..
 
I didn't mean not making a thread about it because it's opinion. It's just you made it seem to much like a statement, a fact, rather than an opinion. Anyway got any problem with 10 year olds on forums, when I was 10 I as on forums. Also, yes my grammar isn't perfect but that's not the point.
 
I'm confused as to what this means?

Anyway got any problem with 10 year olds on forums, when I was 10 I as on forums.

Yes, it's my opinion that I think it's ridiculous for crappy looking forums to have thousands of posts. I'm not even sure how that Couldn't be an opinion.

But I'm not here to argue on what is and is not an opinion. Anyone else wish to bring in their opinions?
 
Apologies if you took my post as an attack in any way. It wasn't intended as such.

I don't really care about the theme unless it's something outrageous--for example, flashing lights all over or something.
 
No I didn't take it personally ^^

I now see many people don't care about how it looks..which just confuses me because there are other forums, in my opinion, that have just the same stuff that those forums do but look better as well with admins who can type. 😛
 
The ones with thousands of posts that look total... well crap. Mainly put the money into a forum buying activity ect... I mean, I used to go onto Postloop and some forums listed there took me about 10 minutes to see that it was a forum. Also the ones with bad styles with loads of posts (like mainly any you type into google) have been around for ages before they got overused in that niche so they just did better at SEO.
 
Volux said:
I'm quite confused. Sorry if this offends anyone..

But I see forums that look like total crap. They use the worst forum software, have clashing colors, admins that can hardly speak English, and have 500 forum categories that look like a mess. The thing is, they have thousands of posts!? How!?

Then I see good looking forums with admins, such as myself and my own forum, that know what they are doing but can't seem to get many people to come and post on their forum.

Forgive me if I am wrong, but that's ridiculous. I've seen at least 10 forums today that use some of the worst software, in my opinion (like I said..MY OPINION; this thread isn't for arguing on what software is best), such as MyBB, SMF and Zetaboards that have utterly TERRIBLE looking themes (or are quite overused, thus terrible) and get thousands of posts..

What is wrong with this? Does anyone else agree with me or am I just oblivious to certain things that I have never heard of before? Maybe most of these posts are from 10 year-old kids that wouldn't know the difference between a good looking forum and a bad looking forum.
Click to expand...


You need start out small and fill up the forums first then EXPAND, you're stating the exact reasons why Forums fail :lol:
 
Volux said:
No I didn't take it personally ^^

I now see many people don't care about how it looks..which just confuses me because there are other forums, in my opinion, that have just the same stuff that those forums do but look better as well with admins who can type. 😛
Click to expand...

Things like advertisements, contests, active participation by staff, etc; could be the deciding factor. A design only gives initial impression, but it won't decide whether a forum would succeed or not. 🙂
 
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