Portal or not?

[Fiction]

Would you guys say that a portal is inviting to a user? or straight to the forums. I have no active members, a fair bit of content which if gained through exchange and i'm now looking for some active members but don't know where to start.

I have some good discussions with those exchange people, but now that we've done our 5/5 they've moved on and discussion over, left half finished. I need members, and if I was to add a portal would it improve the amount of members joining, or do guests prefer to get straight to the forum.

Personally, i prefer just straight to the forum, but i've seen many sites that have a portal and wondering whether it actually makes that much a difference?

Thanks guys 🙂

 

[Creaky]

I don't use a portal, just a couple of custom coded pages. Don't really need a full blown portal

 

[kssite]

I would like to post for portal, gives you fast look what is going on on forum etc.
Prefer forums with portal to similar with none.

 

[katy perry is hot]

as long as it is neat and clear to the point if you put spammy ads and crap everywhere it will turn people away

 

[hcfwesker]

Portals always drive me away. If I can't get to the forum from the original link, I'm too lazy to click again to find the forum.

 

[Fiction]

Yeah, I'm not a fan of a portal. I just added one then. But I really don't like portals, I'm just going to stick without the portal. Thanks guys 🙂

 

[David]

A visitor has 4 seconds before he/she leaves or stays. You want to convey your forum in that 4 seconds, ie. present your forum, not a portal. Only if a portal can present information people are looking for, eg. tutorial links or application links etc., then you should add it because you are using that to promote your content. Other than that, I don't think portals will benefit you in terms of marketing.