Should I start?

[milksheikh]

Should I start a sports forum or a general discussion forum?

I really like both topics for my next forum but I think general discussion forums are a bit saturated and sports forums are too but not as much as general discussion forums.

Problem is, It will be harder to promote a sports forum and slowly make it popular.

 

[Gizmo]

If you have a strong passion in sports you should and the followers should follow you.

 

[Grumpy]

Problem is, It will be harder to promote a sports forum and slowly make it popular.

Wrong. There's are millions of general chat forums out there. They outnumber sports forums 10 to 1, maybe more. With a general chat forum, you'll get a nice initial boom, and after a month your activity will die away and the forum will be wasted. I see it happen time after time.

Sports forums though can also be hard when sports are in off-season. If you are able to run predicition leagues for several different sports and maybe run a sports results blog or something similar alongside it that will give you a nice stepping stone to getting your site more popular.

 

[milksheikh]

Problem is, It will be harder to promote a sports forum and slowly make it popular.

Wrong. There's are millions of general chat forums out there. They outnumber sports forums 10 to 1, maybe more. With a general chat forum, you'll get a nice initial boom, and after a month your activity will die away and the forum will be wasted. I see it happen time after time.

Sports forums though can also be hard when sports are in off-season. If you are able to run predicition leagues for several different sports and maybe run a sports results blog or something similar alongside it that will give you a nice stepping stone to getting your site more popular.

Haha thank you, and there's always a sport going on every day. Whether it's MLB, NFL, or NBA. Currently it's NFL & MLB.

 

[Allenafaith]

If you're really into sports go for sports. I don't think there are many sports forums, though. It might be a touch niche. If you find that hard, you could always create a general discussion board.

 

[Gizmo]

[user]Allenafaith[/user] have you looked on Google for sports forums? Theres a few big ones and obviously they're not going to post on forums like FP which is smaller than some of them as they already have a very good user base. That's why there isn't a lot promoted.

 

[ATiRAGEPRO]

Honestly, if you want to go for the sports forum, you should, so long as you keep in mind how much work it is.
Promoting a website, (forum in particular) is difficult and time consuming, and there will be times where you wonder if its even worth it. I think it is.

If you want your forum to have any sort of meaningful exposure, however, you have to stand out. You have to do something other sports forums aren't doing, and you have to advertise in places few sports forums do. For this, I have a suggestion:

• Don't make it look like a message board.
  Conveyance is everything in web design. If people see a plain old message board when they go to your website, they're going to think it's just that: a plain old message board. usually when this happens, users post once and never come back.
  
  Whatever forum software you chose, (IPB, PhpBB, Xenforo, SimpleMachines, ect...) always be sure to install a Portal into the forum. Portals are a complete redesign of the forum's index page, and are very customizable. You usually install them into the forum like it were a plug-in, and from there, you can modify it.

 

[milksheikh]

Honestly, if you want to go for the sports forum, you should, so long as you keep in mind how much work it is.
Promoting a website, (forum in particular) is difficult and time consuming, and there will be times where you wonder if its even worth it. I think it is.

If you want your forum to have any sort of meaningful exposure, however, you have to stand out. You have to do something other sports forums aren't doing, and you have to advertise in places few sports forums do. For this, I have a suggestion:

• Don't make it look like a message board.
  Conveyance is everything in web design. If people see a plain old message board when they go to your website, they're going to think it's just that: a plain old message board. usually when this happens, users post once and never come back.
  
  Whatever forum software you chose, (IPB, PhpBB, Xenforo, SimpleMachines, ect...) always be sure to install a Portal into the forum. Portals are a complete redesign of the forum's index page, and are very customizable. You usually install them into the forum like it were a plug-in, and from there, you can modify it.

Thank you, I appreciate the feedback!

 

[Chris K]

I would recommend a Sports forum. Like others have said Sports forum vs the millions of General chat forums I feel you would have a better chance with a sports forum. As a matter of fact if you started a sports forum I would participate on it as I'm a big fan of MLB.

 

[milksheikh]

I would recommend a Sports forum. Like others have said Sports forum vs the millions of General chat forums I feel you would have a better chance with a sports forum. As a matter of fact if you started a sports forum I would participate on it as I'm a big fan of MLB.

Thanks! I am in the process of acquiring $FP to get the domain.. The forum has been set up for the most part though.

 

[Smokey]

A sports forum would be better as it's less saturated in niche.

 

[ndk2303]

You should choose 1 sport as your niche, this sport can attract more people and your focusing will attract more people who love that sport.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

Should I start a sports forum or a general discussion forum?

I really like both topics for my next forum but I think general discussion forums are a bit saturated and sports forums are too but not as much as general discussion forums.

Problem is, It will be harder to promote a sports forum and slowly make it popular.

To me, a sports forum is a better option.

In your OP, you simply mentioned 'sports' aside of a general forum. That told me that you have a passion for sports. If you would had just mentioned a general forum, it would have been a different story but you mentioned sports as well - I define that or interpret that as a passion of yours. A passion-based forum, in my opinion, is going to be the best bet.

Make a sports forum centered around a general discussion forum...why not? The main topic is sports but there are additional general topics as well 🙂