What are general forums missing?

[karoshio]

First up, I understand how hard it can be to start a general forum but I have always thought about it and since I have the time I'm tempted to go for it.

My question I am stuck on what are they missing? What are some things that would be good to see with them?

Please note that I would be using XenForo and have money for add-on programmers if needed.

 

[jdab]

I think what people don't particularly like about general forums is that most people are interested in a certain topic, and probably wouldn't post in half of the forums on the board.

In my opinion they would just go to a forum with a certain niche, i.e. a gaming forum, or a GFX forum, that way they will have a site full of people who share the same interest rather than a site with just a few people with that interest.

 

[kavin]

Uniqueness. That's what General forums lacks.

Even if you want to open a general forum, try finding a specific thing to concentrate in it. And almost 90% of General forums fails, especially newer ones. Opening a General forum won't be a good option these days.

 

[karoshio]

I understand that completely and do feel the same although there are a lot of successful general forums out there because it's a community. A community of people who all like each other. That would be great to have if it could be a success and I find any forum can be as long as you're dedicated to it.

 

[Martee]

Uniqueness. That's what General forums lacks.

Even if you want to open a general forum, try finding a specific thing to concentrate in it. And almost 90% of General forums fails, especially newer ones. Opening a General forum won't be a good option these days.

This. Being honest, what sets apart most General Forums from the rest? They all generally talk about the same subjects in the same areas. Sure, some forums have that uniqueness but I would say that you need to sound out the bigger general forums and compare them to smaller ones and see what one has that the other doesn't.

 

[Jin Sane]

I don't think general forums are really "missing" anything tbh. Mine is certainly seeing a lot of success lately.

 

[White Panda]

When it comes to creating a generalized forum, I think HackForums.net is a model forum. When it started off, it started off as a hacking forum. But over the past 5 years, it has developed into a general forum. Though the domain does not suggest it, when you look at the sections, the statistics, and so on, it really is. The Lounge, which is the anything and everything section, has around 2 million posts. Along with that, the forum has programming sections, gaming sections, sports sections, music discussion, graphic design sections, computer sections, philosophy, science, and religion sections, and so on.

Essentially, from what I have seen, you can't start off as a generalized forum. You need a target niche which is limiting, but it creates a base population. From there, you expand and eventually evolve into a general forum.

 

[Ghost]

I currently run a general forum and got my first 200 posts in 5 days. I think that went pretty well and I have run one before and gotten an average of 130 posts per day (in its first few months) - That's pretty decent 🙂

I also am on one that has 180,000 posts and over 2,000 members. They can do well, but yeah it's the community that makes it the best. I must admit though, it is hard to gain users for exactly that reason above - most people are interested in a specific topic.

 

[karoshio]

i appreciate the points made in the above two posts and I can definitely understand where you're coming from.

I honestly am interesting in opening a webmaster forum but it seems a little redundant when I run an admin forum.

 

[White Panda]

Yea, I feel that webmaster and admin forums would essentially be the same as being an admin is more or less a sub-set of being a webmaster and vice versa based on how you define the two.

 

[karoshio]

Yea, I feel that webmaster and admin forums would essentially be the same as being an admin is more or less a sub-set of being a webmaster and vice versa based on how you define the two.

I could not have said that better myself.