Introduction Board vs. Introduction Thread

[Shawn Gossman]

This might depend on the forum and its community.

As I continue to condense my forums to make them more user-friendly and easier to post in (with fewer externally added features and fewer sections), I've come to a point of deciding what to do about introductions.

1. Keep a dedicated board for introductions
or
2. Create an introduction thread on the off-topic board

Now for a forum that is mainly consisting of people who are old-school forum users or forum owners, a board may be great because they know how to use it.

However, I have a forum that specifically caters to a certain group of people not relating to forums/webmaster stuff and many of them are replying to existing introduction threads and introducing themselves there. That makes me wonder if an intro thread would be a better idea.

I'm curious about what the community here thinks about this issue.

 

[passenger]

I personally like the condensation of an intro thread.

 

[Ravenfreak]

I used to just go down the intro thread route but have recently been adding a board for everyone to start a thread in. I think it's more eye catching this way and easier to find too.

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

I prefer having a dedicated forum for that. Everyone wants to feel special creating their very own thread for everyone to welcome them in.

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

Kind of on topic here I suppose.... I've joined a few forums that require administrator approval. Before the admin approves my account they create a welcome thread for me instead of allowing me to do it myself. Its a nice gesture, but I suppose I am just used to creating my own.

 

[nomad]

On forums, I encourage users to use the introduction thread but they keep on creating topics. I think the introduction thread is better but I don't know why the users like creating a separate topic for introducing themselves.