Questions For Forum Owners

[Jazzy]

1. What made you decide to create your own forum?



2. How did you come up with the name for your forum?



3. How did you decide the subject matter of your forum?



4. How do try to get new members to join?



5. How did you pick your current staff members?



6. How did you choose what software to use for your forum?



7. Has your forum ever been hacked?



8. Have you ever felt like giving up and closing your forum?

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

1. What made you decide to create your own forum?

This forum I created to reunite with old friends and allow people from my previous communities to come back together.



2. How did you come up with the name for your forum?

Randomness.. Just a word that popped into my head.



3. How did you decide the subject matter of your forum?

Because I like discussion forums.



4. How do try to get new members to join?

Advertising on promotion forums, search engines, directories, people clicking my signature on other forums, word of mouth



5. How did you pick your current staff members?

They stood out as people who had staff potential.



6. How did you choose what software to use for your forum?

This is the 3rd software this forum has been on. We started on phpbb3 then I got some Christmas money so I bought a fancy new vB license. Then I converted to IPB because it is a stable and solid software run by a more reputable group of people.



7. Has your forum ever been hacked?

Yes. One time a long time ago was by someone getting access to my account. Recently it was because of vulnerabilities in the vB software I was using.



8. Have you ever felt like giving up and closing your forum?

I had 2 forums in the past that I closed because I was going through financial problems. However I got a 2nd job and money problems kind of stabled out somewhat so I could afford a couple of the extras in life that I had to get rid of (internet access and a forum being two of those).

 

[Flurry]

1. What made you decide to create your own forum? While I don't own it, as I just run it. Myself and one other thought that Jay having a forum for his website would be a good and cool idea.



2. How did you come up with the name for your forum? Well since the website already had a name, we just added 'Forum' to the end of it.



3. How did you decide the subject matter of your forum? Website pretty much already decided it.



4. How do try to get new members to join? By showing how active we are and how fresh we try to keep our content updated. If that's what you mean?



5. How did you pick your current staff members? By trust and some luck.



6. How did you choose what software to use for your forum? Well I had thought that using Proboards would be a good idea, as I knew that software best.



7. Has your forum ever been hacked? No.



8. Have you ever felt like giving up and closing your forum? Not really.

 

[Ashley]

1. What made you decide to create your own forum?



I created Chatting Time because I was tired of joining all these forums with overly strict rules, power hungry staff, and I just wanted a place that I could call my own basically.



2. How did you come up with the name for your forum?



I think the name was out of pure randomness. I knew what genera of forum I wanted to do, but I was stuck on a name so I just used Chatting Time as that was the first name that popped into my head.



3. How did you decide the subject matter of your forum?



Simply because I like general discussion forums as you can litterally talk about anything.



4. How do try to get new members to join?



I try to join up with various promotion forums. I also have a Facebook page dedicated to the forum and I promote on Twitter. I've also submitted to search engines, directories and topsites.



5. How did you pick your current staff members?



My co administrator offered me hosting on his host, also to help me with installing mods and themes as well. I've also worked with him once before about a year ago, so he's definetly trustworthy.



6. How did you choose what software to use for your forum?



I chose PHPBB for a number of reasons, but the main reason was that I don't have money for anything like Vbulletin or Xenforo, and I also wanted to stick with something I knew, and I also love PHPBB's layout, compared to other softwares, so that's why I stick with PHPBB.



7. Has your forum ever been hacked?



Yes, when my forum was with another host back in January, we were actually hacked twice. Once in January and another time in March. That's actually what made me give up for a while before trying again almost three months ago.



8. Have you ever felt like giving up and closing your forum?



Numerous times. But I keep trying as it's been my dream for the last two and a half years to come out with a successful forum. So far it's going great this time around!

 

[Raven]

1. What made you decide to create your own forum?

I wanted to talk to fellow rockers, punks and metalheads because I knew none.



2. How did you come up with the name for your forum?

It was originally Headbangers Ball... But I had to change it because HB came back on MTV. Headbangers Haven seemed to flow and sounded great.



3. How did you decide the subject matter of your forum?

See question 1



4. How do try to get new members to join?

Post about bands, run battle of the bands and member of the month, run a great community.

Twitter, Facebook, Last.fm, Metal Music Online, Other metal forums - Put my link in my sig, advertise on them if I can <--- Same goes for other forum genres. Referral Sites, Directories etc



5. How did you pick your current staff members?

Staff are only selected from loyal members, I PM them and if they want to take on the position I will make them mod.

My Co-Admin has helped me with the forum for around 3 years, I've known him for about 5. Great guy, VERY clever when it comes to computers/forums.

He's also in contact with the people at SMF so we know when updates and news will be happening.



6. How did you choose what software to use for your forum?

Been on a few: Proboards (Was a quick decision/creation) a year later moved to Invisionfree (Heard alot of great things about this and after trialing it decided it was much better than Proboards) 5 years later Zetaboards was released - hated it. Invisionfree updated were getting more and more rare, Mods and skins were full of bugs and broken codes so moved to PHPBBs. Was one that for one week.... Both me and my co-admin hated it, Mods were to hard to install, basic things that should have been standard - like Fast Reply, were mods, WAY to much spam... Moved to SMF never looked back.



I love SMF, so easier, great CP, good skins if you know where to look, User friendly



7. Has your forum ever been hacked?

Yes - Once



8. Have you ever felt like giving up and closing your forum?

Yes, many times. 7 years now though and so glad I didn't.

 

[TheVisitors]

1. What made you decide to create your own forum?

The old saying still holds true... If you do not like the way things are, either help change things or make something in your image.



2. How did you come up with the name for your forum?

It basically was a little bit of play with words, but at the core what I was hoping for. I wanted everyone to be social together, but also I wanted this to be open & free ... ie... uncensored. It also fit right on my way of how the forum should be. So the name Socially Uncensored fit.



3. How did you decide the subject matter of your forum?



Experience and also, to fulfill a need. It seem more and more, we find that speaking openly and freely expressing ourselves seems to be taboo. There is always someone willing and wanting to shut up, punish, or even censor someone for their thoughts and ideals. So the idea to allow all ideals and thoughts, just make since.



4. How do try to get new members to join?



I kind of walked into a community (Thoughts.com) which was folding over. The owner had decided to get rid of his forum and replace everything with a group system. I have to tell you, this is a bad move as more individuals seem to move toward forums then groups. He didn't mind me advertizing there since he kind of wanted to get rid of the older forum community and was targeting more of a younger generation.



Since then I've been using Google Adwords and a few link exchanges.



5. How did you pick your current staff members?



Sometimes you just have a good feeling about someone. And other times it helps if that member was also a respected member of the past community which migrated to yours. A little of both, is a big help.



6. How did you choose what software to use for your forum?



I owned and then later worked for a company known as Atlantis Services. When the company closed during the economical issues (last year), I still retained the ownership rights to the forum software. So it was just as simple as changing my license details for the new domain.



7. Has your forum ever been hacked?



No and I really hope that never happens. I make backups regularly and manually as well (often). I'm kind of always worried about security. I also use an off site monitor to record ever log in attempt or access attempt. I also picked a host which was owned by a security firm. So should someone ever take up the task, they'll leave a good size finger print.



8. Have you ever felt like giving up and closing your forum?



Only one time. But that time has passed and my community is growing strong.

 

[Dennis]

1. What made you decide to create your own forum?

It's always inspiration from fairly active existing forums i am a member on.



2. How did you come up with the name for your forum?

I did a mental brainstorm for about ten minutes. I really didn't do any research or put too much insight into deciding the name.



3. How did you decide the subject matter of your forum?

Well it's what i enjoy to do most, which is debate. So i figured that i would make a forum where i can do what i love and still have all the power

4. How do try to get new members to join?

I gave up on it a long time ago, but i would advertise and ask members to have their friends sign up. But i had the problem that the members on my forum would only be the crowd from other forums i was on. I never really had many fresh members i didn't know.



5. How did you pick your current staff members?

I based it on skills and trust, i don't really see what else.



6. How did you choose what software to use for your forum?

I didn't want to pay for any software, so i decided to use the next best thing, which is Mybb.



7. Has your forum ever been hacked?

Never.



8. Have you ever felt like giving up and closing your forum?

Yes, and i've done it. It wasn't too active anyway and i lost interest and heart.

 

[Wayne]

1. What made you decide to create your own forum?

I used to co-admin a forum called Flop of the Pops; fell out with the owner, and I then set up my own place!



2. How did you come up with the name for your forum?

A group conversation on MSN with potential members.



3. How did you decide the subject matter of your forum?

Music and entertainment is the closest thing to perfection you can get when it comes to niche discussion, and its the easiest to market.



4. How do try to get new members to join?

I post links to my site around the web, and use promotion sites, and Twitter/Facebook, + word of mouth.



5. How did you pick your current staff members?

Activity, dedication, particpation.



6. How did you choose what software to use for your forum?

Was always going to be vBulletin, its my favourite.



7. Has your forum ever been hacked?

Nope!



8. Have you ever felt like giving up and closing your forum?

Yes, done it once. But felt so guilty that I soon got back on it!