[happyman]

So my recent activities here have kinda gotten me thinking of doing something big with forums again. Its been forever since i've run something or done something productive. The last time I tried putting something together, we had a massive software issue and the whole project had to be scrapped. This was some 3 or so years ago now?

What I basically want to do is build a forums site from the ground up. Something that would be general purpose. Something that has several drawing points that would give people a reason to stay active. The problem is with this, most general purpose type forums dont really draw people in. Nothing really catches them like something themed does.

My reasoning for this is that basically, as we all get older, something like YGO becomes "outdated". People lose interest after a while, and like myself, stop being active or leave. I started here at 18, and am almost 25 now. I went from posting daily, to weekly, to monthly, to just about yearly. Many reasons for that, but mainly cus I don't really have anything to do with YGO.

So basically I decided I would start asking here for ideas. What type of things do you like to see in a forum, and what type of forum would you like to see me build? (inb4 go **** yourself Sent, you banned me 3 times). What would draw you to a forum and get you to stay active?

I am, believe it or not, very serious about this. If I can find a suitable basis for this project, I would be happy to make it come to life. If I did that, I would also be looking for some helping hands, and IF it actually went on to become successful, I would even be willing to put some of my own money into it for hosting or whatever else.

[Yb4bulVR]

As someone who is a forum goer, I mainly am attracted to what I enjoy. Things like

- Video Games
- Video Game debates
- Great communities (not of the trolling kind mind you, but the kind that ACTUALLY acts like a community.)
- Discussing various topics (Sports, Entertainment, Debates, Podcasts/Podcast discussions, etc.)
- Strong and Wise staff. (The kind that does the dirty work and doesnt afraid of anyone/anything)

Im sure you get what I mean out of most of this. If you need/want help, let me know.

[JanetMorris]

As someone who is a forum goer, I mainly am attracted to what I enjoy. Things like

- Video Games
- Video Game debates
- Discussing various topics (Sports, Entertainment, Debates, Podcasts/Podcast discussions, etc.)

Don't do this right from the start. Begin with a small number of boards and sub-boards, and steadily increase the number of them as time goes on. It makes your forum look really bad when you have 50 empty boards that no one's willing to post in.

[letittbe]

Dude, I just renewed my vBulletin license and have a board all set up right now that needs a direction to go in. We should totally collab on this

[RilmAlime67]

Don't do this right from the start. Begin with a small number of boards and sub-boards, and steadily increase the number of them as time goes on. It makes your forum look really bad when you have 50 empty boards that no one's willing to post in.

He was looking for ideas, I just threw a TON in his lap

[trowUrillioth]

Dude, I just renewed my vBulletin license and have a board all set up right now that needs a direction to go in. We should totally collab on this

twas supposed to be mine...
Regardless, I believe that a good old fashioned life discussion board would be something I'm into.
Just satan.

[drislerfottor]

Dude, I just renewed my vBulletin license and have a board all set up right now that needs a direction to go in. We should totally collab on this

I like where this thread is going.

[Anypeny]

Aw, I was hoping you'd opt to design the entire board software yourself. Would love to get my hands on a fun project like that

[voksveta]

[quote]Aw, I was hoping you'd opt to design the entire board software yourself. Would love to get my hands on a fun project like that

[psbiuigw]

TL;DR: I need to try something new and amazing. Something I haven't done before.

Precisely. I'd also like to note that the best bet for amazing is something unique that other similar message boards do not offer. Sadly, a little more than your natural charms is required

That said, not knowing how do something is a poor reason for not learning how to do it.

[TheDoctor]

here's one- BAN political/religious debate and even conversation on the topic. It becomes such a pain in the ass to deal with the stupidity and cluster****, it gives the forum a way more laid back feel.

One forum I frequent is The Idiot Board which is both tiny, heavily moderated, and bans political discourse, but it's the best forum I go to as itreally is viewed as a place to hang out. That said the memberbase is in their 30s by and large, so getting all the 18 year olds to try and make that work might be a challenge.


Or you could go the complete opposite direction and run it with the basic tennant that freedom of speech is the most important aspect of the board and only silence it when it gets to undermine the community environment, I've heard there's a yugioh forum that follows this philosophy

[jdynwa]

^This is also true.

Personally, the other message board I frequent is GameDev.net, and the atmosphere is much more professional; making comparisons with YF tends to get a little depressing. Still, you need to pick a demographic and stick with it.

[w4HPpbSW]

I don't think many people would -want- a professional environment. Unless you're like me and sneak on DG/YF etc at work, many people want to come to a forum to unwind and you can't unwind if you have to hold up your professionalism mask

I visit DBWorld (which I wont bother linking, Chris is the only one who'd even begin to appreciate what the site is/is for) but it's a very professional site with the focus on helping people - but there's no discourse, discussion or entertainment, it's just "here's a lot of really technical people to fix your problem" - I don't think you'd enjoy having a site like that Sentibaby. And I dont think you'd be able to have a community where people enjoy staying.

[sisimelanyk]

Precisely. I'd also like to note that the best bet for amazing is something unique that other similar message boards do not offer. Sadly, a little more than your natural charms is required

That said, not knowing how do something is a poor reason for not learning how to do it.

Touche. >.>

here's one- BAN political/religious debate and even conversation on the topic. It becomes such a pain in the ass to deal with the stupidity and cluster****, it gives the forum a way more laid back feel.

One forum I frequent is The Idiot Board which is both tiny, heavily moderated, and bans political discourse, but it's the best forum I go to as itreally is viewed as a place to hang out. That said the memberbase is in their 30s by and large, so getting all the 18 year olds to try and make that work might be a challenge.


Or you could go the complete opposite direction and run it with the basic tennant that freedom of speech is the most important aspect of the board and only silence it when it gets to undermine the community environment, I've heard there's a yugioh forum that follows this philosophy

Target audience wise, I am aiming for an older group. Something that could be enjoyable for a while, where as the target audience of this site is say...teenagers. I will check out the idiot board though. Yes I did scroll over it to make sure it wasnt a link to Pojo.

I don't think creating a DG clone would be in my best interest. If I wanted to frequent a board full of pricks trolling pricks trolling pricks, id simply frequent your site. No offense, of course lol.

^This is also true.

Personally, the other message board I frequent is GameDev.net, and the atmosphere is much more professional; making comparisons with YF tends to get a little depressing. Still, you need to pick a demographic and stick with it.

I don't think many people would -want- a professional environment. Unless you're like me and sneak on DG/YF etc at work, many people want to come to a forum to unwind and you can't unwind if you have to hold up your professionalism mask

I visit DBWorld (which I wont bother linking, Chris is the only one who'd even begin to appreciate what the site is/is for) but it's a very professional site with the focus on helping people - but there's no discourse, discussion or entertainment, it's just "here's a lot of really technical people to fix your problem" - I don't think you'd enjoy having a site like that Sentibaby. And I dont think you'd be able to have a community where people enjoy staying.

Professional is fine to a level, but I will never run a site like I ran this place for kazi. Trying to keep a site PG while some azn guy screams at you for stupid crap is not my idea of having fun. That said, the level of moderation would be a ton different than that of say...this sites. Taking DG as an example, that site succeeds to a degree due to the fact that you don't have someone breathing down your neck every 5 seconds.

rei basically stated something I am aiming for. Something where people can come to unwind. Enjoy the board, and not have to feel held to some standard because little timmy is a douchebag, mr scumbucket is uptight and the word "christmas" pissed him off, and because some feminist got butthurt cus a picture was posted with a lady in a bra.

The ideas, while great and I am taking notes, still kinda aren't answering my initial question. What type of things would be of interest? I know what interests me, but its not about me. Yes I do want it to be something I will enjoy, but if its only going to satisfy me....-insert relation to porn here-

[UnduttRit]

then take the DG approach and just ban the trolls. YOu've spent almost no time on DG so I know you're stuck in your perception of the site, but its a better model than the rigid alternatives.

[grosqueneen]

This is true.

But once again brings up my point: pick a demographic and stick with it.

However you decide to make your board, you need to decide what you want it to be. Know who you're marketting towards, and make that your focus. If you pull a Grant and constantly change the board to appeal to every niche thing, you wind up cheapening the entire community.

[Michaelnewerb]

I like forum projects

And Dai...you need to do something about the bots that are taking over DW. It breaks my heart to see them procreating D:

Personally I love the idea of a board designed to be a "hang-out"

[illerlytoindy]

basically, you need need to take the off topic section and expand it.

entertainment (movies, television, etc) politics, current world events, make it applicable to everyday people who are interested in some intelligent conversation.

You arent going to get 9 year olds, but you'll enjoy it more.

[bmwservis]

) politics, current world events, make it applicable to everyday people who are interested in some intelligent conversation.

Or remove them for the exact same reason

Not many smart 20-somthings have patience for people who, say, don't understand what the word theory means in a natural science context. I already posted about this, why would you bring stress to an otherwise enjoyable environment?

[KlaraNovikoffa]

The problem with basing the forum on offtopic is you will not achieve critical mass

The issue as it relates to needing a focus for the community before expanding to conversation beyond the focus is similar to the paradox that existed when mtg was first created (I do loves me my paradoxes)

Richard Garfield knew that some of the broken cards in the original mtg set (Black Lotus, Ancestral Recall) would be a problem if the game got popular. On the other hand, if the game got popular then these broken cards would of course not be that much of a problem, correct?

Consider that ^. If the forum is has no themed purpose then it will not achieve critical mass. You need to declare a popular focus to get a critical mass of active/interesting people and then bang! you have a forum but unfortunately it has a focus for better or worse.



There are a few ways to go around this:

Evolve/disperse your focus over time (pojo)
pojo was oringally sert up as a pokemon board but hapily embraces every ccg that was released. currently yugioh has top billing over pokemon and 5 years from now if there is a new game twice as popula

Keep your original focus but put just as much effort to growing activity in non focus related areas like offtopic and social (mtgs, yf somwwhat)
mtgsalvation is a great example of this. they were originally create to be the spoiler central for mtg, but over time have grown their mtg section as well as their non-mtg section massively.

Try to specialize on the competitive/creative/casual aspect of your focus (dgz, channelfireball)
Try to lead not by quantity but quality. problem is you are only legit as long as your are respected for what you are claiming to be.



Imo the pojo approach, by broadening the focus across entire genres, minimizes the possibility for quality discussion that does not pertain to one of the many focuses. The second two are more ideal. The mtgs approach leads to a high volume of everything and the entire community must be moderated and encouraged or the entire site becomes pretty lame. The third approach works best in a walled garden (or staff article/blog) scenario where the weakest members can be eliminated to maintain an overall average memberbase quality.







tl;dr version: you need a forum focus to attract a memberbase in the first place