Of late I’ve been working on a few things, mostly theoretical but with the likelihood of being implemented in the real world, that would probably benefit from some kind of web forum. You know, the sort of thing that’s usually powered by phpbb. The thing is, I really don’t like forums, to the point where I’ll actively avoid any site that has a forum as it’s primary function. I like blogs and wikis and email lists and stuff like that. Now, while I’m sure I’m in the right I know a significant number of web users like forums and that they have their advantages, especially when you have a community in which everyone has the potential to start an interesting thread.
But given my aversion to forums and the fact that most of the blogs I frequent never mention them I’m pretty ignorant of the current forum scene. Anyone got any tips? To put things in some context I’m thinking specifically for the Custard Factory as one of the ways the tenants can talk to each other. Is setting up a phpbb forum there a good idea or just asking for trouble?
PunBB [http://punbb.org/] is generally held up as a lighter-weight, more standards-compliant, more secure and simpler-to-stye alternative.
I know exactly what you mean; the moment I see a forum, my heart sinks. Maybe it’s a reminder of what USENET used to be like.
If you haven’t read about it already, you might want to take a look at Movable Type’s Community Solution, for general awareness if nothing else.
I quite like forums, there are a few indiepop ones which I use.
If they’re really empty it’s just depressing though, especially when the one mod starts all of the threads. You need several committed users from the start, or a theme which draws a wide audience. Getting the ball rolling is tricky.
I finally got round to having a play about with Ning recently though – doesn’t that have a forum application as part of it? And a blog which could be updated with the more informative posts.
http://getvanilla.com/ is really cool, the first page is made up of active discussions not categories, so everyone can see what’s going on and contribute to hot topics.
Though I spent a lot of time on forums a few years back, I grew tired of them. It only takes one troll-type to take all the fun out of it and make the whole experience very unpleasant. I’ve found the blog world much more friendly and far less argumentative.
I agree with all the criticism of fora, but if you’ve got discussions going on then sometimes the only way to make them manageable is to put ‘em on a messageboard of some description.
I liked the look of vanilla and recently tried to implement it for the online doings of a language study group. After a few days gradually adding more and more add-ons to get it to do what I wanted I eventually gave up the chase and installed phpbb.
What I might be saying is that vanilla is sufficiently different to regular messageboards that it might fit the bill! ..or it might not.
Definitely agree with dunc on needing a dedicated community first.
The inventor of my WP Theme has made a forum, if that’s any use. Looks nice fsvo, altogether nicer than the standard phpbb:
http://www.revolutiontheme.com/pro/forum/
For integration with Wordpress I recommend bbpress http://bbpress.org/
Wordpress.org uses it!