How to run a forum [Personal Experience]

[USN]

I had ran a forum a while back. It had 120+ Active members and I only had 1 other staff member and the forum turned out fine.

[LiamLC]

These are just the basics, you're forgetting a few of the most important ways to run a forum successfully.

Including: Incentive and Motivation, Recognition, and Quality.

Amen.

Incentive to join is definitely the most important thing when starting a forum. That doesn't necessarily mean you pay people to post or something like that, but you need to give them a reason to join for example, make it exclusive so they feel like part of an exclusive elite and provide killer content so they feel like participating in the forum is worth it. That's why it's so hard to start a successful general chat forum. There is hardly any incentive and if it's not already active nobody wants to join because who wants to chat on a forum with one other person.

[Melvin]

Thanks for these tips, even though they're quite obvious.

[USN]

I personally think Omni should write an Ebook about this and then charge people to buy it. He would get many because of his success with HF and this Forum.

[Laughynose]

Thanks for these tips, even though they're quite obvious.

You'll be surprised on how many people do these silly mistakes, of course they're obvious but they are very much needed,

[Ted Bundy]

I can't tell you how important that is, it's ridiculous when you see a forum with a maximum of 15 active members, 5 of which are moderators and admins.

i agree with you my friend i been on many new forms with this problem

[notLuke]

You're forgetting a couple of things.
1) don't start a hacking forum, as you will get shat upon by more popular forums. So...
2) BE UNIQUE! Make sure there isn't already a popular forum for your topic.