Common Flaws When Starting a Message Board

Moldy Cornflakes · Joined: 21 Mar 2006 Posts: 5

What are some common flaws everyone has noticed when people start their own message board?

One that always strikes me is when a new Message Board simply has too many sub forums. For example, I was on one particular cartoon board, and they had sub forums for about 20 different cartoons. This makes posting and checking for new posts fairly cumbersome, and it really doesn't look that good in general.

Hopfully this thread will help those looking to start their own message board aviod some fairly fatal flaws.

a1whs.com · Joined: 16 Mar 2006 Posts: 16

Well one major problem with most forums is that they dont know what color to choose for their forums.

I have seen blindingly Orange,Green and Yellow forums. They create more of headace rather than help and motivate people to post. So if your starting forum choose soothing colors and not hyper active colors.
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admin · Site Admin Joined: 31 Dec 1969 Posts: 250

Ha, yes we are looking to tone down the colors a bit.

Sunchild · Joined: 07 Apr 2006 Posts: 7

Guest

Sunchild · Joined: 07 Apr 2006 Posts: 7

I think sub-forums have their place in larger, well established communities. It helps people quickly access only the topics that apply to them.

burfi · Guest

I feel, an efficient search utility is a very important requriement for a forum. I have rarely come across a forum that lets its user search for a particular thread rather easily.

Meads · Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 8

I agree with what you said about cumbersome message boards, if i start a new message board i tend to pick the subject and start with about two maybe three catigorys and about four to six forums, doing this makes it easier to fill up and add content to the message board which then i will allow the members to decide what other forums/catigorys are added as it's the members that make a message board so why not let them decide what is there.

ThumperFive · Joined: 14 Apr 2006 Posts: 199

I think signatures can produce quite the problem - there's some pictorial signatures out there that aren't just a picture but also a minimovie at the same time!

for the dialup user (the few out there) or for those not on a fast line it's awful for them to even get into a thread to read it, much less post!

Keeping it simple and regulating the size and type of signature might be a good idea to consider.

Wink

Mike C · Joined: 14 Apr 2006 Posts: 5

I have trouble with the organization of my forum. It takes days, even weeks, to organize topics into categories, boards, and subforums. Then, I begin thinking about where each category should go. I try to set it up so the most appealing are at the top and the general boards are at the bottom.

GeorgiaGirl · Joined: 15 Apr 2006 Posts: 7

The colors that some forums pick get to me. They are either way to dark, too pastel, too something.
That and that blessed busy backgrounds that some choose with music playing. What ever happened to nice peaceful conversations! Smile