Points to be followed when designing a forum!

[Fahad_1]

Hello,

I wanted to design a forum for my site - www.jyper.com

But before i do so, i wanna know some thing. What are the basic points that should be followed if I want my forum to be successful.

I mean there are a lot of forums on the net, but none are that much popular like FWS.

I know that my forum would not be that much popular, but, however what are the steps that shud be taken?

I hope the admin or moderator of FWS will reply my post.

Please reply. i wanna know everyone's point of view.:-)




Fahad
http://www.jyper.com/site/index.php
fahad_webmaster@hotmail.com [for IM only]

[Jan]

What will your forum be about?
What age group are you targetting?
What sort of design do you *personally* like, would your targetted audience be comfortable with your choice?

[needlehost]

well, unlike fws, try pruning your members occasionally;)
but seriously, keep bandwidth low, im not surprised about fws's problems mainly because of the db size, it must be huge, this means greater cpu strain.
keep attachments low (50kb) avatars low (100x100) non image signitures, prune your members/posts regularly. fws has 56k members odd, with only 2k active.
this isn't clever.

[Tree]

Actually, MySQL is generally extremely stable with high entry numbers. PostgreSQL, however, I have never liked because it doesn't like any table with over 20,000 records or so.

With the upgrade to MySQL 5, I think any and all DB problems that FWS has will disappear. There are certain MySQL 4 releases that are less than stable.

[DarkBlood]

Actually, MySQL is extremely stable with high entry numbers. PostgreSQL, however, I have never liked because it doesn't like any table with over 20,000 records or so.

Which is the reason why SMF uses MySQL by default to stabalize itself, rather than PHP Files like IPB, phpBB, vB, etc. do.

[Yellowmc]

Quick Tips:

1. Target your site to one group, easier than trying to get everyone to join.
2. Advertise your site as much as you can.
3. Go for simplicity, if your forum is too complicated people will not join.

[Compufusion]

Quick Tips:
3. Go for simplicity, if your forum is too complicated people will not join.

I would agree with this, nice colours, easy account creation etc.

Good luck.

Robin

[DarkBlood]

I would agree with this, nice colours, easy account creation etc.

Good luck.

Robin

Easy Account Creation would include:

No validating e-mails
No GD Image Library Bot Filters (On by default I believe on IPB2. Without this on (Meaning GD Library/Advanced Image Off), users can be auto-magically registered by surf bots.)


Nice Colors would include:

Whites with whites and/or grays
darks with darks, etc.


Make sure that if you're planning on using a gallery program, make sure you don't have to have your users sign-up separately from the board. Use Coppermine to resolve this. (The most CURRENT version of Coppermine WILL NOT bridge with IPB 1.3.1.)

[Tree]

Auto-magically is such a crappy word. I hate it with a passion.

[DarkBlood]

Auto-magically is such a crappy word. I hate it with a passion.

Then I guess you don't like the person who soely coded IPB in the first place, yes? Lest we forget Matt.