What users want in a free hosting forum?

Hi, I own a free hosting company and I'm looking to start a forum. Any user is welcome to post, but it's not required for free hosting.

What categories/qualities do users look for in a free forum?

Easy layout, free services forum, helpful staff :)

Planning and investing. Thats all I can say :)

Zac

Quality Support
Discussion forums like entertainment, gaming, general discussion, etc.
Website Showcase Forum

yeah..forums can give you a boost..wishing luck

Have a look at some of the other forums around and get ideas from them.

A thing that I looked for when I was a consumer was the size of the forum. If it was too large, meaning I scrolled for 3 minutes before I reached the bottom, I didn't like it. I found it overwhelming.

I always liked subforums and a condensed front page board list. But don't go to overboard with subforums because it gets confusing.

Quality support and a worthwhile dedicated product which will be around for a while. Both of which you do not provide, so people wishing you luck is in line. Have you figured out how to pay your bills each month? I remember you asking people to buy your company just the other day because you have no marketing plan to earn money...

I agree that quality support is a key factor. Most of the people on my forum come back only because they feel that they can get proper support there. And in the proccess they might also make a couple off topic posts which would help attract other people too.

If its not required, most likely your forums won't be very active unless you have an incentive for posting, like upgrades or such...

100mb of space & like 1gb a moth

they like free crap thats easy to get

World Cup 2006 Section :).

Definatly A Gaming Section, maybe anime, technology.... and a Points system where users can pushure upgrades with the posting points :-)

You ask "what do people want in a forum?"
For myself, I come to a forum if I want unbiased information and reviews (from users rather than marketers) or if I feel I can offer some information that others might find useful.
I'm at this forum right now, because I'm looking for a free host for a start up website (to sell my "yard sale stuff" - mostly locally, but with shipping if customers find it is still a good buy). I want to get people's reviews/opinions about different free hosts.

By the way, I used freewebspace.net to find a very good free host (atspace.com), and I am still delighted with their service (but my new project would take me over their limit).

I suspect that making posting to a forum an alternative to monetary fees for hosting services would lead to a lot of worthless garbage on the forum. Maybe something like responses to polls on relevant topics would provide more useful information. Good to have a forum to allow commentary, but encourage QUALITY not quantity of posting.

Phil Sidel
home site: http://members.verizon.net/philip.sidel
Climbing Trips site: http://sidelclimbing.atspace.com/PTrips/

You ask "what do people want in a forum?"
For myself, I come to a forum if I want unbiased information and reviews (from users rather than marketers) or if I feel I can offer some information that others might find useful.
I'm at this forum right now, because I'm looking for a free host for a start up website (to sell my "yard sale stuff" - mostly locally, but with shipping if customers find it is still a good buy). I want to get people's reviews/opinions about different free hosts.

By the way, I used freewebspace.net to find a very good free host (atspace.com), and I am still delighted with their service (but my new project would take me over their limit).

I suspect that making posting to a forum an alternative to monetary fees for hosting services would lead to a lot of worthless garbage on the forum. Maybe something like responses to polls on relevant topics would provide more useful information. Good to have a forum to allow commentary, but encourage QUALITY not quantity of posting.

Phil Sidel
home site: http://members.verizon.net/philip.sidel
Climbing Trips site: http://sidelclimbing.atspace.com/PTrips/[/QUOTE]

World Cup and Football district is a must for me.

Computers & Internet would be a good idea too.