Suggestions on new hosting service

[legendaryfox]

Hello,

I recently bought some reseller space from DanEthical, and am planning to launch my hosting soon. My service will basically offer a free basic plan, then post-for-upgrade. Now, through experience, I've seen a lot of successful as well as failed post-to-host/upgrade communities. Some become super-successful, while others just go down the drain.

Here's my current assessment (a VERY GENERAL assessment):
-almost all post-to-host/upgrade forums I've seen have some sort of "spam" posts - you know what I mean, the "thank you"s, the "nice link"s, the "hey where r u fomr?"s, etc.
-almost all PTHU (i'll use that shorthand for post-to-host/upgrade) forums have a programming section, a graphics section, and a general section.
-almost all PTHU forums never really achieve a high level of community
-almost all PTHU that do fail are a result of having the topics spread too thin - the coverage of teh form covers too many topics.

(note that this is just a generalization - i know there are MANY good PTHU hosts out there, some i've had the pleasure of using as well. So i'm not trying to offend anyone or say to PTHU are failures, as I am making one too.)

So, how exactly would one choose good topics, so as to minimize spam-posts and increase a community bond? I few ideas I've been juggling around

-award those who don't make spam posts - gotta be a good incentive
-make it discouraging to create spam posts - phpBB's CashMod is really helpful in doing this - basically, I can set it so that users get different amount of points, depending on how many words/characters they use in their post
-create a focus for your forum - while this may alienate some people, it will definately help to create a community.

Idunno, this is just a rough list I've created in my head. Anyone wanna contribute?

[Yellowmc]

What are you tring to gain from this small venture, are you trying to make money or do you simply desire the satisfaction of offering a free service?

[legendaryfox]

Kinda both. People gain points for posting, so they can use those points to upgrade their account. However, they may also wish to upgrade via a small donation. In any case, I'm not looking for a high profit, maybe some pocket money, from this venture. I'm getting some compensation via google ads.


As an off-topic, I noticed that this is your 666th post. And your avatar. ;D

[Yellowmc]

I notice that too!

Anyway, I like the idea of using the Cash mod, however you will have to think of something that will make your host stand out from the rest. What is your idea for this outstanding feature?

[legendaryfox]

Well, I wouldn't exactly aim to "stand out from the rest" per se at this point. All I'm trying to do is get some experience (as I have some, but minimal experience), as well as build a good, free, user-based hosting community.

In any case, a new idea popped into my mind - remember me saying how most failures are because the forums are "spread too thin"? Perhaps it might be more successful if it started out small - concentrate on only one topic (like programming only). Then, as the user-base grows, they can vote to add new sections as well (such as graphics and others). The advantage to this is that there will be less spam posts in the beginning, and the forum isn't too overwhelmed by empty categories. The disadvantage is that one might alienate a lot of people.