Do you vision your new community?

[Cedric]

You've got an idea in your head, it's stuck and doesn't disappear. You want to create a new forum. Do you vision your new community? How it's setup, where it's heading? What steps did you undertake to make it happen if your vision came true?

 

[Shawn Gossman]

I have some kind of vision when I create a new community.

I have main goals but smaller goals to work up to that will eventually get to the main goal.

I think it's important to focus on the small first

 

[Cory]

I had enough similar past forums I owned and past forums I moderated at that gave me a clear vision of how I wanted my board to turn out and it mostly turned out the way I wanted it to. Granted, there have been many changes along the way, but I'm pretty happy with the current layout and resources/services available.

 

[Arantor]

For any project I've ever even thought about, I have a vision for how I want it to look, work, play out. Some never get off the ground because my vision isn't really compatible with reality, some find all sorts of changes along the way.

Some never even get past the vision step, though, and those are the worst of all, because they're elusive, and they seem to be the more persistent.

 

[Reverie]

For forums I like to get a layout in mind to kind of really sell the vision to myself, as well as if I'm trying to get a partner on board. Once I have a working layout and think it could work I go forth with it. Try to find a theme that would make it outshine others in the similar category. Those are always my first steps - layout is such a key thing for me!

 

[joelr]

We are living in a modern web where you almost have to define a strategic vision as part of your preflight. (I mean, you don't really, if your only goals are "install pretty themes" and "install pretty plugins").

But I would think having a core strategy plus 2 or 3 major objectives / tactics would be a requirement before starting a new community.

 

[Ravenfreak]

If you can't visualize how you want your community to pan out, it's probably best to take a step back and think about how you want your new community to be, before diving into making a community. As for me, since I've owned a few forums throughout the years and have been staff on a few I pretty much knew how I wanted my community to be like and I've achieved what I visualized.