Forum Directories

[Reverie]

Based on another topic I was thinking about Forum Directories. What are your thoughts of them? Free forum software often provide a directory, but it usually isn't well kept or necessarily organized. What would be the features of a directory you would hope to see? What would be important to you on a directory?

Then I thought about.... Paid software there really isn't a forum directory other than all the advertising/admin forums that allow for advertisements. I truly wonder if someone created an actual directory that took off for all forums - paid/non-paying... Would it be successful? I guess you could say that's what all these forums are for, or even that's what Google is for - I just tire of finding dead forums/communities that only consist of spam, or nothing anymore.

I always think the biggest struggle for forums is finding the right one. If all forums could just be more a part of a directory it would be helpful! I like how Xenforo's link directory looks... so something similar could be used I would think.

 

[Cory]

The Jcink directory that my friend built can tell if a board is offline or not and hides the board from the directory if the board is offline, now that is a good automated feature to have to prevent boards being consistently seen that are offline. Another similar, good feature to have would be some way of dictating posting activity and if no posts or perhaps only X posts are made during a specific time period it hides the board from the directory.

There used to be a forum directory by the title, "Big Boards", which was a directory for massive-sized boards. But it has since long been gone.

I like how my friend made different features for the Jcink directory, such as "forum spotlight", "top 5 clicks", "latest submissions", and a random board from each category. He also added some cool graphs for the statistics of the directory.

To build a forum directory for all forums you'd better be promoting it on every forum software out there if you want a variety of boards to submit their forum to it.

 

[Ravenfreak]

I think there should be a global forum directory for every single platform. Of course a website of that nature will need a few staff members to keep everything tidy and to add new entries to the right sections. The Jcink directory Cory mentioned does a good job and it's well organized too.

 

[ClicketyKat]

When I was on staff at FP, I used to occasionally go through the Directory to remove things and it was a chore. I would have loved to have had it automated!!

For Promotion Future, it really needs some better organization in my opinion.

As for paying to be on a directory, I probably wouldn't want to do that because sometimes the best gems can't afford things like that. It reminds me when the WWW first started, a friend of mine was creating a website for local businesses and he was going to sell spots on the list. It was called the Marketplace and I worked hard to help him design a logo and then he never used it and the site was a failure. When people can go elsewhere for free, they don't want to pay.

 

[Jason]

I'm not sure if they generate a lot of traffic but, I like to put my sites in there. Do any of you feel they generate traffic? How much would it be?

 

[Cory]

Do any of you feel they generate traffic? How much would it be?

It depends on several factors, such as the traffic the directory itself gets, perhaps the board title or description can help entice people to click the link if they have a clear definition of the forum, your link being buried among other links, etc.

My board was added to the Jcink directory in April of 2020 and it has 1200+ clicks, so it can definitely attract some viewers.