How important are forum descriptions?

[Strawberry]

When adding new categories and forums, how important is adding a description for each, do you feel that is contributes to the overall journey of your members? Or when visiting a forum, is it something you actively look at?

I've seen some where there's no descriptions at all, some where it's very basic such as 'All forum announcements go here'/'Introduction threads can be found here!' and others who make it very detailed and use clear wording to say specifically what that particular forum is for.

 

[fords8]

Mine tend to be on the shorter side. Some area I think it can be alright for shorter ones. Being clear on what you want in the area in a good thing.

 

[Arantor]

I think it's about signposting. If your board names are that obvious you probably don't need a description or it can be super-concise. If the board's intent isn't immediately obvious or your expectations for it are not immediately and abundantly clear, a description helps more.

Of course there's also the side matter of giving boards a meta description for SEO purposes which is also valuable and often you want to consider giving that a more beefy description than the one you present to regular users.

 

[Ravenfreak]

I always have forum descriptions and I believe they are important. I think the shorter the descriptions are, the better as well.

 

[Aaron]

I always prefer to have descriptions.

 

[Tracy]

I use them on my site... along with FA icons.

 

[Henrywrites]

To me, it is important to make it detailed because a lot of visitors would want to know what a section stands for. It has been helpful to some people to get it right on this as well.

 

[CharlesW]

I would say not important at all. I had a client today I was advising that had a paragraph explaining an FAQ forum. It's like... people know what FAQ is you're just cluttering up the view.

 

[Tracy]

I would say not important at all. I had a client today I was advising that had a paragraph explaining an FAQ forum. It's like... people know what FAQ is you're just cluttering up the view.

A FAQ should be self-explanatory... the issue you enter into is with stuff like in my niche... WHAT does telescopes consist of. What does the Cameras and Image Train consist of.
There are some areas that topics could fit into several different ones, so those type of areas can realistically benefit from topic descriptions.
Would I want to put a post about a plate solving issue into Mounts, Telescope or Hardware? The appropriate area would be usually be hardware/software since generally that deals with a laptop/NUC/RPi and software to run on it. But it COULD fit into Telescopes (on a fringe case) if having to do with FOV or focal length.

 

[Cory]

I think forum descriptions can play a significant role in forums by clearly explaining what a forum is used for and what is the proper content to be posted in the forum. Some forum titles make it so obvious what should be posted that it doesn't seem a description would be necessary, but I think it still makes it clearer to know what is acceptable to be posted in the forum.

 

[Cedric]

Forum descriptions play a vital role in attracting and engaging users to participate in discussions. A well-written and informative description can provide potential users with a clear understanding of what the forum is about, what kind of topics are discussed, and what kind of community they can expect to interact with. I love writing up forum descriptions, just like I have on Admin Junkies. I think they're important to keep them informative, short and straight to the point. Some forums like an archive, or a FAQ like @CharlesW mentioned is really unnecessary and would indeed take up space where this is not needed.

Descriptions also help in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as they provide important keywords that search engines use to index and rank the forum. This means that a well-written description can increase the visibility of the forum in search results and attract more traffic.

 

[Altair]

Forum descriptions play a vital role in attracting and engaging users to participate in discussions. A well-written and informative description can provide potential users with a clear understanding of what the forum is about, what kind of topics are discussed, and what kind of community they can expect to interact with. I love writing up forum descriptions, just like I have on Admin Junkies. I think they're important to keep them informative, short and straight to the point. Some forums like an archive, or a FAQ like @CharlesW mentioned is really unnecessary and would indeed take up space where this is not needed.

Descriptions also help in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as they provide important keywords that search engines use to index and rank the forum. This means that a well-written description can increase the visibility of the forum in search results and attract more traffic.

100%. It definitely plays a vital role in SEO.
I will be revising pretty much all the descriptions for SH to make them SEO-friendly before the grand opening.
It can also attract the right audience and ensure that the forum remains focused and on-topic. It can also help moderators and administrators enforce forum rules by reminding users of what is and is not allowed. So my answer is yes, descriptions are quite important.

 

[Uncrowned]

I like having short descriptions both for a helpful read and also do to disliking the look of forums that have no descriptions. Granted, I'll also gladly admit that I never read descriptions on forums.

 

[Heatman]

When adding new categories and forums, how important is adding a description for each, do you feel that is contributes to the overall journey of your members? Or when visiting a forum, is it something you actively look at?

I've seen some where there's no descriptions at all, some where it's very basic such as 'All forum announcements go here'/'Introduction threads can be found here!' and others who make it very detailed and use clear wording to say specifically what that particular forum is for.

It's very important for you to be very detailed with the information on each section or board in your forum.

It's going to be suicide for you to assume that all your members would understand that's expected to be posted on each section. There are always newbies in any forum and it's why you get some posts or threads posted in the wrong section as a result of no description.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

When adding new categories and forums, how important is adding a description for each, do you feel that is contributes to the overall journey of your members? Or when visiting a forum, is it something you actively look at?

I've seen some where there's no descriptions at all, some where it's very basic such as 'All forum announcements go here'/'Introduction threads can be found here!' and others who make it very detailed and use clear wording to say specifically what that particular forum is for.

I typically add descriptions for the purpose of helping the member come up with topics or subjects to talk about.

I try to use words strategically.

I would love to experiment with a way to where descriptions on the homepage index (assuming you're not using a portal) no show to guests (mainly search bots) but they do show on individual board/sub-board pages to bots.

That could help you with the SEO portion of your forum. But if you have an ability to add meta descripts for each section, that would be ideal.

 

[Heatman]

I like having short descriptions both for a helpful read and also do to disliking the look of forums that have no descriptions. Granted, I'll also gladly admit that I never read descriptions on forums.

The only reason why you don't read descriptions on forums is that you're most likely familiar with what the board is required of you as you're not new to using forums. It happens to me in most cases. I would only take reading a forum board description serious when I join a forum niche that I'm not familiar with.

 

[Reverie]

I think the goal is to be straight to the point as much as possible when it comes to a description. I think all areas need to say something - even if the title is obvious to you. Keeping it looking uniform helps as well. On Roleplay forums I've seen the image used as the description... And I think just a few words on the image could really help but that could be all that is needed in those cases.