Site Management Running two of the same niche forums

[Shawn Gossman]

Here's an odd one for you all.

At one time, I had a very large forum for Skywarn storm spotters. If you're in the US, these are the ones you hear on the weather radio observing severe weather - weather spotters. It's a volunteer nationwide organization. I've been one for over 20 years.

Anyways, I had the biggest Skywarn forum online for the whole organization.

And then I had another Skywarn forum for just Illinois spotters.

Both forums were really active.

Have you ever been in a similar scenario? Tell us about it!

What would you had done here? Keep the two running or combine them?

 

[joelr]

This would have been one of the rare - but successful - scenarios of using social groups. I could see your Illinois or other state chapters being highly successful as their own social groups as part of the larger platform.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

This would have been one of the rare - but successful - scenarios of using social groups. I could see your Illinois or other state chapters being highly successful as their own social groups as part of the larger platform.

Social groups would had been perfect for that.

But I believe this was during a time when social groups were not as featured as they are today.

I think both groups were on 3.5 of vBulletin, the latest version at the time, LOL.

 

[joelr]

Social groups would had been perfect for that.

But I believe this was during a time when social groups were not as featured as they are today.

I think both groups were on 3.5 of vBulletin, the latest version at the time, LOL.

Didn't vbulletin offer groups? I thought they were the only one to actually offer groups as a first party feature. IPS developed it very late in the 4.x cycle, and XF doesn't have anything first party.

Yes, this would have been one of the best use cases of Social Groups. The other option is to build a SkyWarn network of forum sites ...

 

[Al]

I have a general RTS forum and a game-specific RTS forum. I'm totally cool with running both in the same niche.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

Didn't vbulletin offer groups? I thought they were the only one to actually offer groups as a first party feature. IPS developed it very late in the 4.x cycle, and XF doesn't have anything first party.

Yes, this would have been one of the best use cases of Social Groups. The other option is to build a SkyWarn network of forum sites ...

They could have back then. It's been so long ago, I can't even remember why I never combined the two.

I have a general RTS forum and a game-specific RTS forum. I'm totally cool with running both in the same niche.

Yeah. I've considered it, again. I have a very locally niched forum (for local cyclists) and I've considered making a general forum for cycling anywhere. I don't think my local folks would want to be merged into a general one so I'd keep them separate.

But I don't know I haven't made up my mind yet.

My list of forums is growing again, LOL, and while I have plenty of time to keep them all active, I also need to remember not to overwhelm myself.

 

[joelr]

Yeah. I've considered it, again. I have a very locally niched forum (for local cyclists) and I've considered making a general forum for cycling anywhere. I don't think my local folks would want to be merged into a general one so I'd keep them separate.

I think this is the perfect example of having a strong vision and niche for your forum, and understanding it's bounds.

Strategically, cycling is a real world physical activity, so it makes sense that it would be hyper local. You would talk about local trail conditions, local weather, meet ups. None of those make sense to cyclists in another state or another country.

 

[Shortie]

It is not too often you see this and I can't say that I have seen it myself so that is awesome that you were able to have two forums of the same niche that were successful!

The weather seems to be one of the niches that is great if you have a passion for it!

 

[Shawn Gossman]

It is not too often you see this and I can't say that I have seen it myself so that is awesome that you were able to have two forums of the same niche that were successful!

The weather seems to be one of the niches that is great if you have a passion for it!

I enjoyed the meteorological niche.

However, it was a dramatic niche. Who would think talking about the weather can be so dramatic right?

Crazy enough, it is. Especially in the area of storm chasing.

Lots of drama, enemies, and side-taking. It essentially burned me out from doing that forum niche.

 

[Shortie]

I enjoyed the meteorological niche.

However, it was a dramatic niche. Who would think talking about the weather can be so dramatic right?

Crazy enough, it is. Especially in the area of storm chasing.

Lots of drama, enemies, and side-taking. It essentially burned me out from doing that forum niche.

I can imagine, I follow a lot of weather groups on Facebook and have done so for quite some time as I have an interest in the weather and such and the drama I have seen there can be crazy.

 

[Nomad]

Not with forums but I had multiple blogs on the same niches. I sold most of these blogs and the ones that I couldn't sell were merged. I have never created two forums on the same niche but I have used similar categories. For instance, I was once running a crypto niche forum and I also have crypto sub forum on my investment forum.