Should I pursue an old forum I built about the Yu-Gi-Oh TCG?

[Cory]

The forum was built on the Jcink software, here is a screenshot of it: https://files.jcink.net/uploads/cory/yugioh.png

I'm really in a tight spot on whether I should pursue trying to build the forum up or just let it go. With social media, most people use the likes of Facebook and Reddit to discuss/trade Yu-Gi-Oh.

It has always been a hobby and interest of mine and I'm really fond of collecting cards and setting up a marketplace seems like it would be best suited for me, but I'm just not sure where to go about advertising such a board. I don't really actively post on any anime or TCG marketplace boards and most boards related to Yu-Gi-Oh in general are dead. I just don't know if it would be worth the effort and time to try and re-pursue such a forum.

Thank you in advance for any advice you may have.

 

[Ravenfreak]

I think you should go for it if it's something you really want to pursue. It'll be difficult getting members since like you said, most discussions related to the Yu-Gi-Oh TCG are on Reddit. I don't recall if they have any non-advertisement rules on the subreddit, so perhaps you can get some members there? There's a anime forum that I've seen called My Anime Forum, you may get some members there too.

 

[Reverie]

I think you should just try and see what happens! You’ll always wonder “what if” if you don’t. I think there is potential to find other users who enjoy it!

 

[kolakube]

I sold my cards back in 2021 pretty easily on Craigslist. Back when I was interested in the game I do remember going to forums like that to look up strategies and lore, and I wonder if it's still as popular with the current generation of young teens like it was ours?

If you have a lot to say and can create a lot of content, I think it's worth a shot but possibly as a blog before a forum.

 

[Cedric]

I sold my cards back in 2021 pretty easily on Craigslist. Back when I was interested in the game I do remember going to forums like that to look up strategies and lore, and I wonder if it's still as popular with the current generation of young teens like it was ours?

If you have a lot to say and can create a lot of content, I think it's worth a shot but possibly as a blog before a forum.

The audience that grew up with this are more familiar with forums than the current gen, so I think considering this that it might work out in Cory's advantage. But it will take some work, that's for sure.

 

[Ravenfreak]

I sold my cards back in 2021 pretty easily on Craigslist. Back when I was interested in the game I do remember going to forums like that to look up strategies and lore, and I wonder if it's still as popular with the current generation of young teens like it was ours?

If you have a lot to say and can create a lot of content, I think it's worth a shot but possibly as a blog before a forum.

I'm not sure about teens but I do know a few of my younger coworkers who are in their early 20's still play the game. I haven't played in a long time, but if this forum was created I wouldn't mind signing up and possibly getting back into the game again.

 

[Cedric]

It's crazy at the same time that Pokémon TCG is gaining a lot of popularity again. I almost need to restrain myself not to buy some.

Thinking of which, maybe it could be a good idea to offer both YGO and Pokémon.

 

[joelr]

I'm going to actually go against the prior comments, and say NO, don't start your forum. Not yet at least.

Go join Facebook, Reddit, and the other forums first to conduct market research. See if there's an audience. See if there's an audience that you can capture AWAY from the existing forums. See if your audience is dying or growing over time. See if there's something that you can do that they're not doing.

Yu-Gi-Oh! - Pojo.com Forums

Yu-Gi-Oh! : Deck Discussions; Card Trading; Gossip; Anime Talk; Video Game Discussions & more!

www.pojo.biz

Yugioh Card Maker Forum

www.cardmaker.net

Reddit - Dive into anything

www.reddit.com

Forum Home - YGOPRODeck

Engage with the YGOPRODeck community through our community Forums!

ygoprodeck.com

Yu-Gi-Oh! Forums Community - Neoseeker Forums

www.neoseeker.com

The advice offered by other AJ users are well-meaning and positively-intended, but will ultimately set up you for failure. They're encouraging you to blindly go into a project. Figure out your market research. Figure out your community strategy. Figure out your audience. Then launch.

 

[Cedric]

I'm going to actually go against the prior comments, and say NO, don't start your forum. Not yet at least.

Go join Facebook, Reddit, and the other forums first to conduct market research. See if there's an audience. See if there's an audience that you can capture AWAY from the existing forums. See if your audience is dying or growing over time. See if there's something that you can do that they're not doing.

Yu-Gi-Oh! - Pojo.com Forums

Yu-Gi-Oh! : Deck Discussions; Card Trading; Gossip; Anime Talk; Video Game Discussions & more!

www.pojo.biz

Yugioh Card Maker Forum

www.cardmaker.net

Reddit - Dive into anything

www.reddit.com

Forum Home - YGOPRODeck

Engage with the YGOPRODeck community through our community Forums!

ygoprodeck.com

Yu-Gi-Oh! Forums Community - Neoseeker Forums

www.neoseeker.com

The advice offered by other AJ users are well-meaning and positively-intended, but will ultimately set up you for failure. They're encouraging you to blindly go into a project. Figure out your market research. Figure out your community strategy. Figure out your audience. Then launch.

Joel has a point though. I have to admit that you're right about the audience, but Cory has been thinking on doing this for a very long time and he will ultimately come to a regret if he doesn't chase the challenge. Also, seeing it's Jcink - I'm guessing no funds are involved and just some time will be lost if it fails. Don't be blind sighted by those big forums and just go for it. But yes, Joel has a point to figure out your audience and lure some people to the forum before you officially open to the public to get some content started.

 

[joelr]

I mean, if you want to start a forum where your only accomplishment is installing a theme, then go for it. But if you actually want members, you want engagement, you want a thriving community, you're going to have to do some research in advance.

 

[prophet]

I've been playing YGO competitively for a few years now and most of-if not all content is revolving around facebook communities and reddit. I don't typically see very many YGO forums around anymore but if that's something you want to pursue, I'd say go for it. Market research will be your friend here and getting people who are familiar with the game, familiar with Facebook and familiar with reddit will be your best bet. Most people browse TCGplayer and ebay to purchase cards but also Facebook. I tend to buy from my local FB page because you can get cards from anywhere from 65-85% tcgplayer verified instead. It also saves on the hassle of shipping and fees from both TCGplayer and ebay.

 

[Reverie]

With @prophet 's feedback it sounds like a marketplace of some sort would come out to be a smart idea perhaps too? However then you have to worry about scams and the sort which is a whole different element on forums and a feeling of responsibility.

 

[Cory]

Thanks, everyone for the encouragement and inspiration!

@Ravenfreak: I think I've heard of that anime forum before, I'll try and check it out. Social media would be a good place to advertise, where allowed, but I bet a lot of subreddits and groups are strict about advertising. That'd be awesome if you signup, by the way!

@Reverie: Yeah, those "what ifs" could take hold of you and make you wonder why you didn't pursue such a project when you have a passion and drive for such a thing.

We'll have a disputes forum for scammers and bad traders, I'll keep a list of the addresses of scammers too to help prevent them from coming back after they're banned. It's a thing you're definitely going to run into in a marketplace, but I hope to have some firm rules in place and let members know they need to file mail fraud against scammers. I'll have a feedback system for the most part that will allow people to leave feedback just like on eBay.

@kolakube: I think a lot of teens are still attracted to the game. I haven't been to one in a long time, but when I did go to tournaments it seemed it was mostly teens and younger twenties participating. I've never created a blog before, I don't think, and a blog would be an odder place to set up a marketplace I think, since a blog is mostly meant for articles in this aspect.

@Cedric: Yeah, if people my age are still interested in Yu-Gi-Oh like I am perhaps I could attract a more older/mature audience and people that were in the forum generation when it was booming.

I want the board to purely be Yu-Gi-Oh-related right now, but if there are a lot of people that suggest it or we need to expand to gain some traction, I may consider adding additional TCGs to the forum. The reason I want it to be geared towards Yu-Gi-Oh is that that is what I'm most familiar with and to have an all-out marketplace would pretty much be more suited for people that are at least familiar with the games and know more about them. Plus, I want to start small, and having Yu-Gi-Oh sections only would help me start out with a smaller audience.

No funds should be involved unless I wanted to start paying for advertising, which I don't see happening anytime soon.

@joelr: I've been a member of Pojo and Reddit for a while now, so I'm pretty familiar with their setup. I've seen the other forums you mentioned, but I have never been a part of them. The fact that there are 388k members of the Yu-Gi-Oh subreddit tells me there's at least some interest in the game still, but I see the Pokemon subreddit has 4.4m members and the Magic the Gathering TCG subreddit has 649k members, so it goes to show there's not as much interest in Yu-Gi-Oh as there once was and some other TCG's are more popular. I don't mind a smaller audience on my board, but of course, I want there to be a daily activity that warrants the board to stay online.

When you speak of market research, what did you exactly have in mind? Just finding the right audience and figuring out a strategy to bring them in?

@prophet: You make some good points there. I've always mostly used eBay and TCGPlayer to buy and sell Yu-Gi-Oh cards. I've actually been selling some of my unneeded and duplicate cards lately on eBay. It'll be hard to find an audience that is lured to my forum over those sites, but perhaps I can think of some type of unique strategy to lure them in. You're totally right about most content regarding the game being found on Facebook and Reddit, which is why it would be hard to lure people into the forum atmosphere besides those that prefer it. Hopefully, I can think of some unique ideas to toss around to create something different that will lure some members in.

 

[prophet]

Just wanted to comment that in city YGO is def the go-to TCG. Pokemon is incredibly slow to play BUT there are plenty of collectors out there. In terms of MTG, it's been slowly dying out. I'm in a massive metroplex and there's only a select few card shops that host MTG tournaments but there's at least 30+ that host YGO. It's definitely something to take a look out but like I previously said, it'll all come down to how you advertise it and market it. YGO isn't dying like some people say and I think since the pandemic it's only gotten bigger. New banlist will be coming out soon so hopefully Kash gets hit and it'll bring more variety.

 

[Cory]

Just wanted to comment that in city YGO is def the go-to TCG. Pokemon is incredibly slow to play BUT there are plenty of collectors out there. In terms of MTG, it's been slowly dying out. I'm in a massive metroplex and there's only a select few card shops that host MTG tournaments but there's at least 30+ that host YGO. It's definitely something to take a look out but like I previously said, it'll all come down to how you advertise it and market it. YGO isn't dying like some people say and I think since the pandemic it's only gotten bigger. New banlist will be coming out soon so hopefully Kash gets hit and it'll bring more variety.

It seems in the DFW area it's mostly MTG tournaments a lot of stores put on. I ask some stores about Yu-Gi-Oh tournaments and they say we only do MTG.

I'll definitely need a good advertising/marketing strategy if I want to bring members in from other places.

 

[prophet]

I'm pretty surprised about that. I'm closed to the west side of things and typically I don't see very many that host MTG anymore. I played for a bit from 2016-19 and always had a hard time finding them whereas for YGO I can go to at least 10 or so locals in the a 30 mile radius

 

[Cory]

I'm pretty surprised about that. I'm closed to the west side of things and typically I don't see very many that host MTG anymore. I played for a bit from 2016-19 and always had a hard time finding them whereas for YGO I can go to at least 10 or so locals in the a 30 mile radius

There's only one that I can recall in the next big city over from us, which is Fort Worth. There was one I used to go to that was also in Fort Worth, but they moved closer to Arlington.

We only have one card shop in our town that I'm aware of and I don't think they do Yu-Gi-Oh tournaments.

Thankfully, our Walmart is much more stocked up on Yu-Gi-Oh products than it used to be. They used to be blown out all the time, but now they have a great selection!

 

[prophet]

I'll shoot you a pm here shortly.

 

[Cory]

Well, I finally decided to open its doors. I have advertised on various forums, the Jcink Directory, and Forum Toplist so far.

I may try some social media marketing soon, but a lot of social media kind of intimidates me.

Now, I really need to find boards that are similar that allow advertisements.

 

[Reverie]

That is one of the difficult parts - finding similar enough communities that allow advertisements. I might message you one that may have a good source of people who might be interested!