Will you start a forum

[Dilip]

Take a deep breath, think. If you want to start a community interaction on a subject, will you choose forum as a platform? In 2024, there are so many options and forums looks toughest of them all.

 

[Daniel-Monetize.info]

Yes I would choose a forum because you own it. If you start it on FB or any other social media platform, if they decide to close you, then you lose everything.

Of course you can leverage social media and other platforms to drive traffic to your community

 

[Ravenfreak]

Depending on the niche I would go with a forum. If it's just a place to chat I would go with Discord, or another chat client. If I'm sharing information a forum is the best place to have discussions about said topic, and it'll be more organized than any other platform.

 

[Nomad]

I will choose forum to build my community. I cannot own a community I create on social media but my forums are my own, I make my rules. Yes, it is difficult but it gives you a lot of satisfaction to have a community as your own home.

 

[Senkusha]

In 2024, I probably would not start a forum. I don't believe there's enough demand for forums in this current era of the Internet. I also probably would not choose to use a platform either, because of the various censorship issues that I see on Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, TikTok, even YouTube.

 

[joelr]

It depends on the subject. It depends on the interaction and audience. It depends on how much money, if any, I want to burn.

In 2024, I probably would not start a forum. I don't believe there's enough demand for forums in this current era of the Internet. I also probably would not choose to use a platform either, because of the various censorship issues that I see on Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, TikTok, even YouTube.

I hear censorship thrown around a lot. While I agree with you in theory, have you personally been censored on those platforms? Or is the threat of it enough to make you not want to participate? Do you not censor your users if they don't follow guidelines?

 

[Shortie]

My first option when it comes to building a new community would always be a forum. I have been using forums for 20 years now as a member and also as an admin and as much as I know that there are options out there for communities on social media platforms, nothing beats the nostalgia of a forum.

 

[Heatman]

It's very important to point out that building a community especially a forum isn't easy but is it worth it? The answer is YES. It will required a lot commitment and also money for you to succeed in building and managing one. Once it starts thriving, it's going to be more easier to handle with your team of course.

 

[MrDawn]

I don't see the point in starting a forum community. Not enough people to join and they die rather quickly these days. Social Media and Discord are a major factor in why there are less and less people joining forum communities.

 

[Baw$e]

I started my forum in 2024. I believe Xenforo is pretty good, and has a lot of features you can find on social media sites.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

I'll choose multiple platforms.

Forums are special. I've been running them for more than 20 years. I love them and their functions. I'll still run them.

But I'll use other platforms, too, pending the niche and audience. Maybe it'll be a blog, social media, mailing list, or even a Circle or Mighty Networks community.

It depends on the niche and what the audience prefers.

 

[Henrywrites]

I don't see the point in starting a forum community. Not enough people to join and they die rather quickly these days. Social Media and Discord are a major factor in why there are less and less people joining forum communities.

If you are going to be niche based when running a forum, you can become successful at it. The most important thing is ensuring that you build towards becoming better and posting contents on your forum especially when it is entirely new.

 

[Heatman]

I started my forum in 2024. I believe Xenforo is pretty good, and has a lot of features you can find on social media sites.

XenForo is definitely the best forum software out that which you can choose to run your forum with. They offer the best support to help you in anything that you need in the course of running and managing your community.

 

[Henrywrites]

XenForo is definitely the best forum software out that which you can choose to run your forum with. They offer the best support to help you in anything that you need in the course of running and managing your community.

Aside from the support that they offer, they are also very good with the features. You will have access to lots of amazing features that would make running your forum to be a smooth one.

 

[Tracy]

It depends on how much money, if any, I want to burn.

And this is a BIG point. My site is for my enjoyment and use. If others get a benefit from it, then great.
But it DOES cost me easily in the 4 figure range at a bare minimum each year (almost 5 this past year).
I have the money to spend on a hobby. Yes, I could use that more in my main niche, but then I am reliant on other sites to post my content on. There is a level of personal conceit (that I freely acknowledge) that would rather that information be posted on a site that belongs (and is tied) to me instead of another party.
The bigger issue at hand is... is a forum actually what would fit your needs best, or is there another format that would be more successful?

XenForo is definitely the best forum software out that which you can choose to run your forum with. They offer the best support to help you in anything that you need in the course of running and managing your community.

I will gladly argue this point. XenForo itself is sorely reliant on outside 3rd party developers (which have a the normal habit of disappearing regularly and costing significant amounts of money) when compared to another script provider like Invision. In the case of Invision, they offer a full suite, which whether you want to acknowledge it or not, is important in todays internet environ. A classic example.. on my site the main traffic is not to the forum (where there is content) but to the 3rd party add-ons that I purchased to extend the content creation options. Same with the search queries via Google. They do not discover the forum posts, but the content that was generated by those 1st and 3rd party extensions of the script.
A simplistic forum is going to have a hard time gaining traction. You have to offer your users well more than that, and XenForo (even with it's first party add-ons) is limited when compared to the other two major paid forum scripts. Being able to create content generation input formats for stuff like reviews, directories, articles (more than what XF calls an article) and such has become a requirement of a successful "forum" based site (unless you are running a pr0n site and even those are getting harder to get traction with).
As for their support... if you are talking about direct support, unless it is directly related to the code, you won't get support from them officially via tickets. They regularly tell their license holders (from my first hand experience and from communications with others) if it is in any way style/template related, that is not supported via tickets and you need to post on their site and hope for help from other licensed users of the script.
At least with Invision (who I have a wealth of issues with but have no problem praising them where it is due), I had no problems getting replies to them via ticket about templating issues that XenForo would refuse to answer.
Now let's not even discuss features... are we talking features that are of benefit to you the admin? Or are we talking about features that are of benefit to what keeps your site active and viable... those end users? XenForo for years has been falling steadily behind in the feature sets they offer the actual end users, concentrating more on what makes their script 3rd party developers lives easier. Unluckily... that frequently ends up costing the admin additional money to get those functions from third party developers as their offerings are paid only. And before any of the XF fanbois have a stroke, it is something that most longer time XenForo admins are well aware of and accept as a normal part of doing business using the XenForo script. Whining and trying to make excuses of "bloat" and other similar arguments simply do not hold water. XF could increase their income base by offering several of those "extended" features themselves as 1st party extensions. That way, the bloat that many of the fanbois like to whine about is pretty much non-existant.
They are promising some end user benefits in their upcoming 2.4 release. But honestly I do not expect it to be much more than a bare bones stubbing out of features that begs for 3rd party developers to make actually useful, which is the normal XenForo format of features. The one thing I am looking forward to is the new editor. The current ones sucks, especially when on a cell phone.

In a nutshell, anyone wanting to start a site up needs to first determine what the needs of that site is. It may be forum based, it may be blog based or it may be something like Joomla or Drupal. The person wanting to start the site up really needs to sit down and lay out a framework of what they want to offer then look at the software that fits the needs of those requirements.
It will never be the same for two people. It seems that people tend to migrate to a forum because that is what they are familiar with at some level.