I'm in the middle of re-evaluating/redesigning my website and am pondering the future of my forums. Currently we host our own forums, but they're very, very quiet for the most part, except for the usual legion of spam bots who sign up.
Now I notice most of the indie crowd have their forums over at the Forge and was wondering about doing the same, or maybe moving them to my forums here. So what are the advantages of hosting my own vs having them hosted at the Forge or here? What do people think?
I think its comes down to
Submitted by Newt Newport on Mon, 19/03/2007 - 16:31.
I think its comes down to the focus of your target audience.
If your target audience is active over at the forge or Live Journal then set up shop there.
If your target audience is here set it up here.
If your target audience prefers a forum attached to your site, go with that.
Also you might have multiple TAs (potential customers, design collaborators etc ) which may use different 'venues'
This is what I've always done with communicating what the Molad demo team is upto with the HeroQuest community.
Most of the TA are the potential players, so up until very recently posting over at HQ-RPG on Yahoo groups was the way to go. If I had a design question on a scenario I was writing it went over to the Forge HQ forum where they were interested in such things. My final TA of course was the MoLaD members themselves where I post to another closed Yahoo group.
You also have to realise that TA's are fickle beasts and can over time change their mind on where they like to hang out. For example the Forge HQ forum closed down, because it is no longer published by its creator,and the Yahoo email group is dieing a slow death (this seems typical of all yahoo groups, I'ld put this down to the changes they are making to the service + more people can spend time surfing and use forums these days). So I've taken up the torch and created a forum that hopefully satisfies both groups.
Back to your quandary, I'd start thinking about who your TAs are.
Regards
;O)Newt
...and
Submitted by Newt Newport on Tue, 20/03/2007 - 14:20.
On the theme of TAs being a fickle beast, you can set up a board exactly to their requirements and but if they already have their favoured watering hole they'll never drink at yours.
TAs are social creatures so if they already have a favorite watering hole, where you can set up business go with that.
Regards
;O)Newt