-Using Free Forum Hosts.
Sure free forums hosts such as Proboards and Forumotion are free but there are many restrictions with free hosts. Number one you don't own your own content and you are subject to their terms.Also many free hosts put adverts on your forum which most readers and members don't want to see. Then you could end up loosing your forum for one reason or another, if the free hosts closes down. Also your domain name is likely to be something like "myforum.proboards.com" and who is going to remember that long address? So for heavens sake, if you are serious about building a long term forum you need to get your own custom domain, host it yourself on a paid web host and install some forum software. No two ways about it.
-Having Too Many Forums.
I see many forum with sections that only have one or 2 threads in them and lots of other sub-forums with only a few topics This is very off putting as it makes your forum look empty. If you don't have many topics to start with you should not have too many different sections or forums. Start with one or 2 sections,then when you get more threads you can always add more forum or sub-forums.-Not Being Active Enough.
As a forum admin you should try to post on the forum every day. You cannot expect new members who have just joined to start new topics themselves. You should also make an effort to reply to members threads. On Computer Chat we have a policy that if a thread a members has posted has had no replies after 48 hours one of our moderators will respond to that thread. Members join a forum because they are looking for help or answers to a question. So it is not helpful to the poster if nobody bothers to reply to their topic.-Guest Posts.
Allowing guest to post is a definite no no. You will get spam. You should make your forum visible to guests as otherwise your forum won't be indexed in search engines. But you should only let registered members post not guests. Some admins thing that letting guests posts will get more members to join your forum but this doesn't. If a members wants to be part of your community then they will take the time to register.-Ugly Theme.
I have seen many boards that are ugly. Okay you are using PhpBB because it's free but you don't have to use the default theme it comes with. There are many other PhpBBb themes you can install and you can customize your site with CSS. Even if you don't use paid forum software such as V Bulletin or Xenforo as I used on my forum. You can still customize your forum with the free forum software.-Private Forums.
Some admins set their forum up as private meaning it is not visible to guests and only registered members can view the forum. This is a big mistake. If guests cannot see your forum then neither will search engines and your forum won't get indexed and you won't get decent traffic to your website. You can of course have some sections on your forum for members only but you should also have other sections visible to guests.-Have Rules And Forum Guidelines.
Some forum admins have either too many rules or not enough rules. I won't go into this too much here except to say that it is a good idea to have some rules of what your members can and cannot do. Though at the same time you don't want to be seen as too strict or as an admin who lets members do as they please. So being a good forum admin is also important.Final Note- starting a forum is never easy and it's almost a full time job and takes up quite a bit of your free time. So if you are not fully committed to being on the forum regular you are better off starting with a blog or website instead.
Peter Murphy, Admin-Computer Chat.
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