Do you think that someone building a new aquarium hobbyist discussion forum today stand any chance of it becoming popular given the situation with social media seemingly taking over that niche. ?
A new fish forum
- Thread starter Mr. Bones
- Start date
it depends on how specialized the forum will be, and what niche it is supposed to take.
I'm a member of a couple of aquatic plant forums, both seem to do pretty well.. there are numerous others that are doing well too.
social media is good at quickly answering questions,
forums are good to store good information as a reference material.
there's some cross over, but there is more to is than just that... you need to be somewhere welcoming to the participants, think about amount of advertising, quality of information, that sort of thing.
There have been an awful lot of incredible people who were members of AC< for example, and now are not... ask yourself why that is.
if you have the answer, and a way to make your forum appealing to that sort of people, then you may have it made!
I'm a member of a couple of aquatic plant forums, both seem to do pretty well.. there are numerous others that are doing well too.
social media is good at quickly answering questions,
forums are good to store good information as a reference material.
there's some cross over, but there is more to is than just that... you need to be somewhere welcoming to the participants, think about amount of advertising, quality of information, that sort of thing.
There have been an awful lot of incredible people who were members of AC< for example, and now are not... ask yourself why that is.
if you have the answer, and a way to make your forum appealing to that sort of people, then you may have it made!
Thank you so much for your reply, you have given me a lot to consider. Im not interested in monetizing a site, just providing a welcoming place for people to enjoy sharing their hobby, and as for myself i enjoy working with the software and building the site.
But that whole endeavor is not free usually and it is also time consuming, so to do all that just to have no one show up would suck
But that whole endeavor is not free usually and it is also time consuming, so to do all that just to have no one show up would suck
If it gets big enough, the expenditure to provide the server and bandwidth would likely be significant.
There are free servers out there, but no idea how seriously they are taken; I personally would assume one would have a short shelf life, and not really bother contributing.
There are free servers out there, but no idea how seriously they are taken; I personally would assume one would have a short shelf life, and not really bother contributing.
Well, i have decided to take the plunge. The site will be as much unlike any other site, as far as annoying ads, abusive staff etc. as i can make it. Nothing ventured nothing gained i always say. Thank for your input.
Starting a new forum takes commitment from a dedicated group of people to promote it and quickly to respond to posts in the early days of it's existence.
I think, with the decline in forum popularity this might be difficult to achieve but the investment to give it a shot is mostly time and effort so if you have a group of people with the time I would say go for it.
I think, with the decline in forum popularity this might be difficult to achieve but the investment to give it a shot is mostly time and effort so if you have a group of people with the time I would say go for it.
