I'm thinking of creating a local forum site a project for my spare time and build on it over time to do more but I have so worries.

1. Do people still bother with forums outside the big owns could I get members ?
2. Would I be just wasting my time and money ?
3. Would it need a lot of investment ?
4. Would it need a lot of seo and money unlike in the past?
5. would It be best to stay with a basic forum and not over do it ?
6. if you think its worth a go what would be a good software to start with I have a idea of a few but looking for suggestions.
7. too many big sites you can easily access which is my worry and people wont try a new site.

I have built a few new sites it the past but did not outside my business sites.
so im a bit worries


I would also have one downside of a large forum site focused on the same thing.

The other issue is are people even google or do they just go to facebook now or something they already know.

I think the biggest up to the forum would be its local and will focus on people and area and around the local community.

Local communities are already well served with social media groups,  nextdoor and similar.

Setting up a forum is cheap and easy. getting people to sign up and use it is hard work, time consuming and potentially very expensive.

Thanks this was my main worries 

Setting up a forum  would be simple, but marketing can be costly 

I was just worried how or if I would get them member and the issue of keeping the forum going till I get them, like you said  getting people to sign up and use it is hard work, time consuming and potentially very expensive.

10 - 20 years ago it may have been easier but now im not sure if people would even look twice at new simple forum.

never heard of nextdoor is it any good ?

4 hours ago, 2012 said:

never heard of nextdoor is it any good ?

My wife uses it all the time. We have found all sorts of tradespeople, cheap and free stuff and lots of local news and information.

https://nextdoor.co.uk/

Thanks, 

I took a look the only issue I have is the ask for a lot I mean a lot of personal information which Im not confertable sharing unless I know they wont share it like facebook.

 

 

also you said Local communities are covered, would it be better to go for something more broad like a national site ? or is it forums and communities in general that are dead  

Ill put it another way what would make you try out a new site 

what features would you like to see ?

1. Do people still bother with forums outside the big owns could I get members ?

They're not as popular as they once were, social media took over, but they're still useful, especially for nice subjects. Also worthy of note a forum can run on very little PII, social media platforms suck up personal info like there's no tomorrow so you have a privacy angle.

2. Would I be just wasting my time and money ?

Give it a go, it may go nowhere, but it may turn out to be useful for your local community - you will never know unless you try.

3. Would it need a lot of investment ?

Not necessarily, for starters all you need is some good hosting and a forum system. You could start with shared hosting to see how it goes, if the forum starts to  get busy then upgrade hosting to suit.

4. Would it need a lot of seo and money unlike in the past?

If it's for a local area then use social media to get the word out. Write decent titles and meta descriptions for your key forum pages and search engines will index it.

5. would It be best to stay with a basic forum and not over do it ?

Yes, start simple then add/enhance if/when you need to. It's easier to add than take away.

6. if you think its worth a go what would be a good software to start with I have a idea of a few but looking for suggestions.

There's a lot to be said for SAAS forums like IPB (used by this forum), Discourse, vBulletin or Vanilla. Some of these have free plans that you can start with then upgrade as you need to. The advantage of using a hosted service is that you don't need to buy hosting and software is updated for you. The disadvantage is that changing services can be a bit of a chore though there are usually migration services to help.

If you wanted to self host some of the above might offer downloadable versions. PHPBB was always the most popular self hosted. It does attract spammers but it does have anti spam extensions you can install.

7. too many big sites you can easily access which is my worry and people wont try a new site.

Nothing gained, nothing lost. If we all just pondered about stuff we'd get nowhere. Sometimes in life you just have to go with an idea to see what happens.

Edited March 17, 20215 yr by BlueDreamer

@BlueDreamer Thanks I for the useful information.

 

1 hour ago, BlueDreamer said:

3. Would it need a lot of investment ?

Not necessarily, for starters all you need is some good hosting and a forum system. You could start with shared hosting to see how it goes, if the forum starts to  get busy then upgrade hosting to suit.

Thanks i was worried I would need to advertise a lot.

 

1 hour ago, BlueDreamer said:

4. Would it need a lot of seo and money unlike in the past?

If it's for a local area then use social media to get the word out. Write decent titles and meta descriptions for your key forum pages and search engines will index it.

Thanks Ill also create a facebook page and group

1 hour ago, BlueDreamer said:

5. would It be best to stay with a basic forum and not over do it ?

Yes, start simple then add/enhance if/when you need to. It's easier to add than take away.

 

1 hour ago, BlueDreamer said:

6. if you think its worth a go what would be a good software to start with I have a idea of a few but looking for suggestions.

There's a lot to be said for SAAS forums like IPB (used by this forum), Discourse, vBulletin or Vanilla. Some of these have free plans that you can start with then upgrade as you need to. The advantage of using a hosted service is that you don't need to buy hosting and software is updated for you. The disadvantage is that changing services can be a bit of a chore though there are usually migration services to help.

If you wanted to self host some of the above might offer downloadable versions. PHPBB was always the most popular self hosted. It does attract spammers but it does have anti spam extensions you can install.

I was thinking of going for a free software

I was thinking using wordpress with bbpress 1st choice , its a lot better then it use to be it kept upto date, I could easily get help when needed, add new features in the future and it can look modern.

 

my 2nd choice would PHPBB its a full feature forum but im not sure how much upgradeability it will have.

 

I have thought about Invision Community forum, vBulletin, xenforum  but the upfront cost would be a issue 

 

Others  

vanilla forums - ive never really used it so i have no idea

Discourse - i dont know much abour

mybb - I've used it it was good but things seam a little slow to update

other new forums like Flarum & NodeBB seam a little new 

 

 

The people with knowledge what do you thing or suggest ?

1 hour ago, BlueDreamer said:

7. too many big sites you can easily access which is my worry and people wont try a new site.

Nothing gained, nothing lost. If we all just pondered about stuff we'd get nowhere. Sometimes in life you just have to go with an idea to see what happens

 

Thanks that helps

 

Now a confusing question from my point, should I name the forum ("location" in the name or go for something wider ) (board, Forum or go for something like hub or community ) even something else like .com , 

Call it whatever you want. Don't use the word forum or hub or even community until you know what you want the forum to do.

Is it going to be questions and answers, sharing information, help with local issues and so on. Don't try to be all things.

The other consideration is the population size. A busy forum needs thousands of members. If you only have a local population of 10,000 then there just won't be enough people to make it viable.

You may still have to spend money on advertising. SM marketing may not work. You are asking people in FB group to leave to group and sign up for a new forum to post the same things they already do in the FB group.