What should a forum have?

Before promotion, what should a forum have? I think dedication put into it for example blood, sweat and tears, good activity, nice smooth theme no bumps included and nice staff no gurantee of a good laugh out of them.

I agree, however, the activity should not come from members, but from staff. Having a good post count in most of the forums is good, and maybe not so many forums to begin with.

The style should be done, and it can be tweaked up after wards if needed.

You pretty much hit the button on this one.

Yes, very muchly agree'd with, but the best of the post's should come from all, including adminstrator's thereself as some think that the job will be down in no time, and they will have a successful community in no time, but they are the ones to think wrong. Also look's are everything to a forum, you want to have a good easy to use navigation bar and good forum icon and images and then when your moving on as Macster said tweaking and messing about with the theme. Also I think having general smilie's of your own are needed just one's that are neccessarily such as ' , , and . I do not want to discipline the forum rules by going over the mark, but I feel smilie's are a great way for member's to express their feeling's and should have their own personal set.

yeah it's always cool to have your own and originality lol.

Also, if you ever plan on creating a community and looking for suggestions, let member's of other forums have their say and if you have already created a board with many member's and looking for opinions a great way is to ask various active member's also member's who aren't as active as the feautre could simply make them active again.

Forums should have a range of discussion, polite staff, active, and nicely themed.

Forbidden Words wrote:Forums should have a range of discussion, polite staff, active, and nicely themed.

This is pretty much on the right track.. activity is one thing, but it should come from the admins more than anything. Once a site comes off the ground it will pretty much run itself, which will give the admins a break they so desperately needed.

Good skin, good host, modifications installed. And a few posts.

Reliable hosting, a decent look, a simple layout. Friendly and dependable staff. The list goes on.

It will take a while for member's activity to kick in as you won't have as much discussion as you'd probably have in another's month time. Also a nice theme is a great idea for every forum as most boad's have dull grey template's no modification or features to represent the board. I would rather the colour of the rainbow as my theme than a dull no-based modifications or features.