What made you choose your main forum topic?

[Joeychgo]

What made you choose your main forum topic?

I mean, of your first forum. What made you chose the topic and to start the forum?

[dakar]

Just a hobby/obsession.... the existing forums of similar content related to the subject were too 'clichy', in one afternoon the forums were built...

[Coder1]

When I decided to hang out my own shingle, it was in response to a fairly constant level of inquiry from contacts I had made in the industry (which is commercial printing). Despite the fact that printing is an information-driven industry, there is a lack of attention to information technology. So many printers have an old-school "ink-on-paper" mentality. That's ok, printing is an art and a craft. However, that mentality is often at odds with computerization, and data-driven production.

I started my site as many do: just to have a web presence. I am adverse to SEO and in particular to Google Adsense, which in my opinion is ruining the web. So to increase traffic, I added content: technical articles.

The forum was a natural extension to this, a way to get like-minded members to gather and generate topics of interest to my market. It was never a money-making venture, but rather a way to associate I.T. technology, with the printing industry, with me (http://www.tgreer.com).

I don't run any advertising, of any kind, anywhere. I also keep a close eye on vendors who join the site. They are welcome to participate, but not to advertise overtly. My members greatly appreciate it.

I get some donations, but I maintain the site for the business it brings me, not as a business in-and-of itself.

That said, I've been contemplating an advertising campaign, which I would fund through very discrete sponsorship, which I'm still brainstorming.

As a semi-professional poet, I also briefly ran a blog and a poetry forum. It went very well, but I was tired of the constant blog-spamming, and also content-management. I do NOT care for political discussions, and I do NOT run erotic content. Constantly deleting spam and moderating content robbed all the joy from running that site, so I shut it down.

[Joeychgo]

Mine is a pretty common story.

I was looking for information about my car one day and came across a small-ish forum (about 700 members) dedicated to my car. I joined, and became part of the community.

Without going into all the horrid details (My girlfriend called it 'as the car club turns') I wasnt happy with how it was run, nor the clicque-ish nature of the site. So, I built my own forum with the help of several others. 2 years and 7000 members later, here I am.

As a side note, the other forum is still around, but really near death. Only the 'clicque' is still active there for the most part.

[John]

Mine = there was a combination of an existing niche (now listen here my US friends... this is pronounced neesh OK.. ;) hehehehe), a demand, and wherewithall. Thus... tMP was born. :)

[Coder1]

@John - and a great forum you've got, too. I'm a musician, as well (guitar) and my children play violin and piano.

I particularly like your "Invitation" footer. :) (though - you need to adjust the width of that table to something smaller, so Forum Jump doesn't get pushed around so much.)

[Peggy]

Mine is simple... I wanted to create a forum where adults could gather to talk about adult topics, make new friends, flirt like crazy, escape from real life somewhat, and enjoy themselves.
I also wanted to dispell the myth that adult and porn go hand in hand. I think I've done a pretty darn good job ;)

[Biggles LLB]

Mine is simple... I wanted to create a forum where adults could gather to talk about adult topics, make new friends, flirt like crazy, escape from real life somewhat, and enjoy themselves.
I also wanted to dispell the myth that adult and porn go hand in hand. I think I've done a pretty darn good job ;)So do I babydoll. But at the end of the day (don't ya just HATE that expression?) it's what you think that really counts.

Me? I started mine to put some human rights issues out there and to dispell certain myths - mainly about me. Selfish, I know, but boy ... has it got legs. Second full month not yet over and already exceeded 212,000 hits from 24 countries, including the good ole US of A. Thanks you guys. And I mean that. :D

BTW, what is Old Style ARPANET in 'Country' statistics? Anyone know?

Regards

Mike, aka Biggles LLB

[Peggy]

where are you seeing this car at? I've hit every reply button and can't find it yet, lol

[Biggles LLB]

where are you seeing this car at? I've hit every reply button and can't find it yet, lolHiya Peg. How's it hangin' baby? :)

That pic is under the 'Reply' button every time I go to it. Can't figure it but it's starting to get up my nostrils.

[Peggy]

Hiya Peg. How's it hangin' baby? :)

That pic is under the 'Reply' button every time I go to it. Can't figure it but it's starting to get up my nostrils.



could very well be a glitch... or could be your puter ;) But Joey will see this and reply, I'm sure. I still haven't seen it.

Oh and... I think the hanging question is one I should ask of you baby ;)

[John]

It looks as though Joey has uploaded an image overwriting the clear.gif image with a Haynes Manual car maintenance image!!!!

I shall see if I can fix it.

EDIT: there ya go... I uploaded the correct image. Should be OK now.

[Peggy]

GREAT... I hope he sees this (Biggles)

[Nintendo]

Back from 1996 to 2001, the only web sites I had were video games sites, starting with just Nintendo web sites, until 2000. I started on the WWWBoards back in 1996 and upgraded to vBulletin in 2001.

[Peggy]

I love to flirt......... that's why, lol

There's a definite difference between "adult" and porn. So my mission was/is to make this fact known ;)

[contactsonia]

I am into Webhosting, web development and SEO for about 9 years now so I felt comfortable running a Webmaster Related forum and finally last year I started http://www.webmastertalk.in :)

I now have 1000+ members now :)

[Big Dan]

I choose my topic, DJing because I've been a DJ since I'm 15 a member of a few DJ forums since then and was unsatisfied by how they were run.

I now have "OurDjTalk - An Open DJ Community" which is relitively unmodderated, I just implemented rules and regs because things were getting a little out of control.

WeddingDayBlues was on a whim when I first started it, I just bought a new vB license am an going to work on promotion shortly. :)

[Elsie]

well, we don't really have one....... we're just a place to chat and relax. :)


the members seem to like it ;)

[b2w]

DH and I finally decided to get married so I joined up with so many message boards so I could get some good ideas, didn't like most of them, found a great one with good girls, became a super mod and the Admin left... So we got tired of his disappearing acts (6 months at a time) so we decided to make our own wedding planning board and we (my co-admin and I) took all of the active girls with us. The three of four who stayed made a stink and the other wedding planning message boards wanted us to fail...almost 8 months later we're doing great. We're 2k away from 100k posts and we're happy about it. We love wedding planning! :)

[minstrel]

DH?

In my case, it was seeing a need for a psychology/self-help/support forum and not liking what I saw happening on those forums available at that time - decided I could do better than the others and the rest, as they say, is history... err... psychology... :o

[Hell³]

DH?Oh gawd not again, I can only take so much laughter.

I just opened mine to give some friends and new acquaintances a good place to chat. I hope to make it a big general chat community.

[friscogal]

i was getting married in cabo and could not find any good information..there was a yahoo forum but it was super unorganized and sucked. i was emailing with 3-4 other brides and figured there had to be a better way to share info...so i started www.caboweddingforum.com even though we only opened this year and it is a very specialized niche, we have over 400 brides.

[Peggy]

Oh gawd not again, I can only take so much laughter.

hahaha and I was trying to let it pass... lolol

[minstrel]

we only opened this year and ...we have over 400 brides
Yikes! :eek:

Your poor husband must be exhausted...

[Peggy]

http://www.exquisitelyerotic.net/forums/images/smilies/rofl.gif

[b2w]

Yikes! :eek:

Your poor husband must be exhausted...

:p

[Rude Awakening]

Initially my first forums were intended to be used by my processor and myself. Once the forums went up, I realized the true potential and eventually ended up making it for all mortgage professionals.

My second set of forums of course are inspired for the first. I thought well now that I'm helping industry professionals, how about taking care of the every day consumer. :D

[eJM]

I tried to start a forum for professionals several years ago and it went bust -- or I just didn't have the patience to wait it out. I had similar experiences with a computer modding forum, which was actually doing okay and I was willing to be more patient, but then I got sick. I wasn't able to keep up with that forum, so I closed it, then reopened it because another experienced coder and modder talked me into it thinking we would get it going again, but that turned into an exercises in futility.

When I finally started feeling better about dieing (lung disease), I joined a bunch of forums specific to my disease. Although some of them had excellent medical information, I kept getting in trouble because I thought the Internet was pretty much set up to show images and other graphical content, but some old webmasters didn't think so. I had many messages edited or deleted, and a couple of sites banned me. So, I started www.1FootInTheGrave.com . But I s'pose I shoulda registered at minstrel forums to learn how to deal with roller coaster feelings about handling issues concerning impending death -- my own and others. So I have seriously neglected that forum.

To help myself get out of the way of my depression and to vent my frustration over a popular flooring forum being hacked every other day, I started www.TheFloorPro.com . I was taken by surprise at the overwhelming acceptance in a very short period of time. Many of the members of flooring forums I frequent (and still do) joined my site and have been participating a lot. It's another niche site, but I have tried to add features and content you don't find at other flooring sites. Our consumer/DIYer membership role is very small right now, but we are just starting to make an impression there. There are less than 300 pro members, but a huge percentage of them participate.

Okay, way more than you wanted to know. Sorry.

R'gards,

Jim

[Peggy]

Don't apologise, Jim. I find it very interesting to read about other people's forums

[minstrel]

re: Rude Awakening

Had to comment on your member name... In the small town near me, there is a breakfast and lunch coffee shop called "Brewed Awakenings" - great name - and great coffee, way better than Tim Horton's and the rest. :)