Blog Forums

[shyflower]

How many here have considered attaching a forum to their blogs or have already done it? Did it work as well as you thought it would? What are the advantages and disadvantages as you see them?

[BPartch]

I have thought about it, even to the point that I created a theme for a bbPress install I used to have up, I just never linked to it. The disadvantages would be having to deal with moderating it, plus getting people to participate.

[ses5909]

Interesting question! I never considered it. The blog here on TBE is an extension of the forum but i think what you are asking is you have an established blog and you add a forum to it.

[shyflower]

Yes, I think if a person is getting a lot of comments on their blog posts or have a large subscriber base in their feed, it's the perfect opportunity to start a forum. However, I agree that moderation and the time it takes would be a major consideration.

What does everyone else think?

[tetsujin]

I have a forum that is connected to my blog but my forum came first and never had anything to do with the blog.

Cameron

[Simon]

I think I'd be worried that if no one participated in the forum it would tarnish the image of the blog. It doesn't really seem like a worthwhile risk. I have considered sponsoring an area on a popular forum but never went through with it.

[doorlight]

Nope. I will never run a forum like this. The hardest thing about having a forum and you are the admin is keeping your members keep on coming back.

I'd just run a blog without the forum.

[snookca]

I've thought about creating a forum as an extension of Snook.ca but I've been reluctant because of the maintenance. I always thought it'd be a good way to allow readers to initiate the conversation instead of me always coming up with the topics.

[4clubbs]

At this point, I'd be happy with a few more comments. :)

No, I don't think I would ever run a forum.

[andrewjbarnett]

I did once have a forum attached to my blog, it was more for communicating with friends then being a real forum. Very little outside traffic came, I always have more success just running the blog. If you got the point of having over 50 comments per post, then I may consider branching out to use the forum as the comment platform as there are a number of plugins to make phpBB as your comment platform rather then WP commenting.

[ghing]

Nope... never thought of it..
i think it's really hard to run a forum..
I'd rather stick in creating blogs than forums...

[deronsizemore]

It's crossed my mind, but I think my time could be better spent writing for my blog or developing other site ideas rather than trying to develop a forum.

With my blog being Random Jabber, I guess a forum would go well for people to just discuss anything that comes to mind, but forums are hard to start.

[shyflower]

I guess after all this response, I'll let the idea pass -- at least for awhile. It's just that I thought that some comments could possibly be expanded into forum topics and that some folks might more easily join a forum discussion than commenting on the topic.

[Bloggeries]

If in a very specific niche it makes sense if you already have a popular blog. If you just want to add a forum with no real "niche" I''d say don't bother. Building forums is tough work regardless of how many friends help you and unless there is a strong niche reason for new people to join the chances aren't the highest and the payout / effort ratio isn't the best :D Just my $0.02

[Selkirk]

I thought about a forum, but the world doesn't need another PHP forum.

I thought about doing a political blog / forum combination. I registered livelydebate.com and put a blog on it with the intent of converting it to a forum. But, a client started a political forum and created a conflict of interest. My brother calls the site "lonely debate" because I never update it. I hope to revive the site somewhat in 2008.

[ses5909]

It seems that now would be a perfect time to do the whole political thing. If you get it established you may be able to monetize it for the coming elections.

[Michael Martin]

I have a forum with another site of mine, and I love it. I haven't considered adding one to my blog though, because it's just so much work. I'm not sure that I want to go through it all again. xD (And is there really a need for another design-based forum on the net any ways??? xD )

[shyflower]

It seems that now would be a perfect time to do the whole political thing. If you get it established you may be able to monetize it for the coming elections.

Not to change the subject, but I did a press release a while back for a political forum. If you're into politics, it's a great place to visit. It's called "Pick the Party (http://www.picktheparty.com/)"