We’re Expanding
A couple of weeks back we asked you guys for any other means you could communicate with eachother and what would enrich your user experience. Most people voted on a forum and newsletter. Well the newsletter is still something we’re debating wheter to use or not, but in the meantime we asked one of our trustworthy readers to help out set up a new forum. So here’s us thanking Steven! ( the crazy poster guy).
Thinking about some recent events, it seems there’s no better time for another hangout spot to debate current issues. We’d like to move debates and arguments away from the comments and into the forums.
What we did and why:
- We went with free forum software because we want to see if you guys are actually going to use it.
- We took a domain name instead of hosting the forum under a folder or subdomain because we felt it needs to be something that can grow on it’s own, not as a part of the blog.
So without further ado, we’d like to introduce you to Mooforum dot Com and hope to welcome you there soon. Just keep in mind that it’s all very new at the moment and that it’s a work in progress. It’s even the default theme! Steven has set up a couple of boards which should get you guys going. We promise to improve the look and feel soon. Any suggestions are more than welcome obviously.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Well, mooforum, cool! You guys are real animal
Cool, another place to hang out
Cool idea
This is going to be interesting to watch. I’ve often thought about starting a forum myself but I’m yet to see a (non-Alist) blog that has attached a really successful forum.
Even with the money that BloggingTips.com spends advertising their forum, it’s never really taken off…I guess it’s just too easy to comment on the blog.
I hope this forum is different and I wish you success Mr Cow!!
Not too bad a move and I hope it goes off - like CQ mentioned it might be easier to comment on the blog itself - but then again you won’t be talking about everything here.
Good idea. I signed up.
Definitely worth checking out…
Cool idea, a few suggestions though, your going to want to go all in or nothing to make a forum takeoff. Right now its just the default install and theme. Which is fine if your just starting a forum, but to try and attach it to something else, in this case your blog it should of started off with a custom skin or at least a non default skin.
Secondly there are way too many forums on it right now, makes the place look deader than it may really be. You want to start small and build up over time, that why parts of the forum don’t look totally dead. As the forum grows you add more forums, and move around key posts to the correct categories then. Doing things this way means the new forums arealdy have key posts in them and will spark interest for other people to add to them, or post there own thread.
But good luck with the forums, I’m already registered as Brian.
Hm.. mooforum has launched..
I will be active at that forum…
Maybe many mooo will give some info at that forum..
Should be interesting. We’ll see how well it gets received. Nice domain.
good luck with this. if done right you may be able to monetize it. you can always set a limit to the amount of comments made here, then the rest get sent to the forum. you can also make it so you posts about certain things and the discussion is continued at the forum. you can also give stuff away, etc, etc, etc.
For the record, I am looking up mods and skins for the forum. The reason it hasn’t actually been done is because I actually just got a replacement router around last week. Prior to that, I pretty much had no internet (or very limited access) for a few weeks. So expect to see some great additions as soon as I find everything I am looking for.
Not sure how well it will work out but you never know.
All very interesting. I don’t mean to sound egotistical but you may like to check out my blog for tips and advice on setting up a successful forum. For a start, right now you simply have too many categories - this only draws attention to the fact there isn’t much activity. This is something that dissuades visitors from registering.
In any case, good luck with your new venture!
- Martin Reed
If the forum is running on phpBB, why don’t you install proSilver theme? It is cool.
Now you do want to make money online , dont you?. congrats for the new site.
If I had actually quit my day job I would be doing the same.
Ok I signed up, looks like it will be a good place to exchange discussions, ideas and make moooney…
hahaha.. i guess the COW will be as successful as the CHOW in no time!
Sounds good, I registered.
I’ve added a few more categories and included an annoucement area for changes to we will be adding. I also included a feedback and suggestion area if you guys have any ideas you want to contribute.
I am working on finding a mod for the avatars. The default one seem to have issues working even though it is enable. I am working on that as well
I see that you already have 29 registred users. Congrats! It’s really hard to startup a forum. MooD Luck!
Please don’t use PHPBB is the worst forum software:
1. In words of SEO
2. In words of Security
3. In words of server load.
If you are serious in creating a good forum, use vbulletin or Invision power.
Oh and recommend to read this article: The ABC of building a successful forum
http://www.googlelady.com/196/the-abc-of-building-a-successful-forum/
Thanks Googlelady, we’ll have a read and yes, we are planning on getting other forum software soon.
Congrats on the new forum!
Your forums will be VERY hard to get going, but I think you guys have a shot. Good luck!
Ok. I registered.
That’s a great idea