Chapter 15
In This Chapter
Differentiating between comments and forums
Deciding whether to use free or paid forum software
Finding the features you want
Installing forum software
Establishing community guidelines
Imagine your blogging career five years in the future. Your blog has thousands of visitors every single day. Comments are being left on your blog posts by the hundreds every hour. A blogging career couldn't get any better, could it? You've reached the big time! People love you!
But wait! You also have a problem: You can't keep up with the conversation, and now that you think about it, a lot of your contributors are talking to each other. Although you love reading what they have to say, these conversations aren't really directed at you anymore. One possible solution to this awesome dilemma is to add a forum to your blog. On the Internet, a forum — which might also be called a message board or bulletin board — is software that permits date-sorted conversations between members, generally organized around topics. Members can reply to messages posted by others, or start their own topics. Unlike blog posts, forums are typically not maintained by an author. Members are all on an equal playing field when it comes to the conversation.
Sounds good, right? But should you do it? Is it a good idea? What if members talk about things unrelated to the topics you normally discuss on your blog?
In this chapter, I discuss the benefits of setting up a forum, what types of forum software are available, and how forums differ from your blog's comment system. I also tell you about common features of a typical forum package and how you can add a forum to your blog without disturbing the natural flow of the blog itself.
The neuroscientist and author Sam Harris has a blog combined with a forum on his website at www.samharris.org
. Sam is sometimes known as “America's leading atheist,” and his writings cover the intersection of religion and science. As you can imagine, this is a set of topics that generates a huge amount of discussion, and Sam has responded by housing some of this conversation on the forums of his website (www.samharris.org/forum
), shown in Figure 15-1. This neatly solves one of Sam's biggest problems — as a single individual, he simply can't respond to the sheer volume of conversation that his chosen field generates, but discussion of which he encourages.
There are many reasons to add a forum to your blog. The first and most common reason is that your frequent visitors may ask you to add one, but you may also see the need for it yourself.
The second most common reason is that discussions have simply outgrown the blog commenting system. This isn't a bad thing; it just means your blog is incredibly popular. You should be pleased that visitors enjoy what you are doing so much!
Some bloggers find that comments are great ways for dialogue to start, and that forums allow that discussion to expand. But how does a forum benefit your blog itself? How can you use a forum to grow your community? Here are a few examples of what a forum can do besides give your readers a way to chat:
Does it sound as though adding a forum to your blog is worthwhile? Don't worry if the answer is “No,” “I'm not sure,” or “Not right now.” Forums aren't for every blog, or every blogger, but they can naturally evolve from online discussions and commentary. No stock answer exists — the final call is up to you! If you're on the fence, you might want to write a blog post and see what your readers think.
If your answer is “Yes, let's go!” jump to the next section for answers to what I'm sure your question is now — what kind of forum software is available?
A set of “out of the box” features comes with most forum software packages, but it's worth reviewing the basics to make sure that you're meeting your audience's needs when making your selection.
The website is dedicated to providing demonstrations of blog software, forum software, and general content-management systems. It's a great place to try out forum packages without installing them yourself.
Another option to consider before you start installing software is to find some online forums (whether or not they are on a blog) and spend some time using them. You can often find out what software is being used by looking near the bottom of the home page of the forum. You can then make your choice based on the user experience.
One of the first decisions you must make is between free forum software and commercial software. Both categories offer great options.
Budget is, of course, one of the biggest differences. There's free . . . and not free. If you have zero budget, well, the choice is pretty simple! But if you do have some money to spend, commercial forum software generally offers some level of customer service and technical support that free software lacks. If something goes wrong or the forum does not perform correctly, answers can be a little easier to come by. If you aren't terribly technical yourself, having reliable technical support may be cheap, whatever the cost.
Selecting the software that will benefit both you and your audience is paramount to the success of your forum, so be sure to thoroughly kick the tires before you make your final choice.
In addition to forum software you install on a web server, you can also use hosted software that runs elsewhere. See the “Hosted forum solutions” sidebar, later in this chapter, for information about these lighter-weight options.
Here are three of the most popular packages with commercial support:
www.vbulletin.com
): This feature-rich forum software offers commercial support and a variety of licensing models. Cost starts at $249 and increases based on additional features and support levels.www.ubbcentral.com
): Available since 1997, UBB pricing starts at $139, and you can pay to have the software installed.www.invisionpower.com
): Part of a suite of website tools, this forum software can be purchased on its own from ten dollars per month.Here are a few open source alternatives:
www.phpbb.com
): This very popular open source package has been available since 2000 and you can find good user-created resources.www.vanillaforums.org
): This tool promises a high degree of flexibility and integration with existing websites and blogs.www.minibb.com
): miniBB is a lightweight forum package that prides itself on being small and fast.Of course, it isn't all about the cost! Features matter when it comes to forums, particularly those that need to host a high volume of messages, users, or both. It's worth noting that although you can migrate from one forum software package to another, the process is notoriously complicated, so you can save yourself time if you think through the options up front.
www.bbpress.org
).If your blog already has registration turned on for comment posting, you may want to look for forum software that can be tied into your existing membership database so that visitors don't have to create and remember two different accounts.
At the end of the day, the features you choose help your users communicate better — more quickly, easily, and effectively. So do your homework!
After you decide to press ahead with installing a forum for your readers, it's time to think about what you need to run it. If you already have web hosting for your blog, this process may be quite simple. In fact, check with your web host; it may have a forum software package available as an add-in or may even be able to take care of the installation for you.
If you don't have web hosting, it's time to find some. I talk about web hosting in Chapter 3.
Consult with your web host to see what the best options are, or if they have any guidelines for where and how software of this kind should be installed.
The installation process for your forum software will vary from package to package, but they all come with installation instructions. Refer to those in order to complete the installation of the package you've chosen.
A typical installation process, however, looks a lot like this:
As Chapter 10 mentions, building community standards is important. Establishing a good set of rules will encourage readers to get involved and add their own ideas to the conversations. Ideally, the dialogue on your forum stays civil, respectful, and on-topic. However, sometimes your community may need a little push in the right direction. Establishing your expectations regarding behavior up front can help set the tone for the kinds of conversations that occur on the forum — and give you a way to remove members who don't follow the rules without being accused of censorship.
Typically, forum guidelines should direct members to conform to some basic standards:
Some of this stuff sounds a little daunting, I know. But most people appreciate the additional resource of a forum and aren't actually out to post troublesome content. If you're thinking about guidelines, visit some existing forums and review their terms of use for additional ideas and considerations. Forums that have been around for some time may be especially useful for this purpose because their guidelines probably evolved as the community ran into particular kinds of problems.
When it comes to community guidelines of any sort, they are entirely up to you. As with comments, you may consider it your duty to protect everyone who posts on your blog and your forums, or you may feel that the community should police itself. You can encourage a very structured conversation, or you can let it be a written “wild west.”