I've started adding forums to my websites.
Call it a bulletin board, a discussion board, a forum, a chat board, or
a combination of those terms. Whatever you call yours, it can create a
great sense of community on your website. This is the sort of thing that
can make your site "sticky," which means that visitors tend to stick
around for a while. And we all know the longer they hang around, the
greater your chances of selling them something or getting them to tell
all their friends about your site.
Note: There are many scripts and software packages that allow you to create
discussion boards on your site, but I can't comment on them. I can only
recommend the one I've used, and it's the one that comes
installed in FrontPage.
How It Works
When you or a visitor enters the forum, they can
read the messages (posts) that are already there, sorted by newness.
They can respond to a post, and then it becomes a "thread."
Each post stays with the message that started the thread.
What if someone posts something illicit,
illegal, or immoral? Yes, you do have the right to censor posts -- it's
YOUR bulletin board after all. In this case you would just tell me which
post(s) to remove and I would take care of it. It's also a good idea to
have the very first message be yours, to set the terms of acceptable
use.
You can also have a forum that allows only
registered users to post messages.
You do NOT have to publicize your forum. You
don't even have to provide a link from the main page. If it's a private
board, then only the people you give the URL to will know it exists. In
fact, if it's meant to be private, you can block the search engines
from indexing that section by using a robots.txt file.
One word of caution: Either set up your
discussion board to cc you on every post, or get in the habit of
visiting your forum daily to see if there are any postings that should
be removed. Also, some visitors *might* use the forum as a way to
communicate with you instead of email, so be prepared for that.
OTHER USES
- Let authors post articles, poetry, or essays
- Let users post classified ads
- Let relatives to stay in
touch (this is especially great during a family crisis!)
You can even use your bulletin board to provide
a more "interactive" guestbook or as your own personal auction site. Or
you could use one for journaling. The possibilities are truly endless!