What makes a forum good / bad?

[Steve]

Many of you reading this are involved in other forums as well. What do you feel makes a forum good? What makes a forum bad?

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[Billz]

Lawn care business tips

What I like most about a forum, is actual new threads. I check them multiple times per day, it is boring when i come back 4 hours later, and there are no new replies/threads.

[Steve]

What about moderators?

Do you have any thoughts or experiences on how moderators have hurt the forums they are moderating?

Also how important is it to you that sponsors take part in forums? Do sponsors add or take away from the experience of the board?

[Billz]

I like the sponsor participation...shows they are not simply a billboard on the site, and your participation in other forums is what made me try and buy your program. I think it is in their best interests to try to interact with their perspective customers as much as possible, it makes for an easier sale when we decide to buy a product they offer.

On the moderator part, I think moderators are needed to avoid spam, and to keep everything in its proper place...I have seen some who seem almost power hungry, and hurt the site they moderate, but not in any of the Lawn Care related sites.

I feel that moderators should also be involved with starting threads and responding to them. Yes, I have had very bad experience with past moderators hurting the forums.

I personally get sick of the same old thread over and over again. It gets very boring. I love new and interesting ideas and a fresh look at things of the old.

I do like it sometimes when sponsers take part, when they can offer valuable information. For example, like you guys. At other forums you guys actually give great information, while other sponsers are just trying to push their product on you, which I hate. It's like the sponsers just highjack the thread just to push their product.

My favoriate types of threads are business related.

[Steve]

How many different forums do you post on?
What topics do those forums in general cover?

I think that I currently post on approx 9 forums, used to be 10.

[Steve]

WOW.

What types of interests do these forums cover or are they all for LCOs?

most are for the green industry, there is only one forum that is not necessarily sponsered by businesses. It's a public forum for gardening.