Hopefully, this poll will start some discussion on the things that draw us to boards that are really good or special in some way, and help us all improve our own boards.

Please vote for up to three things in the poll list and, if you like, tell us why you think they are the most important. I'm sure there are things I haven't thought about, so please tell us all what you think they are!

[Edit: I thought I set this poll up so that you could vote for 3 items, but something is not working right...sorry! Guess you'll just have to check your first choice and tell us about the other two!]

I say the top four, certainly... I'd remove either the second or third one to make it three. To me, personally... I believe a forum should have a nice visual flow, but I've seen plenty of generically skinned forums that are highly successful. I'm a bit of a perfectionist, though and I believe a forum should be the best that it can be from the very beginning.

What precisely do you mean by this entry, though? "Fake 'fun' member personalities who visit and post"

By fake personalities, I mean members who are obviously "fake" like celebrity parodies, or cartoon characters who come on the board and interact with the members. Real identies could either be known or not, as the fake members are just for fun. For instance, you might have someone who posts as Paris Hilton and comes on a thread and comments in her style, and says "That's hot!"

Oh! I see now... like on Myspace... often to promote the individual. I believe I may have one of those on my forum... there's a celebrity on there too, but... they tend to remain obscure from what I've seen in my experience. Actually, the most fun I've had (similar to this...) on my forum is when one of the more colourful characters got into it with a news bot... :haha:

I'd have to say friendly is what I like to see :)

Respectful Moderation..

At this one board, full of people from my old forum i got:
Suspended once because an Admin didn't like me.
Had my posting rights taken away because a moderator thought "Everyone hated me"
Had my posting right taken away AGAIN right after i got them back by the same Admin that suspended me, for the same reason.
Suspended for "Subliminal Advertising". I said the shoutbox they used was cr*p compared to the one i was using.

"Subliminal Advertising"???? Bwhahahahahhaha!

Good one. :haha: Some people should get over themselves. :rolleys: I can't GET my members to advertise, even though I'm always encouraging them to.


For me, I'd have to say "fresh and INTERESTING" content. I don't like boards that only have a couple of posts a week. I like to have lots of stuff to respond to, and then that gives me ideas on other posts to make.

Respectful moderation, no question about it. I have horror stories aplenty about a gaming company's discussion boards where the admins blatantly play favorites among their friends -- and happily tossed fuel on the fires of an awful flamewar, because they didn't like the people who were protesting a significant change in board policy. It didn't help that the owners of the gaming company came on the boards and openly laughed at the people who were protesting.

And that's just within the past 3 months... >_>

In addition, I like to see fresh and interesting content, whether in the form of new games, serious discussions, people posting their stories and poems, or anything else.

Interesting skins and graphics are a plus, but not a deal-breaker. The content and moderation is more important.

Above all, respect and courtesy are paramount. Just because we're scattered all over the world and will probably never meet in RL, that's no excuse whatsoever for being rude or going on an attack against somebody.

Well, for my board, I think it's the way I run it that keeps my members here. I'm very open minded, fair, and when it comes down to it...I don't tale rule breaking too harsh nor too easily. Then again, I have a unique system for my RPG, and thus many members find it a refreshing taste. I'm sure the Blog, Comments, and Reputation system has something to do with it, as that's pretty popular on my board as well. Too be honest, I think the most important features depends on the type of forum.

For RPGs, it's the things they can do in the RPG.

For discussion boards, it's new content....maybe add-on features. :p