The Pitfalls Of Running A Forum

While the industry gets to grips with social media; Twitter and the bloggersphere, there's one thing that has struggled to take off.

Forum's have always seemed to struggle to punch a hole in the online world of windows. I don't quite know why that is. Maybe there are a few reasons to blame?

Twitter maybe? With Twitter providing real-time responses to questions or debates, the idea of waiting for someone to comment back on a forum thread or question may seem slightly out of date and require too much time in front of a screen than anyone can be bothered with.

Effort? It takes a lot of effort from a lot of people to keep a forum fresh and interesting. People have to post different topics constantly, and ones that are interesting enough to force responses from people. The minute you start to repeat the same topics and threads, people are going to turn off and go somewhere else...or not bother at all!

People? Forums have to have a diverse range of people. GlassTalk was guilty of having the same 8-10 people posting threads and leaving comments to each other, and not really welcoming enough to new people. If small cliques start to form then people are going to feel like engaging in fear of not being talked to.

Despite what many people think, I think there is a place for an online forum in this industry. I believe there is enough to talk about to keep it interesting and maybe even force a change for good within our sector. 

What do you guys think? If there was a forum with constantly changing and engaging subjects and the site was interactive and modern enough, would you contribute to it?