[Frank]

Testing/junk forum

[Caddyman]

Originally Posted by xm100

Do many of you have a hidden forum for mods? This is something that I've been thinking about and know a few forums that have them to talk about the issues with the site and users misbehaving!

i have

staff section
|
|---trash bin - put all dead, or trashed threads here (except spam)
|
|---Staff section - for all staff
|
|---admin section - for me and whatever other admin i have.

[mh0825]

Does anyone set up a private forum like they have here on AF to post privately to the staff? So your PM's dont go crazy with complaints or what is the reason for it rather than them sending you a PM or using a contact form?

[Connor]

I think the most important are probably Announcements, Feedback, and Member Discussion. Announcements is a basic board for important forum news to be posted. This should be at the very top of your forum. Feedback is a place for comments and criticism, both very important when making a successful forum. Member Discussion is someplace for members to discuss personal matters and introduce themselves, etc.

All my forums have had these boards, and they are by far the most popular .

[Garala]

Some forums got 'Trash' forum, where they move all garbage spam, off-topic threads, etc.

[PandaMarketer]

Yes, hidden forum for staff members is a must.

[Zane]

Another twist is to create a "New Member Information" forum and then an "Introduce Yourself Here" thread within.

[Exochat]

Depending on your type of forum. I have found a Word Games section extremely valuable for 2 reasons.

1) It keeps the other forum boards such as Chat or Off Topic clear of word games which can dominate a board very quickly and push new chat topics onto page 2 within a quick timeframe due to Word Games effect of picking up high post counts.

2) They seem incredibly popular for members that like quick snappy posts and take part in something fun to relax. A Word Games section is enough to boost daily posting activity by at least 50% if not considerably more and although not valuable in terms of their content, the fact it drags in more and more people to play them, it increases activity and therefore page impressions considerably.

Word Games can be fitted into most forums, and can be specialised if need be, such as a Music Forum could have word games on "Name the Song/Artist - name a song, next person names the artist of that song and names their own song" or "A-Z of songs - name a song with the next letter of the alphabet".
Film or Entertainment forums could have Film/TV/Celeb polls, quizzes and word games etc.

[Rambina]

Introductions and a help section

[webwizzy]

there must always be a general announcements/rules forum that must be viewable by guests. Besides that, there should be community lounge, member intro forums.