Do you join forums that don't have a TLD? Why/Why not? In my point of view it doesn't really matter as long as the administration team is dedicated and is always willing to help every member. The forum also need to look good and have interesting content.
No a TLD domain and paid hosting is a key success in making a site/business successful. Thats why both you and I have one.
To tell the truth, I'm using a free hosting. Since my forum is not big yet I don't see the point of moving it to a paid host. If I see the forum is getting slow I'll move it to HawkHost or another good hosting provider.
Starting of on free hosting is not bad alot of webmaster do, but generally they move later on as you have stated that you will buy hosting when PB is big.
Yes, the main reason I didn't start with a paid hosting is because my old forum died because we had no active members so I didn't want to lose money.
Depends on the content and the look over a TLD, if the site looks good and is active then not having a TLD would not stop me from joining.
I dont join, as I dont trust the site thats just me.. If its a site, different story ill go visit it if it attracts my eyes
I don't join forums that use free domains. It just shows that the admin is a noob and probably won't work on growing the forum.
Just for not having a TLD, dosent make a admin a "noob." There are many great successful sites out there which dont have a TLD or are on freehosting. TLD is just a part in making a site more successful, but its better to have one to get successful quicker, and just make the site professorial and not cheap.
While I agree that a TLd does help for getting your site indexed on search engines like Google, I also agree that they are definetly not a must. I've been on a few forums without TLD's and heck, to be totally honest, that's what your Favorites feature on most browsers is for, then you don't have to go back and try remember the url all over again. So while I agree it does help, it is definetly not needed.
Maybe so but most free hosting sites use pop up/pop under ads not just ads on the forums and those are truly an annoyance. I'll pass on maybe running into a good forum to avoid those ads. Also, it's a case of "you get what you pay for" and even paying a small amount for shared hosting is better than going free.
Everyone has to start somewhere, so if it means you have to start with a free forum host sub-domain or use a .co.cc domain then it's fine. That is, as long as the contents look good for it, then why not join?
