How many posts per page?

I like 30ish for the very reason Nick asked.
I like having more content on a page, this (depending on your forum script) will allow more links to "pages"
Like If there were 4 good post on a page and some ppl actually would like to that page as an example, tip or something, that "page" would get more link juice.

I can see keeping a lower page count on new forums to help spread out the content, but on larger/active ones, I like more post per page.

This is all really just a guess of mine, but I feel it worked for me before and I'll do it again once we reach X post.

 

Haven't bothered change the default setting, so it's 20 / page. Will see in time if the number is too small or too big.

 

Some of my forums have 25-30. Some have 10.

To me it completely depends on many factors. Here are just a few:

• How active the community is at the time. You don't want a huge list of topics from a year ago on the first page. It could make it look like your community is dying.
• The more active ones require more so that threads are not missed for those who don't go past 1-5 pages. And the more active ones like to have a large list to scan over instead of having to click from page to page too much.

 

On my forum, its the default, 20. 20 is just perfect. Not too much, not too little.