Has you forum turned out the way you expected?

I've seen forums take off for a particular reason/subject, but they end up veering off course and becoming popular for discussing something totally different than the original intention. Does this describe your forum, or has it turned out the way you planned/expected/hoped?

 

I really never planned my forum to be what it is today, and I still try not to think too much about it so I can have a bit of a surprise. It certainly has done well though and improved since it's first starting months, and hopefully that will continue in the years to come.

 

A year ago the offtopic-section in my forum was more popular than my niche-section, which affected the credability of my forum. After that, the right people fortunately arrived on my forum and the niche-section regained its popularity.

 

I don't even consider it my forum anymore.
(my ballroom dance forum that is)

 

No, not at all. It hasn't taken off the way I hoped/expected it to, sadly.

 

I've been pleasantly surprised how things have turned out for me. There were 2 well established forums in my niche and another group of less active forums. When I started I didn't know what to expect, but I'd built a good reputation at the other sites so when I started spreading the word about my site I was able to pick up a couple of key people and it grew from there. I just celebrated my 2nd anniversary and feel 2010 will be the year I can pull ahead of the other 2 major sites.

 

Nope, I was expecting a million posts by now

:p

 

When I started my forum in 2004, I was only expecting it to keep existing, so yeah.

 

My last one did, and I think my newest one will as well.

 

Ask me again in two years.

 

cant say yet, only been open a few months (although i was kinda hoping to be bigger, but i guess we will get there eventually)

 

I think that best describes me. Although then I look at forums that have been out for years and they are actually a similar or even smaller size than me. At the same time though, I do believe that these forums have an admirable integrity about them - the reason they appear small is that they don't tolerate certain topic types....

Anyway, yes I'd like to be bigger, but other than that, pretty much as expected

 

I must say, this is a very good question. I would have to say though, my forum came out better than expected. I created a few before, but they unfortunately died to many different reasons and were not very successful until I made this one. Right from the start, my site took off and I must say, my best decision was to get reliable hosting, not based on the cheapness of the price. My forum was got a quick reputation of just being there for great conversation and such and my members love it. Within 1 and 1/2 years, we broke over 300,000 posts. I feel that is quite an accomplishment and now, I am eying to get on the Big-Boards list quite soon. I feel with my next update, it should happen relatively fast compared to other boards.

 

My main forum - has turned out to be pretty much what I had hoped.

My gaming forum - a flop

My wifes camera forum - a flop.

 

It's exceeded my expectations! I've been very blessed to have great friends and members.

 

Forum A: beyond my expectations
Forum B: a total disappointment

 

Beyond my expectations.

 

I just now bumped up the post I made about your site on my forum. It really is a must to have a good support forum when you're dealing with something specific and my little niche is passing your information around.

Hopefully you'll get some more steady traffic.