Building forums on fads

Do you think building a forum based on a fad would be a wise thing to do? Eventually when the fad dies out, the forum's chance of survival is low. The fad can be anything.

A good example would be a forum based on The Dark Knight. That movie was huge for the time it was popular. Nowadays, people don't talk about it anymore.

 

I dont think thats a good idea. You'd rather want to start a wordpress blog, which would get you quick better SE listing and quick traffic, as won;t be lasting long.

 

I'd do it if I had a good domain name and good prospects for monetization (DVD sales, etc.). I doubt I'd use a commercial forum package for it though, unless I reused licenses from fad-based boards a lot. Sure, the forum might not last long, but you may be able to entice your members to your other forum(s) in the process. And some communities do out-live the fad they were originally based on (like the Browncoats of Firefly fandom).

 

Over the long run, and I'am talking about 2, 3,,, or even 5 years,, then no - I do not think its a good project.

Take gaming for example, over the past 13+ years I have seen all kinds of sites on all types of games - everything from the original Doom to left 4 dead. Only the very loyal / die hard fans are still at the doom forums.

Once the interest on the topic has faded, the members move to another forum.

 

It's a bad idea to start a forum about one thing "like the latest game" (that's trendy to play now), but not in 6 months time. I see loads of forums doing this, there doomed from the outset really.

 

I would never start a forum based off a fad, I would love to have a blog related to something which will fizzle out but not a forum, there is simply too much time put into them to waste on something which will go down the pan.

 

Yeah, I think like you say. Best really to use a Blog for something like that because it's inevitable that sooner or later your forum will die a quick death as interest in that fad at the time passes by.

It's hard enough as it is to get a forum active, even when covering a good niche that can always be talked about.

 

I would never open a forum on a fad. It usually takes me a while to get a forum started, so starting it on a fad wouldn't be a good idea for me..lol

 

I'd have no problem including a fad sub-forum and let it live out its natural life but I wouldn't base a whole forum on a flash-in-the-pan fad. It's too much work for too little return.

 

I think if your going start a forum though, start one about something your genuinely interested in. I see lot of people (and I've done it myself), covering topics just because they think it will bring in the members, then get stuck later with stuff to talk about themselves there because they never really had any interest in what their forum covers in the first place.

Sometimes your own enthusiasm and knowledge being posted can bring in the members if your forum covers what your interested in and know a lot about. So have lots to post about yourself.