forum or idea - which comes first?

i see a lot of people looking for ideas for their forums with a hand full of licenses.

i never thought like .. "i want to make a forum. so now which topic do i use?"
in my case there was the topic first and then came the forum.
for instance, a game leveleditor was released. we only had an irc channel to talk about. so the idea came up to build a forum for it. the community is nearly 8 years old by now.

i also heard of groups of members, splitting up from a big community to build up their own, because they were mad at the old administrator or anyone else of the old community.

what is your experience?
do you stumble upon a topic and then decide to build a forum or vice-versa do you have x licenses and try to find a topic to deal with?
which case lasts longer?

i would be very interested

 

Umm, for some domains that I have used basically the forum came before THEN the idea, but for Setsou Design and Pisoga the idea came before the forum.

We are in the process of re-building Pisoga so most definitely the idea was before the forum.

 

It seems like a waste of money to buy a license and not use it.

For me, I always get a idea first, think about it for a couple of months, look at the competition, review the websites that I will be competing against, and go from there.

 

I think that is the difference between someone that may be doing this for profit and someone that is doing it for hobby.

 

I have more ideas than I do forums, so for me definitely the idea comes before the forum. Who are these people with so many licenses to spare anyway? Tell 'em I'll provide the idea, they provide the license, we'll split 50/50 :p

 

I seem to have 1-2 extras at all times. I've picked 2 more up this week.

 

Generally, I tend to brainstorm ideas first. After doing so, I'll continue on with the creation process (i.e. purchasing software licenses, etc). I do, however, have a habit of purchasing the domain names ahead of time - I'm guilty of doing this with vBulletin and IP.Board licenses sometimes, as well.

 

with the exception of the general discussion communities same here.. and those came from inadequacies from competition

 

Idea >> Domain >> forum >> Design >> content >> R.I.P

 

Well that's a bit morbid! :unhunh:

 

Maybe for many forums, but for some it's got to be
Idea >> Domain >> forum >> Design >> content >> slow growth >> faster growth >> spectacular success >> Shelley retires rich

 

Nailed it!

 

Moved to the Planning forum.