starting a forum

ok, theres a forum im a member of, and it is closing in about a month. ive decided to create another forum, on the same subject, for the members to chat on after it closes.

this forum has been neglected by its admin for some time, and there has been little moderation and loads of spamming and trolling, but there are a nice group of people on the forum, who all want to join and were hoping that someone would suggest this.

im trying to involve the members in thinking of ideas for the new forum, although i expect they arent used to actual moderation on a forum, especially members of the forum who are used to the kind of debating that ends in flaming, although i expect that me actually dealing with trolls will make it better.

some people dont believe in me, cause im only 19, and what i will do if it gets too big, but i believe i can do it-this forum is quite big compared to my own, but it isnt even that active, only about 20 members seem to come on a day, even though there are about 200 registered.

what kind of things should i consider when starting a new forum? ive never actually started my own, all of the forums i am admin in, someone else started it then made me admin.

 

1st. age doesn't matter, its just the vision that makes the difference.
2nd. Is this forum going to be all about "new ideas of forums, how to start a forum" etc.?
2rd. Some more info about forum required.

I am always open to new forums, we might just get into partnership in case I feel its a good venture.

 

1st: yeah, i believe i can do it, and people younger than me have started successful forums, and it will be easy to start as i already have a group of people who said they will join.
2nd: no, its not going to be about starting forums and stuff.
3rd: the forum is about ghosts, the original forum that is closing has been going for ages, nearly 10 years-although they switched hosting between vbulletin and something else, i cant remember, about 3 years ago.

i dont need a partnership right now, my first staff members will be members who are well known from the old forum.

 

subject sounds nice, GHOSTS! might also wanna make a category for UFOs.

Good luck.

 

i will consider making a section about ufos...if the subject comes up enough. there is only about two or three threads about it on the old forum (within the past month), so i dont know if it will be used.

 

Can you purchase the dieing forum?
If so, do that and clean it up, use that content for a good starting point.

 

yeah, i thought of that, emailed him about it. the admin isnt very active though-he hasnt posted in months, then comes on saying that the forum is closing! i dont think we are likely to see him again til he actually closes it.

i guess if i do get a reply (which we rarely do) and can take over this forum, i will do

 

I would make a thread saying you're opening a forum if anyone wants to join after that forum closes.

 

yeah, i already have done

 

ooh, I already know one of your competitors then...

 

who is this competitor? i would like to look at other forums like the one i am opening.

 

Well the topics will not get obsolete then, compared to a fast moving tech forum (like computers).

 

Used to be hear
I guess he gave up that topic. He had hundreds of members before...

 

cant find anything about ghosts on there.......they probably gave up on it. seems a bit quiet too

 

Half of life is just showing up, as they say. Have it ready to go before the site closes. Just purchase your domain separately from the hosting.

Dreamhost often has an insane special these days where they offer a year's worth of hosting for $10. Good place to start and get your feet wet : )

 

Personally, I agree with Brendon and I would try and buy it rather than making a new one - it cuts out half of the promotion need to start your board. But it sounds like you will get a decent memberbase when you start your new forum so it does not look that bad actually.