Yo, people.

I wonder if you ever have problem with general discussion sections in your forum. I suppose we all agree that each forum, no matter what the niche or genre is, needs at least one small space of general discussions to let members have fun in other aspects as well. My question is, have you ever felt like your general discussion sections 'killed' your forum?

One of my members once told me that my general discussion sections are way too big compared to the main sections of what the forum actually is about. She said that she felt as if members came to talk to one another, share their problems or feelings, chat, and have fun. For a general idea my forum is a fan-site of a singer. She said that instead of talking about that singer members tend to talk about themselves in the general discussion sections.

I admit that the section about the singer moves very slowly. New information about her is not available everyday, so there isn't much for us to talk about. We talk about the albums, the songs, the lyrics, the concerts, or other fun stuffs about her, but still not as much as the post rate in general discussions. Yet I can't just throw away the general discussions section, as it is also very much related to what my forum is, and that it has helped to bring my members together and create a lovely community.

What do you think of this situation? If you are ever in my position, what would you do?

I think they are fun and useful, but take away from the overall fell of a forum.

It really depends on what the forum is based.

For sites that are based on advertising, it brings a community, as what Reverie says.

Qwerty wrote:I think they are fun and useful, but take away from the overall fell of a forum.

In certain ways, yes. Though in my case, sometimes they still involve the singer even in their general discussions so I'm pretty happy as well.

Reverie wrote:I think that if the community enjoys the general discussions, and the main section isn't completely dead, then there shouldn't be a problem. It's the communities forum, and it brought them together, and if the general discussion forum is bringing them together as a whole, I think that it's fine.

That is what I think too. Personally when I first built a forum, besides growing the fan-base of this certain singer, I also wish that the members would be able to form a solid and lovely community based on things they like. General discussion sections helped a lot in this case.

Perhaps it doesn't look very good because the general discussions mostly involve threads like "what do you currently xxxx" or "your current favorite xxxx" or the games thread? She said it wouldn't do the site any good for being indexed on search engines as well. I do worry about that, but I prefer my community being a happy one than showed up in Google or Yahoo but is a bit boring.

PurpleNurple wrote:It really depends on what the forum is based.

For sites that are based on advertising, it brings a community, as what Reverie says.

Exactly. That is why I'm worried.