A beautiful Roman Forum... not the one I'm talking about though...!
I’ve been toying with this idea for a while and I wanted to get some community feedback from you guys: Would you be interested in a dedicated spot for forum discussions?
Something like a spot for greater TentBlogger Community? TentBlogger Community Forums?
It wouldn’t be too hard to set up. Love to hear your candid thoughts.
Here are some other considerations as well:
- Free or Paid? – I want to keep the conversations of high quality and to limit spammers. One way of keeping the value high is to make it paid access. Typically with a “Premium” forum additional resources and value can be created as well. Love to know your thoughts and pricing ideas?
- Software? – I’m familiar with most of the major forum software out there but love to hear your thoughts and experiences with them. Let me know!
- Domain? – Would you rather have it off this main domain or a separate one? http://tentblogger.com/forums or http://tentbloggers.com (notice the “s”) or something like that?
Again, I’ve thought about it for a while but I want to make sure that I have the support of the community here. Building it/launching it is the easy part but I want to do it right!
Thanks all!
I think it would be a GREAT idea. I don’t know if you’ve heard about the Blog Rocket community that just launched, but it seems pretty cool. My only problem though is that I can’t afford to PAY for something like that yet. Just not in the budget.
I think ‘tentbloggers.com’ would be an awesome place for it, if you went through with it.
sweet! thanks dustin! i’ll look into some options.
Oooor tentblogge.rs
I think it would be great. I would love to help moderate if needed also.
ah, sweet.
I would love this. Financially, I can’t commit to paying for it unless it was like less than 10 bucks. I love the idea. Tentbloggers.com would be nice. Vbullitin is my favorite forum software and seems the most reliable of the ones I’ve used.
thanks for this brian.
haha
#ROFL
I would be interested and would have it as part of the tentblogger domain.
thanks frank!
I probably would join if it was free, but due to time constraints, would not be able to interact much.
I like vBulletin.
Do not make it a separate domain, but instead a forum on this domain.
cool. thanks for your input jeremy!
Definitely think you need to do it. It’d be a great way to show what you teach, and community is definitely something you hammer home.
I think making people pay is going to limit you a lot right now, but you might be able to offer a free plan and a paid plan.
I personally like tentbloggers.com or something like that…still definitely related to your site, but different enough to make it a unique place.
All that said, excited for it to be up and running (hint, hint
.
free and paid? hmm. i wouldn’t want to duplicate effort…. let me think about this.
I think it’s a great idea. As others have said, the paid service may be out of my budget right now, depending on cost. But I love the content of this site, the community seems healthy and helpful. I’d go for it! Maybe the new domain is the best route, just to keep each site ‘clean.’
what would be the cost, top end?
That would be awesome.
I can understand your concern for spam, but I personally don’t think I’d participate if it were a paid forum. Nothing against the value that it would provide, but it’s a different decision when there’s money involved. I personally would be much more enthusiastic about a community if it were free: I’d feel like I “owed” something to the community instead of feeling like this is something that I’ve paid for and am entitled to.
really? with all the free stuff here you still feel like you owed me (and the community) something?
Firstly thank you for everything you do! It’s amazing! Your work inspires to take actions and implement all that ideas!
I think you could achieve more if it would be based on donations.
The Forum is really awesome idea!!! I would pay for participating in your created Community Forum around $10 per month (and I need to note that I am skeptical about all that membership stuff…, but Tentblogger?! Well this beats all my skepticism!). But…!!!
Teach people how to work-live-write (blog) and ask them to share what is affordable for them at that exact moment. Open source is the biggest power!
Mark Twain quoted very nicely:
“Write without pay until somebody offers to pay you. If nobody offers within three years, sawing wood is what you were intended for”
The donation idea is a great idea! Like askimet or something like that
now akismet does have a much larger business model associated with it with enterprise clients and such… i can’t offer that.
jack,
thanks for this bro!
I think a forum would be a very cool addition. I like having it on this site, all in one.
I could go either way on free or paid. If I pay for something, I’m more likely to not want to waste it. So I’d probably be on and involved more. But if I’m gonna pay for it, it’s gotta add that extra value (like you said).
I have also been checking out blogrocket. It sounds appealing; I just haven’t made the jump yet.
i have seen blogrocket. i wonder if it’s doing well…?
I love the idea of a forum. I know that at the standard theme forums, it has been a great resource. Paid vs non-paid — the jury is still out.
cool. thanks dave.
Free but ad supported. But you can pay for a yearly membership to go ad free and get extra benefits.
On the main domain or off? Doesn’t matter.
I’d say go with Invision Power Board (IPB) or MyBB. vB used to be the real deal, but since management changes happened and the new release, it’s been pants. Or check out ZenFolio. It’s the new kid on the block, and it’s making waves. Big waves.
The whole idea is a good one. I’d love to participate. I’d help out if needed, but I’m sure you have a slew of people saying the same thing. But …. GO FOR IT.
thanks blake! i’m going to look into it.
Free or Paid? – Free, if you want people to join and share, keep it free, believe me, you will loose a lot of people or all of it if its Paid.
Software? – phpBB or SMF will give you everything you need. If you want more and pay for it, go VBulletin.
Domain? – What for ? Just expand your main domain with a sub directory, http://tentblogger.com/forums is perfectly fine and people will identify what community is joining.
Good Idea ? – Maybe, there are a lot of forums out there and if you want it to work, there must be a lot of collaboration and a lot of your time. People will get in to ask and solve their problems mainly and if no one answers that, people will go away. So maybe its better to expand and create more topics here, its already a community
My 2 cents.
thanks peter. i doubt i’ll lose all of my community if i opened up a paid forum. in fact, there are a great number of paid forums with popular bloggers that are awesome
I meant people to join that forum, not actual people
Of course you will not loose anything for opening it.
Rephrase: You’ll loose a lot of people that joins a forum if its paid, meaning that if its paid, you will loose a lot of new members that for sure register free.
Hey John,
Here’s something I’d be interested in reading about: tent blogging.
I understand the concept, but I love to actually see how you’re living it out. The About page says “Invest in my family and volunteer in my local community.” What does that mean?
So you’re the Christian John Chow… to what end?! What are you tentmaking for? Can’t wait to read more.
you are the first to call me a “christian john chow”… i am definitely asian and definitely have the same first name as mr. chow…
i’ve blogged a few times about this but i love my family and they come first. volunteer means investing in my high school small group of guys who i mentor and enabling my wife to volunteer with college kids and administrative work at our local church.
If I have to pay, I will not join…I do think that the forum is a great idea though…
cool. thansk for your input brandon. appreciate it.
YES! Absolutely. John I was hoping you would offer some kind of forum where we can ask questions and interact. Some of my questions are things I would not want to ask or discuss in the blog comments, or are off topic.
But dude, you offer such a high level of expertise, and have such a servant’s heart – I think it would really benefit the Tentblogger movement if you launched a forum.
Secondly, I have not seen a forum interface that was fun or easily understood visually – so if you could make it look cool, that would be great.
My 2 cents. Hope you do a forum, soon.
Make it by donation.
ok. thanks rob for your encouragement!
I would definitely want to join in. Looking forward to how this community develops.
thanks bro! i’m going to think about it some more.
Count me in. Sounds like a great idea to me!
whoot! thanks for the encouragement adam!
Hi,
Yes, I’d like a community/forum. I really like the way you present your knowledge. Easy to digest, fun and practical. As many here, I’d join if it’s free (perhaps optional donation). But as a business person, I think that you can extract additional income not only from advertising or sponsors, but from a membership. As Rob said, there are things one does not want to ask in a public forum. A percentage of the community participants may want to join a membership that offers: 1) monthly group coaching 2)some specific products included for download 3)guest experts in teleseminars 4)Webinars where you “show, don’t tell” how to do stuff and 5) perhaps a private newsletter, video classes or 6)private tutorials at a discount. You can also offer each of these separately for one-time-pay at the larger community. I believe that the resonance here is that your following is ready for a free community/forum and a small percent also want membership at about $10 a month. You are lucky that you already have a community, but still sustaining and increasing it will be a major effort. However, seeing that you already have a team and volunteers, I believe that the time has cometh. (A thought. You may also consider a special course for faith-based internet ministers or people who want to do good while doing well.) May Spirit speak through me to help you. Thanks for everything! God bless you.
wow. i love this. thanks so much for the great ideas…!
I would say do it, it would be a great idea. Now, I would have a free portion of the blog for those casual readers that want all the free information, but those that truly want to take blogging seriously and learn what you have to offer, I would offer some type of membership site, but community is cool and would help as a free resource. If you do a membership site, that has more serious content behind it, now that would fly off the shelves. Those that can’t afford it right now, won’t have access to the serious information. I always say, people pay for what they want. If they truly wanted the information, they would pay regardless. Rock on!
That’s not a forum.
lincoln, thanks for this. i do feel like i offer a lot here for free. i think coaching would be a real benefit though.
I’m really of the opinion that a forum would probably be a good source of content for the blog, a place where we could potentially contribute to your future articles.
As for the free vs. paid choice, I think people would be more inclined to join should it be a free thing. However, at the same time, maybe you should limit full access to the forum to those people who are willing to put a few posts on the board first, and contribute/get to know other forum members. Maybe you could have a paid members only section with exclusive content.
Forum software: I’m open to seeing anything, maybe you could create/release a “Standard Theme” for the forum software of choice that fits in with the Tentblogger WP theme.
Domain: What about a sub-domain http://forum.tentblogger.com? I’m not really up with the pros/cons of SEO with sub-domain vs sub-folder.
ah. sub-domain.
not a fan.. .but it could work!
Sure. It’s worth some money, I think, especially if it offers bloggers an opportunity to increase their platforms through connection and sharing. Chris Brogan does a good job of this with his Blog Topics forum.
I’d recommend hosting it on this site. That way, you can start a conversation or introduce an idea through a post and send people to the forum, if they need to hash it out more. Just a thought.
Only software I’m really familiar with is Buddypress, so not much help there, I’m afraid.
Sounds fun!
buddy press is coming out with a plugin version… i’m seriously waiting for htat…!
Cool. Does Buddy Press not work with Standard?
they are going to make it a plugin, officially. it’s a standalone install right now.
Definitely free, maybe ad supported with an option to pay for no ads, along with donation.
Forums may be a thing of the past though, as I don’t even remember that last time I logged into an actual “forum,” but that might just be me.
Should there be a free forum here, I’d definitely frequent and chime in often.
Wait, I take this back. The 8Bit support forum for Standard is something I log into often, I can’t believe I forgot about that! #shame
I actually think you get greater engagement and appreciation by charging something small (like $10 per month). It raises the stakes a bit.
I’ve been a part of professional coaching and mentoring groups that do this and it really makes me want to make sure my money is well-spent. In other words, I don’t take it for granted. Food for thought.
great. you’re a part of blog rocket? how’s that going?
I wouldn’t pay to be on the forum, there are too many other great forums I am on that provide many resources. It would be a great addition to the community, and would use Vbulletin, oh PHPbb.
As far as separate domain or off the current, makes no difference to me. I wouldn’t mind the option to pay to remove ads or maybe to be listed as a “community supporter” and offer a links page for supporters or something? Also if you do pay maybe you can have monthly giveaways for paying supporters but I think for the community to grow, attract newbs, and to have that open source / informative environment it should be free to join.
Keep us posted.
what forums are you actively engaged with?
I think that this is an awesome idea. Not only will it be a great resource, it will be a great opportunity for people within the Tentblogger community to shine.
As for paid, I would say YES make it a paid service! It will keep SPAM out, and also encourage users to actually be involved in the community. It needn’t be an expensive fee, maybe just the equivalent of a cup of coffee per month.
sweet. thanks james.
Agreed James. That would be a very reasonable price.
I’ve never been involved with a forum – BUT – considering how awesome the Standard Theme has been and this blog is I would definitely consider it!
The more I learn – the more I learn that I have a lot to learn!
sweet! thanks for your input jimmy!
I love the idea of a forum. The more I can learn about this stuff the better! In regards to pay/free I might be willing to pay for that; but what would the value add be? How would it be different then the blogs and comments we’re already reading?
exclusive content, interviews, and perhaps even coaching.
I like the idea of a forum so the people that follow your blog can interact more easily with each other than just the comments on each blog post. We can ask more open-ended questions and even generate some content or our own ‘lessons learned’ from blogging.
I like the idea of having it set up to be both paid and free… Have the majority of the information in the free section of the forum, but then offer things like coaching or even a ‘support’ area for more technical things in the paid section.
I like the idea of keeping it on the same domain – keeps it a little simpler to recommend your site to someone else!
darius,
wow, thanks for this awesome feedback!
also, don’t forget about gravatars! http://tentblogger.com/gravatar/
Yeah… I need to get my gravatar… Coming soon! =D
sweet!
Love the idea and I would definitely join, especially if free. I’d still consider it if paid. The community here is great and I think would only get better with the addition forums.
cool rich, thanks for your thoughts!
I’d be very interested in such a forum…and willing to pay a little. But the donations-idea appeals to me as well. I’d love to connect with other tentbloggers and exchange ideas, experiences, knowledge and encouragements. Since I see already many like-minded people on your site, I suspect it has the potential to grow into a strong community. My concern would be that it would become a ‘help me’ forum where one-time visitors drop a problem, get an answer and leave again. I’ve seen this happen many times on forums. Anything you could come up with to truly make it a community would be great. Domain name: really don’t have a preference, either way is fine with me
that’s why i’d like to keep it a “premium” option… i’m interested in community, not necessarily a “freebie handout”… especially since i do that already here on the blog!