What would make this forum better?

[Olin Coles]

Howdy folks!

Benchmark Reviews (http://benchmarkreviews.com) is now one year old, and I believe most people would agree that we certainly spent a lot of time and effort to build up our review article catalog (130+ in twelve months).

So now that we're slowing down to a normal pace with our reviews, I felt it would be time to improve our forum community. At this time, I would love to hear what you guys would like to have changed/added with our forum. Just post your suggestion in this thread, and when I have enough of them I will begin a public poll.

If your shy or bashful, feel free to just PM me (http://forum.benchmarkreviews.com/private.php?do=newpm&u=1).

[Dragon_CPU]

I think that getting more members and offering more contests. That said, I dont mean the contests have to be exspensive prizes, maybe a 2gb ram kit, or nice dvd burner. (you get the idea) draw more members in, get benchmarkreviews easily found on the net, and once people start coming here for advice and telling friends, family about the site, about the reviews, help, articles, etc. get them here and get them talking, and more will come just have to do more and a little different than the competing forums. Needs a good theme and in my opinion better colors on the site. Thats it for now I will have some more to add after i gather my thoughts it's early right now.

[Party Pants]

That is a good question... which probably doesn't have a good answer. With so many similar forums in all shapes and sizes it is hard to carve out a niche.

One thing I hate is forums that can't bother to keep out the SPAM. Some sites do great to keep the useless, blatant SPAM away, but others allow it... As if they just want more posts or something. I'm not talking about normal users making silly posts, but the first time posters supposedly selling Wii's or with links to drugs, software to rip DVDs, etc... I'd show examples of SPAM tolerant sites, but I'm playing nice today!

Oh, and you're definitely not a SPAM friendly site... It was just all I could think of that turns me off. Point being that there is not much to do to encourage activity, but plenty to do to avoid discouraging it.

[tinfoil]

I've been running an online community for years. At its busiest, I was getting close to 4 million page views a year, and even then I couldn't get a solid community going.

There is a magic to it that I've not yet discovered. Controversy is always one way to start it, but it's not sustainable or enjoyable.

If you find out, I'm sure you can make a mint selling books about it.

[methious]

Regular scheduled contests monthly seem to bring people in. Inviting and getting a companies tech support people in helps a lot.

Mods and reviewers actively participating in the forums is good.

Killing and posting spammers deaths wonderful.

Other than that Scantily clad women serving beer.

[tinfoil]

methious, you are a gentleman and a scholar.

I wholeheartedly agree with your last statement. Barring that, I don't like wearing pants, will that help Olin? ;>

[.:Cyb3rGlitch:.]

How about this. When you find out, tell me. ;)

Contests do help, but you need to offer something more 'community' like. I don't know, I'm still trying to figure it out. :P

[Olin Coles]

There are pro's and con's to any community. The last few days I have emmersed myself in forums outside of BmR, and have found that even the most celebrated community is little more than a playground full of cyber-bullies. In real life I get to beat on people for fun, but in this little carved-out corner of the web I have to read witless replies and reply to a constant barrage of baseless accusations.

Sometimes I think that Kyle Bennet over at HardOCP has paid is dues and has earned the right to step on people... especially after dealing with trolls for only a few days; I don't know how he does it. So now I have to figure out if it's going to be worth it. I know ways to build up a community, but they can often grow out of control.

I certainly appreciate your suggestions, and if you have any feedback that might help feel free to put it out there.

[.:Cyb3rGlitch:.]

Well the first thing would be to kick out members that troll. Make a system where trolls are warned by PM, then banned if they repeat an offense. I'm an active member of Atomic (http://www.atomicmpc.com.au/) and you'll find that trolling is not common due to great modding and community.

Actually, that's another thing, you'll need moderators.

[cesium]

Agree with the above. Good active mods help a lot.

I personally spend most of my time at hardforum.
From what I can see, Kyle has an attitude of, if you don't agree with me, then gtfo. if they cause more trouble, then he or the other mods/admins ban them.
Although I believe he does it much more willingly due to the fact that so many new members are joining each day, that he feels losing one won't make a difference at all, which is true.

Also, since you're using vbulletin, you could also use some mods to get rid of the spam (my apologies if you already are).
The two most effective mods that I've used were NoSpam! (http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=124828&page=48) and SpamBuster (http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=155242).


EDIT: One random thing, not really related to this, is on the front page, the pictures don't link to the article. Personally, I would find it much more convenient to click the picture than the title or the read more link

[desktop]

What brought me to this forum was the review of the Ultra m998 computer case, which I found while Googling for info on my new build. I was so impressed with the depth of this review I decided to head on over to the forums and sign up to ask some questions. I don't really have any suggestions at the moment, but I will say this .... Olin, just keep doing what you're doing, because your reviews and your help with answering a lot of my questions has made a full time member out of me.

:)

[=CDU=Above]

I've always said that a shout box is always cool.
It gives people a chance to talk in real time. Maybe to meet on a server or something.
We have one over at CDU and it gets used everyday.

[lilskeeter08]

I've always said that a shout box is always cool.
It gives people a chance to talk in real time. Maybe to meet on a server or something.
We have one over at CDU and it gets used everyday.


A ShoutBox would be a really nice thing to have allow as said everyone to talk in real time and usally u can end up making a friend getting there msn or something so that kinda makes the community tighter

Ive also noticed there is no Whos on line, I bet this was probally intentional though?

Other then that i like the forum its got just enough sections to it its not bloated as some forums which have 30 sections with 40 sub sections

So ShoutBox for President in 2008!

[Tim White]

Olin,

I think a landing page for the forums would be a nice addition, something like the 20 most recent posts, regardless from what forum they are in. Of course you'd still have a navigation menu on the side which could list "Forums". That link would take you to the current Forums page which shows all forums.

I think this generates more interest, because you can easily see what others are talking about and join in instead of looking at the forums one at a time...

A good example of this is a gaming forum I belong to

www.gloryofwar.com

[Olin Coles]

It appears that the Unreal Portal is a custom built bulletin board CMS. We use vBulletin here, so if you can find an example of someone using that I can see if it's possible. Thank you for your suggestion!

[Tim White]

Seems this is very similar and free. Also apparently very customizable.

Now I don't know much about setting up forums etc. so I can't really offer advice, but judging by looks this is very similar to what I'm talking about.

http://www.vbadvanced.com/?page=demo

[Mauddib]

Participation makes forums happen.

As for Benchmark reviews.. Its fantastic.. so more of the same, refined over time is all that is needed!.

[e6600]

i dont think there is any other review site that has such an indepth amount of heatsink/cooling reviews

thats what really brought me here