Forum on a Blog?

**iowadawg** · 5 January, 2011, 02:45 AM

Okay, anyone have a forum on their blog?

I am looking at putting up a forum on one of my blogs.

Just want to know if worth it, worth the hassle. etc.

**bogart** · 5 January, 2011, 13:21 PM

It's an interesting concept. But wouldn't it be redundant to put a forum on a blog? As a blog post is like a thread and the comments like posts.

**Aquarezz** · 5 January, 2011, 13:35 PM

Originally Posted by bogart

It's an interesting concept. But wouldn't it be redundant to put a forum on a blog? As a blog post is like a thread and the comments like posts.

I'd turn off the comments and start a discussion for every post on the forum.

Ofcourse this wouldn't be possible in all niches

**iowadawg** · 5 January, 2011, 14:31 PM

Well, there are lots of forums with blogs (this is one).

Interesting way of thinking you two....

Someone told me, that having a forum on a blog is an invitation to spammers.
And to open up comments without moderation is also spam heaven.

Will cogitate on this one more.

**Aquarezz** · 5 January, 2011, 14:46 PM

Originally Posted by iowadawg

Well, there are lots of forums with blogs (this is one).

Interesting way of thinking you two....

Someone told me, that having a forum on a blog is an invitation to spammers.
And to open up comments without moderation is also spam heaven.

Will cogitate on this one more.

I don't think that. A blog covers one topic, but forums can cover more topics. For example if a discussion opened on the forum and many people are interested in it, you can blog about it (like on TopBits.Com)

So I stay with my opinion, it's good, but only for certain niches.

**garfish** · 5 January, 2011, 15:54 PM

sure its and invitation to spammers.
especially if those registered people who will reply have signature links.

**iowadawg** · 5 January, 2011, 17:33 PM

Still cogitating.

I am just looking at the upkeep of a forum.
Time involved, etc.

And if having a forum, will that help my blog.

Stuff like that.

**Andy101** · 6 January, 2011, 08:52 AM

A forum is a big undertaking compared to a blog and it seems a bit back-to-front to add a forum to a blog since forums are more community-driven and big, whereas a blog is more in the control of the blogger and posts are more closely linked to a time/date.

Having them work in parallel seems best to me such as domain.com/blog and domain.com/forum

For example, for my next product, there will be a forum for member support and hopefully the members will help each other by starting threads etc. Then I may add a blog to post news of updates and to gain publicity. And people outside of the community can post comments to ask questions etc.

Another factor to consider is that blogs tend to be fixed width templates but forums are fluid, so the look and feel may be very different, entailing design work to get them more similar in look and feel.

**iowadawg** · 6 January, 2011, 17:41 PM

Well there Andy101, seems you are not alone.
Got a few more people who basically said the same thing.

And until it was mentioned, I never gave a thought to making the forum match the blog!
Okay, that right there is a killer.

So, I do believe I will scratch this idea.

Thanks to everyone for their input.

**Will.Spencer** · 7 January, 2011, 02:16 AM

Originally Posted by iowadawg

Okay, anyone have a forum on their blog?

We recently converted the TopBits Forum to SimplePress.

We will add something similar to Expat Intelligence if we can manage to get the traffic numbers to improve.