Do you feel forum software has an big impact?

[Tiernan]

It would be fair to say if your site is old and undated looking it will be unattractive to newcomers. But does having XenForo over MyBB or PhpBB make a big difference?

The only forum I am really active on is my own; I only drop into others from time to time. This is really because I don't feel welcome on a lot of them due to the fact they're so big. There was forum I used to really like and it was small, it had something like 20 members. It was friendly, open and everyone knew each other. It is now liquidised because the admin didn't think it was successful.

TAZ runs on XenForo and I find the notification system very useful and that it encourages a more social experience.

Content of course is the key thing. You can't make a forum successful even if it runs on XenForo if it has no content.

What are your opinions? Does having a more advanced, social forum software like XenForo really help make a forum more active or is it completely down to the people there?

 

[Shawn Gossman]

With every forum I have ran, I've only had one person complain that I switched from SMF to IPB and I deleted their account because they got rather nasty about it lol. But for the most part of focus on niches where the forum software isn't really going to come into play. I suppose a new software could be a problem, especially if it isn't like the norm and the controls are a lot different than everything else.

 

[Azareal]

It probably makes a difference, but it doesn't make as much of a difference as some people think it does.
At the end of the day, newcomers tend to come for content, rather than functionality.

While guests probably have no clue what the additional functionality even is.. To them, it'll be yet another forum.

 

[br360]

If a site was older or outdated, it may not be as appealing to newcomers as say a flashier site with all the bells and whistles; but at the end of the day, it will always be about content.

Give me a site that constantly has updated topics and posts about things I am interested in, and I will always participate more on it; than say a site with notifications built in (that I never get any), a shoutbox (that had maybe a shout or two a day), and an awesome like or thank you system where there may be one like a week.

 

[John128]

I will agree with the above. People come to forums to have conversation. Having all the new "bells and whistles " doesn't hurt a forum, though.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

I will agree with the above. People come to forums to have conversation. Having all the new "bells and whistles " doesn't hurt a forum, though.

Welcome to AZ! But while I agree having all the bells and whistles is nice, not all member will even acknowledged that they are there... I've disabled many default features in the past because no one used them or even cared about them, so I thought, why not disable them and have one less call to the script.

 

[eldritch1969]

I really feel that it's only on an admin forum like this one that people really care about likes and "bells and whistles", because they know about them. And they'd like their users to use and like them too.
In my opinion, users don't give a damn about what we think is "important".
They just care about usability on their smartphones and tablets.
And of course they come back and even sometimes join in discussions when really care about the forum topic

 

[cheat_master30]

As much as this might be a bit of a controversial opinion; yes I think it does have an effect.

In fact, I'm sort of suspecting the different feel of each forum script might be something that contributes to whether a certain audience or demographic tends to like it or not.

For example, XenForo's more... informal (maybe) feel seems to make it pretty popular on chat sites, gaming sites, etc, where it tends to do better than scripts with more... 'formal' styles and set ups and feel. Indeed, my experience tends to be that near enough every gaming site I've seen using IPB has struggled, whereas far more one of the XenForo ones have done well. Seems like the latter is more fun for gaming audiences to use than the former.

As for other examples... well, a lot of free software support forums tend to graduate towards phpBB and quite a lot of company support forums tend to end up using IPB. Maybe some of these types of sites actually work better using scripts like the ones mentioned, maybe even due to the atmosphere the script gives the site.

Not to mention admin forums and XenForo. I don't think I've seen a single mega successful admin site that wasn't running either vBulletin 3 (when it was around) or XenForo.

I also wonder whether a site will struggle if it uses a script not commonly used by other sites in its target market, or one that isn't used very often by its target audience. We all know humans tend to be wary of change and new/different things in general, perhaps they might also be wary of using sites run using software completely unfamiliar to them and unlike that used by sites they're already a part of.

Either way, while I know a lot of people will say its irrelevant or doesn't matter or whatever, I think there is a good possibility that the site's choice of forum script may have a fair amount to do with its future popularity. At the very least, it's definitely an area which could be studied a bit more (maybe via psychological analysises and usability tests).

 

[Rasty]

We switched from Kunena to WBB and the user experience is better but it didn't increase the forum posting. The users on my site are fairly easy going.

 

[tomk]

What matters most, for me anyhow, is:

1. Speed and performance, slow forums suck.
2. Content, content, and content.
3. Did I say content? Content.

As others have said above, the bells and whistles work well here, due to the audience. I'm not sure the average or typical forum user really cares or even knows how to use them, as long as there is content and it is delivered in timely manner, they'll stay engaged.