Forum Network – Sample Websites

These are some sample websites from my forum network. If you visit them you’ll notice some are very busy with several thousand members, and some are sleepy little havens for occasional posts. The communities are very fun to interact with, and I’ve learned a lot from our very diverse communities.

Member support for forums is at forum@askland.net
Scroll down for more info and background on my forums.

The first forum in my network was a guitar player forum started in 2000. Shortly thereafter a friend was bragging to me how much money she was making charging for online prayer services. That really made my stomach turn. So the next day I opened my own prayer support website – committed to always keeping it FREE. Several months later we started opening up more music related forums; then branched out into religion, politics, science and niche discussion group forums.

Many members within one site grouping are also members on related boards. For instance many guitar players belong to multiple communities of ours that are guitar related, many Christian members belong to our Christian orientated sites, etc.

There was never really a master plan for these communities. I just thought it seemed like fun. When I opened the network I was doing very well with internet sales so it seemed like a fair way to give back to the online community.

All of our forums are free to join and have limited advertising, no popups and no spam. Thanks to volunteer moderators and admins I’m able to keep the network going with a minimum of financial and time investment.

I’ve learned a LOT from our community members. Many members are experts and professionials in their related fields and are very generous in supplying information to help others. I’ve also had the pleasure of meeting many of our members in person which is always fun.

In general our communities run very smooth. Community members are active in policing their “home turf” and that really helps to keep things stable. Although I would love to take personal credit for developing these communities, it is absolutely the members and moderators that create the vibe and feel of each forum. They are the ones that have dictated over time what they think is appropriate, and what is not. This is why our network is so varied. Some forums are run are by youth and they absolutely will not stand for censorship and prefer an “anything goes” community, while we also have more “mature” discussion groups that prefer to keep everything in line so they can focus on discussion.

I have a handful of the forums I personally post on – but on most forums I keep it to a minimum. It’s very easy for me to get swept up into individual board controversies and the next thing I know hours have gone by as I get lost in “forum world”. There was a point a couple years ago where I had trouble sleeping because of being privy to all the different controversies going on. So if I keep my activity to a minimum, and the community leaders alert me to problems while they manage things unfettered, I am able to blissfully just try to make sure I have money to cover all the overhead!

One thing I always find amusing is the different conspiracy theories I hear about some of the websites or pockets of the network. For instance there are many sites proclaiming that our abortion debate website at Pro Choice Talk is part of some grand plan of control. It’s just a site, and we also run it’s counter-partner at Pro Life Talk. We also run Creation Talk and it’s counter-partner at Darwin Talk. The idea was just to give two spaces for opposing communities to develop and see what happened.

Another website post I saw a couple years ago said that I had a genius master plan for all of our forums that was yet to be unveiled. There was a very long thread with people guessing at what I was “really” doing. And you know what, some of the ideas were pretty good! I was impressed that people thought I was that smart and forward thinking. Admittedly, I do have a lot of good ideas. But I think that’s because I have a LOT of ideas. I fall on my face all the time, doesn’t bother me. On the particular thread where they thought I was a Bill Gates in the making, I quietly left the forum while remembering the phrase: “Better to be thought a fool, than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt.”

Yes, it’s really that simple. I just wanted to see what would happen. The content of our individual forums does not necessarily reflect my personal views, and I like that. It promotes diversity and lets life breathe a little.

Originally I had IT techs setting up all the forums and scripts. Over time I’ve learned how to do it myself with managing databases, php, mysql and all that fun stuff. In a geeky way it’s been very fun to learn. All those big words don’t scare me anymore.

I go by “Cybermonsters” on the forums, or CM. My alter-ego is a squid (technically a Calimari, but squid is more fun), more properly General Ackbar of Mon Calimari from Star Wars who utters the famous line: It’s a trap! Info on General Ackbar

Why? my friend might ask……It’s just fun, and makes doing admin functions a little more lighthearted. Who’s going to get mad at a squid? 🙂

I feel that the boards’ varied discussion topics and the friendships I have made with people in those communities have made my life richer, and I’d dare say a little smarter too (or maybe better to say my knowledge is more rounded now). So that’s what I get out of it, and hopefully a little of what other people get out of it too.

Many of the friends I have made from this network hold entirely different views that myself. I think that makes life very rich.