What do you look for in a forum?

[Richard El Britannia]

Well, it's something I'd like to hear your views on.
I, personally, look for a well-made forum and a strong, friendly community. By well-made, I don't mean the graphics have to be good - they don't, I mean obvious effort has gone into making the forum. Like a good colour scheme, good descriptions for boards and enough boards for the forum without having unnecessary ones. If it has good graphics, that's a bonus. Also, my reason for not liking many graphics forums is that the admins only focus on graphics. A lot of the time, they don't put any effort into anything else. I'm only fairly active at a few graphics forums now and I'm not on there much.

[Crypto]

First its the appearence, if you see a n00by graphics im like F**k that.

Also there has to be active members.

And obviously so graphic batteling system...

[Zombie]

Treatment is a big thing for me. Everyone should have a chance to express likes and interests with flaming. Equal treatment among all members. The look should be well defined, it doesn't necessarily need to be fancy but good on the eyes. I have been on a forum where the skin was one color but it worked cause it was easy on the eyes. Of couse every site should have a bit of activity to it. No sense in posting on a forum where the members have forgotten about or some other reason.

So to break it all down these are the top 3 things i look for:

1: Equal, fair treatment.
2: A skin/look that is good for the eyes.
3: Some amount of activity.

[Otzlowe]

Same kind of shtick for me:

1. Nice Graphics are the first thing I look for. (They don't have to be perfect, but If I'm going to be here a lot, I'd like something usually appealing.)

2. Friendly Community (For the most part), especially the Moderators. If they're not friendly, I tend not to want to stick around

3. A place that isn't horribly rigid about things.

4. A place where theres few to no elitists. (Bloody Buggers)

5. Probably most importantly: A place where thinking, and creative ideas are encouraged.

6. And one more; A place where everyone thinks for themselves, instead of mindlessly agreeing with those that have higher authority. That kind of atmosphere helps no one.

[Sanzo]

I pretty much agree with Verius.

And one more; A place where everyone thinks for themselves, instead of mindlessly agreeing with those that have higher authority. That kind of atmosphere helps no one.

I have seen that on another forum, But i can't remember its name, But everybody just agreed about everything, Because the Admin "said so". Its just pathetic really.
Ahwell...Yeah, I agree with Ver.

[♥april]

everyone else has pretty much covered what I look for too...

the main thing is activity for me... I don't wanna be coming back to the forum after a certain amount of time, only to see that I was still the last one who posted.

and yeah, the appearance does matter... if they've put in the effort to make the place look nice and stuff like that.

[elfenears]

what april said ^

[.Sicky.]

Well I'm an Rp forum girl and I've done 'em all.

First impressions do count. If I don't like the look I generally move onto other places.

Rules. I am a rule bender/breaker. Always have been, those of you who have seen me on RPGV have probably seen me get into a lot of fights with the admin because of strict ruling.

Swearing. Some people find it offensive but I think it's a great expression. Really puts emphasis into some sentences and helps me get my point across when extremely mad. You're lucky, in the posts I've made already I've been quite the posh little school girl I once was.

People. If I don't like ya, you'll know it. Generally I get on with everyone but get on the wrong side and I'm a reet meanie. So for me to be nice the people have to be nice.

Activity. If you're making an effort, so should others!

[Surreptitious Cardboard Box]

Tall, dark hair, pretty eyes ...
Ahahaha.

I hate n00bs. If nobody can type, I leave. If someone joins my forum and I discover they can't type, they leave.

[.Sicky.]

You make a damn fine point.

They can all get intaweb aids and die. Asswanks.

[Otzlowe]

I like to show false sympathy before I make a big point about how I've "suddenly" realised how much not being able to type, pisses me the hell off!

And spam. I always have the largest urge to do every excruciating thing I can think of doing, to them. *Twitch*

[[Chris]]

I'm picky. Not with just forums, but basically... everything. A forum has to look pleasant to the sight. Well, my sight is all that counts for me. Whacked out color schemes and stuff annoy me. This one forum had like a bright ass red layout with blue font over it. I was looking at a sig on some forum and I was like "Hmm. This banner looks cool." *Click* "Holy sh*t! My eyes!" because the layout was terrible. I swear I almost had an epileptic seizure...

Uhh. I'm a grammar Nazi. I'm very picky about it. I used to type whacked out as hell. I guess because I had depression issues. Typing in a "slang" way made me feel less white than I look. I hated looking so white, even though I was like half black. Then, eventually, I dunno why or how, but... I was in 9th grade (the second time around, lol) and I had Intro to BCA (Basic Computer Applications) and I guess that turned me. And from then on, I'd do everything right. I mess around with the "l33t" stuff for the hell of it, for laughs, but the people I say it with on like MSN, I know they actually aren't that stupid, and that they do it for fun too. I know of a guy who forms questions like this, "Have you ever watched Mind of Mencia, lol?" and I'm thinking to myself "The question mark goes before the 'lol', you idiot!"

So, yeah... the members have to be fairly decent spellers. Some kind of intelligence. That's all I require. I'm aware that not everyone is as word smart as myself. And that's okay. Just some basic knowledge of sentence structure, spelling, and making complete, logical sentences. Capitalizing isn't a big deal for me, but just some knowledge of a proper sentence is all I ask.

Activity... yeah, kinda. I mean, if I'm one of the first like 3 members (apart from staff), mass activity isn't a big deal, which is stupid, to me, to expect that. But decent activity is all I ask for.

Err. Generally, I just look at a forum and I'm like "Hell yeah!" or "Hell no!" and that's that. I think I usually join general-type forums. But I have joined a few Halo and wrestling forums. But then again, now-a-days, most of those have sections besides the "main theme" of that forum.

And, well, that's about it for me. Lol.

[Surreptitious Cardboard Box]

It's all very well and good being all like "omg, I hate n00bs who don't type properly", but what also annoys me is when people don't know the difference between grammar, spelling and punctuation. And I hate RPG-whores, who take control of the RPG, make out they're really super (and everyone else loves them), then makes their character uber-powerful and gets no complaints about it (yeh, not mentioning any names ... )

[Otzlowe]

cliquey said:

It's all very well and good being all like "omg, I hate n00bs who don't type properly", but what also annoys me is when people don't know the difference between grammar, spelling and punctuation. And I hate RPG-whores, who take control of the RPG, make out they're really super (and everyone else loves them), then makes their character uber-powerful and gets no complaints about it (yeh, not mentioning any names ... )

I can only guess... Keke...

You could call me an RPG-whore in the sense that I get so involved with them, rather than that I take control... sometimes I do, but only because many times I figure out something that will work, and feel the desire to see if I'm right or not. I try not to be too bad about it, but I know that I can get annoying sometimes... =/

[[Chris]]

RPGs... like ones online, like Runescape? Lol.

Another thing I look at is the Admins. Just how helpful they are and how they treat their members. Tolerance is a big thing. But you can't be so kind as to let them run over you, or so mean as to piss everyone off. But I also look at the admins as... the examples to everyone else. Usually, the rules talk about being kind and whatnot. If the Admins don't follow their own rules, it's kind of stupid to ask it of others. And I feel that even if half/some/most/all of the members can't spell and type correctly and everything, then the Admins should at least be decent at it. I think it's just terrible to be a "leader" type figure and then have everyone around you seem to be way smarter than you.