Forums, blogs........which one should we use?

[Bohak]

9 months ago we started a newspaper called The Beachside Resident and are now printing our 9th issue. Our audience is steadily growing and I feel its time to add a form for people to voice their opinions, views etc.

I just wanted to get some advice and opinions on:

1-Should we use a forum or Blog or both?

2-Which software should we use?

Also, I need to setup a picture gallery that people can uplaod to. Any suggestions on software would be great.

Thanks.

Online version of our newspaper is at www.thebeachsideresident.com

[DeadIntoIt]

Hi there Bohak,

Both would be my recommendation.

Why? Forums are for community communications. Building a community based around your niche market can be very beneficial as it will (Among other things), build a feeling of community and keep people of like mind coming back for advice and to share their experiences about what ever your forum's primary subject is.

The down side is if you don't promote your forum, so that it at least appears to have a lot of participants, it will end up taking up a lot of time without much to show for it.

The least expensive (FREE) forum software is PHPbb you can find here http://www.phpbb.com/

Blogs are for opinions or editorials of a sort people can offer opinions on. There is quite a bit of a learning curve to go through, to make either worth your time.

Regarding Blog software, there is a pretty good arcicle here: http://www.asymptomatic.net/blogbreakdown.htm

Hope this helps,

[Bohak]

Ive used that forum software before, Im thinking I might use it for this forum as well.

Thanks for the links.

PS. Thats a damn good slogan in your signature and the magnet was a smooth choice for an icon as well.

[DeadIntoIt]

Ive used that forum software before, Im thinking I might use it for this forum as well.

Thanks for the links.

PS. Thats a damn good slogan in your signature and the magnet was a smooth choice for an icon as well.

Nice of you to mention that Bohak. I appreciate it when someone compliments my sig file.

Hope the links help.

[scarytruth]

I say use them both.

If someone goes to your site and normally uses Blogs its there.

If someone goes to your site and normally uses Forums its there.

What ever keeps people coming back to your site or stickiness then use it.

[scarytruth]

I say use them both.

If someone goes to your site and normally uses Blogs its there.

If someone goes to your site and normally uses Forums its there.

What ever keeps people coming back to your site or stickiness then use it.

www.scary-truth.com

[senaTTor]

A forum is great for a many-to-many communication effort. A blog is great for a one-to-many communication effort. If you can get away with it, offer both. Take a look at your site, the information you're trying to disseminate (and how) and figure out what transport method is going to be best.

As far as forum software goes, phpbb was mentioned, and it's pretty farkin good. I've used it on tons of projects and it has lots and lots and lots of support. Personally, I also really like Invision's Powerboard, even though it's not free. It's stupendously easy to skin and modify, and feels slightly different than phpbb (in a good way).

For blogging software, I'm especially fond of Movable Type from Six Apart. It's just well-written. Again, though, it's paid software. An open-source, free solution I like to use is Textpattern. Textpattern is unbelievably flexible (and that flexibility is far more accessible than software like Wordpress or similar solutions), and I really like the backend interface. Plus it has all the bells and whistles you could want.

There's plenty of writeups to read and research to be done. These are just suggestions, software to install and try out, see what happens, that sort of thing. Good luck with your project!

Foshizzle.

[MathsIsFun]

Also consider PunBB. It is fast and light, with a good active community behind it.

[ChiefTutor]

I agree with the other posts in regard to using them both. I use Vbulletin for our forum and the blog we use is wordpress.org

Vbulliten costs money but the other forum mentioned has some enemies who have figured how to hack into the forum and bring it down. The one site we use that forum on has been brought down by a turkish hacker twice in 6 months.

I like wordpress blogs for blogging as they have some very good themes and are fairly easy to manipulate.

Good luck

[writergrrrl48]

I hope it's OK to post this ...

I've been using the free blog hosting at www.Skaffe.com for a short time. Seems to do the job. My blog is pathetic, I'm just using it as a test right now. But here's one to check out: http://blog.alanplager.com