There are a few requirements that are imperative to a community (I call it community because there are so many different names; guild, clan, etc.) gaming website’s triumph. One of these requirements is a forum. I briefly mentioned forums before in another gaming web design post, but for this one I will delve into the specifics and give you some tips to making a successful forum. Not having a forum connected to your community web site is like declaring yourself legally defective. This is tip #1 people. Trying to make a name for your community website without having this valuable piece of your gaming puzzle is never going to happen. So for those of you who are advanced in the world of community website design and gaming, you’ll already know how to go about making a forum. It’s easy and quick to set up but there are some guidelines I’d like to give about it before you go all gung ho on me.

#1 – When you create your forum, most likely, you are going to be one of the few people who is actually interested in using your forum. So make yourself the moderator/administrator/king of all your forum empire. As you start to build up members within your community more and more threads will appear and you may find yourself battling to moderate all the different threads. By this time you should have a few good friends within your game or on the website that you feel comfortable giving some moderator privileges to. This is something they should take seriously in that they will have to comb threads each day and delete spam and whatnot. Of course, you will still be at the top of the forum chain and if you need to replace a moderator, that decision is up to you.

#2 – Secondly as the forum’s parent you should be posting on it! Because you the main man (or woman) people are going to believe that you are the end all know all, the answer to all their questions. Posting helpful information will always win people’s hearts over. And the more threads you have the more it looks like your site is used. This will draw others in to read what has been discussed (even if it’s just you talking to yourself). Not only should you be posting helpful information, you should also post about quests and get togethers within the game. Telling others what you are going to be doing and that they can join you is very inviting and makes you seem personable and a good leader.

There are plenty of moderating tips that I could and will give. But this post is getting kind of long and I’d like to not have you reading a novel. Also, these first two tips are good start-up tips for any community gaming forum. It will take a little while before your forum is built up enough to have to worry about anything else for a bit. So enjoy the free time you have now because maintaining a website, guild, and forum is hard work and you’ll cherish the time you have right now. For more information on video game web design check us out at DreamCo Design – Video Game Web Design. For more information on other types of web design take a look at DreamCo Design – Web Design.