Discussion Forums/Community Sites

Discussion Forums/Community Sites
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Why have them? Because they offer your web site a value added feature. It’s a place on your web site where people can participate in interactive discussions.

There are three main methods available to set up a discussion forum/community site:

CHAT: This is where real-time discussions take place over the internet. The main problem with this method is that the information only stays on file for a few minutes, and as such only the people using the system at the same time can participate in the discussion.

MESSAGE BOARDS: These are essentially a place on the internet where you post a message and leave it their awaiting a response. The time the message remains on a message board can be endless, so numerous discussions can take place.

E-MAIL LISTS: A useful tool, but only restricted to people on whom you have e-mail addresses, with more and more people complaining of spam e-mail, this may not be advisable.

The costs of setting up a chat-room or e-mail lists is quite expensive, they do involve a lot of maintenance. By far, the most cost-effective method is the message board. It may not be as appealing as real time chat, but other people can, enter discussions at a later date. Setting a message board is a very simple process. Most search engines offer you the ability to have your own community sites free!

WEB ADDRESS:	WEB COMPANY:
www.accessboards.com	Accessboards
www.delphi.com	Delphi Forums
www.ecircles.com	eCircles
www.excite.com/communities/directory	Excite
http://clubs.yahoo.com	Yahoo

The way you set them up is relatively pain free. You decide the category of your site, whether you wish to have your club listed so anyone can join a discussion, or un-listed, where only people visiting your site use it. You then enter a few details, await for your club site to be generated, receive an e-mail telling you where your club site is then simply use that address in your web site to show where the community site is. The search engines generally allow for you to edit which messages appear in your community site. The facilities different search engines offer vary from just showing text, allowing you to paste your picture, allowing sound to be transmitted some even allow for video messages to be transmitted.

Decide if a community site is going to prove valuable to your organization or not. It could be used in place of having contact information on your web site, or even as a point where customers can discuss your products and services.

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