We must have a forum

Over the last year I have been involved in a couple of Web site developments, targeted at the older person, that have forums. During the preliminary discussions about the sites I told the marketing people that they may as well dump the forums since they will not be used. Oh yes they will they said. Oh no they will not I said.

Needless to say the sites were developed and the forums were added. Needless to say they now sit their and decay. After the initial burst of activity of the people on the site, responsible for content, making a vain attempt to generate traffic they now have 2-3 comments a day max.

Unless you have a really intense subject, like computing and health, where people get really worked up about their own knowledge, or the need for advice, the chances that a forum will work is minimal. Of course that will not stop marketers still insisting on adding them to sites.

Just because it is easy to do doesn't mean you should. Dick Stroud