Free forums have a chance

[Shawn Gossman]

Do you think people who create forums on free forums have a chance of the forum taking off?

I'd love to hear from those who run free forums and those who don't.

For those who are critical of this, consider those who can't afford a forum - how can they still make it work without the necessary resources?

 

[Mike30]

I do not have experience with free forum software, I had been tented, but I have read they are a pain to update/upgrade.
I really don't have complains with the paid software I am using.

And at the end of the day, to run a forum has costs, whether is a free or paid software, so, I rather to spend
to have peace of mind regarding the software (even the very first forum I created was on a paid software)

I even learned that working on construction... buy the best tool you can afford, it will pay off in the long run.

 

[JWeb]

It was a while back, but I started on free forums, and the community started to grow and become active. Eventually I switched over to paid software because of the limitations from the previous software.

But as long as the community is welcoming and consistently engaged (along with dedicated staff), I think they have a chance of taking off. I've come across forums that have been around for a while and are still active, using free forum software. Nowadays it might be harder to pull off but I still think they can do it.

 

[JoelR]

In no way is it related to free or paid forums - its entirely whether there is a unique audience, strategy, and value of the forum. There are still independent forums that are going very strong on free software, there are also tons of forums using paid software that have ended.

There is obviously benefit for paid forum software in terms of more modern features, theming, add-ons, etc.