How to start a Christian online discussion community

[Jeff]

How to start a Christian Online Discussion Community

Online message boards and BBS systems can be a great way to connect people who share similar interests. By following a few easy steps, you can create a thriving online community which will provide you and your membership with many entertaining discussions.

Steps

1. Choose a specific community topic. If you plan to manage the community yourself, pick something that you are knowledgable about and interested in. Because there are already so many online discussion forums available, it's best to serve a well-defined niche. For example, "Christian Webmasters" will probably work better than "Christian Community".
2. Select a hosting package. If you have some webspace and a good bit of experience with web development, you can set up your own message board using a software package such as vBulletin. If you are unable to set up your own hosting, you can use one of the remotely hosted forum services such as EZboard, or Proboards.
3. Create your forums (discussion areas). Ideally, you want 5-15 separate forums, each dealing with some aspect of your community topic. For example, you can have a "General Discussion" forum, a "Prayer" forum, a "Bible Study" forum, etc.
4. Advertise your community. If you have some online friends with similar interests, send them a quick e-mail to let them know about your "grand opening." If you have a website, announce your new community to your visitors. Whatever you do, avoid "spamming" (advertising to strangers without permission). Spamming will ruin the reputation of your community before it has a chance to get started.
5. Select moderators. Each separate discussion forum within your community should have its own moderator. The moderator keeps the discussions fresh by starting new topics and removing inappropriate content. Community users who are knowledgeable about the subject matter of the forum and willing to spend a few minutes a day helping the community grow will make good moderators.
6. Manage the community. You and the team of moderators should agree on some basic rules of conduct (such as "no personal attacks"), and enforce them. Occassionally, you may need to ban a disruptive user from your community in order to prevent problems.
7. Make strategic alliances. Exchange links with other communities with similar interests in order to grow your user base. As your community increases in size and activity, you will have more opportunities to create strategic partnerships with other websites.

Tips

• Don't expect overnight success. It takes time to build a large and active membership. Keep at it, and the word will eventually get around.
• Tailor your rules and standards to your subject matter. For example, a religious community will probably have much stricter rules than one about making prank phone calls. Your community standards should be neither too strict or too relaxed for your target audience.
• Create a community atmosphere. You need to foster a sense of loyalty and "belonging" among your membership, or they will eventually go somewhere else. Games, contests, custom titles for users, and other "gimmicks" work well, but simple friendliness and respect are even better.

Warnings

• If you choose to have someone host your forum for you they may force your forum members to view advertisements. This is the case with most free forum hosts such as invisionfree.com. You can usually remove the ads for a small fee. You can, however, sometimes find a free forum host without forced ads. One good example of a free forum host without ads is WebringAmerica - Free PHPBB3 Forum Hosting With No Ads!. You can usually find others by doing some digging on Google. Choosing a host without ads gives your forums a more professional look that your visitors will enjoy.
• As a community administrator, be prepared to encounter some occassional harassment. Disruptive users are a sad fact of internet life, and many of them do not take kindly to being banned from the community. If you are highly sensitive to criticism, you may want to consider letting someone else run your community for you.

My Recommendations

Do your own research before you decide to invest into your community. These are some of my recommendations (not official, therefore choose wisely):

• Domain Name Registration - GoDaddy
  
• Web Hosting Service - ASmallOrange, LogicWeb
• Forum Package - vBulletin, phpBB, SimpleMachines, InvisionPower
  

Slightly modified version of an existing article: How to Start an Online Discussion Community - wikiHow
Initial Author: James Curtis Hale .
Contributors: James Quirk , Krystle C. , Ben Rubenstein , Tom Viren , Acebrock and others.
All text shared under a Creative Commons License.

[Preacher]

Pretty much covers all the bases.

Thanks for sharing Jeff.

[Jeff]

Thanks Preacher.
I just added a poll to find out if anyone here has owns or is planning is open a Christian community. Ask if you have any questions? I try answering if I can.

[Preacher]

OK, I just voted.

I am also a site admin for a small Christian forum, but we use a different software. We may possibly update to vBulletin in the future. But for now we are using phpNuke.

[Jeff]

I didn't know that. vBulletin is a great software but its a little expensive considering other free forum packages available. I was using phpBB here and I happened to see another Christian forum using vBulletin. I just couldn't wait.

Did CFS by any chance happen to be a reason for you liking vBulletin?

[Preacher]

I'm a pretty big supporter of the 2nd Amendment, so I have been surfing firearms forums for the past 3 years. Most of them used vBulletin and I really like it. I am also a moderator at a firearms forum that uses vBulletin.

So to answer your question, I liked it before I found CFS. Actually, I was surfing for some free Christian smilies, and that's how I wondered across CFS. I'm a member on about 10 forums ranging from political to firearms to Christian, and a few that are a cross of all 3.

So I really wasn't looking to participate in anymore forums, but something about this one wouldn't let me leave.

I'm active daily on about 3 forums, and try catch the others on a weekly basis. Some I only hit about once a month. And throwing 3 Churches, a wife, a garden, auto maintenance and home repair into the mix, it really keeps a Preacher busy.

But I really do like this site.

[mustardseed]

I'm glad you like this site. I do like it a lot too.
I'm an active participant of quite a few Christian forums, but I don't own my own.

[Jeff]

Originally Posted by Preacher

I am also a moderator at a firearms forum that uses vBulletin.

Moderator eh, tough job isn't it. I really appreciate the work the moderators here are doing. We have a backstage discussion area where the team makes decision on how to improve the community etc. Some of you already know about it.

I too like the forums because I have learnt and received here much much more than I have shared. Its a great experience and privilege.

[Preacher]

Originally Posted by Jeff

Moderator eh, tough job isn't it. I really appreciate the work the moderators here are doing. We have a backstage discussion area where the team makes decision on how to improve the community etc. Some of you already know about it.

That's why I jumped with both feet and started PM'ing everybody!!! And good mods make a huge difference

But it's not too bad. Most members are like minded and we all get along pretty good. The most heated discussion we have there is the old AK vs AR Which is better threads.

At my Christian site, I have a really good team of mods that support me and my partner 100%. We're still new, so our traffic is still pretty slow. But the members are slowly starting to creep in.

Originally Posted by Jeff

I too like the forums because I have learnt and received here much much more than I have shared. Its a great experience and privilege.

Same here. It truly is a learning experience.

[Jeff]

Originally Posted by Preacher

At my Christian site, I have a really good team of mods that support me and my partner 100%. We're still new, so our traffic is still pretty slow. But the members are slowly starting to creep in.

Would you mind if I ask you which that site is? psst...you can pm me.