Solution Overviews » Customer Service » Web Forum / Bulletin Board / Community
Web Forum / Bulletin Board / Community
1. Overview
A help desk is focused on providing one-on-one support. A forum is designed to allow forum members to help each other because questions can be answered by any forum member. Over time, forum questions and answers can become a valuable knowledgebase. A forum may also be referred to as a bulletin board, message board or community.
Key potential benefits of a forum include shifting some of the support burden away from your business and adding more dynamic content to keep visitors coming back to your website. However, a potential downside is that forums must be carefully monitored to ensure that visitors are not being subjected to any malicious and inaccurate posts or security threats.
Considerations
- Abuse
In order to minimize administration time and ensure a pleasant visit for your guests, it is key to scrutinize the anti-abuse capabilities of a solution.
- Bad Advice
Bad advice can reflect negatively on your forum and can be difficult to police if you expect a large volume. Ratings of posts by other members can help counter bad advice.
- Forum Activity
A forum without activity can appear like a ghost town and reduce your credibility so be sure there will be demand. If you don't anticipate an active forum or you don't have the time to administer it, consider a blog, wiki or a frequently asked questions (FAQs) section instead.
- Search Engine Friendly
If you have a relevant forum that is accessible by search engines, it can serve to boost the search rankings.
Features
- Discussion Threads
A thread is the discussion posts that results from the initial question or comment post.
- Ratings
In order to give visitors some indication of information quality, most applications include the ability to rate postings and display information about the member that created a post.
- Instant Messaging
In addition to posting simple messages, some forums also include instant messaging.
- Polls
Provide simple polls to gauge user sentiment.
- Calendars
Calendar of events
- Security
It is possible to assign different permissions to groups.
Implementation Options
| 1. In-House Forum Software | 2. Internet Forum Service |
|---|---|
Software is installed on your web server. |
An Internet forum service provides the application for you and you pay a fee per month or a fee based on usage. |
2. Next Steps
| 1. In-House Forum Software | 2. Internet Forum Service | |
|---|---|---|
| General Advice | Can be a good choice if you are tech savvy and already have a web server. | Can be a good choice if you are short on startup costs or if you are not sure whether it is the right fit. |
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Examples of Products and ServicesThese are not endorsements, simply some product or service names we encountered in our research to get you started finding your best fit. |
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Outside Information
- ForumMatrix.org: Compare Forum Applications
- freebielist.com: Free Message Boards
- Wikipedia.org: Internet Forum
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