Your Ideas Are Needed

[Keagle]

Just takes time Dan, your not going to build a 100k database in 2 minutes. Forums are like hosting businesses, it takes time before you your known LOL.

Good luck though, just opened a forum myself!.

*Just opened*? It already has almost 6000members. You have really got to spill the beans, mine and Richard's forum, WMPoint, isn't going too well. Active Members: 14!

 

[Tatzel]

*Just opened*? It already has almost 6000members. You have really got to spill the beans, mine and Richard's forum, WMPoint, isn't going too well. Active Members: 14!

Maybe because you aren't alone in the "english-only, general public content, strongly screened applications, heavily IT-students or IT-savy-youth oriented" area. There seems to be at least one or two other similar host(s) also posting smack in this thread, and if I'm right Zoomcities is also right there and quite large already.

And the sort of applicants you want, willing and able to go through such a process sort of look like uh... every free host's dream audience ?
They won't have trouble settling down anywhere, if it goes down they probably have their own domain name and backups and can switch in a eyeblink. The only thing such more picky hosts can offer them, if at all, is improved reliability and a peer community, maybe easier access to abuse-prone features that more anonymous hosts just won't enable.

If you're starting out the community ain't there yet, and the word-of-mouth for your reliability, support or whatever you may offer over regular instant activation hosts has yet to spread.
And unless I've been struck by some temporary half-blindness, a guest doesn't even see at a first glance of your forum that you -do- have hosting to offer at all

 

[alley]

Sorry, but I hate post to host sites.

I would just do forced Google ads in website's headers, and forced banner link back in the footers. Kill two birds wth one stone so to speak. Make a cool banner for Exstream host for the footer "link back"

 

[TaoPhoenix]

Downsides of Post-to-Host

Post4Host doesn't bring revenue by itself either, unless you show ads on the forum and get people to display and click them.

I've often found post-4-host/features environments feel pretty contrived, even if you forbid one-liners and pointless posts there'll be a part of the crowd that'll be there just to do their minimum "effort" and it feels.

I've been on 110mb.com for a while, they're going the partly "post4features or paid upgrades" way and gosh how crappy the forums have tended to become those last weeks :/ Droves of people asking questions or speculating about stuff that's pointedly answered in the OP or next few posts, necromancy of threads no-one gives a dead horse's --- about any longer, copy-pastes of content from somewhere else out of the blue... yeargh...

Good, someone is addressing the weakness of this model.

They all feel like the struggles in Operating-System land where everyone needs their own special solution. I will never sign to a Post-Host provider, because I will not tolerate being forced to warp my schedule just to keep my site alive. If I get busy for three months and only glance at my page a little, so be it.

I always felt the best free hosting is a lead-in to a company that provides business class paid hosting. Businesses expect longevity if nothing else, and free providers are legendary for deciding "oh well, this didn't work out. I'll sell it off." When I deliberately picked some small providers to dabble around with, I made an internal agreement "this provider could tank at any time."