#4 Product of the DayOctober 06, 2019
Discussion
Would you recommend this product?
6 Reviews
Maker
The web community is an incredible thing. Enormously passionate, diverse, generous and interactive. Being able to work in an industry where there is so many community members always offering their support, wisdom and kindness is the greatest gift.
You have probably noticed a shift in the past couple of years that involves many members of our industry community heading back towards the days of personal websites and blogging. Owning their content. A shift driven by a disdain for the way content creators and users are treated by the few large centralised platforms and their opaque algorithms for visibility.
Well, another thing that is well overdue a comeback is the forum. The online forum world is still well alive and kicking in many niches but the contenders in this space are lackluster. Social media simply can't come close to the level of community, quality and organisation that a well managed forum platform can offer.
On a smaller community platform users can be in better control of their content and be assured there is a community team with the communities interest at its heart as opposed to shareholder profits and influence.
Of course Webwide offers all of the things you would expect from a decent industry community platform, including:
👋 Meeting new people
💬 Discussing industry news
🧠 Learning from others and sharing own experiences
💫 Showcase your work
💪 Compete in friendly community challenges
📣 Promote your content
🎉 Celebrate your achievements
🤝 Make new industry connections
✅ Strong community-driven Code of Conduct
A forum platform also has some distinct advantages over other major networks including...
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✨ Keep reading:
👉 https://webwide.io/threads/why-w...
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Upvote (5)Share
@adam_greenough Congratulations on the launch!!!
Maker
@fajarsiddiq Thanks so much Fajar! 🥳
This looks great... I wonder why hosted on anything other than Discourse? What made you chose Xenforo?
Maker
@zaheerbaloch Great question! It was a major contender. Here's why I opted for Xenforo over Discourse:
- Over 75% of traffic to my sign-up landing page was on desktop and it makes sense that a community for web pros would use this platform mostly. I personally think that a mobile first, desktop never approach Discourse does makes for a bad experience here.
- Discourse takes a very different approach the organisation of topics which I think works really well on more niche or dedicated support communities but not ones with a broader focus.
- I have lots of experience using PHP and as a result am able to extend and theme this one independently which is important with little budget.
- Discourse is difficult to extend and theme which is why they all tend to look and work the same. I don't think a Discourse board would have been different enough from the other communities in the space.
A traditional forum isn't for everyone these days but I don't have to get every single person on board! If I find a couple hundred people to participate and enjoy then that's mission accomplished for me.
Xenforo is still very actively maintained and used. I think we tech people can live in a bit of a bubble but the forum world is very much alive and kicking in many many niches.
My first serious website was a forum 10 years ago and I have been actively participating in many since. I'm very excited to be part of an awesome little community and enjoying the challenges of building it out and growing.
@adam_greenough Thanks for a detailed answer. This is very helpful for someone like me who is looking for a forum software to host a discussion board.
Maker
@zaheerbaloch No worries! Other contenders on my shortlist were Flarum, Vanilla and Invision Community which all have their own advantages/disadvantages also. :)
This looks nice, good luck!
Maker
Awesome
Maker
Congrats on the launch 🎉 Such a feature rich platform to power an engaged community.
Maker
@lachlankirkwood Thanks so much Lachlan!