Lost and Confused

Vaelor

New Member
Hey all,

Just found my way here after a fortnight of staring at WMF going "What the...?? Where did all my threads go?? Who are all these people?? This isn't the same forum!!", etc.

Finally, StephanieCordray was kind enough to explain to me that the wonderful world of WMF has been swallowed by a lesser entity, and is now (my words, not hers) no longer fit for human consumption, so here I am. Thankyou Stephanie, for saving me from blundering around the web any longer. I signed up for nearly 15 webmaster/online business/domain related forums looking for one decent one, and WMF was it. The forum that took it over, happened to be, in my personal opinion, one of the worst I came across. Personally, I don't fancy having to pay money to post on an online forum, even if I had it to blow and there weren't a billion free forums out there instead.

So I'm hoping that this Web Design Forum will be as great as the old Web Master Forum, since on most of the competitor sites out there one is hard pressed to even get noticed when asking an important question, let alone any sense of actual community or acquaintance with other board members. Just when I was starting to feel a part of WMF, it got flushed, so now I'm going to try, try again here. =)

Anyways, enough with the clichés and ramblings, just wanted to intro myself and say hi. So hi!

Cheers,

- Vaelor
 

ian

Administrator
Staff member
Welcome Vaelor,
Yeah I am not sure what the reasoning behind merging those two forums were. But you know the owner of that forum is a very smart successful person, so even though the changes were not quite to my liking, I think he knows what he is doing. Who knows, there could be some more surprises in store that no one is yet aware of.....
Well this forum is going to be around for a long time to come, and there are no plans to sell it.
 

StephanieCordray

New Member
If it were a type of forum I'm interested in, I would pay for it... Spammers won't want to pay up to waste my time, lol... I know there are free forums galore out there but finding good ones is hard to do. The problem for me is that what is there now isn't something I'm all that interested in, except for a bit of curiosity about the whole domain name game. I don't know the owner but the wmf admin GiantDomains has been a decent sort.
 

Vaelor

New Member
StephanieCordray said:
I never said it wasn't fit for human consumption... I just said that I can't find anything to talk about there.
Hey Stephanie... I quote, "and is now (my words, not hers) no longer fit for human consumption"... I put the bracketed words in so there'd be no mistaken belief that I was quoting you by saying that. =)

ian said:
Yeah I am not sure what the reasoning behind merging those two forums were. But you know the owner of that forum is a very smart successful person, so even though the changes were not quite to my liking, I think he knows what he is doing. Who knows, there could be some more surprises in store that no one is yet aware of.....
Oh, I'm not saying it won't turn out to be profitable, or a good business plan, or even a very valuable resource to some, I was just saying that like you, it's just not to my liking. I can't see myself sticking around there actively, and I certainly can not ever see myself paying for membership. While I'm sure it could work out very well for the new admin/userbase, that sort of thing just isn't for me.

Besides, though unlike Stephanie, I do have some interest in the domains business, I wanted a forum where I can discuss ALL my online business/website matters with like minded people, not just one solitary aspect. Also, as those few who knew me on WMF know all too well (and I hope they find their way to migrate here too!), I don't make enough money selling domains to justify paying for a forum account just to talk about how little money I make selling domains! =D

ian said:
Well this forum is going to be around for a long time to come, and there are no plans to sell it.
Very glad to hear that Ian. Curiously, when did you start this board? Judging by some users signup dates and post counts, it looks as though you opened this before WMF was taken over? I was under the impression that it was brand spankin' new, but it looks like it's already been busy in some areas...

This forum post should be considered the opinions of the writer only, and should not be construed as the views of Web Design Forum, the management, Stephanie Cordray, or Vaelor. Author reserves the right to modify/retract any and all opinions given at any time. =)
 

zkiller

Super Moderator
Staff member
haha... i like the disclaimer in your last post vaelor.

first off, i would like to welcome you to our humble little community here at WDF.

second, this forum was opened quite some time after the sale of WMF. unfortunetly, most of the core group of people whom made WMF what it was, managed to find there way here. so hopefully with time, this site will be as good, if not better than WMF as was. :)
 

ian

Administrator
Staff member
Well computerforum.com my main site, was opened shortly after wmf was sold. I just couldnt quite bring myself to getting out of the forum game altogether.
This forum was launched in August 2004.
Mind you, all of these forums, a forum I started before wmf, was domainnameforums.com
That was actually started before dnforum.com
 

Vaelor

New Member
Sooo... hangon, let me get this straight. Ian, you run, what is it, 8? forums... and they're all about the same topic, or at least same general industry... and so this site isn't really a replacement for WMF, it's more just one of your other forums that some WMF happened to choose to migrate to when you sold WMF??

So, what's the difference between all your various forum sites? And why run so many simultaneously? Do you actually make a living doing this? Is this all tied in with mysterious "greater project" I saw you not telling people about in another thread? Is this enough questions to significantly highlight myself as the official forum n00b? =P

Wow. Closest I ever came to running eight sites at once was when I had about eight "Coming soon!" pointer pages on various domains that I frivolously bought thinking I would eventually make sites out of them.... =D
 

ian

Administrator
Staff member
No I currently have 4 forums only, and there will only be one more, making a grand total of 5 forums. There will definitely not be any more after that.
They are all in specialist areas, though all in some way webmaster related.
So far
Computers
Domain Names
Web Hosting
Web Design
and the last one will be about search engines, then that will definitely be it. I have no plans for any more forums. So essentially, rather than one webmaster forum, there will be 5 specialist ones.
No I dont make a living doing this, I work in a normal 9 to 5 job, so this is kind of like a hobby for me.
 

zkiller

Super Moderator
Staff member
Vaelor said:
and so this site isn't really a replacement for WMF, it's more just one of your other forums that some WMF happened to choose to migrate to when you sold WMF??
that's a big negative. :p this site did not exist back in the days of the good old WMF, as we know and love it at least. this site was created good while after the sale of WMF. i would like to say that it was a good 6 months or so later, but don't take my word for it.
 

Vaelor

New Member
zkiller said:
that's a big negative. :p this site did not exist back in the days of the good old WMF, as we know and love it at least. this site was created good while after the sale of WMF. i would like to say that it was a good 6 months or so later, but don't take my word for it.

Now that can't be right... Ian just told me this forum was created last August, whereas I didn't even discover WMF until maybe a month or two ago. I had an account there, posted several threads, got to know people, and then it wasn't until this last couple of weeks or so until I tried to log in one day and saw a completely different forum there. And when I clicked the links from the last few automated notification emails I had here, they linked to strange topics or gave a restricted access message.

So either Ian sold WMF over a year ago and the new owners only just now decided to trash it and just redirect to their other forum, or your math is WAY out. =)
 

Vaelor

New Member
ian said:
No I currently have 4 forums only, and there will only be one more, making a grand total of 5 forums. There will definitely not be any more after that.
They are all in specialist areas, though all in some way webmaster related.
So far
Computers
Domain Names
Web Hosting
Web Design
and the last one will be about search engines, then that will definitely be it. I have no plans for any more forums. So essentially, rather than one webmaster forum, there will be 5 specialist ones.
No I dont make a living doing this, I work in a normal 9 to 5 job, so this is kind of like a hobby for me.

By computers, I assume you mean non-internet related hardware/software stuff? Because one might say that "Computers" pretty much covers all the other subcategories otherwise. =)

I gotta say, I'm sold on the idea - I've spent years looking for a place I can have questions answered on pretty much every area of computer use. So many times some silly little random thing will happen that you've just never seen before, and all you need is one person who knows what it's about to point you in the right direction to fix it. Kudos for working to create communities where we can all help eachother out with our various levels and degrees of expertise.

Though I'm still curious - why five forums on five similar topics, rather than one huge computing forum with five subcategories? I mean, wouldn't it make sense to have one site with five times the memberbase who can scoot between topics easily enough, rather than five seperate sites with five seperate signup processes, which tends to discourage people from participating in all five categories?

I think this has something to do with your "master plan". I know you wouldn't tell several well-known regulars what the ultimate goal was, but how about telling a newbie and a total stranger? C'mon, you know you want to. Or something. =D
 
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zkiller

Super Moderator
Staff member
Vaelor said:
So either Ian sold WMF over a year ago and the new owners only just now decided to trash it and just redirect to their other forum
bingo! :D

the reason for keeping the topics seperated from one another is quite simular. for one, it's much easier to manage than one huge site, thus there is less clutter. two, users find what they are looking for instantly, rather than having to scroll down forever and day, and possibly missing the topic they wanted in the process. :)
 

Vaelor

New Member
typo

zkiller said:
bingo! :D

the reason for keeping the topics seperated from one another is quite simular. for one, it's much easier to manage than one huge site, thus there is less clutter. two, users find what they are looking for instantly, rather than having to scroll down forever and day, and possibly missing the topic they wanted in the process. :)

That seems to defy forum logic to me man. I mean, for starters, more topics means more likely that your question has already been answered - you may need to spend more time actually READING forums or heaven forbid, even SEARCHING them (a concept most forum n00bs find hard to grasp, granted!), but in the offchance nobody's answered your question already, there are a lot more people available to do so, hence increasing the chance you'll get a prompt and helpful response. And let's say, for a top-of-my-head example, that I have a query about how best to use META tags on my HTML pages to make them as search engine friendly as possible. With seperate forums, I'd probably be inclined to post my enquiry on both a Web Design forum, and a Search Engine forum, to get the POV's of experts in both fields. Personally, I'd rather post it once and have twice as many people able to read and respond to my question in one place, than follow two threads on two boards from two completely different sets of users. =)

As for administration, I've never run a forum of anywhere near this scale or calibre before, but I can't imagine that adminstrating one website, with say, five major categories, and (for examples sake), 25 sub-categories (assuming five sub-forums per major topic), could be that much more difficult that administrating five seperate boards on five seperate sites that each have five forum categories on them and five different userbases to keep track of. In fact, when I put it that way, the latter sounds a LOT harder! =)

In fact, just thinking about it is making my head hurt! I guess being business related forums, you'd have considerable less trolls, n00bs, idiotic teens, spammers, and other such bannable users to worry about than say, a cars forum, or a gaming forum, or whatever else, but still... just thinking about trying to moderate so many users on so many sites is making my brain go boom. =)
 
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zkiller

Super Moderator
Staff member
i have moderated on serveral forums covering various topics. believe me, once these forums reach a certain size, it will make ian's and the lives of his staff, much easier!

but i'll let him explain why he did things the he has further. :)
 

Vaelor

New Member
Sure thing. =) Actually, I was going to say that in my last post - would be curious to hear what the boss man himself has to say on the matter, since he's the one holding it all together! Seems like a phenomenal task to me, but then again, I can't even get one profitable site online these days! =/
 

zkiller

Super Moderator
Staff member
i quite simply lack the motivation and even more so, the inspiration, to get anything worth while of the ground. not sure why though.
 

Vaelor

New Member
Me, I have inspiration by the bucketload, but barely an iota of motivation, which is a side effect of having been in the business for over six years and not having a penny to show for it. The internet is like, killing my soul, man. =)

I'm beginning to think that I may never actually run a successful internet business that will be my bread and butter, let alone actually allow me to live a comfortable or opulent lifestyle. So the fact that I don't know how to start a profitable website, combined with the despondent sensation that even if I did have a great idea, it wouldn't work anyway, tends to leave me with about zero motivation to even bother attempting to start on anything, since it will just be a waste of time anyway. =/

As I mentioned earlier (thought I can't recall if it was in this thread or another, and am frankly far too tired to double check right now!), I have about half a dozen websites that consist of little or nothing more than a "This website coming soon!" page, and some of these have been that way for nearly half a decade. This is because no matter what I do, I can't for the life of me think of a way to profit from these concepts that I've had, and hence spending my time building the site up for no financial return isn't an inspiring concept...

And, no matter where I turn, or who I ask, or which web forums I whine on, nobody can tell me what I'm doing wrong, or what the key to success is, or make any sense of the puzzle for me. I get a lot of "Hang in there!"s, and "You'll make it eventually!"s, and "Everybody goes through rough patches in this industry!"s, but nobody seems to be able to say "Here, this is how I made it!", or "Have you considered doing this and this?"...

Baffling, I tell you. Baffling, and highly frustrating.
 

zkiller

Super Moderator
Staff member
it's really a matter of developing your own style. the way i work for instance, probably wouldn't work for most others here, as i tend to put a lot into marketing in manner of free services. many others would consider this a waste of time and resources, but it works for me.

ian puts a lot of effort into search engines, which i personally never put much emphasis on. however, it works great for him, as you saw at WMF and possibly over at computer forum. that's how he gets most of his traffic and builds his sites. while i counted more on word of mounth, incoming links (i still find them today and i closed the doors on my biz about 4 years ago now.) and the quality of my services/products.

you really just need to try various strategies and find what you feel most comfortable with. then it also depends on what kind of site you want to run. if it's supposed to a business of some sort, what kind of product or service are you trying to sell? there are a million factors to look at. nobody can truelly say, this is what i did and it will work for you to. that's not the case at all.

just do your research and even get creative if you have to and you will eventually see the end of the tunnel. i know it's frustrating, but don't let that get you down.

personally, i don't go into any kind of web project, unless i enjoy it. wether it is profitable or not, really isn't my main objective. besides, if you enjoy what you do, it will show in your work and increase your chances of the project being successfull. :)
 

ian

Administrator
Staff member
Well I have tried to cover the broad spectrum of webmaster related fields within webdesignforum.com so that you are not really forced to go to say domainnameforums.com or hostforums.com for say domain name or web hosting related questions. However domain name buying, trading, sales, appraisals is a unique field in itself, and quite easily lends itself to an entire forum of its own. And there are many in the domain name industry who whilst they would visit professional type general webmaster forums, really prefer to spend most of their time at domain specific forums.
Anyhow it is a decision I have taken, and one which I will stick with. There are also a large number of other reasons for me doing things this way.
And, no matter where I turn, or who I ask, or which web forums I whine on, nobody can tell me what I'm doing wrong, or what the key to success is, or make any sense of the puzzle for me. I get a lot of "Hang in there!"s, and "You'll make it eventually!"s, and "Everybody goes through rough patches in this industry!"s, but nobody seems to be able to say "Here, this is how I made it!", or "Have you considered doing this and this?"...
Well there is a certain degree of truth in that, you really do have to hang in there, but more importantly, you have to experiment, if things are not working for you now, you have to experiement with new things. I embark on new projects not with the idea of making money, but realising it for what it is, an educational process, and if it makes money, all the better. But if you do things the same way you always have, you cant really expect different results.
And I know this is a web design forum, but running a website is soooooo much more than just the web design, and that is something that too many webmasters get caught up with, coding, html, etc. There are so many other just as important areas, and to ignore any of them is not good.
You know it is important to work on niches that do make money on the internet, you cant simply build any kind of website and expect to make a lot of money doing it. So this is like my number one concern before embarking on a new project. Mind you, like zkiller says, you have to have an interest in that field as well, otherwise it is not going to be much fun.
Then when designing, you have to consider the search engine friendliness factor, you have to decide on keywords to optimize for, and for which you want search engine people to find you via. For example, my site computerforum.com the keywords I optimize for are "computer forum"
Go to google http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=computer+forum and you will see that I currently have a number one spot for that term, and no that is not just because of the domain, but that helps as well.
But you see, all of these things I have just mentioned are factors that I decide upon in the planning stage before I have executed anything.
So planning is VERY VERY important. Dont just get caught up in html and coding, there are tonnes of other equally important areas to concentrate on, you need balance.
 
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