Long-time readers of the site are probably familiar with our online community, the THorum. When I started Theater Hopper, it was a great way to interact with fans and we had a really good run of civility and fun for a couple of years.
Unfortunately, time commitments prevented me from visiting the THorum as often as I would like and the time I did spend there was directed toward fending off spambots, who were swarming the forum by the dozen, daily.
When I relaunched the site in WordPress earlier in the year, I decided to take another stab at the THorum, this time upgrading to phpBB3.
Unfortunately, the same maintenance problems reared their ugly heads and the THorum is now inaccessible.
I was pretty much ready to pull the plug and rely on feedback from the blog comments when I received an interesting offer from Halforum.com.
First, a bit of history. About a year ago, Scott Kurtz from PVP closed the doors on his forum. Halforum was founded by a couple of people from the PVP forum in an effort to keep the community together. I was a semi-regular on the PVP forums before they shut down and have been casual acquaintances of the group since.
Recently, the administrators from Halforum have reached out to me with an interest to establish a partnership. Basically, I link to a subdomain within their forum from Theater Hopper. They obtain access to potentially new members and I have the burden of forum maintenance lifted off my shoulders. It’s a mutually beneficial relationship.
I’m mentioning this to you guys because I’m trying to build some consensus. I know most of you who respond in the comments filed will probably say that the comments are suffice when it comes to community building or feedback. But I’m curious if there are any of you out there looking for something more?
Generally, I just want to know your thoughts. Is partnering with Halforum a good idea or a bad idea. Do you think you would check it out? If not, why?
The original THorum went a long way toward helping establish Theater Hopper and make it a success. So I still find value in using forums as a communications and networking tool. I just wanted to take everyone’s pulse on the matter. What do you think?
We miss you and want you back! It hasn’t been the same without you at Halforum.
One thing. If you want to check out the forum, please go to http://www.forum.halforum.com. The front page is a work in progress and is actually secondary to the forum itself.
-Dave
Seconding what DarkAudit said.
Well I was an infrequent poster of HP, but I visited almost everyday. When it went down I didn’t really notice that Halforum came into the picture. So I’m excited. It probably would have taken a much longer time for me to come across it.
So basically that partnership has already started to pay off.
I would say to give it a try for a period of time long enough to see if you have the time to interact with your fans this way. Maybe a three to six month trial period would be good. If you find that you can’t make the commitment that the Halforum requires, end it.
In short, what do you have to lose by trying?
-Edly
That’s kind of what I think, Edly. I was basically planning on pulling the plug on the forum anyway, so there’s nothing lost by partnering with Halforum,
If it doesn’t work, I’d hate to leave them high and dry. But hopefully the exposure they get from Theater Hopper helps sustain them for a while if it doesn’t work out.
I have a hard time keeping up with forums… My first real entry into that world was through Fear the Boot, and I’m an infrequent poster at Whitechapel. Other than that, I just don’t have the time. It might be fun, and I’d definitely check it out, but I can’t swear that I’d be a familiar face.
I am always up for more forums. Though I’ve been kind of disappearing from the ones I’m registered with at the moment.