I have a question...

[BenSjoberg]

Is it possible for a forum to get big if it's just a forum? Or do you have to have a home page for success? I ask because I don't know if I should just sit back and watch my forum expand or if I should whip out the ol' copy of FrontPage.

[SaintDog]

Well, a forum will not grow without promotion and some sort of content, you have to have something to keep your visitors at bay and interested in your website. A main/home page does provide room for allowing updates and links to other sections of your website, though you do not *have* to have a home page.

[Loyalty4Life]

I think proper advertising and a home page is always a good way to start a community and get it growing.

[IDN]

My forum is getting bigger (3k posts) and 350+ members w/o a homepage

[HexOnxOnx]

I know of several that have just a forum, many with 80,000 posts just after a year. I had one myself that I ran, a forum only that had 50,000 posts in about 11 months before I pulled the plug on it.

[tgillespie]

My forum is getting bigger (3k posts) and 350+ members w/o a homepageHome pages help newer visitors understand what the site is all about. It can be confusing going to a site and all you see are forums. Most people are not as vBulletin savy as us computer geeks =) A home page with a little description about the site and then a note about the forums helps tons.

[merk]

MY website is totally forum based, while it has a few custom pages here and there, for a long time my site was just forums without anything else, it started to die off after 2 months, but my users are content hungry :\

[BenSjoberg]

My forum is getting bigger (3k posts) and 350+ members w/o a homepage
Woah, are many of your users active? According to the statistics hack I have, only 23.74% of my users are active.

[MarkB]

1.8mil posts, and although we have a zine attached, it's barely looked at. The forum is where the action is :)

[N9ne]

It's rare for 'just a forum' to become highly active. A site definitely helps! Trust me, it does, when I had a forum which had two sites linking to it, I got 50 new members a day, hitting 1.5k posts a day with 150 online at peak times. SITES HELP.

Make a site. Add content. Update. Add content. Update. Keep doing it, as long as the content is good and useful...$members++;

[Dean C]

www.webhostingtalk.com is a good example :)

Make sure you have content. Content = key :)

[N9ne]

www.webhostingtalk.com is a good example :)

Make sure you have content. Content = key :)
To extend on that, places like WHT, SPF, etc. are all established now (WHT being forum-only, like some others) and it's very hard to compete with them. I've seen hundreds of WHT-spinoffs and they all fail; once there's a big forum out there without a site, there's no chance of there being a second that's equally as good or better. Sites are key.

[BenSjoberg]

Once there's a big forum out there without a site, there's no chance of there being a second that's equally as good or better. Sites are key.

Ah, that's good to know. I have to compete with this (http://www.disboards.com), so I guess I better get to work on a site.

[Mijae]

My site was just a forum and I got to 50k posts in less then a year. My forums would have nearly 300k posts now if I didnt have hosting troubles and staff troubles during the last 2-3 years :( I am now at like 8500 posts, but it will all start getting better once vB3 goes RC1 ;)