TechCrunch Forums, No Seriously…
11:47 pm January 4th, 2007 by Sal Cangeloso
It looks like blog giant TechCrunch, just launched their own forums. How very web 1.0 of them…
Forums have fallen out of favor now that so many sites have commenting built into the articles, but they can be a valuable asset to any site with a dedicated community. For a site like TechCrunch, with a huge following, the forums should be a great way to rack up a lot of pageviews while keeping the members happy by giving them another place to voice their opinions, a place to lead/create discussions, and somewhere to pump their products.
I just registered/confirmed (i am used number 16) and the only other members on the site right now are Mike Arrington, that guy Nik (you know, with the plane story), and chrisrod1, as well as 85 guests.
Someone (sean) mentioned linking the comments to the forums, which is something I have seen a few sites do, and while it is good in that it allows conversations to keep going once the post is off the site’s front page, it is not always a good idea. For a site like TechCrunch, people want to talk about today’s news, so comments are great. Dedicated users can hop in the forums, but it is neither as quick nor as easy as a comment, so unless you have a lot to say or need more structure than what a typical comment thread offers (i.e. #16 - You suck!) the comments will be fine. Ideally the two things can be balances, but if you have to check two sources to hear what people are saying, it will be annoying and counterproductive. I am sure they will figure it out and that I am making it out to be much more complex than it has to be.
Large forums can be a nightmare to moderate, but I bet it will be easy enough to find a paid or even a volunteer Cruncher to do the job. I am guessing that most posts here will be pretty mature, due to the audience and the nature of the site, but there are enough people that there will be problems (spam, slurs, cursing) down the road, that’s just what happens when enough people interact with one another on the web…
Oh look, new threads are starting…
