Recently, a forum that I spend a lot of time on went down. There are a lot of rumors about when it will be coming back but nobody knows for sure.

So what I did was, I made a new forum, a sort of waiting room, and I invited a few of my friends. They signed up, but they don't have much to say! I know that if there were more interesting conversations going on the word would spread and the place would be a success.

What are some good topics to get people to open up and start chatting?

Controversial topics are good. Take a look at all the "hot topics" (red folders), and you'll see that they're almost all controversial.

music. everyone likes music. ask a music question. say good charlotte is not rock. thats sure to get some gay people talking. (sorry to those of you who are sexually gay, i know comparing gc fans to gay people is very mean, and i apologize to you sexually gay people.)

well,to give some flash game on line is a useful idea to attract people to be your forum and talking by the way.as possible as you can to send some fashion and useful theme too,you can also to call for your friend to your forum to hot the environment.umm,there are about 50 people registed in my forum and given 1700 post already,since the janury 2005.

Well, one good thing is having lots of good content that attracts people to it. I havent seen your website so I don't know how good it is. Then start topics that you think people would be interested in anyting that's popular right now. I think it's best if the topics are realted tot he theme of your site, because that's what people who visit your site would be intersested in.

Thanks everyone. The forum isn't really connected to my site, it's an entirley new place where people from a music forum that shut down can go. Except it's all of the people who never talked about music kind of a general or misc. forum.

In the last week, things picked up- "Word Association" and "what kind of pirate are you?" type threads seemed to help.

Now I have a new question. How do you deal with new people coming in just to complain about the features on the board? "I don't like it here, it's not like that other place" -that kind of thing.

If there were online games and a forum where they chat about what their good at and games people should play then the forum would be a huge success. I used to chat in M4UM but it shut down and losed interest, but they had loads of forums and games where you can bet your credits on to gain more to allow you to become the top gamer.

I have made manny forums ( none took off to well)
Best bet is to get friends to tell there friends find something to talk about and be a good Admin
Keep up with the forums update them
Thats all i can say

Hi Brandice.

I too have a very similar problem

I have added my addy within my signature. I hope this is ok with the members, mods and Admins on here.

Maybe you would like to PM me or visit my site, as we may be of mutual benefit.

very best regards

Ed