Do your users actually need a community solution?

[JoelR]

Inspired by David Spinks:

Are you offering content, not a community?   

Most problems can be solved with either content or community. Content (such as blog articles, well written long-form articles, in-depth research, etc) actually solves problems more effectively than community in many cases. Content is more readable, content is better researched, content is concise and actionable. Content is designed to be consumed, not to connect.  Content is stylistically very different than a community. 

Are you building a community and tapping into the advantages that only a social community can offer?  

 

[Cedric]

That's a good point. One that needs to be considered before making a forum. Often people benefit more from a blog rather than a community. For me, I like to provide information on about the differences in forum software, free and paid through my blog FreeForumHosting.com, while giving them the option to go seek advice on our community platform Admin Junkies. I've posted articles on both Admin Junkies and FreeForumHosting.com and comparing the Google results, FreeForumHosting.com has better results despite it being new. Google prefers a blog to push content on.

[Maria]

If you want to learn something, a community might not be the platform for you as community content is user generated content and these content are mostly written by general users and the authenticity of the content is not guaranteed. Therefore, a blog or article might serve a better purpose for learning. However, if you want to have a say on something and want people to share their opinion on certain topics, communities serve better purpose.