What do you prefer?

When I am searching for a new forum on a topic that I like. I check a few different things. The first thing I do is look at how many members the forum has. If the forum has too many members I may not post there. Here is why,

1# Big forums are usually full of adds. There is nothing worse comming to a new forum and finding adds all over the place. I really hate it when they place adds in the middle of a thread.

 2# Big forums are the target of spammers. There are a few differrrent types of spam. You have someone who starts a topic about nothing and has their Sig with there website's posted in the thread. I cant even begin to count the posts I seen where a 5 year old would know the answer to the question. Those types of post usually leads to more spam. You get some idiot answering the dumbest question on earth just so they can get their Sig in the spam thread. Next you get direct spam, someone asks a real question. Then the spamer offers their services for a fee. (This usually involves a PM sent to the orignal poster) Last but not least you have the 5 liner. He is the worst guy of all to have on your forum. He replies to every thread with " nice pic, or I like it" He replies to every thread so he can plug his Sig as many times as possible. He is the guy with 10k posts on a 15k post count forum.

3# I check for quality in the threads. Are they quality posts about the topic? Then I ask my self "am I going to learn anything from comming to this forum?"

 If every thing check's out, then I sign up for the big forum. If its a small forum I kind of check for a few different things.

1# Usually the first thing I do is check for the top poster. Then I start reviewing their threads to make sure it isn't spam.

2# I try to find the forum mods and site admin and compare their post count against the top poster. I take the higher of the two either the forum mod or the site admin. If the mod/admin has 200 posts and the top poster has over 1,000 posts. That usually tells me that the mods/admin do not care about the forum. If their post count is under half of the top poster I usually leave.

3# I check the dates to see how often people are comming to the forum. If the last post is older than a week old I usually leave. Sometimes I will come back in a month and check if things change. If that last post is older than a month old theres no way in hell I am comming back

4# if 3# checks out I watch the forum and see who's posting. Allot of the times if the forum is under 1k users its the same 5 or 10 people posting in the forum. If they are nice people and post quality topics I start posting and see how they like me.

5# Are there any smart ass posters? Some times you get a idiot that thinks hes better than everyone else and talks down to people he doesn't like. I avoid these forums like the plague

6# How long has the forum been around? Chances are if the forum is 2 years old or older and it has under 1k members, its just not going anywhere. If the people are REALLY REALLY nice people I will post there to help them out.

7#  This one should be closer to the 2# spot. Its usually the second thing I do. I go to www.whois.sc and check the server. Are they on a shared environment or is it a dedicated/collocated server. If they are on a ded/colo server that gives me all the more reason to post. It tells me they are serious! After all coughing up $90+ a month for a server is no joke. I usually try to get at least 100 quality posts in the first month. By then I usually get to know a few people on the board. If they are nice people I check the forum 3 times a day for new posts. If I can add quality information to the new threads I post. If I come up with a good question I will post. The sad fact is I almost never need a message board, because I can google almost any question and find a answer. But I like to help out new forums as much as possible.

8# This one really doesn't matter one way or the other. I try to find out the servers hardware. If the mod/admin answers its a plus for the forum. I don't take anything away from the forum if they don't answer.

 These are just some of the main things I check for. I usually go for the smaller forum its more personal. Allot of the times threads are one on one. Most people are willing to help. A thread almost never goes unanswered in a small forum. When your dealing with a busy forum with 100+ active users its very easy for a thread to go unanswered. Depending on how active the forum is your thread could be on the second page in under a hour unanswered. Once its on the second page you may never get a answer. Anyway these are my thoughts, lets hear what you have to say.

EDIT: How could I possibaly forget! The WORST thing about any Big forum is what I call "STIRRING THE SHIT BAG!" This is when any member of the forum revives a topic that is more than two months old. 99.99% of these topics are two pages or more and have been talked about from every angle. And yet some one drags it up like its a hr old thread. They often try to prove some one wrong in the thread in order to get the thread going again. I have seen people drag threads up that are more than a year old, and reply to the thread starter like it was a hr old post.
Some threads are meant to be revisited. But the threads I am talking about are the threads that die in two days.

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Very interesting thoughts.

I will agree with you untill this forum will grow enough ( just kidding )

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