I think it makes sense to put this here... I am in the process of putting together a forum to function as a community hub for followers of our insect-themed indie game "Empires of the Undergrowth".
The basic framework is in place (using simple machines like exilian does), but I am wondering what boards should be available at launch. I hope the community will build over time, but in order to do that, we need our initial visitors to stick around.
At the moment I think it makes sense to have a "suggestions" board for ideas about the development and a "bugs / troubleshooting" board for reporting and fixing problems with the latest builds. But what else do you think would be useful, particularly for a fresh forum. So far we have a "Newbies" board for introductions and an "open" board which I am not sure is appropriate (or appropriately named).
Forum (WIP):
http://forum.eotugame.com/I would like to use the forum to post lets-plays of the game, and relevant things that might indirectly impact the game (news about our game genre and distribution in a wider sense). We currently do this on Facebook but it rarely leads to conversations between followers.
We also have an added spanner in the works. Up until this point we have been collecting peoples' comments, bugs, ideas etc on a social media platform called Stomt. This allows people to make comments in 120 characters or less and they don't have to sign up to use the service. It works surprisingly well for feedback and spam is rare. I feel that our forum strategy should account for Stomt as there is going to be a definite overlap, but also a definite difference, I don't want to abandon our Stomt due to its accessibility.
Stomt page:
https://www.stomt.com/empires-of-the-undergrowthI am not expecting an epiphany here, I will just try to approach the situation with common sense. But if anyone here experienced in small community management has any advice to offer, I would appreciate it.