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Hari
Posted on Fri, Oct 7, 2005 at 09:36 IST (last updated: Wed, Jul 16, 2008 @ 20:51 IST)
We are now just a couple of weeks short of completing a full year of LiteraryForums.org! This is really fantastic. It all began when I started a book thread in LinuxQuestions.org and I thought: "why not start a board where people can just talk about books and stuff?" It was an idle thought that quickly gained momentum as I began exploring ways and means to create such a community site. After some frantic research on "forum software" I discovered phpBB, tried it out on my local server and was absolutely thrilled with it! And so began the journey of LiteraryForums.org.
The first thing was obviously to pick a good domain name. I wanted a serious book discussion website but at the same time I will admit frankly that I was not too keen on using the word "literature" or any of its derivatives. It makes it look a bit exclusive and tends to alienate the average book lover. However, to my dismay I found that most of the decent "book" domain names have already been registered. And to be sure, some of them were worthless cyber squatters. The long and the short of it was that it was really hard to find a decent domain name with the word "book" in it. I finally narrowed down my choices to "LiteraryReviews" or "LiteraryForums". I chose the second since it sounded a little more general than strictly talking about reviews. In hindsight, I am still wondering whether the word "literary" in the domain name was such a good idea, after all.
The second thing was finding a good hosting provider. Believe me, I was really struggling to find one. I searched the web for weeks in search of a quality hosting provider who didn't charge a hell of a lot of fees. It was tough going, but ultimately I found a host that was just right. One thing I discovered in a hurry was that Indian hosting providers have a hell of a long way to go before they can even begin challenging hosting providers in other parts of the world, but that's another story altogether.
Having set up the community, it was tough going, trying to get it started. Within the first few weeks, it was obvious that getting good content was going to be the key to promoting the site. There could be no shortcuts. There have been many ups and downs. Luckily however, we've got a few excellent members right from the beginning. Without their contribution, I have no doubt that LiteraryForums.org would have died quickly. I cannot find words to express my gratitude to those who participated in my vision of LiteraryForums.org and those who consider this site as a part of their daily routine. There were some desperate times when I was beginning to wonder whether creating a Wrestling Forum would have been a better idea. There were days and sometimes weeks when we went without activity on the forum. Yet, LiteraryForums.org has not died. It has grown slowly, yes, but it has grown. I now believe that having emerged from that phase, we will start growing a little faster. Reaching 100 members was the first and the most crucial landmark and I'm extremely glad that we got that behind us. Now let's aim for the next 100!
The key to the success of any community is not the quantity of activity, but the quality of activity. I am a firm believer in that. So far LiteraryForums.org has been blessed with some quality members who have not only found time to share their literary tastes, views and reviews with us, but also to contribute some original content for peer review. Such a process will surely enrich the content and the utility of this site, so I hope that we get more people doing this. By the way, it is only fair to add that we've been extremely lucky with having attracted very few spammers in this twelve months. It has made my job and the job of the site staff much easier.
On a personal note I have been busy of late with other things in my life such as education. It is becoming harder to find time to merely browse the site every day, leave alone contribute to the forum with my usual reviews on a regular basis. Having said that, I try to follow the reviews and discussions of other members with great enthusiasm. To be frank, I sometimes feel rather foolish when I check out the sheer range and quality of literary tastes of some of the other members. They will, I hope, continue to contribute on a regular basis.
So, all in all, LiteraryForums.org has come a long way in the first year... hopefully, we'll see a higher rate of growth in the second year!
Yours Sincerely,
Hari (Forum Host)
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