Custom Homepage for a Forum?

[transburgh]

How does a custom homepage (not a CMS like vbadvanced) affect the traffic and feel of a forum? I was going to add a custom homepage to add a guide and helpful links for the specific industry. Any experience with a custom homepage? Good or bad idea?

[Andrew]

If the site is primarily a forum, then it is a bad idea to have a frontpage. You can however, have side links or links on the navigation which will redirect to pages which will have other information off.

As Tyler pointed out in his Screencast on his blog, having a front page is rather useless on a forum, unless it is something like SitePoints (however, they are not just primarily a forum).

[Submerge]

I've been stuck with this idea, but I believe having a front page on a mainly forum community is a big no-no. Like stated above, have side links linking to content, or use a different domain for the content.

[Kenny]

Yeah, agree with the two posts above really.
I quess you have to choose between saying " I own a forum " or " I own a website with a forum " - if that made any sense to you...

Personally I dont like Forums with frontpages...
It kinda ruin the forum and community feeling

[LaneyHosting]

It depends on what type of site you have. Do you own a site that has a forum on the side? Or do you just own a straight forum?

[Mystic]

A custom homepage/portal is generally not a good idea for a forum. In your case, it seems that forum is the main stay of your website. Then, why put a portal and tuck it away?
Combination of forum and website is recomended when you beak a lot of news, you provide loads of unique content etc.

[Arthur07]

I agree if you own a forum it should primarily be a forum.

You could always add some sort of welcome blurb on the existing main page for users who aren't logged in telling them about your community etc. if thats what would have been on the hompage.