Forum or Forums ?

[Irish]

I noticed Tyler/you specialise(s) in Forums. I've only ever created one myself
a few years ago that didn't really work out. However, I'm going to make a stab
at it again.

I also noticed that Tyler/you chose to use Forums over Forum. Is there any
particular reason for this.

I've two Wii names, and I'm not sure which would be the best to use (or most
valuable) for a Wii forum. I suppose it would be a matter of preference.

But I'd like to get some feedback on it. The two names I have are,
WiiForum.net & WiiForums.net.

Also, what do you think of forums with 'Talk' in there name, like Talk PS3 ?

Thanks.

[Tyler]

I definitely prefer Forums over Forum. I believe the only reason that most people prefer this is because it's just the norm and what the trend has been. 'Forum' is usually deemed as 'secondrate' or something you'd consider getting if the 'Forums' was taken.

An alternative explanation could be accredited to search engines. When people are searching for "Poker Forums" or "Cooking Forums" they are usually typing in plural.

As for 'Talk' and 'Discussion', those are alternatives to 'forums' which are usually taken when 'forums' or 'forum' domains are taken.

[Michael]

I definately prefer "forums" as it is what I would search for in an engine.

[Joel]

In sweden I can say we prefer 'forum' maybe becausa that means the same as 'forums' (I mean forum is forum in plural also, in swede)

yeah yeah :)

I like this domain anyway, Publisherforums.com!

/Joel

[Tyler]

Actually, even in English, while 'forum' is singular and not an uncountable noun, it still represents correctly what a message board is.

Definition: A medium of open discussion or voicing of ideas, such as a newspaper or a radio or television program.

[Irish]

Here's an interesting article on Alexa (http://awis.blogspot.com/) called Counting Words (June 29, 2006). They counted all words found on the web.

Here's the relevant snippet;

The below represents the most popular 5-letter words. Judging by this list of words forum posts must make up a huge chunk of the Web.

forum - 2,238,602,797
about - 1,351,249,584
other - 962,689,569
posts - 946,766,048
video - 839,711,215
email - 775,440,102
found - 751,607,505
phpbb - 741,762,343
board - 723,989,141
click - 700,040,348

They also list the most popular 6, 7 and 15 letter words. Surprisingly 'forums' doesn't show up under the 6 letter words.

[Tyler]

First off, great post Irish.

Hmm... I'd be interested to know how they collect this data. For example, do they check all the source code, or how do they parse it exactly?

I can't believe that these are the top 5-letter words.. you'd think they'd be verbs or adjectives or pronouns.. such as 'which', 'hello', or 'heheh'.

[khalid]

I had the same discussion on a few forums, and "forums" was the choice picked by most.

I did however get "forum" and "talk" and forwarded them to "forums".

[Thien]

I definitely prefer Forums over Forum. I believe the only reason that most people prefer this is because it's just the norm and what the trend has been. 'Forum' is usually deemed as 'secondrate' or something you'd consider getting if the 'Forums' was taken.

An alternative explanation could be accredited to search engines. When people are searching for "Poker Forums" or "Cooking Forums" they are usually typing in plural.

As for 'Talk' and 'Discussion', those are alternatives to 'forums' which are usually taken when 'forums' or 'forum' domains are taken.

Same here. I prefer forums over forum.

[Submerge]

I enjoy the *forums ending. I would think to see search results end in the word 'forums' than 'forum'. Example, I would thinkn to see more people search for: Xbox Forums

[Irish]

I would personally enter in 'forum' over 'forums' if I was searching for a forum on a particular subject. But 'forums' sounds and looks better.

[Andreas Bard]

I think I prefer forums, but I use both.

//Andreas

[Colin]

I guess forums makes the most sense but I usually use forum.

[scoby]

Doesn't google ( and I assume other SE's ) take plurals into account when somebody does a search?

although for a type in url I prefer 'forum' but I know others like 'forums'
I bought my first forum url the other day and I registered both so I can forward forums to forum

[kaizan]

I just grabbed about another 9 domains ending on "forums". Because you can have many forums within the vb script :)

I also find most people type in google "xyz forums" when they are searching for a forum that has specific wanted content.. because people generally want more than one result to look at :)

[Idle Play]

"$term forums" sites will rank for "$term forum" but "$term forum" results will take precedence... on Google anyway...

[Gareth]

From a user side I would always search '_____ forums' in a search engine, so I would stick with that :)