Creating a message board?

[sparkykandy]

Any one have any experience or advice with creating a message board?  I'm thinking of creating a message board for Cheritz's games assuming there's enough interest (it's a Korean company that makes games geared towards females), but I have virtually no experience in this area.  Should I start off with something free (such as Proboards) and upgrade as time goes on or go ahead and pay for vBulletin?  (I have no problem with paying for vBulletin, but I don't want to pay for it if the board barely has a members or posts.)

I also have no web design experience, I'm guessing that be something I would have to pay somebody to do, so it looks nice?

I would also need to find some help, aka. mods and other admins.  What qualities should I be looking for? 

Lastly, there's the issue of letting fans know that such a thing exists.  I'm more of a lurker than a poster, so "advertising" might be hard.  I don't want to do it in such a way that it comes off as spamy.  I was thinking of starting off and posting something on tumblr and letting various tumblr users know that such a thing exists, and advertise in the otome reddit subforum on their Sunday advertising thread. 

Anything else I should know when it comes to message boards? 

[Duenia]

I don't have much experience with creating message boards. But I am a web developer so let's see if I can help you out a bit.

It seems like when you start this you'll just be testing the waters. If you're not sure what kind of following you will have, and don't want to heavily invest in something right off the bat using a free service is fine. There are even some free services that are better than the paid ones. It all depends on what you're looking for. If you do want to upgrade it eventually, just make sure you know where you would like the forum to end up should it be a success. You'll need to do some research on if databases can be imported between the two. But do know that there is always risk involved with database migration between two different applications. Some of the risks include data loss, or failure to transfer. Forum transfers are a much higher risk than others due to their extensive database usage.

Since you mentioned them it looks like an import from Proboards to vBulliten is possible from what I can find.

Normally I would always advise getting a developer. But based on what you're doing it's quite possible you could get away without one. It will all depend on what kind of customization tools your chosen platform offers. (Although you may want to get a developer if you go through with a database transfer later). Some of these services will give you an interface you can use to select certain presets or colors for your forum. Most of these are pretty simple to understand as long as you read carefully - and use google for things you don't understand. If your service allows or requires custom styles with CSS then you may want a developer.

[kaoskat]

I haven't had a message board in ages. For advertising though, I recommend adding a note to anywhere that lets you have a signature.