Forums are a great application for allowing your visitors to discuss a variety of subjects within many categories of topics. A good platform of visitor forums is often used as the core component of a community website.

It should be kept in mind that a good set of Visitor Forums requires an investment in the initial configuration and an investment in on-going daily maintenance. The initial set-up includes identifying the general topics of each forum,determining the general rules by which the forums will be administered, and what levels of access will be permitted to which users. Many security and integration issues will also need to be addressed, such as upload file types and sizes, bad word management and the handling of 'trouble' posters. Also, the moderator(s) will need to be identified and responsibilities determined.

Now, on a daily basis, new user management and post administration will need to be performed. Daily tasks include reviewing posts for appropriateness and topic relevancy, deleting inappropriate posts and users, or moving posts to the correct areas.