Meshio.com

I’ve been pondering for some time if I should put up a discussion forum, and it remains a thought until recently when a friend brought it up again during a casual chat.

Since the chat, I began reflecting on the viability of the forum format and how it could work on Meshio.com. Perhaps I should just continue to post as I’ve been doing for the past in this blog, and allow the discussion to take place in the form of comment threads.

Without a forum, the content of Meshio.com will be more like a serial conversation, whereby I post something which I feel is interesting, and then any reader who is interested in the topic would reply to it. If no one’s interest, then obviously they won’t be any comments.

Visitor trend on Meshio.com from Jan 2007 to March 2009

With the number of visitors growing (chart above shows the visitor trend from Jan 2007 to Mar 2009), this method of interacting is becoming somewhat restrictive. For example, readers sometimes email me with rather complex questions and answering these questions can sometimes take quite a bit of time. And it becomes quite a task especially when the questions are not as simple as asking what’s the current base lending rate is or how do I complaint about Bank ABC?

To solve this problem, the best solution would be a forum, where readers can initiate their questions and other readers who’re experts on the issue can help them out. Yes, there are quite many experts that hang around this place.

However, the problem with a forum is this: a forum can only be useful if there are lots of interactions amongst its users. So, here I am with a Catch-22 situation. You cannot start a successful forum with lots of interactions, unless you pay everyone RM1.00 for every post they contribute.

But alas, this problem is not new. Just like starting a business, your ultimate aim is to become profitable, and you don’t become profitable on your first day of business. It’s going to take time. And so it is with this Personal Finance Forum. It’s going to take time and effort, and every registered member who participate in this forum is going to be an important part of this development.

With the blog, at least I have some sort of control on how to grow it. To increase readership, I can work on my writing skills. I can also network around with other bloggers. I can read up extensively on my subject matters and ensure that I post consistently.

However, with a forum, the direction of the content is distributed amongst the contributors (if any) allowing the readers to take charge. I guess this is what makes a forum interesting, the idea of free-flowing discussions.

So, let’s hope this new forum will help spark some interesting discourses!

Got a topic in your head now?

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