October 23, 2007
The Importance Of A Water Cooler Section
Online forums are a valuable feature of many websites. Some websites encompass only a forum with many different subjects while other websites are mainly product or process oriented and have an accompanying forum that accents the site. No matter what your forums purpose is, having too many posts that stray from the subject or are unrelated to the ongoing conversation can cause visitors to be distracted and leave your site.
Enter the water cooler topic. When you design your forum, most of the focus is split between the functional part and the topic part. Sometimes adding a water cooler section isn’t the first thing on your to do list and the idea fades to the back of your mind. Don’t neglect it. A water cooler topic can serve two purposes as it can both be an area of forum activity and also a place for off topic posts to go so that the real “meat” of your forum doesn’t get clouded up.
So pay attention to the web design, pay attention to setting up the proper topics, but don’t forget the water cooler topic… it is a must.
