Running a forum is quite easy today with lot of forum software present all over internet. But making a forum successful is very difficult. Any forum do not instantly becomes busy with people discussing stuffs. Forums behaves initially like blogs and later rides up with content generated by users.
Suppose you launch a forum for pet owners and you want others to join the forum. Who will join a forum with 0 posts and 1 member that is you. You will have to register with different profiles on the forum and start discussing stuffs. This is just like blogging but with a different aspect. Once people start visiting your forum, it will look busier and they will feel that they will get responses after posting topics. This way your forum will rise and one day you will have only one job left with forum and that will be forum management . Deleting spams and moving posts to appropriate categories.
Although my recommendation is xenforo but if you are not going for a paid one then SMF look better. But you should make a decision on your own by checking out the forums given below.
Here are top 10 forums for you to start your own discussion forum –
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