Forums - high maintenance v's low maintenance

How to keep forum running costs down

[Whitey]

I'm looking to get some sort of Beta Forum to act as a prototype for the future.

At this stage i want to keep the costs very low and wondered what are the things that i should do to make this a low cost, good quality forum. What are the fundamental things to be avoided and what are the things to embrace?

How can i avoid the big mistakes and do the basic things right?

[edited by: Whitey at 2:24 am (utc) on Mar. 16, 2007]

[rogerd]

I don't know if there is such a thing as a low-maintenance community. The only community that requires little or no effort is a dead one. :) If you are just starting out, keep things simple - relatively few forum topics, minimal bells & whistles, etc. Make sure that any visitor who arrives can instantly grasp what's going on, and make it easy for them to participate.