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What is the ideal number of forums to start an online community with?

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Short answer: for a new launch, 35 separate forums is usually too many. Echoing , a lean structure helps surface activity and makes moderation easier. A practical starting range for most small communities is about 5–12 broad forums; larger or very diverse sites can expand later.

A simple rollout plan:

  • Pick 4–8 top-level forums that cover the core needs (examples: Announcements, Introductions, General Discussion, Help/Q&A, Resources/Tutorials, Off-topic).
  • Seed each forum with several starter threads (3–10) and a concise description or posting guide so the area looks active and clear.
  • Use tags or topic labels for narrow subjects instead of creating a distinct forum for every niche. Create subforums only after a section consistently shows heavy traffic (for instance, when it regularly produces many new threads per month).

Ongoing maintenance and triggers:

  • Track a few metrics: new threads per week, replies per thread, and number of active posters per forum.
  • Review structure quarterly. Consider merging sections with persistently low activity (for example, under ~5 new threads/month over a couple of months) and splitting only when a forum consistently exceeds a healthy volume.
  • Favor clear names, non-overlapping categories, and good onboarding. For , consolidating those 35 ideas into a dozen well-labeled forums plus tags will create a livelier front page and simpler moderation.

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Member Avatar for kub365

Is 35 forums too many?

Member Avatar for pulse

Is 35 forums too many?

It fully depends on the topic but the rule of thumb is to have the least number of forums that you can have. This gives an impression of activity which attracts more users to your site.

If all the 35 forums have just one or two posts then yes it is too much.

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