What makes a bad forum?

[Accessing]

I had a discussion on Forum Strategy and explored some answers to questions.

This one was: What makes a bad forum?

• People who want to “win” or change minds vs. have a discussion
• Annoying notifications
• No usage
• It’s only staff talking
• Lack of appreciation for contributions
• Not mobile friendly
• Dominating voices
• Stale/stagnant discussions
• Lack of rich text options
• Difficult login
• No responses or reactions
• Bad search functionality
• Inactivity
• Boring content
• It wastes people’s time
• Lack of variety
• Lack of recognition for effort as a poster
• No leadership
• Too hard to find
• Harassment / spam with no moderation
• Tech is old
• Bad architecture
• Google having faster/better answers than the forum

This is a wiki post, feel free to edit this list directly or add a comment. 

[ADM S Osman]

There are plenty of bad forum platforms, so that list is very valid but I think the worst kind of forum are the ones with weak moderation, non-existent boundaries and areas for “unmoderated topics”. Those kinds of communities turn toxic very quickly.

[Roland]

This is a good laundry list. I would break it into a few sections

Poor Software Capabilities

• Not mobile friendly
• Lack of rich text options
• Difficult login
• Bad search functionality
• Tech is old

Poor culture

• People who want to “win” or change minds vs. have a discussion
• Lack of appreciation for contributions

Poor Management / Moderation

• Dominating voices
• Harassment / spam with no moderation
• No leadership

Poor Mechanism Design

• Annoying notifications
• Bad architecture

Lack of engagement

• No usage
• It’s only staff talking
• Stale/stagnant discussions
• No responses or reactions
• Inactivity

Other - May be in eye of beholder or just part of a rich community

• Boring content
• It wastes people’s time
• Lack of variety
• Lack of recognition for effort as a poster
• Too hard to find (This may be forum software)
• Google having faster/better answers than the forum (this may be lack of engagement)

Also the undo button is missing. Stuff like that is a hinderance, but I know its a thankless job for the administration here. 

[Smokey]

For me?  It's probably a list of things:

Poor Design/Layout

Ugly theme

Too many forums/clutter.

Bad staff/lack of interest from staff or maybe they're just too 'full' of themselves

Little to no TOS or rules being enforced

Buggy/broken features not being addressed or fixed.