Digital Access Pass Support For Forums

One of the questions that people often have about the different membership software options out there involves forums. Specifically, here at DiscoverDAP.com, people want to know if Digital Access Pass supports forums.

The short answer is YES, according to Ravi – I haven’t set one up personally for reasons I’ll explain in a minute.

Specifically, the version of DAP that is out when I’m writing this (3.7) integrates with:

• WP-Forum
• bbPress
• Simple:Press

And soon, Ravi tells me that vBulletin will be connected.

The reason they integrate is because the DAP membership database can be synched with a single setting with the WordPress user database. You can have them sync up for paid and/or free members.

However, I’d like to provide an alternative answer.

Before you create a membership site with a forum, make sure you have all your ducks in a row to make your membership site “sticky” and popular. Of course, a forum can help with that.

But a site with a forum of 5 boring people lurking and waiting for everyone else to post something is lame.

Build your site and get steady traffic to it. So when you do set up a forum, it won’t look like an instant ghost town.

Another problem with forums is they really do need to be moderated. This is why I haven’t been a big fan of having a forum on my sites just yet. Yes, the members can do quite a bit of self-policing, but ultimately you need to have a dedicated person (it doesn’t have to be you, but likely should at first) keeping tabs on the forum on a daily basis.

That being said, if you enjoy that type of interaction, and can stay on top of things, forums can be quite powerful. And DAP makes it easy for you to make forum access part of your membership site.

Bob

p.s. To see what other forums Digital Access Pass integrates with in version 3.8 and later, check out the main page. There’s a bunch of other features listed there for you, too.