Aid my quest for a forum

[s/LaSH]

You may know me as the creator of the D&D-themed webcomic Dungeon Damage. Well, recently I've been devoting more of my time to commercial illustration, and the comic has suffered, because it doesn't put food on the table (being both free and time-consuming).

One of my goals for the future is a survey of my readership to see what level of support there is for extra products. T-shirts, coffee mugs, mousepads, print editions, whatever. If I can turn some level of profit from DD, I can justify doing more of it. Trouble is, email isn't an optimal method of holding large surveys, nor conducting comic-related discussion (another thing that I want to promote), because people are soo shy. So I want a forum.

This is why I come before you. What free forum providers are there? (I'm a freelance artist and a skinflint. Cash ain't happening.) And what are the virtues and sins of each?

And would anyone buy a T-shirt with Thetis on it?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

Well, EZBoard has a free option for their Gold level boards, but it includes advertising so that may not sit well with you. On the other hand, you can get a trial forum, and then get the visitors to contribute the roughly $60 a year it will cost to keep up. I paid for a forum for my gaming groups campaigns, it was thirty something bucks for 6 months. Nice forums, easy to manage.

 

[Usurper]

http://invisionfree.com/

Banner ads (to be expected on a free board) but no popups or popunders.

 

[s/LaSH]

Upon investigation, I've found http://www.talkaboutcomics.com to look pretty on-target. I'll contact them within the next 24 hours if nothing else springs to mind; the board style looks clean, the community's webcomic only, and the price is right... I haven't heard any horror stories either.

Thanks for the suggestions, though. If the 30-odd people who've come by and didn't post had questions, maybe they've been answered...

 

[Fast Learner]

My questions were answered in the first post. "ENWorld just consolidated its forums, why does this guy want to start a new one? Besides, what could he possibly want a new forum for that he would post a request for support in the Software forum? And why didn't he post this in Meta?"

Upon reading your post I saw that it had nothing to do with ENWorld and all three questions were instantly answered.

 

[s/LaSH]

Upon reading your post I saw that it had nothing to do with ENWorld and all three questions were instantly answered.

Well, except insofar as ENWorld is stocked with polite, knowledgable people who care, such as yourself. (Nobody who didn't care would have such questions.) It may require a fist of adamant to make my own forum this nice, but we'll see.