Having a forum is a great boon to a website when used correctly. In fact if you have a forum on your website this can enable you to generate completely free content which will mean that you are able to increase your ranking in Google without doing any work yourself. At the same time it also gives you a kind of ’emotional hook’ for your website that will ensure that people want to come back to your site to talk to their new friends or engage in that argument, and it will allow you to get feedback on your site and what you need to change and what is working well.
The Dark Side of Community – Drawbacks of Having a Successful Forum