Almost every single forum I've been a part of has fallen apart, one survived one and a half years, one survived five months, and the last survived only two weeks. When all forums are created, they have a very small chance of being popular. If I were to make a forum, right now, and call it: "The Robo's World Fanclub" not many people would type anything like that on google, and so the only people who would join are my close friends, and those who know about Robo's World. Lasting forums actually have to serve a purpose, such as the Game Maker Community, where people can post their games to have them noticed by all the members (like myself) who joined so we could learn how to make better games. Forums with Video game themes have to be original, or else the existing ones will hog all the users, and the forums will die before it can really begin. With so many people having other distractions, *cough, SuperSmashBros.Brawl,Halo3,MarioKartWiicough* it's hard to find time for the computer, let alone an internet forum. Then there's the problem of online games, most popular of which (World of Warcraft) just passed the 15 million subscriber mark. So little time is left to post things on the forums, that almost every forum dies. The last threat is age, after all, how long can one person be expected to discuss a single topic, OVER AND OVER AGAIN!

To sum things up, the formula to keep your/your friend's forum alive is:

1.) Name it something that people could type into an internet search:

The Wikipedia, Halo 3, Super smash bros. Brawl forum that's actually about my pet dog.

(Only something better then that)

2.) A spam section:

Some people aren't happy unless they can mash the keyboard and then hit enter, make "themed spam topics" to get your forum post-counter to break.

3.) Fill a need:

Make topics where people can go to get advice, gameplaying/ Game Making tips, how to build, do it yourself, etc.

And the most important factor isssssss…..:

4.) ACTIVE ADMINS!!!:

Do whatever it takes to get admins and moderators on your site that care, you can't run this place by yourself!!!

-Running a forum is a big responsibility, bots to ban, rules to maintain, themes to keep interesting, banners to make, what can you do? Make the admin's work worth while, post when you can, as much as you can. Maybe they'll be able to return the favor to a forum of yours!