Wouldn’t it be great if users could help each other in a forum you host on your website? The idea might seem appealing, but this is sure to backfire on you sooner or later.

By creating a forum for customers on your site, you may find yourself with more headaches than you were hoping for. You may have to deal with spam, and most likely with unhappy customers letting out their anger on your own homepage.

A forum also puts extra demands on your time and attention. For example, duplicate questions must be merged manually, and you have no control over the responses that other users contribute.

Let’s face it, you will probably end up in more work instead of less. Stick to your customer support webpage instead.