A forums ethics (belief) & aims are very important to first time visitors aswell as current members. Providing your aims and statement tells the user exactly what the site stand for and what are it’s aim. I find it very useful when I first visit a site, because sometimes I just see a forum and a lot of post but I really don’t know what the site is about until I join in on some of the discussion and most of the time I don’t bother joining or reading on.

Why do we need ethics/aim? Some forums are sometimes too general or very confusing on what their main topic is about. Sometimes new users don’t even bother registering or following in any links on the site and just leave. Some sites are just natural on telling users what the site is about, for example by their site name, domain name or even the content they provide. Each of them help users recognise that the site is about xx topic or xx idea. For those who are having problem in getting users to understand your site, you might want to try renaming your site and giving it a good and descriptive domain name.

If you still wish to use the same domain name or name you could try enable a guest note where a small box on top of your site appears for each guests telling them what the site is all about and what you can benefit from it. It should not be obstructive and even after the user has registered make it easily available for them to look back.

By giving the user a feel of your belief and what the site hopes to aim, the user may also share the same idea or feeling about that topic or idea thus attracting that user to come back and check on the progress and to invest his/her time to get that idea out to the public.

Also when writing your aims and belief, make it short enough & understandable enough for them to quickly grasp the idea.