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I was thinking of more civil war specific forums. For example "General Discussions," is a good one, but it can and does seem to wander far afield from the war. Perhaps another one restricted to general war discussions would tend to give more direction to posters. Whatever other topics regarding the war that seem to generate most interest would be helpful, for example, forums limited to threads about Antietem, or Gettysburg, or Shiloh, etc., where discussions within the forum are restricted only to those topics.
Each person who starts a new thread would give that thread a title which could not be changed by anyone who replies, but should fit in with the topic of the forum. Let's say you have a forum with a topic for Union Generals or Union Officers. I might want to start a thread asking if General Meade was the appropriate general to command the Army of the Potomac at Gettysburg, or might General Hancock have been more proficient. (I actually have no opinion on that). But all replies to that thread would need to address that question. Each of your members could start any thread that fits into that category.
You could organize the board so as to focus on whatever you think (or your members think) are the hot topics of the civil war, and of course, depending on your space limitations, you can also have forums for other topics that are unrelated to the war.
This is an opinion, of course, but I think a more focused discussion, identified by the title of each forum, on various aspects of the war would tend to draw more people as members. I also like being able to post as a guest. Many forums don't allow that. And on this thread, maybe some of the people who post here could weigh in with their opinions on what I've suggested.
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