Forums are important for web designers and web developers. Web Design companies, freelance web designers as well as website owners themselves rely on forums for a number of reasons such as finding solution to web design or technical issues, to research new areas or simply to participate in discussion with other designers.

There are many forums on the internet today, targeting almost any niche. There are tens of thousands of forums related to web design or development. Some established ones are popular and stand out from others. While some still have along way to go before adding real value for other web designers and developers.

Participating in these forums will allow you to share your knowledge and skills with other web and graphic designers. The list below identifies the top web design/development forums for other web designers. The list is diverse and the forums have been selected based on a number of factors including future growth potential and not just current traffic levels.

Top 10 Forums for Web Designers

1. Digital Point Forum

forums.digitalpoint.com

Members: 306,155

PR 4

Digital Point, commonly referred to in web design circles as DP, is one of the most popular and well established webmaster communities on the internet. Digital point boasts of having one of the largest Web development forums on the internet. It also allows web developers and designers to buy, sell and trade services on the forum. As such it can also be used to generate new clients.

Key discussion areas:

It is a large forum with many categories and sub categories covering hundreds of topics related to web design, programming, search engines, business, marketing and social networks.

Site Point

www.sitepoint.com

Members: 344,140

PR 6

Sitepont is one of the most informative and popular resources for web designers and developers on the internet. In addition to the forum which is popular, the website also offers a number of resources such as articles, videos and blogs.

Key discussion areas:

Resources, Design, HTML, CSS, PHP, ASP, MySQL and more for your web site.

Designers Talk

www.designerstalk.com/forums

Members: 55,670

This is a Web design forum for designers. The forum has a clean-cut and appealing layout and is busy with new discussions. It is a standard forum with topics and categories covering all areas of web design and web development. They have many forum categories that are split in to more a less everything you can think of. They cover web 2.0, graphic design, flash, illustration, advertising, marketing, typography and many more.

Key discussion areas:

Web Design, Content management system, Web standards, Graphic design, Flash, programming and Web 2.0, Advertising, Employment and SEO

Smashing Magazine Forum

forum.smashingmagazine.com

PR 6

This is the forum for the Smashing Magazine, which is one of the leading web design blogs on the internet. The forum has a relatively smaller user base however it is expected to grow in the future. The members are talented web designers or developers from across the world and the forum offers a good opportunity to network with other designers.

Key discussion areas:

• Web Design & Site Administration
• Coding & Scripting
• CMS & Blog Software

Webmaster Talk

www.webmaster-talk.com

Members: 96,374

This forum covers web design and other webmaster related issues. The forum is popular and has an active participation from its user base. It is common to find over a 1000 users online at any time. The design is simple and usability is excellent. There are many categories of discussion.

Key discussion areas:

• Parent categorised include:
• Coding
• Website Design and Graphics
• Web Administration
• Website and Search Engine
• Internet Marketing and Business
• Making Money Online

Web Design Forums.net

www.webdesignforums.net

Members: 19,890

This forum works quite differently to other web design forums. It is a place to get your web design and web development related questions answered. The websites mainly focuses on providing help on technical issues related to different areas of web design.

Key discussion areas:

• Drupal, WordPress, Joomla.
• Programming languages including PHP, JavaScript, ASP, etc
• Web design and databases (Mysql, SQL)
• Hosting and server set-up

Other features

Free classified section to advertise your services section for web designers and developers
Free Jobs postings and for sale section
Site of the month contest with hall of fame of winning websites

Web Designer Forum (UK)

www.webdesignerforum.co.uk

Members: 11,907

This is quite different to other forums. There is a social network / web 2 feel about the website in addition to the forum. Features include top posters, top comments and a blog style ‘Recent posts’ list. The site does not only target web designers in UK but targets users internationally. The user base is relatively small (10,000 registered members) than some of the leading forums but it has a strong community nevertheless.
It also features a gallery to show case your web design work.

Key discussion areas:

• Website reviews
• CSS, HTML
• PHP, ASP
• Website management, SEO

Web Dev Forums

www.webdevforums.com

Members: 16,209

The forum titled ‘Web Design Forum’ is another forum related to web design, development and SEO. It is a standard forum covering all topics related to web design.

Key discussion areas:

• HTML, CSS, JavaScript
• PHP, Web Development
• Graphic Design
• SEO discussions

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