Forum Moderators: rogerd
Forum B was meant to be different. Great graphics and a beautiful, finely-honed look (if I say so myself), a great concept, a lot of work on usability before launch, fully indexed. Everything looks and feels right. I got inbound links, and it was well-seeded with great posts.
You can guess the rest: forum A is a massive success, and forum B (despite all my eforts) has stagnated. Several members of forum A have likened the effect of the forum to crack cocaine - it has something which brings in and retains the membership, and gets them hooked. Even with all the shortcomings it has become a second home to many, whereas the fancy forum B is simply withering away.
So what is it that makes a forum so strongly addictive? It's not the look and feel, that's for sure. It's not the marketing, nor any particular technical aspects, nor the volume of traffic. It's not even the subject matter - there are a million other forums with the same focus as my forum A.
How can we define what the active ingredients are to get people hooked?
You must be able to work this out for yourself: you've plainly got two contrasting results in front of you - it can't be that hard to work out why A does well, surely? You must be able to tell, from the posts or members' comments, etc...?
In other words, you should be able to tell us :)
Because the only thing that could be making A popular and not B is that A attracts members who are interesting, knowledgeable and regulars....
Sitting and looking at the two forums side by side isn't helping - it's because of the factor "X" - the unknown, secret sauce which makes it all just fall into place. I don't know how to measure it, to quantify it, it just is. Or am I missing something?
Liken it to walking into an upmarket restaurant compared to a bar - in the bar people are more rowdy, sweary, etc and in the restaurant people are quiet, reserved, etc.
If you went into the restaurant then you act the way that other people in there act - you try to fit in.
People do this on forums too, and it just so happens that forum A has attracted a niche group of people who have set a style for you.
Unfortunately, unless you can get some of those 'addictive style' members in forum B, or can provide some information that people cannot ignore (i.e: decent search traffic) then you'll struggle to grow your community.
The graphics/design is really not so important to people - I've seen the ugliest forums being a roaring success. (Although not exactly a forum, CraigsList is a good example)
The graphics/design is really not so important to people
I'd go so far as to say a degree of ugliness might even be desireable. Too slick an interface can be a turn-off, I think. Some visual flaws give a forum character, and a sparse interface means pretty doodads aren't getting in the way of conversation. On the ugly forum, conversation is king. On the pretty forum, it competes with the pretty doodads. Plus, too pretty a forum might increase the intimidation factor for new users, just like an average shlub might feel a bit out of place walking into an upscale restaurant.
I've been running forums since 1998 and have achieved the crack-cocaine addiction levels, and I've never invested significant effort in prettying up the interface (design was never my strong point anyway). It does what it needs to do, and nothing more. That's what the people want, even if they might sometimes say otherwise!
I actually find the dynamics of the board fascinating to watch... never a dull moment!
J
Building that community, IMHO, isn't what we as webmasters usually do. We simply provide a new venue for an existing community to play in. If their passion for their niche was strong prior to getting webbed, they'll be even stronger after they coalesce on your forum site.
Often the key role the forum admin can play is making sure things stay friendly. Choosing good mods, ensuring they don't go on power trips, and selective cautioning or banning of problem members can keep things welcoming to new arrivals. That will bring lurkers out into the open, too.
I've seen forums where members were paid to post, or where the owner brought in "ringers" to try to get something happening, and it just didn't work. Couldn't reach that critical mass. Couldn't put together that 'X Factor' that makes people want to participate.
I agree with the comment about mods, too. Choosing the right mods can make or break a forum.
... traffic comes from personal referrals ...
And also make sure you're standing on one leg, looking out of a south facing window, ensure there is a slight north easterly breeze, the sun is at it's zenith and you're patting your head while rubbing your stomach at the same time.
...
I replaced them with a single 468x15 link unit placed beneath the text of the most recent post (our forums are flat format only). CTR is up 3-4X and eCPM is up 2-3X in the first 18hrs. I'll report back when more time has passed. What's odd is the quality of the links AS is serving look horrible, and sometimes only one of the four is filled.. yet it's working.
Also, I think a good way to get forums started is with friends. I have a nice group of friends who helped me get my forums started by posting around. My forums are just for general discussion, such as music, tv, opinions, computing and so on. But if it wasn’t for my friends, nothing would have happened.
To get them started, I got friends and myself posting, although the member count was still a 1 figure number. When things kicked off a little, I started plugging. People check it out, saw the activity, and joined in.
Inviting people to an empty, dry forum wont make them want to stay. My opinion is not as professional as everyone else’s as I’ve only been running a forum for 2 years, but I still have a good idea of what’s going on. I hope.
I liken it to a fishtank: Throw in a new kind of food, all rush to try it, then.. ptooey!
... traffic comes from personal referrals ...
You're right that this a huge help - the members are literally doing the work for me. But it's a chicken-and-egg situation - good members are finding other good members, but it all had to start somewhere... I've actually done very little on the board itself - my personal post count represents less than 1/500th of the overall total, which isn't too bad considering it has only been running 9 months.
ugly interface
I agree with a lot of this: my failed forum has an interface/theme which is certainly slick, but probably intimidating. I think it has a definite negative impact on the members. I think the bar/high-class restaurant analogy to be very apt - to be successful you need to have a not-too-rowdy bar atmosphere!
AdSense
I think that on a forum most advertizing is a waste of time - to get enough clicks from regulars you have to increase the ad visibility to obnoxious, in-yer-face levels which only work short-term (as nathanso has witnessed!) - and pose the greater risk of annoying and driving away those golden posters who are making your site successful. I run no advertising at all on either forum. (On the successful one there is an associated niche web directory which does have a bit of AdSense.) The successful forum is funded entirely by donations from the members. This has paid for the hosting and other charges (but not for my time), and the overall profit for the year currently stands at a mighty US$17.20. This could be seen as the biggest caveat to the site's measured success - but I simply don't consider the financial aspect as important in the equation. Others might have a different opinion, however!
