Forum Moderators: rogerd
A lot of the traffic is generally people with questions, with a smaller volume consisting of regulars helping others, so it was nice to find a new member who is a helper.
After sending the PM I wondered if initiating more contact and feedback would help members to feel part of the community and increase the likelihood of their continued participation.
I already have a decent amount of regulars who are pretty devoted to my forum, but I'd like to increase that core group.
How do you feel about it?
I've had a number of users comment that they appreciate these sorts of messages.
One of the things I love about WebmasterWorld is the tradition of new uses being welcomed by a "Welcome to WebmasterWorld"
When you consider that 5% of your users will contribute 95% of your content, it's worth it to apply a little extra attention in search of that next "superuser."
It used to be that visitors came to my site looking for quick freebies. Now, my mods/members have started asking newbies what they have to contribute before passing out the free info. If this information is offered from the start, my forum members do their best to hang onto that new member.
For a forum owner/admin, these "non-essential" communications may get pushed aside by seemingly more important issues. IMO, it's important to make the time available to let members know you care.
We encourage each new member to post an introduction thread and reserve a forum exclusively for that purpose. Once they post their thread, we add in their approved 'membership application' (We have a more involved registration process) and then the community has at it, each member welcoming the new arrival and going over ideas with them as they come.
Its something that you really have to lead by example or people will slack it off ;).
Personally welcoming each of your new members can be a real challenge, especially when they contact you back. Setting up an automatic welcome message is definitely an option, having a generic PM mailed to them upon joining and letting them know that they can contact you (or anyone else) at anytime with their questions/comments will go a long ways to making them feel welcomed. I've joined forums and even though I've KNOWN that its an automatic welcome, its made me feel at home and that they at least invested the time into putting that together.
The bottom line is that when you're willing to put the time and effort into it, building a personal relationship with your members will go a lonnng ways. I try to talk with each of my members on a one-to-one basis when time permits and help out where I can.
One thing I've learned is make sure you take excellent care of your core group. Give them appreciation and look for ways to support them. If you support them and they're happy, they'll support you and the community in return. Build your team :).
-Jonathan Wold
[edited by: tedster at 8:33 pm (utc) on Oct. 15, 2005]
[edit reason] no specifics, please [/edit]
