Quanity of users vs quantity of posts

The # of people that sign up = 20% of posts

[matimer]

Why do people sign up for an open forum if they are not going to post? For every 100 people that sign up I average 20 posts...

Anyone else have an issue like this and if so how did you fix it?

[Endurer]

First off, make sure that the rest of them are not bots. Secondly consider adding interactivity to your website. I boosted up the numbers by adding post limit to access certain important forums resulting in a mixed response.

[rogerd]

Here's a good thread on getting lurkers to post: [webmasterworld.com...]

[tomse]

As said before, i often register to forums, because most forums offer the ability to show new posts since your last visit only if you are registered.

[Lynn_Terry]

It seems common in any online community that only a small percentage actively participate. Some people register so that they can subscribe to threads, private message other members, access members-only features, etc.

And some people sign up and then get busy or forget!

For those, it is helpful if you are emailing your members a weekly update of the latest discussions ;-) I've found the forum gets real active within the 24 hours following an email update!

[joftech]

The quantity of users does not determine the number of posts you get. I have seens a 4k+ site having 2.2 million posts while an 18k+ has just 200,000 posts.

Another thing is that number of posts does not justify quality posts.

For me quality posts comes firtst.

[rogerd]

One thing to check for is whether your email confirmations are getting through (if you use that feature). I've seen quite a few registrations that never finish because the user doesn't do the confirmation step. Some ISPs treat confirmation emails like spam.

[rebelde]

I get quite a few registrations for my forums because a lot of people think that they will find hidden features on the main site by being a registered in the forums...

[openmind]

Hi rebelde, and what happens once I register at your site, do I get to see any hidden features?