Forum Activity

getting more out of your online community

[buksida]

I have been administrating a forum on my site for nearly 18 months now. While its been growing at a steady rate and i'm seeing new members nearly everyday I'm still struggling with its activity. People join but seem reluctant to post, i would estimate that 10% of the members post regularly and the other 90 just read and log off.

A little background: its about a holiday destination town in Thailand so there are many categories on the forum to post about. Looking at the stats, its the most popular part of the site but I know it can be better. This question to all forum administrators: what can you do to make your members more active? Any hints and tips would be appreciated!

(if anyone wants to take a look PM me and i'll send the URL)

[karmov]

One thing I've noticed on WW is that Brett often starts off very interesting thought provoking threads that incite many to post their thoughts and opinions.

If they have nothing to talk about on their own, take the initiative and provide them something to talk about. It may take some time, effort and research, but it should pay off in a more active community down the road.

[asquithea]

Some general thoughts:

Don't split the forum up to much into subcategories. A forum has to have "critical mass", and spreading topics over different boards can cause them all to die.

Make sure there's a place for off-topic discussion. You might find that it actually gets busier than the other areas, but it'll still pull in like minded people, and the other boards will still be read. Once present, however, resist the temptation to shut it down.

Examples:
The MozillaZine forums have an "AfterDark" area visible to registered users, for example, which serves as a magnet to keep users who might not otherwise stay. Most members that post in AfterDark also contribute to user support and bug investigation. During a brief closure of AfterDark, several other forums spawned, and a number of experienced users threatened to jump ship.

The Java forums (when I used to go there) introduced a "Water Cooler" forum to be a focus for off-topic discussion. It rapidly became more active than the rest of the boards, collecting long-time members who could (and did) answer difficult questions in other forum area. When Sun shut this area down (feeling it to be cliquey), many such members left, never to return.

Make sure your forum has good uptime. The Keenspot boards are very busy, and forever falling over. During an outage about a year ago, several boards (one per comic) jumped ship (e.g. Errant Story). Others were split in half (It's Walky!), whilst others never recovered at all (Clan of the Cats).

Be prepared to spend some time in there yourself, but try not to kill every conversation dead immediately. Throw in topics for discussion sometimes, but don't do it constantly. Likewise, moderate carefully -- too much interference, moving of topics, deletion of posts etc will piss people off. On average, half of people you slap down hard in public will probably leave forever. This board (WW) gets moderation about right.

[rogerd]

Hi, buksida, you've received some good advice so far. To encourage posting, consider allowing posting without logging in. This can break down barriers to posting, and once people are involved you'll be able to switch to registration with no problems.

To keep discussions flowing, think of yourself as a host at a cocktail party that's a bit flat - move from discussion to discussion, make a point or ask a followup question, point a member at another thread that covers a topic of interest, etc. Keep moving, and don't get bogged down in one thread.

Early on, you may give controversial topics free rein - they can draw people into a discussion that might otherwise lurk. At the same time, be sure that new posters are treated well and not flamed or intimidated.

Many forum admins use several different member names when things are just getting rolling. This enables them to converse from different points of view and give the forum a more populated feel. Others avoid this practice, but even if you try it you won't have to do it for very long.

Good luck - starting a forum is a lot of work, but it's certainly fun to watch your community grow.

[Mr Bo Jangles]

excellent advice here from those who posted IMO

[buksida]

Thanks for the replies, some excellent advice and food for thought. I like the idea of an "off topic" area where anything goes, think i'll implement that one.

With regards to posting without registration I did start off like that but found that people were just posting foo and moderation was a big job.

I do regularly post relevant information but I think i'll start off more discussable topics.

[basenotes]

As per what was said earlier. Keep forum categories together until it gets busy. Better to have a board with 20 threads than 40 boards with .5 in each one.

If you have a content website 'attached' to the forum, then plug the forum at any available point - ie, if you have an article about Red Widgets - stick a link at the bottom: "Are you interested in Widgets that are Red in colour? Why not discuss them in our forum...."

[zulufox]

"Don't split the forum up to much into subcategories. A forum has to have "critical mass", and spreading topics over different boards can cause them all to die. "

ABSOLUTELY! Nobody seems to get this but me...

Busy forums get people to stay... because there questions get answered faster and by more people... spreading it out is asking for trouble.