When to Quit With Your Online Community

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poppy4
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Re: When to Quit With Your Online Community

Post by poppy4 »

It's an interesting question and after eight years of running my own forum, one which I think about sometimes. It is a niche/special interest forum and there isn't another one in the UK. It took about a year to really get going and I did as suggested above i.e. post, post and post again. Even now if I see something that is worth talking about, I start another thread - often pick up ideas from other forums. Anything to keep the conversation going. It is demanding though and I do get fed up sometimes.

I never wanted a forum with a huge membership list; instead, I wanted a community such as the one LP-1 describes. The forum has therefore developed into this. Unfortunately I don't like it when people join but don't post because they are of no use to the life of the community. The fact that it is a participation forum has always been clearly displayed on the guest announcement section but they still join and the majority just want to have a nosy. Sometimes they will introduce themselves and are warmly welcomed by existing members then don't post again. Some join and never log in again - can't understand why. It's become an exercise in admitting folk then deleting them a short time later - a complete waste of my time but I don't know how to change it so I have disabled registration for now in order to have a break.

I am a moderator on a forum that, like this one is very factual and very well respected. It has a Facebook page as well and that is always quite well used when a thread is started. The forum cannot compete with it. I would not start a forum nowadays as it is hard work and folk just want the sound bite communication that is on offer via Facebook.
w106mng
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Re: When to Quit With Your Online Community

Post by w106mng »

I think it depends on how passionate you are about what you are doing. There are a number of ways to work towards getting new members consistently. Posting in facebook, twitter, pintrest with links to your forum. It's also important to hae something consistent that brings people back and engages them while you build the community.
cinziac
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Re: When to Quit With Your Online Community

Post by cinziac »

be skilled about what you're speaking/treat on your forum.
All the rest will follow ... if you're valuable ... many, in particular stupids, are only following social shits ... this is maybe true, but you can perhaps do your community without them or attract them out from the mess, with your work ...
Sean Moran
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Re: When to Quit With Your Online Community

Post by Sean Moran »

bigredclaygeorgia wrote: Thu Mar 30, 2017 8:21 pm Should I bother to start a forum community by myself?
Looking back on my own past history, the key to it seems to have been in timing the available resources with the opportunity when it presents itself. Above all, a criminal mindset is imperative, because my way of attracting members has always been to steal them from other places - I also have no friends. The phpBB forum is barleeze, because this place is more than social media. Don't fret. This is no place for idle chat anyway.

By resources, I mean a hosted site with its own domain, which will cost a little money, but if you pay by the year in advance, there are some reasonably affordable ways to procure a domain name along with your web space. The other resource is your own knowledge on how to set things up, and how to do it very quickly. While you wait for the opportunity, do some graphics, build some styles, train yourself so you can strike while the iron is hot, as such.

In summary, you need to know how to install and configure a custom phpBB site with appropriate graphics for the yet-to-be-announced opportunity before it eventuates, and have the capacity at least, to register an easily memorised domain name in the space of around eight(8) hours, ie. overnight. These are your resources. These are the weapons you must have to do the crime when the time comes.

To avail yourself to the opportunity is much more simple. Patience is the main virtue. Join a popular forum and like it. Post a lot of good stuff, and get to know a lot of friends there. Be nice. Be liked. Portray yourself as a nice sort of fellow so that you are well-trusted on that forum by all. Then wait for the opportunity to eventuate. It might not be as long as you anticipate, or it might be longer.

The opportunity will come when the popular forum makes some mistake in their organisation; perhaps a new moderator that pisses off a large number of members, but there are many possible events which can annoy a large contingent of members, and that is when you strike, just like an opportunist, with your criminal mindset.

Listen to your online friends complain about how much they don't like the new system, and let them sleep on it while you quickly build an alternative that you subtly let be known about to a couple of trusted online friends (who have a lot of other friends) in the morning, and once you can get two(2) or three(3) others to join your new forum, it may lead to something a little more exponential. If you build it nice, and you get lucky, they will come.

Then the troubles will start. Appoint moderators and keep well out of arguments yourself. Be God, and let each one have their free wlll, because once you get involved with moderation, the show is over. You are God, and don't forget it. Keep out of the social dilemmas. Stay above all that. I know from experience how any sort of well-meant intervention in your own forum's social interaction will come back to haunt you until everyone has gone. To make it last, you must be trusted, so do not ever get involved in the moderation of your own forum.
Good Luck!
You will need it.

PS: I have bookmarked this thread because much of the information posted already has been excellent to read and I have learned so much I forget half of it, so that is why I have bookmared this thread. I'll read it all again tomorrow and rethink the benefits of my online .MP3 collection. Thank you.
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Kuznec
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Re: When to Quit With Your Online Community

Post by Kuznec »

Forums are gradually starting to turn into anachronisms, it's better to start with a blog.
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AmigoJack
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Re: When to Quit With Your Online Community

Post by AmigoJack »

Kuznec wrote: Wed Aug 30, 2017 8:23 pmForums are gradually starting to turn into anachronisms
Because...?
Kuznec wrote: Wed Aug 30, 2017 8:23 pmit's better to start with a blog
Because...?
JEFFJOHNSON
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Re: When to Quit With Your Online Community

Post by JEFFJOHNSON »

Think positive thoughts which will lead to positive ideas. You have not been defeated. Each day that your community exists is a good day even though you may not have many members now--They will come. You might want your moderator to post more but keep away from the "fake" friends. Keep interesting topics of discussion and time will tell "when to quit the online community" or not.
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