When to Quit With Your Online Community

bigredclaygeorgia · Post by **bigredclaygeorgia** » Fri Mar 31, 2017 6:30 pm

its not about games. i suppose some kids may join but it is not a demographic i am focussing on it is mostly teenagers maybe some kids to young adults.

just curious why would you not bother with games?

thx

Lumpy Burgertushie · Post by **Lumpy Burgertushie** » Fri Mar 31, 2017 7:06 pm

I am probably not the best person to advise on this particular issue. the only games I have seen that could be added to phpbb were a long time ago and they were very simple children's games.

I am not a game person at all.

robert

Post by **KevC** » Fri Mar 31, 2017 8:04 pm

I agree, I wouldn't add games. They have tablets and phones for that. Those games are heaps better than any old flash/shockwave stuff you might find. You don't need to provide things they can get elsewhere much more easily.

One of the first mistakes we see lots of people make is they forget why they made their board. They concentrate on adding multiple extensions that do nothing to help the user experience, they mess about with changing dozens of things on the style, moving bits around, changing font sizes etc and all the while they're doing that they should really be posting, posting, posting. The users don't care what it looks like or whether they can use 500 smilies or listen to mp3s at the same time or the announcements are in a flashing box. They want stuff to talk about. That's it.

Lumpy Burgertushie · Post by **Lumpy Burgertushie** » Fri Mar 31, 2017 8:12 pm

KevC wrote: ↑Fri Mar 31, 2017 8:04 pm I agree, I wouldn't add games. They have tablets and phones for that. Those games are heaps better than any old flash/shockwave stuff you might find. You don't need to provide things they can get elsewhere much more easily.

One of the first mistakes we see lots of people make is they forget why they made their board. They concentrate on adding multiple extensions that do nothing to help the user experience, they mess about with changing dozens of things on the style, moving bits around, changing font sizes etc and all the while they're doing that they should really be posting, posting, posting. The users don't care what it looks like or whether they can use 500 smilies or listen to mp3s at the same time or the announcements are in a flashing box. They want stuff to talk about. That's it.

I usually hate me too posts..... but..... me too! what he said!!

robert

bigredclaygeorgia · Post by **bigredclaygeorgia** » Fri Mar 31, 2017 11:09 pm

true i'll pass on the games however i am thinking of a competitition about video making since that's my forums niche.

This might help members get going.

the contest is the user who makes the best video of the month wins.

but what prizes should I give? I have an award plugin with trophy icons but i don't think that will be enough?

i will make a youtube announcement advertizing this. but what prizes should i give?

i could promise more subscribers to that person but they probably won't won't buy it.

what could I give away? maybe some gaming thing but i am a bit stumped

thank you very much for your imput and time everyone

Post by **KevC** » Sat Apr 01, 2017 10:19 am

.....or you just make it for fun with no prizes and then there's nothing to mess about with.

You could make a rank image saying competition winner and assign that to the winners.

bigredclaygeorgia · Post by **bigredclaygeorgia** » Sat Apr 01, 2017 3:42 pm

KevC wrote: ↑Sat Apr 01, 2017 10:19 am .....or you just make it for fun with no prizes and then there's nothing to mess about with.

You could make a rank image saying competition winner and assign that to the winners.

tru but i will be announcing the competition on youtube people would probably not join for fun but to win. What could be a prize i could give?

Thank you for your insight and time

Lumpy Burgertushie · Post by **Lumpy Burgertushie** » Sat Apr 01, 2017 4:00 pm

you are kind of missing the point. If you can get people to know about and view your youtube video announcing the contest, then you can get people to know about and sign up for your board. If not, then how is anybody going to know about your video?

If you are thinking that having a giveaway is how you will get new members that will in turn provide you with content, you will be disappointed. people that will come sign up just to enter the contest are not the type of members you want. they will provide little, if any, relevant content and will just post once and go away.

you are way overthinking this. just start posting content and do some of the other things we have suggested.

get it going. If your information and content is something that people will appreciate then the board will grow on its own without any tricks etc.

robert

bigredclaygeorgia · Post by **bigredclaygeorgia** » Sun Apr 02, 2017 5:51 am

true but its much harder these days most forums are dead or have no chance due to social media like facebook i heard people saying that it was better to start forums in around the late 90's early 2000's.

i agree because around that time I saw forums booming.

I know social media can't be beat but it is extremeley difficult getting a forum started i heard some people spend 2 years with little or almost no progress.

im kinda old fashioned but doesn't it seem like this generation has a much shorter attention span thus forums could be dying due to that?

(NO OFFENSE TO MILLENIALS BTW )

sorry to rant.

AmigoJack · Post by **AmigoJack** » Mon Apr 03, 2017 7:15 am

bigredclaygeorgia wrote: ↑Fri Mar 31, 2017 3:04 pmsorry to full qoute i'll STOP AFTER THIS I PROMISE

You didn't stop.

bigredclaygeorgia wrote: ↑Sun Apr 02, 2017 5:51 amthis generation has a much shorter attention span

Yes. Additionally people of every generation tend to only answer 1/3 of what has been asked, which I've observed for 15+ years. You're no exception to that.

bigredclaygeorgia · Post by **bigredclaygeorgia** » Mon Apr 03, 2017 4:03 pm

Lumpy Burgertushie wrote: ↑Sat Apr 01, 2017 4:00 pm you are kind of missing the point. If you can get people to know about and view your youtube video announcing the contest, then you can get people to know about and sign up for your board. If not, then how is anybody going to know about your video?

If you are thinking that having a giveaway is how you will get new members that will in turn provide you with content, you will be disappointed. people that will come sign up just to enter the contest are not the type of members you want. they will provide little, if any, relevant content and will just post once and go away.

you are way overthinking this. just start posting content and do some of the other things we have suggested.

get it going. If your information and content is something that people will appreciate then the board will grow on its own without any tricks etc.

robert

I have an idea i'll post some articles about my niche I have a LOT to cover now when I think of it. However should I have my fake members write articles because LETS BE REAL guys who the heck joins a forum with no members interacting and just the admin?

or would it actually be better if I post the articles as my self kinda like a blog?

what are your thoughts?

thank you for your time

Post by **Mick** » Mon Apr 03, 2017 5:42 pm

Try both, you never know.

LP-1 · Post by **LP-1** » Fri Apr 07, 2017 7:56 pm

bigredclaygeorgia wrote: ↑Thu Mar 30, 2017 11:18 pm
Lumpy Burgertushie wrote: ↑Thu Mar 30, 2017 9:47 pm is there a market out there for your board?

what can you offer potential members that is better than the other site that has thousands of members.

if the answer to both of those questions is either no or I don't know, then you are wasting your time.

the whole point is to create a place for people to have discussions about a particular subject matter.

general discussion boards that try to cover every subject under the sun simply do not work any more, there are too many of them.

so, I would suggest that unless your subject matter is something you are passionate about and you are willing to be the only poster for a long time, that you might want to rethink the whole thing.

maybe find a different subject for your board, one that would be interesting to a large number of people, one that you know a lot about and can contribute a lot of content to in the beginning.

robert
well heres the thing my niche is narrow. there is only 1 other forum out there that covers my topic. but the problem is the other forum has all the staff members as best friends/clique. They have a full team of advanced coding geeks, and game servers,and much more. I do not want tons of members I just want a few good active members. (my hosting expenses would go through the roof if I had as much members as that other site lol but the thing is my forum is in mybb format and I do not have the technological capabilities to offer what the other forum offers. HOWEVER many ex members were disgruntled with the staff so all I have to offer is that my forum will be run differently to be honest.

But thank you for your your time and I will take to heart your advice

It takes years. And then something new and shiny comes along and you have to scratch and crawl your way through that, and then you may get a membership bump because of an issue, a video, some pics... but just as quick as you got it, your feet get ripped right out from beneath you. Unless it's an unbelievably profitable idea, I say walk away. Join the forum you said is already just like yours. It took shockingly good luck to build a successful forum way back before MySpace, and even then, it required a tech savvy buddy to get you through the constant glitches, design ideas, customer complaints, advertising promotion, and so on, and so on. And even then (if it's a good idea) there's gonna be dozens of rip-off sites that are better, hungrier, and more low down and dirty than you ever planned for. Then there's the eventual [inevitable] exodus. Your main core members will eventually band together and either haul ass to another site enmasse, or worse, will start their own site while still members of your site, and they will use the PM system to decimate your active members. If you're around long enough, that will happen about once every three years. They never come back, their new site will fail, and they just disappear. You may retain one or two of them if you're lucky. I could go on all day. There's tons of reasons not to do it, and if I knew then what I know now, I'd of never stepped off that ledge. Walk away. Better yet, run away.

Lumpy Burgertushie · Post by **Lumpy Burgertushie** » Fri Apr 07, 2017 11:37 pm

or, you could just keep going, enjoy the ride and not put your whole life into it. after all, it is just a bulletin board. if your whole life and/or business goes down the tubes because your board does then maybe you should rethink some priorities.

luck,
rob ert

LP-1 · Post by **LP-1** » Sat Apr 08, 2017 1:01 am

Well, yeah. There's that too.

My board has been an emotional journey. When I say community I meant it. We had people meet and get married. Have babies. Get tattoos, throw giant parties, create businesses together, became lifelong friends, became lifelong enemies, sold each other our stuff, sued each other, testified for one another in court, buried more than a couple of us, name babies after me, name dogs after me, named boats after me, went in vacations together. It was a life. I'm kinda proud of that. But I don't recommend it. It was definitely exhausting.