How do you keep your forum active?

[incredibleasia]

Does it mean that forums won't be active anymore and FB groups and Instagram already replaced them? I can see that younger generation is after likes and popularity, that's why a lot of them became vloggers and not so many people are willing to share their experiences.

[warmweer]

Does it mean that forums won't be active anymore and FB groups and Instagram already replaced them?

No, for the simple reason that there will always be a usergroup needing a something different than FB. A lot depends on the subject and how all the information has to be stored and presented.
Classification and retrieval of posted information is a disaster on FB and that's not going to change in the near future.

[Lumpy Burgertushie]

no, not at all. as a matter of fact, forums are making a comeback lately.

by the way,most, if not all of those things you mentioned above are available within phpBB or most any other forum software if you install the proper extensions etc.

I can't make Instagram or FB group out of my forum and I don't want to. I know that they like it because it is faster, you can access from the phone. you can upload videos and the most important you can become popular and earn money. Also you get instant replies there what you don't get on the forums.

as to politics, the problem is not that politicians are using social media it is that the social media platforms
have taken it on themselves to censor political view points and decide what information we can see and what we can't.
because of that, the major platforms are losing members by the thousands and even the congress is
investigating them for monopolistic business practices.

I personally think it is a little late for that.
On a good note, there are alternative platforms showing up for things like facebook, twitter, instagram etc.


robert

[warmweer]

as to politics, the problem is not that politicians are using social media it is that the social media platforms
have taken it on themselves to censor political view points and decide what information we can see and what we can't.
because of that, the major platforms are losing members by the thousands and even the congress is
investigating them for monopolistic business practices.

Without wanting to open a can of worms.
All public platforms do have a responsibility (whether it's based on legal rules, self imposed criteria or ethics) but they've been turning their heads away for too long and the lack of regulation didn't help.
The recent "happenings" are the direct result of the "bucket overflowing" and the best (and only) solution at that moment was to close the tap.
'nuff said

[Lumpy Burgertushie]

just one quick reply; only if it is applied equally which in this case it is not.
done.

[Holger]

They did exactly the right thing, but much to late.
Sad.

All public platforms do have a responsibility (whether it's based on legal rules, self imposed criteria or ethics) but they've been turning their heads away for too long and the lack of regulation didn't help.
The recent "happenings" are the direct result of the "bucket overflowing" and the best (and only) solution at that moment was to close the tap.
'nuff said

The same thing applies/happens if you let things go overboard for to long time in a forum too.
It is hell to correct things afterwards!

[incredibleasia]

no, not at all. as a matter of fact, forums are making a comeback lately.

by the way,most, if not all of those things you mentioned above are available within phpBB or most any other forum software if you install the proper extensions etc.

I added responsive theme for the mobile users, browser notifications but of course I can't add all the features from Instagram or FB groups and I can't promise, that our members will get replies immediately, although it depends on other members.

[dent11]

At the moment its just me posting as and when something interesting comes up but it just looks a bit boring, me talking to myself.

Create 3-4 accounts and log in with each one at different times and reply to yourself. It looks like people are chatting and then encourages others to join in.

and if the content is for a niche audience and you do not know enough about it at all?

[Holger]

... then you should not start a forum about it. It will be hard to moderate the content if you do not know anything about the (specialized) subject.

[dent11]

Having in mind that, they will leave facebook groups and will come to the forum for Better and easier search for information and previous discussions.
since there is no corresponding forum with this subject, but only facebook groups.

[Lumpy Burgertushie]

I would suggest two things; first, I doubt that there is no forum avalable for any subject that anyone could think of.
second, If you don't know anything about this particular subject, then find one you do know about that there is a facebook group for and start a board about that subject.

the problem is that if you don't know anything about the subject it is going to be very very hard to get a board about that subject started and find anybody to join and post etc.

luck,
robert

[SpIdErPiGgY]

Very hard... I have a forum with NL ext translations, and after 1 year, 9 members. 3 of them are active
And I think I'm the only one that offers that much translations.
So... Monthly server payment for nothing I guess

Social media f*cked the bulletin boards

[Holger]

Well it depends.
I have not sensed any "Social media f*cked the bulletin boards" yet.
My board is over 20 years old, active and has a lot of active members.

Looking at your board I can see some things that would hold me back. Look over your categories and forums (and the descriptions).
When I enter a board and see phpbb, phpbB, phpBb, Phpbb all over the place I get the feeling that the owner does not care a lot. I would not register. But that is me.
Also: the domain-name does not imply that I will find translations for extension there.
As for the monthly server fees ... a board not that active can easily run on an one.com-account, that means 2-3 Euro per month in server cost.

On the other hand: thank you for providing the translations and keep up the good work.

[2002XterraSC]

Social media like Facebook has really tried to ingest all the users of forums. Most of the car forums I am on have lost loads of traffic because of FB groups. Sadly it is not the same there, it is a very low bar to entry lol. As well, most people used to use photo bucket for image hosting, and when they pulled all the free hosting and even jacked up the paid plans, it killed many threads with photos such as DIY articles, etc.

I've been keeping my local club board alive but the traffic is probably 1/3 of what it was 10 years ago.

But on the main topic, I try to keep it alive by making it as easy as possible for users to get to (tapatalk, browser notifications) and easy to copy/paste/upload images. That seemed to be the biggest issue, next to sign up fatigue.