MESKOS Forum Development Blog

The Well Known, Quality not Quantity!

The Well Known, Quality not Quantity! (PART 1)
5 Ways to improve your forum quality.

Maintaining quality content within a forum is difficult for forum administrators because its usually most difficult. As you can see many forums may be based on a unique topic but their off-topic, general chat or
spam areas are most active and hold the majority of the boards total post. This is quantity not quality.
Of course, there are many other quality problems that forum face: members posting useless or immature responses, people who like to write in “IM speak”, spamming, unanswered questions, and many other problems can also affect the quality of a forum.

Within this article, i will provide a number of tips which will assist you in maintaining quality not quantity.

Emphasis on Topical Forums

90% of forums have administrative topics or general discussions located at the top of their boards. “Announcements, Suggestions” etc. The top half of the forum should contain all your significant (focused) topics, why? because it’s what visitors/members first see. You need to emphasis your forums focus, make it easy for your members to participate in the topical discussions. Example: If your forum is related to gaming, move all your gaming discussion forums to the top and locate your announcements, introductions etc
underneath.

Control the Spamming/Illegal Advertising

You must control the amount of spam and advertising throughout your forum. Have strict guidelines on where and where you can’t advertise. Many users try to find loopholes in your TOS and rules to advertise. Example: the General Chat forum. Users may take advantage of weak guidelines and create a topic similar to: “Post your forums here” and leave a link to their forum and never return. Remember to be focused.

Encourage Quality Posting

There are many ways to improve the quality of posts from your members. Award members publicly when they post a quality topic. Let your community acknowledge the fact they get awarded for the quality not quantity. Also try to encourage your members not to post with IM language as its difficult for ‘older generation’ members to understand. Such terminology includes: “Lol, Rofl, Brb” etc.

Follow The Leader

As an administrator of a forum, you must set a good example. If you take the time in creating quality posts, your members will find you inspiring and also do the same, its psychological.

Promote Wisely

As stated in some of my previous entries, promote wisely. Only exchange with forums which you would like their members to associate with your forum. Example, if you advertised at a Random Chat Room, yes you would gain main visits but are they worth much? and are those really the type of people you want at your forum?

Well, here is another entry of mine.
Good luck with your forum and always remember, Quality not Quantity.

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