MESKOS Forum Development Blog

When is it Time to Let Go?

Forums are one of the growing aspects of today’s World Wide Web, and not every forum that is created is made with a certain favorable topic of discussion, thus provoking it to eventually cease operations due to activity, or even due to an attack on the board and the host it is placed on. There is no shame in admitting that a forum is past its prime, because everything and everyone can play a factor in how forums operate, well… activity wise.

Themes and Phases

Topics of discussion go hand in hand with the current themes and trends in today’s modern society. Throughout the times when certain sporting events are occurring (example: EURO 2008), there were forums sprouting up all around to discuss how the outcome was going to be conducted. These forums were very active throughout the tournament, but now that it’s all over, things are going to be slowly decreasing. There are certain points where you (the owner) know deep down that you should just do the right thing, and close with dignity.

Take for example, the old pair of shoes you have in your front hall closet from a year ago. They’re probably old, probably ripped, and defiantly dirty and smelly. If you took those shoes, and put them in the trash (therefore enabling you to move on with your shoe crusade), you’re saving them from the dignity of being even more ruined, and then you (the owner) will be laughed at for having a poor pair of shoes. This goes hand in hand with forums. If you have a forum that is dying, you can put it out of its misery (therefore saving it from spam bots, mocking, etc), and you can move onto another project that will eventually become successful (maybe one that co-concedes with current trends and themes)

Never the Same

Many Forum owners may agree that there is never a time to close a forum forever, that they can always be revived, no matter what the previous occurrences were. Personally, I agreed with this, to a certain extent. As of late, I have seen more and more revivals sprouting up and about, yet no matter how identical you make these forums to their ancestors, they will never be what they once were before. I’m going to pick out a forum that has just returned, one that I know quite well.

Chillax Forums was once the ‘spam and non-professional’ forum of the Invisionfree forum network, and it was boiling with activity and new content daily for the users to read. It was once cracked of all content, and then it was revived, without losing a speck of activity. Then slowly, the summer months dragged on, and the forum started to die an embarrassing death. After many revival attempts, it was no use, and it was closed. The owner refused to let things go, and re-opened it just recently, and to be honest, it’s not the same. The members are different (old time ones moved on), content is low, and the list goes on. It may carry the same name and a lot of the same principles, yet it was just not the forum I grew to enjoy myself on. The personality of the forum had been removed.

“This ‘aint over, ‘Till I Say it’s over!”

In reality, that is truth, but as I have mentioned, the activity and such in your community really decide the final factors on when to close it. There is no shame in closing, even if it’s for a few months to get your personal life on your feet. When you close, you may hear a few complaints, but it’s for the better. You have that time to turn the board offline, and prepare for another opening if you feel you can pull it off. In a sense, it gives you time to think about what you need to do to improve on your downfalls as a prior administrator.

Always remember though, that if you try to hold onto the old set ways of your forum too tight, you might just kill what you loved to begin with. Nothing is the same, everything is constantly changing, and you can’t hold on forever. Adapt, react, and move with the trends to keep the people happy. Although this next quote may be ‘cold and horrible’, it is true about forums in the 21^st Century..

“Conformity. It’s the different one who gets left out in the cold.”

Share Your Thoughts!

Has your forum been in these situations? Have you successfully reacted and re-adapted to today’s trends to meet the needs of your users? Please, share your stories below!

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When is a Community Successful?

Every online community wants to be successful. But what determines a forum is successful or not? When can you confidently declare your community is successful?

What are online communities?

An online community is a virtual place where people can gather together online to share opinions, thoughts and an opportunity to engage in discussions. Online communities can be in a variety of forms, including: forums, social networks, blogs and chatrooms.

Community Success factors.

There are a number of ways an online community can be judged to be successful. Here are a few ideas:

• The number of registered members.
• The amount of interaction.
• The amount of revenue being generated.
• The value of the relationship within the community.
• The amount of traffic the community is attracting.

Only a number of points will be judged to determine the success level of a community. It is important to know that different forum owners judge on different factors.

What are your individual goals?

As a forum owner you must set yourself goals and targets. With out them, it will be difficult to declare your forum is successful or achived success. Only you can determine if your forum is successful. Why? Only you know when your forum has achived a goal/target. A great example are Niche forums, then even if you only have ten members you can justifiably call your community a success.

A big brand looking to develop a positive relationship with its customers may have 100,000 members and a million posts, but if the content is full of negativity about the brand and its products, the community is a failure.

Remember to not compare your community with others. Every other community has different aims and goals. Their targets are different and every your very own forum is unique. Know what you want, what you want to achieve and strive towards it. Nothing controls the success level of a community, except you!

Share your Thoughts.

Is your community successful? Have you reached your goals/targets? If so, share your experiences.

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Should communities ban the discussion of certain topics?

It’s a fact that more controversial topics may encourage hatred, flaming and other negative sorts of behaviors. But on the other hand, it motivates members to engage forum discussions. What should we do?

What is the subject of your forum?

If you decide to ban the discussion of certain topics, you must acknowledge what your forum subject is. For example, if you run a world news forum, the banning of topics regarding politics would limit and affect the community. Why? Because politics is a significant aspect of the news in today’s world. Even though the topic may develop heat within the discussion, it will psychologically encourage members to re-visit the forum to emphasis their point again.

What level of moderation should be executed?

To prevent the discussion traveling off-topic, reasonable moderation will be needed. But remember, to maintain a successful forum, you can’t just sit on your back side. Staff don’t need to sit at their computer, refreshing their window to keep track of the topic. To moderate it, simple visit it once in a while to make sure all replies are responses to the subject.

If you encounter any unhealthy replies, simple remind the members with a friendly notice about staying on-track and encourage a healthy debate. A great example would be topics regarding religion or politics, members often have strong views about those subjects. It is expected that members may become extremely passionate when discussing them, so the best way to prevent any abuse would be a friendly PM.

What type of members does your community attract?

Every community should attract their own type of members - if not, they should be! If your forum is targeted to more mature members, you will notice their will be a dramatic drop in flaming (or any other form of unhealthy acts). Usually mature forums don’t need the banning of any specific topic because they are handled/discussed appropriately, in a mature manner.

But if your forum is targeted to the younger generation, or those who are sensitive to disagreeing in them, you might consider the banning of specific topics.

Give your members a chance.

I would suggest all members adopt a laissez-faire approach in setting rules for your community. The more strict you are, the less you encourage your members. Allow the discussion of topics, take the risk. If you notice an up-rising of flaming, take action.

Your thoughts

Do you ban the discussion of certain topics? Do you actively encourage controversy and passionate debate? Has this ever come back to haunt you? Share your thoughts and experiences by leaving a comment below.

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Spice up your Community Forum

Making your forum interesting and appealing for your members is highly significant and will impact on your forum success. Try to ’spice up’ your forum every now and then to maintain your members interests.

Here are some basic tips on keeping your forum appealing and interesting:

• Interesting Topics and Discussions - Can’t think of any? Visit some related forums and work off their forum discussions. Avoid copy and pasting their topics, be creative and develop new discussions but using theirs as a base.
• Be Open - Be open to member suggestions and feedback. Listen and respond to all suggestions, this is how you can improve your community for your members. (Developing a positive member relationship).
• Newsletter - Communicate with your Members - It’s important that the forum owner should always update their members through the announcements or newsletters. Don’t send an overwhelming amount of emails but maybe once every 2nd week. Keep your members updates with significant updates etc.
• Avoid Annoying Advertisements - Money! Make profit through other ways such as subscriptions. Avoid the Google advertisements or more importantly, flash advertisements which annoy forum users.
• Share your Revenue with your Members - Create contests and purchase prizes such as domains, hosting packages etc for your members. This will motivate your members more.
• Be Creative - It’s all about being unique but not to an extent which you lose your forum concept.

Feel free to leave a comment and share your thoughts and views on this entry.

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Bringing Life into a Dead Forum

Maybe when you first started your community, you didn’t realize how much time you needed to create quality content. Perhaps you didn’t spend enough time on your forum to lift it from the ground. Whatever the reason was, your forum is now quiet and a lonely community without much activity.

Don’t despair though, as it’s always possible to kick a dead forum back into life.

Are you prepared and Committed?

Your community went down for a reason. It’s stale and dead but are you prepared to be committed and bring some life back into your dead community? If you are planning to do so, one key factor is the forum owner’s enthusiasm. If you can’t maintain a high enthusiasm for more than a month, it may be challenging to achieve any success.

Think about how your online community got into its current condition, and what will be needed to avoid that happening again. If you are sure you are ready for the challenge, here is what I advise you to do.

Steps to Bringing Life into a Dead Forum

Consider a Redesign.

Redesigning your forum with a fresh appearance will attract your members attention. It shows that you are caring for the community and willing to spend time to revive it. If you have funds, spend a few $xx on a new custom skin or if you are financially limited, you can find many free but quality forum skins on Google.

More and More Fresh Content.

Content makes up your forum. Without content, there won’t be members. Without members there won’t be interaction. And without interaction, there is no community.

Your forum probably died from the lack of content being posted on a regular basis. If someone arrives at your forum and sees no content, they might aswell leave and forget about your community, why? because they can’t find anything interesting.

So don’t let this happen. Start creating content! If it’s needed, dedicate a week to just filling up the forum with quality content (Polls, discussions, debates, surveys etc).

Setting Targets, Achieving Goals.

Set targets for yourself. Write down or save a document which has the number of posts you want to have within a period of time. Decide how many link exchanges you want to make within a week. Set a number of posts you should post in a day.

Remember to set targets for every stage of your forum.

Bulk-Emailing your members.

You would be wasting your time if no one knows about the hard work you put into reviving the forum. Stated in my A Community is like a Beautiful Woman article, “Beauty must be seen to be appreciated”.

How can you contact all your old members and notify them about the fresh changes? Bulk-Email them. All forum softwares will have a feature which sends an email to all members of a board.

Some members will need some convincing for them to return. In your message, really talk up the forum renovation and the quality content. Include links to parts of the community which will convince them.

Don’t stop, Keep going.

You’ve spent days in renovating your forum. You will most likely see a new boost in activity but in most cases they slowly die off again. You must maintain the momentum and never let it stop. Continue to interact with your members, and continue to keep them happy.

Remember to advertise your forum in every way possible and don’t let your enthusiasm drop. Keep a positive attitude towards your community and remain committed.

Now watch your forum rise from the ashes!

Feel free to leave a comment and share your thoughts and views on this entry.

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