Don't make these newbie forum mistakes

ProVEGAS

New Member
Five newbie forum mistakes.

With forums popping up left and right more and more people are getting involved in them.But even with so many forums on the web and even more coming everyday only some are successful and other disappear.The problem is mostly in administrators.
This article will help administrator realize and avoid some mistakes.

1 - Number of staff

People that create a forum hire staff members right from the start.Beside 'promotion' forums there is no point in having more than one administrator on the forum.So basically you can do everything yourself.If you hire more than one staff member it will be costly for you and you need to know that there is not so much work for more than one.Now about 'promotion' forum it will probably be better to hire one more staff member beside yourself and instruct them to work beside you.

2 - Donations or special membership

Do not make this mistake.A lot of people start a forum ask for donations and give special membership in return for money.Now will anyone really give money to some forum that started yesterday??I think no.If you do this it can have contra effect because people can think of you as some immature guy that wants only money.There is one thing you can do and that is to give your beta testers and some contibutors extra permissions and not separate them into groups of people that gave money and those that didnt.

3 - No post forums

Try not to have forums with no posts in them.That can seem as people lack interest on your forum.Or even worse they will think that you, the site owner, lacks activity and interest in your own forum.Make the most of your time to try and avoid this.

4 - Competitions

Making referral contests or posting contests will only take up your time and wont give you any results.In the start of any of these contests you will see a jump in statistics,but when you give the prizes that you promised you will lose that rise in numbers.That's because people are interested more in the prizes and less in the basics and that is to form a forum community, and they will only make confusion in the forum.Other thing is for contests like member of the month or signature of the month, do not try to do this right after starting the forum because you will get no results.Be sure that when you create one you have enough people and activity on your forum to keep it going.

5 - Impressions

When you are starting a forum you cant expect to have enormous amount of people flying in.And do not at any cost post stuff like Keep posting or Please post.Remember that important thing is to have quality things and quality people on your forum and number of people will rise eventually.

I really think this will help create a better forum community and avoid disappointing people that like forums :)
 

Allenafaith

Member
Five newbie forum mistakes.

With forums popping up left and right more and more people are getting involved in them.But even with so many forums on the web and even more coming everyday only some are successful and other disappear.The problem is mostly in administrators.
This article will help administrator realize and avoid some mistakes.

1 - Number of staff

People that create a forum hire staff members right from the start.Beside 'promotion' forums there is no point in having more than one administrator on the forum.So basically you can do everything yourself.If you hire more than one staff member it will be costly for you and you need to know that there is not so much work for more than one.Now about 'promotion' forum it will probably be better to hire one more staff member beside yourself and instruct them to work beside you.

2 - Donations or special membership

Do not make this mistake.A lot of people start a forum ask for donations and give special membership in return for money.Now will anyone really give money to some forum that started yesterday??I think no.If you do this it can have contra effect because people can think of you as some immature guy that wants only money.There is one thing you can do and that is to give your beta testers and some contibutors extra permissions and not separate them into groups of people that gave money and those that didnt.

3 - No post forums

Try not to have forums with no posts in them.That can seem as people lack interest on your forum.Or even worse they will think that you, the site owner, lacks activity and interest in your own forum.Make the most of your time to try and avoid this.

4 - Competitions

Making referral contests or posting contests will only take up your time and wont give you any results.In the start of any of these contests you will see a jump in statistics,but when you give the prizes that you promised you will lose that rise in numbers.That's because people are interested more in the prizes and less in the basics and that is to form a forum community, and they will only make confusion in the forum.Other thing is for contests like member of the month or signature of the month, do not try to do this right after starting the forum because you will get no results.Be sure that when you create one you have enough people and activity on your forum to keep it going.

5 - Impressions

When you are starting a forum you cant expect to have enormous amount of people flying in.And do not at any cost post stuff like Keep posting or Please post.Remember that important thing is to have quality things and quality people on your forum and number of people will rise eventually.

I really think this will help create a better forum community and avoid disappointing people that like forums :)
I completely agree with the last one. I know too many people who expect their website to take off by the second day and it is so hard to explain to them that it takes time.
 

KeralMTG

Active Member
Forums are hard work and many think it is easy so they start one. After a while they find out it is hard work and give up or nobody goes to it any more.

These are some nice tips you shared here and the donations is a real good one so maybe some people will read and follow them.
 

ProfMike

Active Member
I agree with most of the suggestions, but there are a couple that I would question having run many forums in the past. But overall I think it is a pretty good list of ideas and suggestions.

Thanks for taking the time to post it.
 

Dean

Well-Known Member
Adding to this list I would add that the person/s running a forum need to control the spam that is usually a constant attack that is ongoing. Many people like to spam forums because of the number of eyes that could potentially see what they want people to see. Spamming forums is an all day task and the busier the forum is the more spam it is likely to receive. A staff that stays on top of the spam and removes it as needed is important to maintain the quality of the forum.

There are other things but from what I have seen and experienced, spam and the control of it is one of the most important factors that forum owners/operators have to deal with.

Cheers, Dean.
 

ulterios

Well-Known Member
There's some good tips in this thread and hopefully it will help some people that decide to start their own forums. Way too many forums go under and fail due to people thinking that forums are real easy to create, run and grow. This is far from the truth. Forums are quite hard to run and grow to achieve true success.

I would suggest that anyone looking to create their own forum should look deeply into what is involved to make it a success, especially the time requirements. ;)
 
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