Growth Tips (All & Any Thoughts Appreciated)

[argilesox]

So I thought I would come here for some tips. I have had my forum since March 2018 but didn't really do anything with it until recently. I am a huge forum person and couldn't find any forums for a NY Best Selling and worldwide series so I made one. I spread the word on the fan made discord servers, sub-reddit, fandom wikis, and others. I got a influx of 20 members and a lot of interest in a FanFiction Competition we hosted. That was a few months ago and right now we have around five or less actively posting members with around 100 guests every 24hr. My settings allow guest shouts and some areas allow guest posting, but I have seen none. We have 2 themes with one in the works too. The only member feedback I have received is more personalization which they though achieved with the creation of a original forum banner. I am just here to see if you guys have any tips on how to get my many guest visitors to stick around and join. Right now we have 70+ threads and 1500+ posts. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask!


rangerapprentice.boards.net

[argilesox]

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[argilesox]

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[Former Member]

Hello friend! 

I wanted to give you some constructive feedback on the forum. When I critique, I mean no offense by anything that I say. All of this is meant to be constructive and helpful. 

First Impressions:
Despite the graphics in the background, the website feels very plain. In every one of my critiques, I have noticed a board with the word, "General" in it. When a designer puts the word. "General" in a title it makes less professional and makes the guest lose interest very quickly. Don't be afraid to be creative! I looked through the rest of the website and there are creative names for some of the boards. Don't stop at those boards though, make it consistent. 

Content:
The website needs a little reorganization and naming. Here's how I would have done it:

First category: "Forum News, Feedback, and Information" 

1. Remove some of the names of the first category. A category should never have three words within the name. Name the category something like: "Ranger Home World". 

2. First board should always be something like: "Ranger Central". This is where you can have people introduce themselves, have announcements, and where administrators can talk as well. 

Category name: The Courtyard (the general category)(the Forum News, Feedback, and Information category)

Board A."Ranger Central": This is where the administrators can discuss important news about the town, members of the town can introduce themselves, can advertise, ect.

Sub-boards: 

"Council": This is where Administrators can meet and discuss anything important.

"Front Gate": I really like this name, but I think it should be in the "The Courtyard" board and used with a different function. This should be the place where members come to introduce themselves. Even the Admin can say hi and introduce themselves.

"The Great Hall": This is where members can talk about anything that is related to the website.

"Guide Hall": This is an excellent name and should be kept as a "Guide Hall". Guide Hall can be where members have any questions, comments, or concerns about the website.

"The Marketplace": This is where members can advertise. 

"The Pub": This is where members can talk about anything that is not related to the website. 
 
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Board B: Craftsman's Guild: This is where members can post essays, fan fiction, and art work. 

Sub-boards:

"Essays": This is where members can post essays for discussions. 

"Fan Fiction": This is where all the fan fiction related to the series can be posted.  

"Gallery": This is where all the art can be posted, whether its about the series or not. 
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Board D. "Games" (or you can name it something like the chess board or something like that)

Sub-boards:

"Activities"

"Role Playing" 
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Board E. "The Throne Room": This is where all announcements, introductions, questions, concerns, and the history of the website can be found.

Sub-boards:

"The Herald": This is where Administrators can make announcements (you want to minimize the use of the word, "town" so it does not create redundancy).

"Town Decree": This is where the rules of the website can be found.
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That is what I think the first category should be organized as. Now, this doesn't have to be set in stone. These are just some suggestions on how to consolidate the website and resources for the community. 

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Second category: Book Series Discussion

1. Remove the board called, "General Discussion" and move it to the first category. Anything general should not be in the main topic category. 

2. Keep the boards the same in this category. There isn't a lot of work that needs to be done with this one. This category is organized pretty well. Just remove the following boards: "General Discussions" and "Other Works". The boards up top in the First Category will do fine replacing those boards. These boards are not discussing the series so it does not make sense to have these boards in this category. 

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Third category: Licensed Works

Honestly, I would remove this entire category. The name makes me extremely nervous. If it is not your work and you want to state that it is licensed work and should be respected as such in the board's description. 

1. Put "Ranger's Apprentice" inside the series discussion category.  
2. "Games/Activities" do not belong in that board. 

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Graphics:
The graphics aren't really speaking to me. There needs to be some work on the banner and there is an awkward brown box that surrounds the home button up top. 

Advertisement Ideas:
Find Facebook groups that have the series and ask if you can post the link to the website on their pages. 

Last Few Notes: Again, I mean no harm. I am providing constructive feedback and I just want to leave you with a few last notes. I would like to say as well that you do have some traffic on the website and you have some members. I love that people post on the website and you should be proud of that!

1. Please, please remove the word: "General" from any title. I always highly encourage website designers to remove this word because it makes it unprofessional and redundant.
2. Please consolidate the website to make it less cluttered. 

I'm not saying that you have to implement my ideas in any way (since I am not an expert). I am just giving some honest feedback. I hope you liked the feedback and I wish you all the success in the world!

[argilesox]

Thanks so much for your feedback! I will see about implementing some of your suggestions!