What makes a forum die?

[Former Member]

I don't use facebook for my forum.I feel its killing our message boards that we work so hard on.
I have trouble getting why some are so busy and there is no themes to chose from.(such as a plain pink or green) and then the siggys are limited to such a small size why bother have one?

Rules are another thing: to strict and to lenient, has to be a fine line.

[Mandoli]

Apr 18, 2015 13:40:04 GMT -8 STLUEE said:

and then the siggys are limited to such a small size why bother have one?

Maybe it's just me, but I'm on the "signatures shouldn't be bigger than your posts" side of the line. Forums are not to show off tall signatures. They're around to discuss things and/or role play.

[solarbronco]

I have a forum that is 10 months, 25 days old. We have 1700 members and just under 32,000 posts. Didn't come here to brag but saw the title "What makes a Forum die".
To me, and I see alot of this on "free forums" is total lack of interesting content. And total lack of recent content. I see alot of beautiful graphics and designs, but no members or traffic and it's a shame because some of these forums deserve some kind of trophy for originality and design that is way beyond my abilities.
Heck, I'm using Cave of the freakin Err Bear as the main theme and didn't add the ability to add your own smilies until last month, but nobody really cares or even notices.

People want interesting things to read and people on the site to talk to. It's their words that make a forum. And their lack of words or presence that cause a forum to die. Post things they will want to read, pics they will want to see and self promote the Forum on Reddit, Digg, and update your RSS to Feed into Google indexing.

[solarbronco]

Apr 9, 2015 20:56:52 GMT -8 Mandoli said:

Apr 9, 2015 19:07:13 GMT -8 @demonbarber said:

Admins are just as human as anyone else, and also members in their own right. They have a right to put someone on ignore if they so choose. It helps when a member is being argumentative with the admin. By ignoring them and not responding you let them calm down. Not all forums have a staff group. A lot just have the lone admin. Which imo is better that way as then there's no change in moderation across the board. And you don't have staff members to go off and get away with abusing their powers either.

Regarding the part in bold: I've looked around on my board, and I can't ignore anyone. It also doesn't help when people go after the admins. How do you suppose I proceed with dealing with a troublemaker the next time they come on with the sole purpose of staff harassment (example, obviously)?

My staff members bring up the idea of banning someone if they get out of hand, especially when they can't learn that they have a warning. If another one or two staff members agree, the ban happens. Nobody is power-hungry, and all members win.

Negative posters who challenge staff are a cancer and if you don't ban them right away quietly, they will spread the negative disease to others. also, Moderators need a leader, a firm but cool leader as an example. My Moderators are volunteers who put in time and effort for free and I'll be damned if I am gonna let anyone pick on or go after free volunteers. 

I learned the hard way really quick, always remove the disease before it spreads. I even jump my Moderators for letting violations slip.

[kronks]

Apr 18, 2015 22:47:22 GMT -8 solarbronco said:

Apr 9, 2015 20:56:52 GMT -8 Mandoli said:

Regarding the part in bold: I've looked around on my board, and I can't ignore anyone. It also doesn't help when people go after the admins. How do you suppose I proceed with dealing with a troublemaker the next time they come on with the sole purpose of staff harassment (example, obviously)?

My staff members bring up the idea of banning someone if they get out of hand, especially when they can't learn that they have a warning. If another one or two staff members agree, the ban happens. Nobody is power-hungry, and all members win.

Negative posters who challenge staff are a cancer and if you don't ban them right away quietly, they will spread the negative disease to others. also, Moderators need a leader, a firm but cool leader as an example. My Moderators are volunteers who put in time and effort for free and I'll be damned if I am gonna let anyone pick on or go after free volunteers. 

I learned the hard way really quick, always remove the disease before it spreads. I even jump my Moderators for letting violations slip.

I see you forum is a specialist interest forum, that may work well as people have a lot on common a common interest, others are broader
and there may be more conflict between people. A lot depends on the mods you can get good ones and bad one.
You don't want too many goose stepping camp commandants IMO. But as I say it all depends on what type of posters you have.
Another forum I am on has a new authoritarian mod and he seems to have driven people away.
Everything has to be in the right place and no "nonsense" is tolerated.
Also your forum is relatively new, there may be a drop off in member over time, but it seem to be going well atm.
After a while people have discussed a lot of stuff before.

[solarbronco]

Actually, I find that the "negativity spreads so cut it out early" scenario applies to all organizations.

The key is truly to have good natured, fun loving Moderators/Management.

[kronks]

Apr 19, 2015 20:54:52 GMT -8 solarbronco said:

Actually, I find that the "negativity spreads so cut it out early" scenario applies to all organizations.

The key is truly to have good natured, fun loving Moderators/Management.

Well it depends what you define as "negativity" really, hard to say without and example.

Do that mean everyone has to agree on everything?

I would say though your forum is not one on which disagreement of conflict is likely
to arise. 

Things like politics are a different kettle of fish, all you member have a common interest and
are so like to get on I would imagine, also all adults? And men too, I thing that may help.

[solarbronco]

We have had to warn and or ban quite a few people who either start fights with others, cuss a lot or start trouble with moderators.

Not sure why you think men are less likely to cause problems.
We have a very diverse group with a lot of females as well and they are typically far more civil than the men who like to fight about their technical abilities and question the forum rules. Most are great but that is because we don't let the disease spread and keep the forum warm and welcome for all.

[Mandoli]

Apr 21, 2015 5:32:00 GMT -8 solarbronco said:

Not sure why you think men are less likely to cause problems.

Every person I've had to ban from my board (who signed up) was male. All of them deserved to be banned for what they did. And yes, if I ever had problems with a female, she's getting the ban as well.

[Celeste]

There is room for all kinds of forums, @demonbarber. We happen to like friendly and helpful in my neck of the woods, similar to ProBoards Support. Clearly, you love spirited debates.

The nice thing about ProBoards is that there is room for all types. They let admins decide where to draw the line. If members don't like the leadership style, they can move onto another forum they like better or create their own.

I've seen both strict and lax succeed, so I doubt that would be the sole reason for a forum to fail either.

What else do you think might lead to a loss of members? Declining interest in the main subject? Changes in the members' lifestyle? Lack of admin attention?

What else?

[♥ ℒʊ√ ♥]

I agree, Celeste.

We have a nice combo of both. The "home page" is for friendly banter in all types of categories.

The Discussion Board is more about debate and opinions and the things that can get some spirited back and forth going.

[kronks]

I posted in one forum and the thread got moved to another sub-forum which had only 4 posts in it this
year.
So the mods in their supreme wisdom moved it to a dead sub-forum which virtually nobody visited, much
to my annoyance.

It is arrogant goose stepping mods like that which ruin forums, who is the forum for anyway?

The mods or the members?

Had I wanted to post in that forum I would have, I didn't.

If I post something it is so that it will be read and replied to, not left to die a death.

I really do not like such an autistic approach to having everything in the right box.

Of course I ended up getting a days ban for a trying to argue my point.

This is the point, if you don't like my thread don't reply to it, if you think it should be in another
area start one yourself their.

I would add the thread receive some response of abusive type of nature "is this a wind up", because their
ridged minds could not see it's validity. The mods of course sided with those people, I complained
about their responses and they reminded, yet my criticism of their responses was removed.

Just typical. There was nothing constructive or on topic in their posts, just attacks on the validity
of the thread (and hence me).

You would think they had better thing to do.

[kronks]

Apr 21, 2015 7:25:48 GMT -8 Mandoli said:

Apr 21, 2015 5:32:00 GMT -8 solarbronco said:

Not sure why you think men are less likely to cause problems.

Every person I've had to ban from my board (who signed up) was male. All of them deserved to be banned for what they did. And yes, if I ever had problems with a female, she's getting the ban as well.

Hmmm...... could you perhaps be a bit biased being female yourself?
Just seem a bit odd to have  100% of bans being males.
Why do you think that is yourself?

[Mandoli]

Apr 23, 2015 19:07:02 GMT -8 kronks said:

Hmmm...... could you perhaps be a bit biased being female yourself?
Just seem a bit odd to have  100% of bans being males.
Why do you think that is yourself?

If you think I'm being sexist, that's not my thing. Each one of those people did something that resulted in bans (at least on my forum). Let's count the ways:

- One guy posted racially insensitive remarks about people in general (won't repeat here).
- One guy came over from a forum that he was banned from, and we found out he was banned through what I think is Encyclopedia Dramatica. He posted things over and over again, we told him to stop, he didn't listen.
- One guy played the part of a racist. Or something close to it. He changed the subject of a simple thread to "let's bash this guy for no reason other than the color of his skin".
- One guy lied to our (collective) faces about being bullied. Short story: He deleted his account, banned me from his forum, and accused me of allowing bullying to happen.

... So I'm not sexist. I know when trouble starts when I see it.

[solarbronco]

I banned a guy today. New member, he wanted to post a service manual that Yamaha charges $90.00 for. This would be illegal due to copyright laws and Yamaha could shut me down so I explained Copyright laws and warned him not to even hint about it ever again.

He wrote me right back and offered to sell it on Ebay and give me half of the revenue if I let him post an ebay link in the forums.

I banned him without even replying. IP too.

What is it today with young people not being able to follow directions?

I am also an employer in my day job and post detailed instructions on how to apply, and almost everyone under 26 ignores the instructions and just sends resume's, no cover letters, no job title in subject line...

They are probably sitting at home wondering, why don't he call?