What makes a forum die?

[Former Member]

These rules serve a useful purpose.

link to support.proboards.com/thread/28689/read-before-posting-forum-rules

[mmhmm]

Apr 29, 2015 10:13:30 GMT -8 @womenonly said:

These rules serve a useful purpose.

link to support.proboards.com/thread/28689/read-before-posting-forum-rules

Thanks,  womenonly. I didn't have trouble locating the rules (and did read them before posting here), but for those having a problem locating them I'm sure your link will be helpful. Most of us read the ProBoards ToS before starting a forum or serving as staff on a forum. For those who haven't read the ToS, there's a link at the bottom of this page (Terms of Service). 

[kronks]

Apr 29, 2015 10:13:30 GMT -8 @womenonly said:

These rules serve a useful purpose.

link to support.proboards.com/thread/28689/read-before-posting-forum-rules

Really?

What a pity then.

That you.

Failed to follow them!!

So perhaps they maybe are not as useful as you appear to think they are!!

[Boy_Wonder]

I'm going to state my views now - I think a variety of things make a forum die.

Rules being too strict that members feel like they cannot possibly manage to post anything without looking over their shoulders - or micro-managey staff members can make a community grow stale and die.

Equally a lack of rules can also make a forum die.

A lack of staff stepping in, or giving customer service responses can make a forum die (eg if someone reports posts but it appears there's no 'visible' action happening, members would lose faith because 'oh my reports must be drifting into the ether of cyberspace and no ones interested)

The biggest thing to me that will make a forum die however is none of those - it is instead.... the idea of the admin losing interest... of not wanting to keep the site running but not yet realising that fact themselves. Because other people will smell it sure as we can smell bacon frying... they won't join and the admin will be in a pit of circling despair until they finally realise that their heart just isn't in it.

[mmhmm]

Agreed, Loki. Knowing your membership and what they're looking for in their forum is important, and that can't be done by someone who isn't around and isn't really interested in creating a good atmosphere for the membership. You'll never be able to please everyone all the time but I think it's important to try to please as many as you can as often as you can. To do that, you've got to be active and involved with the posters.

[That Guy]

Yes, one of the big keys to a successfully run forum is an admin/owner who is active in discussions - both starting new topics and responding to ones started by others.

[Mixed]

I completely agree! The members should feel welcomed and encouraged by the staff and especially the admin. If the admin isn't interested anymore or doesn't at least say hi, people will disappear.

That's what happened to the first forum I had joined. It was a great place and eventually I was made staff. We were decently active for at least two years but then it started tapering off as our admin visited less and less. We as the staff tried to fill the void and once our admin came on to apologize and say that if she disappeared again, she would transfer adminship to me. Unfortunately, she did disappear again but never transferred adminship. People started to leave, and then some of our bigger players and then more. A horrible domino effect. I've tried getting a hold of her but to no avail.

Oh well, forums die for many reasons but I think this is among the biggest.

[maxxist]

I see the lazy type saying that they're forum is "dying" quite often. If an admin is not active, meaning getting on every day and posting every once and while, and communicating with the community, then why should the members be active?

Some people also just get bored of a forum after a while or they find something about the forum or community that they don't like.

[Cuethelaugh]

On top of everything said I think I put a good amount of responsibility on the admins. The way they run the site not only keeps it active but also members joining. Too many admins get caught up in their cliques and then don't enforce rules or even respect. They'll talk your ear off as a new member and then drop you once you join just to up their member count. That's the worst.

I also see way too many cases of site that are open well past the years they should be. Meaning their dead, interest is about gone, and the admins do little to nothing to revive them. You want a site to work? It's like having a second job on top of your real one. Put in the work. Post every day. Plot with the new kids. Lead by example.

*shrug*

[Yuno]

From all of the things I have learned about what does make a forum die due to being a member and staff on them....

- Inactive members and staff. No one is posting on the forum, so why should anyone else?

- A rude staff who harass, troll, and belittle their own users.

- Playing favorites with a member or group of people on your forum can cause it to die too.

- Cliques and elitism if it's an RP forum community. If there's a clique it makes it not as great to wanna go back to the forum or RP on it.

- Not banning troublesome users from the forum and allowing them to get away with your forum rules.

- Being too strict of an admin with your rules

And I could go on and on....

Currently working on a forum board related to the anime / manga genre, and I am even trying to come up with a unique thing on it. Been debating using previous ideas, but expanding on them the way I want to see them expanded on. Think anime/manga death battles, anime brackets, etc.

[solarbronco]

Skip ahead a few months and I now own four forums. The only way I can keep them going is the quality people that have agreed to be moderators. Great talented people who honestly seem to like other people. Like other people, that is such a rare and undervalued trait. They are so welcoming and helpful to my members that everyone just keeps coming back.

So, like at work, working hard to recruit talented and "good attitude" people just flat our attracts members/customers. The staff either welcomes people in, keeps them engaged in the community or offends them and chases them away.

I'm truly blessed to have some awesome moderators and they are the reason why my two one year old forums are at 1700 and 2600 members and growing strong every day.

I do not recruit friends or relatives to the moderator board. My relationship with those people have nothing to do with how warm they will be with the members.

I also turn away talented but cold hearted/negative people. They do no good at all for a forum, no matter their skills.

when you start to grow, it's so important to recognize that you cannot spread yourself out to engage 1500 plus people on a daily basis.

It's the moderators, the welcome wagon and keepers of the faith that make or break a forum.

God blessed me with the best!

[Mid]

Sept 22, 2015 20:30:29 GMT -8 solarbronco said:

I also turn away talented but cold hearted/negative people. They do no good at all for a forum, no matter their skills.

Interesting you should say that--I'd have to disagree. I'm a very cold and negative person myself, not really into faking happiness or anything else online, and my forum runs quite well for its genre. In fact, it's one of the biggest Warriors roleplays on ProBoards.

One can be cold and still a good leader. In fact, I'd argue that sometimes colder people make for better staff members, as they often have an easier time saying "no" when it's necessary, and they can generally keep that "no", even in the face of a determined pest. While more chipper/warm people are often better with member interaction*, in my experience, they're often more easily-swayed by suck-ups and people who are persistent in getting what they want (regardless of whether or not what they want is within the rules of the forum).

On a very broad sense, I don't think being cold or warm towards others has much of an effect on how well one can help administrate or moderate a forum. I tend to be a stern and serious admin. While I mostly do behind-the-scenes stuff nowadays, I keep the forum running smoothly, and it's been going for over four years now.

*Just because one is cold or negative does not make them rude or socially inept in any way. I may be cold and negative at times, but I'm often social and very good at dealing with people. I chat with others, but my coldness is more or less a lack of sympathy and an inability to really comfort others when they're going through hard times. It doesn't really effect the forum very much, because when people are upset about a family member's death or something along those lines, I can fade out and let others comfort them.

[Matt]

Apr 13, 2015 9:15:15 GMT -8 kronks said:

Apr 13, 2015 8:05:58 GMT -8 Celeste said:

kronks , I'm not one of those who thinks the admin is just another member of the group. They can't be. They created the forum in the first place, decided on the topics, decided who has access, designed the boards, and are held accountable by ProBoards to see to it that the forum is in compliance with our host's terms of service. (For that reason alone, I believe it is not a good idea for admins to put members on 'ignore'. Admins can't moderate what they can't see, and a disruptive 'ignored' poster could easily get their forum deleted by ProBoards for TOS violations.  I believe it has already happened.)

Well obviously they would have to look at reported posts, but if someone is annoy them they can put them on ignore.

And here is one big reason why forums fail.

People do not want to put their life into the hand of another.
 

I don't care if the created the forum, I don't want another person having the power of life and
death over me.

I don't want you have the ability to remove someone I liked from the forum.

People do not like handing control of their life to another anonymous unelected unknown person.

Maybe that is why Facebook is so successful.

No admins or moderators to mess things up, the power rests in the right place, with the individual not the power crazy.

I disagree with this, when run properly, forums can be much much better than facebook, I don't think it matters that an Admin has control over the forum if they do it right, yeah forums with bad admins will fail, and I have seen it happen to many forums. Personally I think one of the major problems with facebook is that there ISN'T moderators, that's why facebook is such an annoying site, people on facebook are ridiculous, and for that reason I don't use social media, I choose to use forums, I find forums much more organized and just generally better.

[LINDSEY]

I know sometimes, and this is just my personal opinion, that staff get too picky about the plot. I like to see members help with the main plot of the site. Maybe even voting on the direction a plot can go. If Staff would quit say "This is what is GOING to happen!" and start asking "What would YOU like to see?" it could go better. My latest forum, a Horse RPG, currently has no real plot. We have an open slate that I'm gonna keep open until I get more members. We have a current poll to ask if they want a really harsh winter or just a normal winter on the horse RPG. That way the members can say "Well, I think that could make for interesting threads." So, I think having more of a member guided plot helps keep forums interesting.

Some sites need a more staff guided one, but it shouldn't be 100% because that can drive new members away quickly, because they may feel like they don't have a voice.

[Former Member]

I think social media is one reason lately. I mean with sites like Facebook and Tumblr people can create groups or blogs and do just about everything they are doing on a regular forum.  

I know members growing older is another reason in the boards I’ve been in charge of. Normally during big exams members would go MIA and the activity would cease to be. Not to mention when they get ‘real’ jobs they are lacking in the free-time they once had to post let alone rp.  

Then you also have the issue of there being so many options for certain types of forums. Why join more when you can join one and do everything your doing at another board? I know a lot of boards, my own included, while we focus on a certain thing we do have general forums and sections to talk about just about anything.


I know I think some fan-forums for games are hurting because the game developers are opening up their own boards so instead of joining the fan boards they’re going with the official ones. :/


I think once you lose your 'loyal' members the ones who log in everyday and post everyday, that's when things start to go under.