How many forums is too many to have?

[Des]

I think that even if the admin has a lot of free time, indeed even if he/she is online the whole day, there is a limit of forums that they should possess. They cannot own a forum for each and every topic they are interested in. It will only lead to overwork and eventually burn out whereupon all there forums will be resigned to oblivion or the maintenance mode. I would also say that one should not have too many RPG's, as I have seen many people on the advertising board possess, as it is hard to keep track of all of these. Also, rather than having ten chat forums on different topics, it might be better to mesh all of these into a single general talk board.

I would say that the admin themselves can be the judge of how much time they have to contribute to each forum. They should divide this time equally, and if they find that they spend more time on two forums than they spend on the other two, perhaps it is time for the other two to go. Also I often get the feeling that people like MAKING the forums but shy away from running them, and end up having too many forums that are just lying around. If the admin starts relying too heavily on other staff or must spend too much time on her forums to keep them all running, foregoing real life commitments, it's time to realise that you might have too many forums. Especially if you start getting tired of them.

[ToriJ]

I honestly would not recommend anyone have more than just one forum. I used to run a RP and a General Forum side by side, and I'm a person with a lot of time on my hands and even I couldn't maintain two boards. To keep up with one I would find myself neglecting the other and vice versa. It ended with one forum dying while the other one survived. To run just one forum takes a lot of work and dedication and I think doing that in one forum is tough enough. But hey if you're able to pull off more than one you're awesome by my book. But I still wouldn't recommend anybody make more than one forum so they should think long and hard what they want before they make it and then stick to just that.

[Former Member]

I own 1 site but I used to own and run three...or more...most of them ended up never taking off...all except one which I now dedicate my time to...as well as co-adminning/co-moderating other sites

It depends soley on its admin...and the creativity and ideas...if you have 3 sites with the same content...and ideas are mostly copied from your main site its not going to help the site specially if some of the members are from your main site...

And it all depends to your time management...and your ability to juggle...

if you own and run 5 sites lets say...you really have to either have plenty of time on your hands or a really good moderating team

I say one or two to be safe for your sanity

Jessie

[- J a G u A r -]

as most have said, it depends on the person, but I'm one for specifics, so I will point out a general idea of what I *think* most board owners are like. I will split them into groups:

Overachiever
The overachieving board owner lives to do everything to their utmost, most likely doing all things in life the same way. They are devoted, and no matter how many boards they create, they will give it their all, soldiering through the hard times and smiling for the members to make them happy and content with the community.

Butterfly
Social butterflies are another category, and will make many boards just to meet many people, often from all different walks of life. They mean well, and if are devoted enough, can be successful with many boards, but are more likely to give up on the boards that they don't like, and single out one that they fit into nicely.

Single-Board Owner
These people either are not willing to be unconditionally devoted, don't have the time, or just are content to sit on one board and cater to its needs. There will probably be a higher chance of success if the person knows what they're doing, and is willing to put in the effort to maintain just the single board, but either way they are happy placing all their board time in one thing, and have no need to travel.

Hopper
Hoppers will make many boards, just to test them all, or just to see if they hit off big. If one of them doesn't they quit and move on, just like that, maybe even making a board exactly like it to see if that one has any success. (have to admit, the urge is tempting to do this, but I will be good XD)

Personally, I believe these are the main people that will choose multiple boards, or just stick to one. I also think the single board owners are the most common, as the undertaking of managing a new board can be a bit overwhelming to most.

I myself, after careful thought, would have a sort of "common" board, except instead of having everything, it would specialize in the several things that I liked. It would have separate communities/rules/staff, but still be a single, manageable board.

[katzel]

That's a very good question.
I think it also depends on the time the admin can devote to the board.
I myself run a couple of boards and am staff on other boards as well.
I don't spend too much time on the boards but enough time to make it all worthwhile.

[bikingmatty]

Well, i personally so far have only ever had 1 running forum at a time. I've deleted several empty ones before i started the next one but i do see people with siggys like this:

My Harry potter forum
My Disscussion board
The best freinds board
Relationships board

And its a tad ridiculous to have that many boards. And through generally searching boards i've found that admins having one board are often more active than those owning several. So i will stick to having one board in my opinion
Less boards=more activity= better admin-user relationship.

[Gylfie107]

I think it depends. Four twilight roleplays, and it gets confusing. But a twilight RP, a writer's forum, a horse rp and a general talk boards would be better. This is really just my opinion, but I think it makes sense. If you have a zillion of the same type, you get confused. Really really fast.

[jadw2k9]

Quote:
Is there a magic number of forums per admin?

Magic number: 1

just one forum which you dedicated yourself to is what makes a forum succeed. Some people can have more than one and do a good job, but this is rare.

I agree. Although an admin may have time and effort to run multiple forums, they may be able to make a better job of one forum that they give all their time and attention to (as far as time given for forums is concerned).

I certainly couldn't manage more than one (unless I was a lesser staff member on other forums). A school friend years ago used to run two forums and was staff member on two others but he barely had the time to manage one. He became inactive, his main forum died out and someone else took over the other.

[Trublu]

I think the answer here is that there is no answer, meaning that we cannot pick a number and have it apply to everyone. It depends on how much time each person has, what skills they have, how much experience they have, and who they are doing it with. I'd say an admin with 3 boards and 3 great moderating teams, and who has some skill and experience, is in great shape. I'd also say an admin with one board, no moderation teams, and no skills, has one to many boards. I think it's to the detriment of the user to discount an admin because they have several sites; sites have to be judged on their own merits, not on the merits of another site that the same admin is involved with.

[Mewstorm]

I think it kinda depends on the subject of the forum, and how much time someone has to work on them, if theres a lot you should make sure there are plenty of moderators to moderate them all or else you'll have trouble

[elerian]

I simply do not understand how an admin would be able to handle more than two forums(magic number). I can understand how two forums could be managed by one admin if they have given one time to grow and have a good staff helping them. Now if I created two forums at once and tried to get them up and running, I would be stressed beyond reason and would get things mixed up between them. For example, A fantasy forum and a Sci-fi forum and for abilities I end up having my sci-fi people riding dragons and explain the dragons as magical and intelligent. Subtle, yet this would be effective in disrupting the integrity of the RP world that was trying to be put together. In short, I don't know many people who can pat their head and rub their belly at the same time and the few I have seen end up messing up eventually. If you have the skill for it then I applaud you, but in the end forums take a lot of work if you want them to be distinguished and active. Part of that work is what you personally bring to the forum because your actions have a profound effect on the forum whether it shows immediately or in the future.

[nyandra]

I have only a few forums. But I own lots of livejournal groups too. I pick up groups when I think that one needs to be created- they're usually only on rather rare topics.

[Andrea]

I wouldn't be able to give this one a number. I think it's mostly up to the admin. If the admin is brand new, however, then I would say stick with one forum for about a month, see how it goes, and get some experience first. However, if it's someone with a lot of time on their hands and they have had a lot of experience running forums in the past, then by all means, have as many as you think you can handle. It is a little annoying though to see multiple forums by the same user close to the same topic being bumped in the Advertising section all at once. If I had to give this a number, I'd say absolutely no more than 5 forums.

[TheSportSpot]

i think one forum is more than enough...

[Candice]

Jun 24, 2009 19:58:04 GMT -8 TheSportSpot said:

i think one forum is more than enough...

Hi,

Why do you think that? Why do you think people shouldn't have more than one forum?

Remember, your posts should be at least 4 sentences long. Anything less shows that not enough thought was taken in the post, and is most likely not productive towards the conversation.