Member Communication

I don't send mass emails very often, usually when I realease a new version, I am a member at many forums which send out mass emails twice a day, I send them out usually when a new version of the forum is realeased or we are having a member cleanout, just so members know whats going on.

Mass PMs, I use not that often but I still use them pretty often, when a new competition starts or something not that major but still important happens.

Most of the time, staff members stay distant from members, and they only worry about who's posting and who's not. It looks as though the staff members are just using users for the sake of a higher member count or something of the sort. I know that staff members can't make relationships with everyone, but it would be a good idea that if you send them a message introducing them to the site through PM's like a lot of message boards seem to do, maybe make it a little more friendly instead of professionally, and try to make friends with them through private messages? Look through their profile if they have messenger or ask if they have messenger where you guys might be able to chat outside the board. If they have e-mail, you could always e-mail them too. "E-mail" or "PM Pals" seem to help. I've seen this done on message boards and it really helps to create friends. After all, the point of the message board should be to get to know others that share similar or different passions, correct? It's not about how many members you have.

If ever there is a new update on the forum, I think it would be a good idea to send it out through e-mail to everyone because there may be members who are inactive. You can simply explain to the members who are active on the forum that this e-mail is for members who are inactive. I had to explain that to a member once. This does help members become interested in the forum. However, you also might want to add if they want these e-mails. They might not want these e-mails, and if they don't, it might be better to delete their account, but let them know?

I can't believe I forgot to mention the chat idea. On role-play boards, it works great when you're planning scenes and getting to know other role-players. Messengers help things quicken the place a lot. I've seen one board become very successful because of it. Although, I realized that it would also help to have chats if they have messenger. I think I actually saw a code where you could install a chat on ProBoards... I'm not for sure though. I've seen message boards install those kind of chats. They pick a time and day for everyone to meet. I know that everyone has a time differences, which means the weekend would be the best time, or just letting them know ahead of time.



I'm not sure if this was just advice to give or a direction toward me. When I PM them, I never harrass my members, and I personally don't really use that feature for updates unless I really want to direct the members to an important thread. I actually heard this one member say that he missed it when the admin would PM him messages because that's how they got to know each other.

The problem is, when you do that you want to keep it up. If you are going to use this feature to get to know your members, of course it isn't expected to get to know every single member that joins your forum. Things just happen over time.

So far the only emails I've sent are to members who registered, then just disappeared. The only other time I would use the mass comm system is to notify them of a major change to the board, such as downtime for maintenance or a large event. Too much or pointless emails would just be annoying, and a lot of my members would add me to their ignore list if I did something like that. I talk to most of them on MSN or AIM anyway, so the mass comm system is just for major announcements.

I don't send out mass e-mails or PMs to members very often. If I'm going into maitnence mode, I put it on the calander and on my What's Going On In The Forum Board. I only send out mass e-mails and PMs when I need to.





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I communicate with my members by two special boards: one in which they can make sugestions or ask anything which they might find confusing, and a board where staff asks members about problems that concern the board. I want them to feel that their opinion matters.
I've send out mass PM's once, to announce that for a day the board will be put under Maintenance Mode as some changes were necessary to be made.
Now I'm in doubts wheter I should send mass e-mails to the members in which to thank those who joined and ask the ones that didn't activate their accounts to do it, I want to draw their attention, to try and get them involved...

I mass email members once a year or so. It reminds old members that you are still there and its fun writing newsletters. You get to summarise the most interesting recent events and its a real challenge to compact it all down to a short page. I like to get fancy and add links. Funny stories are always a good idea. Remember that people want to be a part of a friendly and comfortable community. Nothing breaks the ice like humour.