Maintaining a happy community

[glassguy]

Oct 16, 2008 7:56:40 GMT -8 HoudiniDerek said:

Something I did on a forum where I am a moderator, I suggested we set up the debate section similar to how it is on this forum. Only the mods can make threads in the debate section and that helps keep the tone of the debate more civil because the opening posts are more neutral. There is a warning system and what not for flaming because you should attack ideas and not people. Otherwise, if a thread gets going down the wrong path, it is locked and not allowed. It has worked quite well. No one has left due to that section of the forum.

Our mods, myself being one of them, do not really care to participate in these discussions, so I don't think that would work. We did this, not having any experience with this type of thing and not knowing what might occur; however, now I believe we have opened up a large can of worms. Some of these people, who we know personally, do not take too kindly to our "policing" of the threads. We don't really even jump on people when they change the topic within a thread, since it is always eventually changed anyway.

[matrix934]

Very good points ‡ ConqueringWolf ‡. (I love wolves too). That gives me the idea to have a Member of the Month in my forum. Thanks. Other than that, I believe that one of the skills required of an admin is the ability to make and enforce rules that aren't too loose or too strict. It's like the United States Articles of Confederation and Constitution of the United States.

I have an Artwork board where members can post their drawings, graphics, and writing so they can express themselves the way they want. It could even end up in the Hall of Fame that I have.

[PandaBearPanda]

What do you guys do about another another member who poaches our ideas, posts them on his own forum and then tries to lure our members away?

[xalcen]

Oct 23, 2008 6:27:06 GMT -8 PandaBearPanda said:

What do you guys do about another another member who poaches our ideas, posts them on his own forum and then tries to lure our members away?

We have had a couple people do that on a site I am on now. What we did was showed them proof that we knew, and banned them. We have a fairly strict(and for our intents and purposes right) policy on it. If it is no advertising period, then put your foot down on it.

On the idea poacher, PB main can shut them down if they are copying stuff. Depends on what specifically they are copying.

[HoudiniDerek]

Oct 23, 2008 6:27:06 GMT -8 PandaBearPanda said:

What do you guys do about another another member who poaches our ideas, posts them on his own forum and then tries to lure our members away?

I have not had that happen. However, I would talk to the people about it and see if there was not a way to have two successful forums built on a similar theme. I work in sort of a network of similar sites and that seems to go over quite well. If that is not something you are interested in, PM the person and tell them that if they do not stop doing it, you will report them. If they don't stop, report them here in Support.

[Ben]

I'm creating a forum right now and it'll have no forum rules - I see no point in them. Who actually reads the rules for the purpose of "good behaviour". Unless they're interested in what the rules are generally, I don't think anyone reads the rules for other reasons. Of course, the agreement is there (I can delete / modify posts when administrators/mods see fit) so really they should follow their own common sense - no need to stick to forum rules really? If forum rules are there (and lots of them), I'm sure they'd be more inclined to break them .

With my forum I won't have MOTM, or whatever - don't see much point in it. It's the personality of the administrator especially in a new forum, and of course the staff members too. That's all it takes to have a successful forum for a long time. Of course, all good things eventually come to an end .

[PandaBearPanda]

I need help. My RP board is dying. Members sign on every day and don't post. The main complaint I get is, "I can't because I'm waiting for blah blah!" How do I remedy this?
Plus, I need more RPers!!

[woreorcatz]

On our site, we do various actions to keep our members involved
with our site. Since it is very new, we have polls on subjects like,
which banner we should use, or which skin should be our homepage.

Since there aren't as many members as on other sites, we are able
to become friends, and we seem to act as a close-knit family. We
have fun talking to each other, because we have similar interests
and we have funny comments.

We also have holiday art. For many holidays, one member is randomly
drawn from our relatively active members. We then draw a
picture/comic of them for that holiday. It is a very good idea for
including your members in your site.

We also have had a Poem Contest and an Art Contest. The winner
would receive a prize, like an avatar they could use, or a skin
dedicated to them!

[Sic In Principio]

What i do to keep my members especially new members, is i create chat rooms on aim as well as participate in the chat in the C-box for those who don't have aim. This keeps my members mingling, even if they aren't posting in the RP, i also made a few threads that everyone could participate in: a jokes thread, a favorite youtube video thread, and a completely random thread, as well as a thread so people can share their graphic creations.

The only problem i get is when we are between missions, people don't like posting in the barrack forums for some reason <V>^_^