Howto: Revive an old forum

[Former Member]

Good Morning all,

So i have an old forum which currently has 15 members all of which in the past have created 130 posts between them.

Currently the forum is just short of 5 years old and is currently dead in the water.

Over the 5 years the forum has hit just short of 11,500 views and on average seems to get an average of 30 visitors per day.

If this was you and you wanted to revive this board, How would you do it?

Dave

[Retread]

Hi Dave B

Anniversary days are a good reason to send forum emails to all users. You might create a week-long event or contest to coincide. Perhaps a trivia contest? You could offer bragging rights and a Custom Title, if you weren't inclined to give away actual prizes.

I reckon the film and television industry has been rather slow since teh 'rona. Could be difficult to find topics to discuss.

[Kami]

Well, what is your forum about? What sort of things would be interesting for your target audience?

Of course, you could always have a broad net of things — contests and the ilk as Retread suggested. Perfectly valid!

But it sounds like you're looking for more of a kickstart to breathe life into the forum as a whole, rather than a one-off event; if that's the case, while a contest may jumpstart activity for a time, the key goal would be retention and that can only come from relevance to peoples' interests.

Without knowing what kind of forum you operate, I can't really give specific examples. I am, however, in a similar boat albeit with a much older forum (15 next week!). What I am doing is creating topics relevant to our genre, and since it's an RP based on a TV show, we will likely do a watch "party" of a few episodes, where we watch something by a certain date and then discuss. We also do special RP events (we typically have a carnival where our characters can all participate in a single event even if technically they wouldn't meet each other), and RP-oriented games. We are also drumming up interest by posting on social media.

[Former Member]

Sept 29, 2020 7:45:10 GMT -8 Retread said:

Hi Dave B

Anniversary days are a good reason to send forum emails to all users. You might create a week-long event or contest to coincide. Perhaps a trivia contest? You could offer bragging rights and a Custom Title, if you weren't inclined to give away actual prizes.

I reckon the film and television industry has been rather slow since teh 'rona. Could be difficult to find topics to discuss.

   Thanks Retread,

   With all the lockdowns you would have thought it would have been booming especially since Netflix and the likes reported an increase in viewers / subscriptions.

   Will have a look at those suggestions.

   Dave

Sept 29, 2020 8:16:19 GMT -8 Kami said:

Well, what is your forum about? What sort of things would be interesting for your target audience?

Of course, you could always have a broad net of things — contests and the ilk as Retread suggested. Perfectly valid!

But it sounds like you're looking for more of a kickstart to breathe life into the forum as a whole, rather than a one-off event; if that's the case, while a contest may jumpstart activity for a time, the key goal would be retention and that can only come from relevance to peoples' interests.

Without knowing what kind of forum you operate, I can't really give specific examples. I am, however, in a similar boat albeit with a much older forum (15 next week!). What I am doing is creating topics relevant to our genre, and since it's an RP based on a TV show, we will likely do a watch "party" of a few episodes, where we watch something by a certain date and then discuss. We also do special RP events (we typically have a carnival where our characters can all participate in a single event even if technically they wouldn't meet each other), and RP-oriented games. We are also drumming up interest by posting on social media.

  Hi Kami

  The forum in question is indeed the movie forum in my signature and not too sure to be honest hence the post here

  I'll definitely have to look into the contests and try and figure out what can be done

  I guess i havent really done that much or thought about anything in regards to events with trying to keep content fresh and updated with new topics on the Movie & TV databases.

  Dave

[Kami]

Sept 29, 2020 15:01:57 GMT -8 Dave B said:

Hi Kami

The forum in question is indeed the movie forum in my signature and not too sure to be honest hence the post here

I'll definitely have to look into the contests and try and figure out what can be done

I guess i havent really done that much or thought about anything in regards to events with trying to keep content fresh and updated with new topics on the Movie & TV databases.

  Dave

I am using the v6 theme, which does not have signatures enabled, so I had no idea what forum this might be (as a general rule, directing someone to your signature isn't encouraged on Support since some people may have signatures disabled).

If your forum is about movies and stuff, how about a watch party? You can set up theme events (eg: Noir Night, or Spielberg Night, etc) and have people opt in, get together on something like Discord or Zoom to watch the film together, and then have a discussion on the forum about it.

You can also set up actual discussions that aren't centred around a specific show but rather films as a whole. I had a look at the forum and I can see you have sections to talk about film news, upcoming films and films that have been released, but what about just general film conversation?

For example, I might want to discuss the trend of using single-word titles in films (eg: Moana, Brave, Frozen, etc). Perhaps I want to talk about how colour grading impacts the mood of a film or a particular scene, and show good examples of different films that do that. Perhaps I want to talk about a specific director, or perhaps a specific film composer. Maybe a place to discuss different trends and groundbreaking developments, like how did Star Wars change the landscape of cinema in ways that are being felt to this day? What was the impact in the film community when Lord of the Rings was the first Fantasy-genre film to be nominated for and win multiple academy awards? Maybe a conversation about the impact of CGI, or the pros and cons of CGI versus practical effects / matte paintings? Etc.

Perhaps some of your film aficionados are aspiring filmmakers themselves. You could have a showcase for those folks to get feedback on their work or to just show it off.

Long term, I think what you are offering is pretty limited -- "talk about specific movies". Having a movie oriented community should encompass more than just talking about individual pieces and really dig down to the WHYS of film and what draws people to them. You can only generate a finite amount of discussion when your discussion only revolves around specific films, which may be why you're having some struggles. But if you broaden your horizons and allow members to talk about film as a concept and as an art form rather than just the final product, you have an infinite number of topics to go over, especially as the film industry is constantly reinventing itself.

[Former Member]

Sept 29, 2020 17:28:48 GMT -8 Kami said:

Sept 29, 2020 15:01:57 GMT -8 Dave B said:

Hi Kami

The forum in question is indeed the movie forum in my signature and not too sure to be honest hence the post here

I'll definitely have to look into the contests and try and figure out what can be done

I guess i havent really done that much or thought about anything in regards to events with trying to keep content fresh and updated with new topics on the Movie & TV databases.

  Dave

I am using the v6 theme, which does not have signatures enabled, so I had no idea what forum this might be (as a general rule, directing someone to your signature isn't encouraged on Support since some people may have signatures disabled).

If your forum is about movies and stuff, how about a watch party? You can set up theme events (eg: Noir Night, or Spielberg Night, etc) and have people opt in, get together on something like Discord or Zoom to watch the film together, and then have a discussion on the forum about it.

You can also set up actual discussions that aren't centred around a specific show but rather films as a whole. I had a look at the forum and I can see you have sections to talk about film news, upcoming films and films that have been released, but what about just general film conversation?

For example, I might want to discuss the trend of using single-word titles in films (eg: Moana, Brave, Frozen, etc). Perhaps I want to talk about how colour grading impacts the mood of a film or a particular scene, and show good examples of different films that do that. Perhaps I want to talk about a specific director, or perhaps a specific film composer. Maybe a place to discuss different trends and groundbreaking developments, like how did Star Wars change the landscape of cinema in ways that are being felt to this day? What was the impact in the film community when Lord of the Rings was the first Fantasy-genre film to be nominated for and win multiple academy awards? Maybe a conversation about the impact of CGI, or the pros and cons of CGI versus practical effects / matte paintings? Etc.

Perhaps some of your film aficionados are aspiring filmmakers themselves. You could have a showcase for those folks to get feedback on their work or to just show it off.

Long term, I think what you are offering is pretty limited -- "talk about specific movies". Having a movie oriented community should encompass more than just talking about individual pieces and really dig down to the WHYS of film and what draws people to them. You can only generate a finite amount of discussion when your discussion only revolves around specific films, which may be why you're having some struggles. But if you broaden your horizons and allow members to talk about film as a concept and as an art form rather than just the final product, you have an infinite number of topics to go over, especially as the film industry is constantly reinventing itself.

  Thanks for this Kami, These are really good ideas and I will certainly look into these and think of how to implement and get them started.

 But yes i see what you mean i seem to have missed out a whole part of the world there.

  Cheers
  Dave