05-07-06 08:03 PM - Post#33572    

Just curious on how people think community building of multiple forums within a site should be handled. Should a person add more forums for specific things when the traffic warrants it or should a person add forums before and hope it will get more traffic?

Personally, I have usually built forums with multiple forums that cover the basis, but not go overboard with creating mass amounts of forums for this specific thing and that specific thing. To me, that is thinning people out too far and making the site a total ghost town.

BUT ...

Many people believe in order to get the traffic you have to build sections specifically for their interest, otherwise they will not join. They might feel that thier specific thing isn't "worth it" for the webmaster to add something for their interest, so they do not join or participate.

What is right and what is wrong?

Some "business advisors" keep asking me to add more forums on my motorsports site for every motorsport there is out there and every division. I have been adding many forums that have been getting views, but not a ton of traffic. They think that is perfectly fine and that the posting traffic will come, but NOT if I do not put specific forums there (I have a general motorsports forum). It kills me to see so many forums that are literally dead, but I cannot argue with the exposure it is getting me. In fact, I have a partnership coming (soon to be announced) that is because of this.

This is such a hard thing to balance ... mass forums with many that are barren VS little amount of forums that might not reach out to everyone.

Jason "Stix" Buckley Owner / Founder Stix Fx Entertainment www.stixfx.com

05-07-06 08:07 PM - Post#33573    

    In response to Jason Stix Buckley

I think this is something we have all agonized over, I know I have. What I have done is periodically hide a non-performing forum and after a few months I'll put it back online to see what happens. Sometimes it starts up and sometimes it doesn't. I am of the belief that dead forums can be a bad thing for a site and just clutter things up making it harder for posters to see the forums they like.

One thing I'm trying out now, and it probably won't work for you, is moving the slow/dead forums underneath a busier forum as sub-forums. I've not seen them pick up, but at least they are not cluttering up the main page.

The Gunfighters Corral Tombstone Pictures

05-08-06 12:55 AM - Post#33607    

    In response to greg

Hi,

"One thing I'm trying out now, and it probably won't work for you, is moving the slow/dead forums underneath a busier forum as sub-forums. I've not seen them pick up, but at least they are not cluttering up the main page."

Excellent idea!

Im with Jason on this one btw. I think adding loads of forums to a site with little traffic will result in a lot of empty or near empty forums. These will turn people of as the board looks dead.

Sanuk!

Thai360.com All around the Land of Smiles

05-08-06 03:59 AM - Post#33610    

    In response to KhunSanuk

I have similar issues - I run a sports forum that has grown from a club forum to a league forum to covering the whole of the UK. It is very tempting to run a forum for each league - but again people will not post in those forums if they are dead - a crowd attracts a crowd.

The bulk of our traffic comes from, individual club forums.

This close season I will be merging some forums and opening others, but it is a constant tweaking to try and mould the forums around the members.

05-08-06 07:42 AM - Post#33613    

    In response to Ian

I agree. As someone who's only seen the front end of things- if I saw a lot of forums with only a few active ones- then I'd probably be thinking 'slow boards'.

In Jason's case, (& this is jmho)-- rather than adding forums- I like the suggestion of merging slower topics. Doing something like merging all three RCR team member forums together as subforums in one section. (If I've got all the terminology right )

That would help take away the 'look' of a big slow board & quite possibly draw some people to post in the (sub)forums of their driver's team mates. Also would allow quick user/admin posting access to the teams if there was a topic or announcement that regarded that whole team.

FBB Knowledgebase Your source for official FusionBB documentation. Lori's Blog Here buggy, bug...

05-08-06 08:17 AM - Post#33614    

    In response to Lori

It is such a hard thing to determine.

Lori, in the case of the RCR boards, I thought about that, but you know race fans. A fan of one driver isn't always the fan of another at the same team. Heck, back before I got big I tried to do that with JGR ... and the Bobby Labonte fans, which were a mainstay at my site, all left because they hated Tony Stewart. Some came back when I made it a Bobby only board again, but they formed their own Bobby fan board and is building that... essentially I lost traffic because of that move that I will never get back.

I hate having ghost town forums. But, that is what many of my "business advisors" are wanting ... forums for everything out there in motorsports. Heck, I am going to be adding drag racing and water motor sports forums and more kart forums soon because of it. Will they be dead forums? Yup. But, it is opening doors for me to meet people in the industry I wouldn't have in the past, and due to stuff like that, I am getting a partnership here soon with a very well respected person and their site. So, it does work, but at what cost?

It is like building a 50 room mansion for 1 person.

The one thing I have found out about this business (motorsports) is what I want isn't always what I have to do. Heck, I am very vocal person and very opinionated and that is what my site was all about is being open and opinionated. I have since had to shut that down and go from a roar to a whisper because of sponsors and partners ... so I do not hurt their businesses.

I guess that is the difference between a forum as a hobby and as a business. Once you get people paying to advertise and be a biz partner, you have to give up certian things that got you to that point.

But, back on these forum things, it is tough to be told to "build it, they will come" VS what is going on in my head, which is "don't build a ghost town because they will leave before they even start".

Jason "Stix" Buckley Owner / Founder Stix Fx Entertainment www.stixfx.com

05-08-06 08:25 AM - Post#33615    

    In response to Jason Stix Buckley

Definately a rock and a hard place situation!

You're right about the die-hard (Fill in their favorite driver here) fans-- some are very....enthusiastic about 'their' drivers.

If I don't like a driver- I just don't look at the forum. It doesn't bother me that 'his' forum is right next to 'my' driver's forum. (Like it's going to overflow and contaminate 'my' forum or something LoL )

But that's just me.

FBB Knowledgebase Your source for official FusionBB documentation. Lori's Blog Here buggy, bug...

05-08-06 11:38 AM - Post#33620    

    In response to Lori

Wouldn't it work if you were to have seperate communities within the one site.

In otherwords present the forums in such away that anyone interested in one sector wouldn't really see the other forums.

Maybe these could be under different domains.

For example I have...

http://www.fansfocus.com - the main forums
http://www.cricketforums.co.uk - cricket forums
http://www.essexsenior.co.uk -Essex Senior League Forums
http://www.isthmian.com - Ryman League forums

etc...

I haven't perfected some of these - but if we were to implement different headers / footers then these could appear as separate entities.

Just a thought

05-08-06 12:47 PM - Post#33621    

    In response to Ian

• Ian Said:

Oh i'm looking forward to that day!!

all my car sites under one roof, but all with a different look and feel.

When and if that ever happens, that will really set FBB out against the competition

www.fordmondeo.org

05-08-06 05:18 PM - Post#33626    

    In response to Monkeyra

does anyone have any "tips" on reviving a dead board?

I've had people register every so often, but not one person has posted on my board in about 3 months now

I had a few "regulars" for awhile, but those people just suddenly disappeared because they got "bored" with the dead conversations, so I'm just at a loss on what to do to help revive the board a little.

I've thought about changing my board again to something other then crohns just to get a little activity going, but haven't decided yet...

all I know is, I don't like running a dead board, and I'm fresh out of ideas on how to revive it
as I really don't have any other crohns related content I could put on the board really

www.tcoburn.com an archive of my ramblings for those who miss reading them. hehe! My Facebook Profile

05-08-06 05:25 PM - Post#33628    

    In response to Monkeyra

• Monkeyra Said:

yeah well, I never count on that happening. I mean, free solutions tend to "copy" other forums ideas quite often.. I'm sure its the same for commercial solutions as well, maybe not though I have no idea It does sound like a great idea though, could help me alot get my dead board revived again

since I have alot of members who are "crohns people" while others who don't care about crohns stuff at all, who just want general chatter, so something like that would help me out alot probably. That way people who just want to general chat can do so without feeling like they have to be interested in crohns in order to post, and vise versa...

I just want people to post, rather there interested in crohns or not, ya know?

www.tcoburn.com an archive of my ramblings for those who miss reading them. hehe! My Facebook Profile

05-08-06 06:16 PM - Post#33630    

    In response to White and Nerdy

• Quote:

Then I'd suggest dumping the crohns theme, find something more general that would interest people and simply have 1 forum dedicated to the discussion of crohns. When/if that forum got busy, you could expand it to other related subjects and build it slow and easy. Eventually it might even take over the rest of the discussions.

The Gunfighters Corral Tombstone Pictures

05-08-06 07:59 PM - Post#33631    

    In response to greg

Keywords... Filters & Sorts! That would be my way of dealing with this.

Right now you the admin needs to find a balance of broad topics and very specific topics. Too broad and you get a pit of off topic posts. To narrow you have one or two posters and or forums with no posts.

I have tried to explain this concept before. Here goes...

admin
I setup a forum and with in it I should be able to setup a list of keywords that will help further define the topic the poster is making. Each forum could have it's own set of unique keywords. Also include a system that would allow for users to suggest additional keywords, make it simple for admins to approve and include them.

for example...
Forum = Software Installation
Keywords = OS X, Linux, Windows

poster
As a user when posting in this forum choose keywords from the keyword list that are allowed.
this would be a new field or selection just under the Subject.

Now this post will appear in the forum because that is the forum they posted in.

reader
Now as the role of a "reader" i click in to this forum. I should have the ability to filter the list of posts
to constrain it to the keywords,

Another example such as only to show topics related to "email and web" if in the list andd would instantly be filtered. (and you notice because it is a filter and part of the system it would be allowed unlike normal search that has issues with finds < x characters long... ie "web")

Now if I am in another forum all together perhaps there is a keyword that matches I would like to be able to see the relevant posts based upon the keyword from the all other forums. As section that says something to the effect.."You may also be interested in... xxx" based upon matching keywords.

This way it will help eliminate a the issue of creating tons of forums and subforums. And as a user am exposed to multipe forums that I may not by intent be apt to enter cause my brain may work opposite of how the admin set it up.

A good example of this is for me is that I don't want to have to create two forums, one for the Mac OS and one for Windows for each "forum topic" the users would simply identify their platform when making the post and the readers can choose to view or ignore the posts that they are not interested in.

That's the jyst anyway...

Stephen Dolenski FileMaker 7 Certified Developer FileMaker 8 Certified Developer FM Forums.com Administrator