Neverside

New some advice for running forum

Hey you guys and girls, I've been running a message board for quite awhile now. I coded it from scratch and written in PHP and MySQL. Basically I need some advice. How do I get some members on my message board and can stay active on there? What I mean by active is people keeps coming back over and over, replying 2 topics and making new thread. I love message boards 2 death but I am dying for some members 2 sign up 2 my forum. If you guys have any suggestions or advice then I beg that you reply.

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RoB

advertise. it'll be slow at first, but the more people you get, the bigger it will get and faster it will grow.

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where's the best place 2 advertise?

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RoB

You need to have a forum that attract's people's interest. You have to have quality members and support. You need to cater to the individual, and the whole. You need to work to build a feeling of community. It's a difficult thing to do. I wish you good luck !

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Alex Ford
Neversidian General Editor and Columnist
http://www.lexmediaconsulting.com/

Advertise, and offer promotions that'll be attractive, like if you post so many times, you'll get special access, prizes, etc, or even a referral program. Advertisement is always the best way to go. And you yourself can't be a boring owner, you need to keep some of the spunk there.

Offer something different and unique. Something like a music or gaming forum, or one of those "all-purpose" forums, isnt going to attract members very quickly since there are so many of them. Start out with just a few select forums. Having 20 catagories from the start will make your forums look empty even if you have 500 members. As your forums grow, add new catagories that spark your members' interest...

Last edited by Heri, March 10th, 2005 03:49 PM (Edited 1 times)

Originally posted by Heri:

Offer something different and unique. Something like a music or gaming forum, or one of those "all-purpose" forums, isnt going to attract members very quickly since there are so many of them. Start out with just a few select forums. Having 20 catagories from the start will make your forums look empty even if you have 500 members. As your forums grow, add new catagories that spark your members' interest...

Best advice given yet.

I don't know...I've never been a fan of having something up simply to have it. People will easily let you know if you have something they want. If people aren't there, it's because they have no reason to be.

I don't see a point in having a forum if you don't have a need for a forum...you've got to have a reason for it. I have a forum...not because I wanted to be on a forum bandwagon, but rather because there was a request for forums from several local people who wanted an easy place to stay in touch and plan LAN parties and whatnot. I haven't tried to coerce anyone to be there, I really had no reason to advertise it...it exists for the people who use it, and they use it how they like. If they decide to stop I'm not going to force the issue. I simply don't see the point in forums that don't actually have a point, that's all. Nothing personal, just my two cents worth.

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Bmovies are BACK!

Don't start with too many catagroies. If you do, any posts you do get are spread out, and people never want to be the first to post on a seemingly empty message board. I'd say 4 or 5 forums is maximum for a new board.

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As said above, having too many forums at first is the #1 problem with most new forums.

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