blonde poker forum

Lo guys  I have been a long time visitor over here and although I dont post must I have noticed that over the last few weeks there has been a bit of a change in the forum and I have noticed that the mods/admins are spending a lot of time trying to addess it..   Anyway in case it is of any use to you here is the way that a forum grows and I think I can STILL FEEL THE LOVE IN HERE  (puts on hippy khaftan and blows bubbles)


An insight into forum growth

ALL forums go down th same route, without exception, the only thing that differs is how the forum owners react to the changes and thats what decides if a forum stays interesting/addictive or if it degenerates and dies. And YES a forum degenerates when it gets bigger.  strange concept but here's what happens.. (oh and my second job is setting up ,installing,and running,php forums including a few very big ones that get over 10000 hits a day)

Forums either get started by a single person who invites some mates over to help get it started or by a website/company who decide that a forum is required. There are a few other reasons but those are obviously the main ones

Early forum members are usually mates of the admin/owner who come over and register to help get things started.   word spreads All forums (if the subject is popular enough  ie  poker/football etc) initially get a hardcore of around 100 members whe "tend" to remain friendly with each other throughout the length of the forums existence

 the forums get bigger they all go through the same "cycle"  and here is a few of the topics that forums always go through

Clicques..  some people find that the forum makes them feel like an outsider even if thats NOT the case. The reason this happens is that when the new user views threads they find that the existing users all call each other by name and sometimes quote things that are seen by the new user as "in jokes"   and thus the new user often finds it difficult to join in a thread..  If you look at this forum for instance you will often see references in a thread that makes it obvioius that people know each other very well indeed. This is a bonus for a forum in the long run but it does make it difficult for new users to join in.

off topic threads.. The next phase that a forum goes through is deciding to allow off topic posts or not. Forums that do NOT allow off topic posts soon die a death. If a grouip of friends meet in real life the topics of conversation  are wide and varied so this needs to be allowed on a forum. The downside of all this though is that the forum becomes diluted and some of the more serious members feel that the forum is going downhill. Please dont consider a seperate off topic section as this NEVER works

Then comes my favourite bit. To allow swearing,jokes with Sexual content or politics..     Thats the one thats hardest to control   Do you treat everyone as adults and allow swearwords and slightly "Blue" threads?  or do you cater for the one or Two people who may feel uncomfortable reading such stuff?  Tricky  ehhhh?

Anyway my point in typing all this guff is merely to point out that this forum is no different from every other popular forum and will be going down the same route as ALL the others.  The  "who gets admin" thread is always going to happen and there is NO way that you can keep everyone happy.. Its a Natural course for a forum to take and to be honest most times its just better to put a closing date on the thread and then delete it.. A forum must let people express their opinions but some threads are better deleted after an appropriate time..  In my opinion (and its very often wrong)  These forums are should be treasured by the members. The admins/mods seem to do a brilliant job and to have some serious Poker players on here who are only too happy to help and give advice makes this forum pure GOLD for the amateur/fun players. Anyway here are some tips that are so obvious that we forget to do it


ALL mods/admins to start at LEAST one new thread a day  on or off topic it doesn't matter

mods/admins to send a personal pm to ALL new users with offers of help if required and a welcome message

mods to "BUMP" interesting topics that may have moved to page 2 of the forum but are worth a view (95 percent of people on a forum dont go and look at page2 or any of the older posts so bumping them back to the top keeps things interesting for new posters)

mods to start "fun threads" when the forum is quiet its a bit of a pain when you come on and there has been no posts to reply to. a FUN thread is a thread where you can always post.  here is an example  TWO WORD STORY    start a thread where forum users need to make up a story about poker but can only use two words per post. that way someone start with "one day"  the next poster then replies with two words and on it goes.  stories can be great fun but more importantly it gets people posting and new users can easily join in to get used to posting..

NEW board section to be considered   a  "New users welcome and test forum" introduce yourself and test your signatures on here  ALL WELCOME


Apologies to everyone for me preaching to the converted as this is a VERY well run forum and has without a shadow of a doubt become my favourite place to visit.  Although I do not post often I have been a long time visitor over here and its only the past few weeks that i have noticed that there has been a slight change in the amount of LOVE on here  <grin>..  I thought I would just shove in my tuppence worth and let people know that its ALWAYS the case and quite simply means that the forum is ready to go that step further and that any posts/arguements/bad feelings should not be classed as anything other than GROWING PAINS

Right  thats my rant over..  good or bad advice on forum growth given.  now who is gonna teach me to play with real chips   ;) 

 :goodpost:

Ta Tim :)

I don't think this forum does too badly at all. I am choosy where I spend my time, as this is a busman's holiday for me :)

Now .. real chips - don't play with em, they get floppy and taste horrible when they have gone cold.

Wow


what an insightful post


thanks

Come into Cincins on Thursday - we'll teach you.

If you get there early (7:30) - we can always start w small STT just to give you a bit of practice before the tourney starts.

LOL this forum is absolutely First class.  Its probably the best one I have ever visited.  Absolutely second to None...   I just noticed a few posts over the last while that wer a bit "moany" and wanted to let the owners know that its a Natural phase that all GREAT forums go through and its nothing to be worried about. I noticed Tikays post on another thread when he felt he had to explain about the admin positions and it seems obvious that he has a genuine love for this site and that he always posts a reply and explains whats happening and why.. I wanted him and others to know that the moans from some people are just a natural part of the growth of a forum and that this place is in incredible shape and without doubt one of thethe best ran and popular forums on the planet..  

LOL  

notacrawlerhonest  ;)

I echo the sentiments of Cybertim. Running an online gaming guild of upwards of 500+ members at its peak is rather troublesome :)

 :goodpost:       Very well said

In true Les Dawson style "I'm welling up here"  :D

Nice post

you can tell when its my day off ehhh    :D

DAMN THAT CAT.

I just typed a lengthy reply to cybertim, just as I was about to press "POST", Charlie, en route to the warm Monitor Roof, stepped on the keyboard & I lost the whole damn lot.

I hate Cats.

Can you still feel the Love in here

Good post tim.

Not sure about the "each mod making a new thread a day" bit though.

Sometimes it's hard enough to catch up on what you've missed without this becoming a norm. Also I'm a fan of improvisation, not obligation.

The newbie thread bit is a good idea as long as it doesn't make newbies feel they have to stick to this area.

An extraordinary post cyber, must have taken you an age to do. Thanks. By the way, I have no idea who cybertim is.

I am a newbie to running Forums, so you've given us much comfort, and a few very useful tips - I note one has been used already!

MORE posts by the Mods? I'm worried that this may lead to more allegations of a clique. Is it normal, to have these things said? I used to "pump" the Forum daily, to get it startd, so to speak. But I prefer it now that it runs at it's own pace, & the last thing I believe we should do is to be seen to encourage posts, we want them to happen because peeps WANT them to happen,

Otherwise, we wlll take on board many of your pointers, & it's a huge comfort to me to know that we are heading the right way. I know that it's rapid growth means it would be quite impossible to run it withoit a team of Mods helping - it nearly drove me off the edge doing it solo. Managing people was really what I did for a living, & I think I know the score, but I KNEW all of "my" people in business, whereas on a Forum, most of them are not known personally to me. Which is why I am trying to meet as many as I can, it sure helps to make eye contact!

You referred to "very large Forums, with 10,000 hits a day". What do you define as a "hit"? We use a number of measuring devices & traffic stats, and you can put all sorts of meanings to them. Lies & stats & all that. So long as the graph remains progressively upwards, that'll do me.

But we put most store in "Unique Visits", which as I understand is DIFFERENT people on different computers that log on each day. Seems the most prudent measure. We seem to average (though it's a moving graph) about 3,000 Uniques a day at present on the Forum, & it rises to over 6,000 at big Live Updates depending upon what "local" interest there is. as to Page Views - I was told these are the equivelant of "hits" or "clicks", well they average around 25,000 a day, & we've seen over 100,000 in a day quite often, I think we actually had 800,000 during one day of the WSOP. but don't quote me on that last stat as I'm not 100% sure about that one, & I don't have them to hand. But I don't think "hits", "clicks" or "Page Views" mean a deal., it's Uniques that count. So that makes me worried that we may be reaching the point that it becomes impossible to manage in the way we'd wish, & that the whole thing will self-destruct. In your experience, is this bound to happen once we get to a certain size?

Your help & advice is much appreciated.

I do think we have been extraordinarily lucky in having the Mmbership we have, & the Mods we have.

Is he having a pop at me again ? ;)

He's one of us Tikay -  Blondeite, Scottish, Celtic Supporter  8)

Tell me it's not so.........and there was me thnking he was the voice of reason.

everyone has a flaw but 2 out of 3 aint bad