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
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