Retention Charter Membership

[Shawn Gossman]

I call it Charter Membership...You might call it Founding Member or something like that.

These are the first XX amount of members on your forum that are always active and engaging. It may not be all the first but more the first ones who remain active.

Do you do anything special for these members at all?

I always like to award 10 members with this and give them premium membership for life as the benefit.

How about you all?

 

[capnsquarepants]

No, I feel like it gives a false sense of superiority. Also because I was part of such a group in a very old admin forum (V7N). I was awarded a "mentor" title, and we had access to a private forum, it became our venting place. I was unfortunately also like that, and I hated it.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

No, I feel like it gives a false sense of superiority. Also because I was part of such a group in a very old admin forum (V7N). I was awarded a "mentor" title, and we had access to a private forum, it became our venting place. I was unfortunately also like that, and I hated it.

V7N... That brings back some memories!

Interesting take on this idea. I guess I never really thought about it that way. I always considered it to reward the first few who helped get things off the ground.

I never really looked at the negative part of it but now I am considering that!

 

[fdk]

It's an interesting concept, but one that I think should develop later in the life of a website/forum rather than one being envisioned from the outset.

I personally did something similar on my biggest forum many years ago. When we reached the point of having tens of thousands of members, several hundred of whom were active every single day, and thousands visiting monthly, I decided that the first 100 users would all receive a title of "Original Baller" (we were a football forum). Of the 100 members who received this title, about 25 of them continued to be active at this point, a rate I was pretty surprised and also very happy with.

It was a good idea I think in general and certainly these members definitely appreciated the individual recognition they received for being a part of helping build the forum to what it became, so I can certainly see that this would be a great idea for others.

 

[Wise Owl]

Hard to tell because my first members tend to be from forum exchange features or post packages, none of which will stay there permanently, or because they like it. I do hope some of them will like it but all of them have their own forums to take care of.

 

[Cloaked]

I do this on all forums when I open them up. They get a banner, special privs and private forum. I cut it off at 25 so it's an exclusive group.