Al

Have you? It may be worth considering a back up domain just in case this happens. I can’t see them killing all domains immediately. Perhaps it’ll be a situation where you simply can’t register new domains.

I have an excel spreadsheet. Simple yet effective. I work shifts so sometimes I'll be working on my sites during the day and other times on a night. I just highlight the task once complete.

This is an extremely interesting article for anyone who runs a .io domain: On October 3, the British government announced that it was giving up sovereignty over a small tropical atoll in the Indian Ocean known as the Chagos Islands. The islands would be handed over to the neighboring island country of Mauritius, about 1,100 miles off the southeastern coast of Africa. The story did not make the tech press, but perhaps it should have. The decision to transfer the islands to their new owner will result in the loss of one of the tech and gaming industry’s preferred top-level domains: .io. Whether it’s Github.io, gaming site itch.io, or even Google I/O (which arguably kicked off the trend in 2008), .io has been a constant presence in the tech lexicon. Its popularity is sometimes explained by how it represents the abbreviation for “input/output,” or the data received and processed by any system. What’s not often acknowledged is that it’s more than a quippy domain. It’s a country code top-level domain (ccTLD) related to a nation—meaning it involves politics far beyond the digital world. Since 1968, the UK and U.S have operated a major military base on the Chagos Islands (officially known as the British Indian Ocean Territory) , but the neighboring nation of Mauritius has always disputed British sovereignty over them. The Mauritian government has long argued that the British illegally retained control when Mauritius gained independence. It has taken over 50 years, but that dispute has finally been resolved. In return for a 99-year lease for the military base, the islands will become part of Mauritius. Once this treaty is signed, the British Indian Ocean Territory will cease to exist. Various international bodies will update their records. In particular, the International Standard for Organization (ISO) will remove country code “IO” from its specification. The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), which creates and delegates top-level domains, uses this specification to determine which top-level country domains should exist. Once IO is removed, the IANA will refuse to allow any new registrations with a .io domain. It will also automatically begin the process of retiring existing ones. (There is no official count of the number of extant .io domains.) Officially, .io—and countless websites—will disappear. At a time when domains can go for millions of dollars, it’s a shocking reminder that there are forces outside of the internet that still affect our digital lives. [HEADING=1]When domains outlive countries[/HEADING] The removal of an entire country or territory from the world map is incredibly rare, so one might ask why the process for deleting a domain is so clearly documented. So automatic. So…final. The answer is simple: history. There are two organizations responsible for domains and internet addresses. The IANA decides what should and shouldn’t be a top-level domain, such as .com, .org, .uk, or .nz. The organization originated at the University of Southern California, although it was only formalized in 1994, when it won a contract put out by the U.S. It operated for several years as a small research and management committee. As the internet grew, it became clear that a more formal setup was required. By 1998, the IANA became part of a new organization: the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). ICANN, based in the U.S., was given the broader responsibility of overseeing the operational stability of the internet and ensuring international interests were represented. These two organizations might seem like they have mundane roles. But they have found themselves making some of the hardest decisions on the global internet. On September 19, 1990, the IANA created and delegated the top-level domain .su to the USSR. Less than a year later, the USSR collapsed. At the time, nobody thought about what should happen with the .su domain—the internet as we know it was still years away. So the .su domain was handed to Russia to operate alongside its own (.ru). The Russian government agreed that it would eventually be shut down, but no clear rules around its governance or when that should happen were defined. But ambiguity is the worst thing for a top-level domain. Unknowingly, this decision created an environment in which .su became a digital wild west. Today, it is a barely policed top-level domain, a plausibly deniable home for Russian dark ops and a place where supremacist content and cyber-crime have found cover. A few years later, in 1992, the IANA learned a similarly harsh lesson at the end of the Balkans War, which saw the breakup of Yugoslavia into several smaller states. In its aftermath, the joint nation of Serbia and Montenegro attempted to adopt the name “Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.” Slovenia and Croatia objected, claiming that it implied Serbia and Montenegro were Yugoslavia’s legitimate successors. The two countries protested to the UN. As the international issue over Serbia and Montenegro’s name rumbled on throughout the early nineties, the IANA remained unsure about who should control .yu, Yugoslavia’s top-level domain. Email access and the internet were now integral to research and international discussions, and the IANA’s ambiguity led to an extraordinary act of academic espionage. According to the journalist Kaloyan Kolev, Slovenian academics traveled to Serbia at the end of 1992. Their destination was the University of Belgrade in the country’s capital. On arrival, they broke into the university and stole all the hosting software and domain records for the .yu top-level domain—everything they needed to seize control. For the next two years, the .yu domain was unofficially operated by ARNES (Academic and Research Network of Slovenia), which repeatedly denied its involvement in the original heist. ARNES rejected all requests by Serbian institutions for new domains, severely limiting the country’s ability to participate in the growing internet community. The situation became so messy that, in 1994, IANA founding manager Jon Postel personally stepped in and overrode IANA regulations, forcibly transferring ownership of the .yu domain back to the University of Belgrade. In 2006, Montenegro declared independence from Serbia. With the digital revolution now firmly underway, the IANA was determined not to let chaos reign once again. It created two new top-level domains: .rs for Serbia and .me for Montenegro. Both were issued on the requirement that .yu would officially be terminated. It would take until 2010 for this to happen, but the IANA eventually got its way. Burned by the experience, the organization laid down the new, stricter set of rules and timescales for top-level domain expiration that exist today. It’s these rules that will soon apply to the .io domain. They are firm, and they are clear. Once the country code no longer exists, the domain must cease to exist, too, ideally within three to five years. Like a tenant being told that their landlord is selling up and they must move, every individual and company who uses a .io domain will be told the same. [HEADING=1]The endurance of physical history[/HEADING] .io has become popular with startups, particularly those involved in crypto. These are businesses that often identify with one of the original principles of the internet—that cyberspace grants a form of independence to those who use it. Yet it is the long tail of real-world history that might force on them a major change. The IANA may fudge its own rules and allow .io to continue to exist. Money talks, and there is a lot of it tied up in .io domains. However, the history of the USSR and Yugoslavia still looms large, and the IANA may feel that playing fast and loose with top-level domains will only come back to haunt it. Whatever happens, the warning for future tech founders is clear: Be careful when picking your top-level domain. Physical history is never as separate from our digital future as we like to think.

Its not the be all and end all of the issue, but its a bloody good start to the solution. Sure there may be other issues such as disinterest and burn out, but to me its a bit like exercise - and probably why I don't. The motivation comes after the act, not before. It's not about being motivated to produce high quality content, it's about producing high quality content even when you're not motivated and, in doing so, finding the motivation to continue. If people are struggling to get a fledgling forum off the ground the very first place they should start is by clicking on that "New Thread" button. It's the first, last, and best solution to the problem.

Here it is: https://xenforo.com/community/resources/welcome-thread.6163/

I especially like this: I'm sure there is a plug-in for xenForo which posts a welcome thread for each new member. Perhaps that would be a great addition to get people posting.

So perhaps most are going about this arse-backwards. We should build and maintain a place where quality conversations take place in a quality atmosphere with quality people and then people will want to be a part of that team.

Woah! I expected to see this on the list. Stunned!

Familiar name, welcome to Administrata. Tell us what you're working on these days.

Film Lovers is a great looking forum and a subject I can be really involved with. I've started my posts. :)

Last week I did something maybe a little bit stupid. I reviewed nine games which were released as part of the Steam Next Fest. Quite a huge undertaking and left little time for anything else: It’s that time of year again, and real-time strategy gamers are in for a treat. The Steam Next Fest has rolled around once again and there’s a whole host of upcoming RTS games you can sample during the next eight days, between 14 and 21 October. If you’re a fan of grand battles, tactical skirmishes or if you’re looking for something a little different, you’ll find it during Next Fest. It’s a perfect opportunity to check out demos of upcoming releases. Games can only feature on Next Fest once, so if its on this list you can anticipate an imminent release. It’s a chance to get a feel for new mechanics and provide feedback which could shape the final version of these games. Let’s dive in! https://rtshq.net/drone-perspective-a-commentary-on-societal-desensitisation-to-violence/ https://rtshq.net/welcome-back-commander-tactical-survival-with-replayable-depth/ https://rtshq.net/rts-tactical-warfare-torn-between-nostalgia-and-innovation/ https://rtshq.net/space-tales-review-retro-futuristic-charm-meets-simplified-strategy/ https://rtshq.net/commandos-origins-a-first-look-from-an-rts-perspective https://rtshq.net/beyond-astra-a-galactic-4x-rts-experience/ https://rtshq.net/marching-orders-empire-of-the-ants-delivers-a-gorgeous-rts-experience/ https://rtshq.net/battlefall-state-of-conflict-a-promising-new-rts-with-retro-futuristic-style/ https://rtshq.net/collapsed-galaxy-2-a-messy-and-unpolished-experience/ There’s no shortage of exciting real-time strategy action on the horizon, from refining your base-building tactics to navigating dense urban environments with pinpoint precision. These demos offer a sneak peek into the future of RTS, giving you the chance to test your strategies, experience fresh game mechanics, and provide valuable feedback to developers. Games like Beyond Astra offer grand sci-fi expanses, while Empire of the Ants delivers micro-level control with insect warfare. Each game brings something unique to the table. Stay tuned for our daily updates as we dive into each demo during Steam Next Fest. We’ll share our impressions and insights, helping you decide which games deserve a spot on your wishlist. Get ready, Commander—the next wave of real-time strategy games is just around the corner!

Lots of really good ideas here, [mention=53]ken_gitahi[/mention] - thanks for sharing. Some ideas are going to be rolled into my next community venture.

That's very interesting. Where does it store all of the information if there is no database? How lightweight is it when compared to Wordpress in terms of features?

There’s a massive difference between empowerment and incentivising. Empowerment builds a sense of ownership and purpose, meaning there is a deeper commitment and connection to the community. Incentives, on the other hand, offer an external reward that, while motivating, often relies on ongoing “carrots” to keep people engaged. Both are effective ways of motivating staff, but empowerment is much better in many ways. It sounds like you’re dealing with volunteer burnout which is a common issue in communities where the demand on a small team is high. With nearly 2,000 members and only one person running the show, you’ve seen first-hand the toll it takes. There's a few ways to combat this. To start, give clear, meaningful roles that contribute directly to the community’s health and growth. So rather than a generic moderator title, assign duties that align with each person's skills or interests. Some roles to consider would be Community Engagement Lead or Content Curator. Give people responsibility for a unique aspect of the community. Recognition can often be superior to reward when it comes to motivating people to contribute. A pinned message acknowledging effort can be surprisingly motivating. Public appreciation builds trust and loyalty in a way that simple rewards don’t. Volunteers need a sense of belonging. Consider setting up a Staff Lounge area where they can discuss issues, share ideas, or even just socialise. Staff members who feel connected to one another often feel a greater sense of commitment to the community goals. Burnout can come from unclear or demanding expectations. Being upfront about the level of commitment each role requires is super useful. Regularly check in with your volunteers. They're giving up their time, dedication and effort for free. Adjust these expectations based on staff feedback.

Have you got any examples of how guerrilla marketing would work for a community?

This has been cancelled.

Hmm. It could damage your reputation, but it also could not. You could be found out, but also you could not. Post exchanges are another method for increasing activity, but let me ask you this: If we post exchanged am I posting on your forum because I want to post on your forum, or because of what I am getting in return? Is that ethical? It’s the same as: Paid posting Post packages Sock puppets Post exchanges None of the them are ‘real’ so the ethics on all can be questioned. What makes one fake member system more ethical than another? Is paying to get to the top of google ethical? The role of the forum community manager is hard enough without limiting our toolbox based on some noble ethics system.

I’m excellent with the passion occasionally have been known to fall down with the purpose. It’s getting from there to there which is often the difficult part for a forum admin, right? We all have amazing ideas and start with high hopes and desires to be the very best we can be.. …but this game is about performing when you feel the lowest and the most hopeless. It’s grinding out results. Being consistent. Ignoring the doubts in your mind telling you it’s time to throw in the towel and move on to the Next Big Thing. That’s the challenge. Hold your nerve and trust the process. Most of us are older than we care to admit and we have seen overnight success with our previous ventures. Times have changed. If You Build It They Will Come is no longer applicable.

I’m sure you’ll manage just fine without it. GLHF

Okay, but what’s worse? A forum with the admin showing an interest in the subject matter or a forum with no activity? Don’t be afraid to create a duplicate account to make posts with. Some frown on it but to me it’s a viable tactic to get started. Even if it does mean you are talking to yourself. Kinda like 90% of my conversations with [mention=1]Cedric[/mention]

Well all have, Mon ami, we all have.

Only 90%?

This needs to be on constant repeat in the mind of every forum admin.

Biggest killer out there. Potential members need to see that there is activity or they will leave. More important than that is relevant activity. If all there is is "what did you last eat?" on a webmaster forum, people who may be members are going to exit. There needs to be value in your content, not just content. Some would argue that content is content. I disagree. If it's not on topic, on brand, on niche, you might as well not bother. Post often and frequently .... or quit. More than this, over-moderation. Especially when starting out. If a user feels they're being heavily censored or nitpicked over a silly think they won't develop a good feeling about your forum and will look elsewhere. There needs to be freedom of expression, freedom for personality. If you start making micro-demands people aren't going to stay. This is why most forum scripts are very similar in nature. There is a natural infrastructure in most forum which people find comforting. If things stray too far from the accepted norms of most forum scripts, people can be put off. Example, I have limited experience with IPB. I feel very comfortable with xF. It will colour my decision on which forum to join and which to stick with. There's no point in having pages of manuals. It needs to be intuitive.

That's a bad attitude. You might have to do it alone. You can't rely on anyone else. You need to be regularly starting discussions and, if someone else does (miracle!) encourage that by responding - even if you think it's something that you would normally be bothered to discuss. Nothing turns a member off more than being ignored.