Shawn Gossman

Hey, nice forum. I feel like I was abducted and made a member there :P No, really. I found this forum by looking at your profile here because your signature wasn't a link yet. I joined and started posting organically as a regular member and I think I'm a top member there now :D Need to get back there and post! March has been really bust for me. March Madness has a great ring to it.

It makes me not want to be active on the forums anymore. If they're transparent about it and I'm enabled to ignore the bot, then fine. If they're being secretive about it: I'll pass. Why should I work hard posting quality content on a forum where humans aren't even replying to me? I can just open ChatGPT and do that if I wanted to talk to bots all day.

Generally, I choose pepperoni and cheese. If it's a good pizza place, I'll add black olives and mushrooms to that. I always get those peppercini peppers in a cup to squeeze the juice on them as well. EDIT: I've also been enjoying adding spicy honey to pizza! You talk about DELICIOUS!!

I only do marketing techniques that are public. Like promote on threads on admin and promotion forums, ask members to spread word-of-mouth, and stuff like that. Just don't mislead or lie. Making fake users and convincing people that they're real is lying and will probably eventually get you caught (well deserved at that). As for confidentiality in marketing? I'm not so sure there is any.

Welcome to the forum :)

Social media management and marketing is hard work. It's not successful unless you have a good strategy. You have to publish at scale while still putting quality first. You also have to be consistent about it. Now there are tools to make it easier (such as Buffer to schedule posts) but you still have to work hard, pay attention to insights to determine what works and what doesn't, and most importantly, you have to do a lot of engagement. More engagement than posting, 5 times more or even more than that. If you can do all that, don't waste your money on a service, put it towards ads instead. If you don't want to do the work, then yeah, you should pay someone but if you go cheap, just know you'll probably get what you pay for.

Doubling down on search intent here!

I'm enjoying ROFLMAO and Classified Top Secret

I try to. Sometimes, it takes me a little bit. I'm a lot busier these days than I was long ago.

I have always tried to make Charter Memberships to recognize the most active and contributing members. I used to cut it off after 10 members to keep them the founding members but in reality, I think keeping it going would be ideal. I also think letting members of that group help decide who the next member should be (through nominations) could also be good to give them some of that ability.

Probably just the Resources addon and the Link Directory. However, for my cycling forum, the Calendar addon is what everyone likes the most to add local cycling events to. It's used a lot, as well. Other than that, I try to use less add-ons and focus more on the core forum feature. I have installed a shoutbox on my general forum, though. I was always against them but I thought it would be okay for that particular niche.

The competition used to worry me way back when, but I still allowed it on my forum even if they didn't allow me back. That always said a lot about me and a lot about them. But nowadays, I'm for it. More competition might mean more people get into forums and the niches we're so passionate about!

I think they should be allowed to. A true community is a community that involves its members more. Back 15-20 years ago, we made decisions for the community because we pay for it and it's our choice--that was bad and probably helped lead to a downfall of forums. I think the more we let the community get involved, get features they want and feel more like they own a piece of the place -- that's how we build loyal members who will stay with you and your forum until the end. I know I would!

When it comes to forums, I typically don't try to compete that much. I am in it more for the community, the social aspects, and connecting with people who want to be friends online (and sometimes offline, too). Now, blogs are different for me. I profit from them. I do competitive analysis on top blogs in my niche and look for GAPS concerning the pain points of our shared audience, and then I write high-quality content based on those questions and needs.

I think public ban/moderation logs will only bring unwanted drama and toxic behavior to your forum. Go to any Law Enforcement Facebook page where they report recent arrests. If they're not moderating comments, it's usually a cesspool of profanity, fighting, and horrible behavior. You don't see that in newspapers that report arrests because there are no comment sections, LOL. I don't think it's a good idea. I don't think it's being transparent; I think it's asking for trouble.

I typically stick to PayPal. As a user, I get nervous about using payment systems I'm unfamiliar with. I'll usually not use them.

11. Onboard new members. Develop a friendship with them to convert them into loyal members. Embrace word-of-mouth and watch your community grow into a loyal, contributing community. I think we all need to focus more on onboarding.

I don't feel like there is a set number to focus on. Rather, I think you need to have recent content on the main niche sections. If your boards look dead, they'll likely stay dead. But the content quality is important, too. I don't join forums, so I can reply to "A-Z word game" posts. I join because some kind of topic posted caught my attention. If you lack quality content that brings value, you won't get quality members that want to be active on your community. IMO. IME.

This happens to me usually when I make the first person who asks a moderator, especially those I don't know. Here lately, I try to go with folks I know. AAF has AWS, who is someone I know. This thread reminds me that I need to get active on his forum. I've been so busy lately with everything.

Oh yeah. I have tons of bookmarks and folders to put them in. I bet I have bookmarks from 10 years ago.

Locally, I can do checks, money orders, or cash. Digitally, I can do paypal, venmo, and stripe. I don't know a thing about crypto.

Mainly Facebook, X, Bluesky, and YouTube. Typically Facebook and YouTube are the bread winners when it comes to conversion.

Oh yeah. I have a strategy when it comes to getting on page one of search engines. Part of it requires research otherwise what's the point?

I typically go into private message with both. If the conflict is due to one or the other doing something wrong or being unfair, I'll investigate as the forum admin and take action if needed. If they can't get along, I'll give the ultimatum that I will not remove the staff member and will not remove the member. They must get along or they can both part ways of the forum. I'll leave it up to them. It must be handled in a mature and adult way. There is no time for childish games.

Nice list. Thanks for including me :)