InMyOpinion

Amazing list! Thank you [mention=1]Cedric[/mention] for sharing this, it is very helpful for forum owners who would like to advertise their projects, websites and forums.

I love this article! Thanks for posting this [mention=5]Cpvr[/mention], I definitely agree that lurkers can help the community even if they are not posting and there are way that a staff member can step in and help the lurker make their first post or be more comfortable to post around the forum. I've had lurkers on my past forum and would reach out to them ask them how they're enjoying the forum/community so far and if there is any subjects they would like to read or hear about. Sometimes if I notice the kind of posts or threads, they like to read I will link them to other threads that I think they would be interested in. More times than not, the lurkers would then post on the forum and feel more comfortable posting. Again, thank you for posting this because a lot of people don't really know how to deal or what to do with a lurker and this article will help them understand the lurkers more and what they can do to encourage the lurkers to post and feel more comfortable. I look forward to reading more articles from you =)

I agree with you, it is amazing to meet new lovely people and make friends, it's also amazing to learn new things about people and things.

Easiest by far would be a general forum because it's very general and there is a lot of different conversations you can have. I find a niche forum would be a lot more difficult because 1. You have to be knowledgeable in the niche, you have to be able to come up with a lot of different discussions about the niche and you also have to find the people who are interested in that niche. If you have a general forum it's easy to come up with a lot of different conversations/threads but if you have a niche you have to stick to that theme when posting, unless you're posting in the general section of the forum.

I've only ever ran forums, I've never really been into blogging because I felt like blogging was more of just me talking about a subject and then people possibly replying. I prefer forums because anyone can post and start a conversation and I find (for me anyways) I would get more activity from a forum than a blog.

My favourite aspect of running an online forum (when I did) was building a community and creating a space where like-minded people could connect, share knowledge, and support each other. I also really enjoyed seeing all the valuable user generated content, watching my members contribute to discussions and hearing their insights. Another thing I enjoyed was the networking and industry connections because I got to meet a lot of cool people and I found a lot of awesome forums. Seeing the engagement and loyalty with my members was also an amazing thing to see. All together there were many aspects of running a forum that were favourite because I do enjoy being a part of a community.

If you would have said no, I would have stopped posting. 😜 All joking aside though I agree that years and years ago 1k posts a day was common but now it seems like it is rare if it does happen.

I've never really thought of long-term post exchanges but yeah it could definitely benefit both forums. I just find that if you're on someone else's forum you don't have time to concentrate on your own forum. I'd consider hiring staff to do post exchanges for you that way you can still focus on the forum while other staff can spend their time on the other forum(s). I agree with you that forum activity is essential for community growth, but I just don't know how genuine that growth is if it's all just posting exchanges. Yes, it creates new threads and replies but if the person isn't going to stick around its only temporary activity. On your comment about doing post exchanges for years and people disappearing that would be very disappointing and frustrating for sure, especially if you do your end of the deal and then you just never get anything in return. I also completely agree with your statement of prioritizing your forum over posting on others and ensuring that the exchange works in your favour. I'm still not sold on forum exchanges though. Like I've done them, and I do sometimes post on other people's forums to help them with their activity but I also don't have my own forum where I need to spend my time and resources on.

I can see why some admins don't want members to edit their own posts, is some cases it's because if the member gets bitter or angry the admin doesn't want the member to then edit all of their posts to a spam post or full of profanities. (I've seen this happen before). This can really mess up the stats if now you have to remove all of these posts on the forum. On one forum in particular I've seen this happen and it was devastating because the member had almost 1,000 posts throughout a few years and they decided to sabotage the forum by editing all of their threads and posts to basically threatening, swearing and spamming the forum. It affected the forum a lot because not only did they have to review EVERY SINGLE post that member had once made they had to basically delete or archive all of the threads and posts. I myself am not sure if I would have time limit on when the member could edit their post, it makes me a little worried because of what I've seen on another forum however I don't think that it's a regular occurrence and because of that I'm leaning more towards allowing the members to edit their posts indefinitely. I have seen forums that only allow you to edit your posts up to 10 minutes after posting and I didn't really see an issue with that either. If a member wanted to make changes after the 10 minutes they would just need to PM a staff member and ask for them to edit it. I think it depends on the type of forum you have and whether or not you find it worth allowing members to edit their posts or threads.

I understand that some forums need users or posts but I feel as though post exchanges doesn't really resolve the issue, it's just putting a band-aid on it for a temporary fix. Most times once someone is done a post exchange they don't return to the forum unless they are doing another post exchange so I really don't see a lot of value in it. Yes, you do get more activity for a bit but the poster is only there because you are also posting on their forum, after that they don't really care about your forum. I'd rather have a genuinely interested forum user who posts because they want to not because we have agreed to do a post exchange. As I've mentioned, it may work for some people but it's never worked for me.

Awh I love this! I'm sure your dad would have LOVED your forum. I find sometimes hobby forums are better than building a forum for stats or something. When it's a hobby I feel like there are less expectations and just more about having fun and sharing knowledge. Good on you for starting a forum that you are really passionate about!

I would not allow multiple accounts on the forum. There is no need, and I find it doesn't look honest statistically. There is no need to create multiple accounts in my opinion there is no benefit to it and it just confuses everything. So no, I do not allow multiple accounts.

It's always nice to see members enjoy something that I've worked so hard on so of course it gets me a lot more motivated to keep active and keep thinking of ways to improve the forum. When the forum goes quiet for a while it can be discouraging so when I see members post and enjoy the forum I too get excited and want to join in on the fun. It's also nice to feel like all that hard work and dedication wasn't all for nothing.

I agree with you on this. One is more than enough and I wouldn't want to take my focus away from one forum so I can work on another one plus I don't spend as much time online so it wouldn't be smart for me to try to manage more than one project/forum at a time. It takes a lot of time and resources to create a successful forum and I just don't have enough time or resources to be able to create more than one successful forum. Plus, I feel as though if I were to try to split my time I would feel like I'm not giving either of the forums my best and eventually I would exhaust myself out.

My motive for creating my first forum back in the day was to create a safe place for like-minded people to share their thoughts, ideas and life stories. When I was younger I didn't have a lot of safe places and I wasn't really allowed to voice my opinions or thoughts so creating a forum where I could express myself was really important to me and I wanted to share that with others who may have been in the same situation as I was. I found it was really empowering and satisfying to see other people be able to voice their thoughts, opinions and feedback without any negative backlash. Obviously, I had rules on my forums but I never really had any issues with anyone breaking them.

No. Age itself isn't really a factor however experience is. When I was really young, I started my own forum, but I had NO IDEA what I was doing or even how to run a successful forum, I just knew I wanted to run my own forum and so I did. I think my lack of experience with forums really played a huge part on why my forum was never really successful or very active. You can be a 12-year-old genius when it comes to forums if you have enough experience and know what you're doing, and you could be a 50-year-old who can't make a successful forum. Age doesn't really matter but experience and knowledge does.

I did when I was a forum owner. I found it did help with activity and post/thread count and members tend to really enjoy contests if you make the prize something worthwhile. I will say though that you have to be strategic with your contests and make sure they are beneficial to your forum and not harming it. For example, you don't just want to have a contest to see who can create the most threads because then you'll have a lot of useless threads that have a few words and don't really encourage replies or feedback. If you're going to do something like that maybe, make it a contest to see who can create the most engaging threads. Even when you make a contest with who can create the most threads with at least x number of words I find some people create threads and just babble on or fill the thread with words but it isn't as engaging or valuable. Back when I held contests, I found it to be very helpful to the community and helped a lot with the stats of the forum.

When I was an admin I would use posting exchanges however I never felt like they would really work because though there would be someone posting on the forum they would only post for the exchange and then go MIA so it didn't really bring in new members though it would help with a bit of threads and posts. I would also find I would then have to spend time on someone else's forum instead of focusing on mine and working on my forum. I'm not saying that post exchanges don't work, they just never worked for me.

I've shut down a forum because I was unable to continue to be active on the forum and I wasn't able to find anyone to take over so unfortunately, I had to shut it down. Other than that, I have stepped away from being admin of a forum (the aiChatGPT) simply because the issues weren't getting resolved and I didn't want to work on a forum if we couldn't figure out the issue and fix it. The other admin said he did everything he could and he ran a lot of other successful forums so he wasn't sure why we were having the issue but it never got resolved so I stepped down and left. Not sure if the owner of the forum has demoted me yet but oh well, not my problem lol.

For me I would hire someone because I know nothing about SEO and the backends of forums. I'm good at the front-end stuff like posting and creating rapport. But the SEO I am useless lol for those reasons I would hire someone to do it.

I would suggest following Facebook/Instagram pages that are for that region and posting/promoting on those pages. It will help you get a specific geographic audience. Other than that posting posters/ads around in your city/town. Hope these help you :D

I agree with this. Not everyone who visits will sign up or even post and even those who do sign up aren't necessarily going to post or be active. I think you need to reach A LOT of people before you can get 100 people to sign up and post. I think the methods listed above are good methods to get people interested however it doesn't guarantee that they will sign up or be active.

To not trust just anyone. I trusted someone to be a co-founder and co-owner of a forum and I worked really hard coming up with ideas for the forum such as promotions, forum contests etc. I had created a lot of valuable threads and got everything almost ready. The co-owner was in charge of all the tech stuff and when it came about a week before the grand opening he blocked me from the forum and I was no longer able to visit the site. I know he still opened the forum because I had friends who told me that they were able to access and sign up to the forum. I really trusted this person and thought they were a great partner but boy was I wrong. This taught me that I shouldn't just partner up with anyone and that I should really do my due diligence to make sure that I am putting my trust in someone that is trustworthy. This is the most important lesson I've learned the hard way as a leader.

I don't have a forum so we can't exactly do an exchange, but I am willing to help you out by posting on your forum. I've already posted 3 threads on your forum and will continue to make some posts and threads. Hope this helps you out bud =)

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