As a community leader, we all want our content to reflect the values and goals we've set for our board. But, let's be honest, it’s not always easy to get the type of content you'd like to see consistently. Think about the off-topic discussions, low-effort posts, or conversations that don't fit the tone you're aiming for, guiding content in the right direction can sometimes feel like an uphill battle.
Things to think about:
How do you encourage members to create content that aligns with your community’s values?
What strategies do you use to foster the type of discussions you want, without stifling creativity or freedom of expression?
When content starts to drift away from your community’s purpose, how do you handle it without discouraging participation?
Do you think it’s possible to guide content creation while still keeping the atmosphere welcoming and open?
We’ve all faced moments when we wished for more on-topic, high-quality contributions. Let’s talk about how to steer things back on course and get the content that best represents your community.
Not sure if this topic applies to my board much since I have a resource board where the main focus is to provide resources and services. I will say that I have the off-topic sections as the last category on the board index due to their "insignificance" when compared to the primary forums of the board for our purpose. I'm the main one producing resources while everyone else is mainly using them, so I suppose this topic could apply to me in the sense of encouraging members to post resources as well.
It can be very easy for members to lose sight of what the values of the forum/community are if the staff and community owner don't encourage or share with the community what the expectations/values are.
How do you encourage members to create content that aligns with your community’s values? A great way to encourage members to create content that aligns with your community's values is by liking and quoting posts that you find are the type of posts/threads that you are looking for and wanting on your forum. You can even host "event's" where you can encourage members to post topics that align with your forums values and expectations.
What strategies do you use to foster the type of discussions you want, without stifling creativity or freedom of expression? Hosting events and liking threads/posts that you would like to continue to see around your forum.
When content starts to drift away from your community’s purpose, how do you handle it without discouraging participation? Hosting events, don't pay as much attention to the post that don't align with the forums values,
Do you think it’s possible to guide content creation while still keeping the atmosphere welcoming and open? Of course! You don't have to be rude or pushy about the values however if you encourage good behaviour members will continue the good behaviour.
Usually members will follow where the admins are active, so if you post a lot content in your main sections, your members will likely do the same. I typically ignore the off topic part of my forum.
I used to have a general discussion forum where people could talk anything, there was no such thing as niche and genre. There were sections for every kind of discussion. However, I also have niche forum where I do not have off topic section. I always make sure users are creating relevant posts and topics. want people to strictly post on the niche.
