- Thread Author
- #1
(Honestly, I'm not really sure which tag is most appropriate...anyway....)
I've run a forum on and off for decades, and I flip flop between ideologies. We need to try to stand out from the crowd to attract potential members into our communities, but at the same time, members also tend to prefer the familiar. (Just look at the disasters that many admins have experienced when upgrading, let alone switching forum software.)
I have a pretty niche site. Anime combined with role playing and creative writing. However, as neat as I believe the concept is, the forum is dead. I probably have myself to blame for it, as I've gotten distracted with life, other projects, and lets face it, I've been battling depression too. I've taken a few months and have looked around the internet to see what my competition looks like. Most of the anime forums tend to be reviews or news based sites, hash about recent or upcoming anime/manga. Most of the role playing forums I've stumbled across appear to be slightly more active than my forum, with many recent entries appearing late last year.
Knowing this, I've made a strategic decision to focus on what I think of as classic anime, that being from 1990 to about 2010. Before CGI took over as the primary method of animation. Before much of the deconstruction-era of anime began. For role playing, I chose to focus on the game systems, because most of what I saw out across the internet were games. Sure, I've got a collection of games, but...they've been dead for quite a while, and considering that I have no active members right now, any game I think about starting dies a painless death. And as for the role playing systems, most game publishers have at least a Facebook group, if not a dedicated forum on their own site.
Recently, I pivoted more toward general creativity. I tried 3D modeling, software applications, the creative writing process.. But there are already forums dedicated to these topics, so my forum would be redundant.
Now with that background out of the way (yes, I'm a determined SoB, and refuse to quit!), wanting to stand out may be getting in the way of attracting members. I'm beginning to think that being witty with my board names could be confusing guests? I'm not actually sure where I read it, but on one of the many boards that I frequent, it's advised to keep naming conventions generic. And even though this goes against my branding, perhaps I should follow this route, because obviously my ideas seems to stink, points to current experience. But I can't help but wonder, maybe nobody truly cares about discussing old anime anyway. After all, those conversations have already been had. Despite newbies discovering the old classics, I'm sure they can just go Google search and find answers to their questions, or get lost in a Facebook group thread.
Maybe I'm seeking more than just naming advice here. Maybe I just need to completely pivot in a totally different direction and start anew with a completely different hobby? Notice: Depression truly stinks. 100% avoid.
I've run a forum on and off for decades, and I flip flop between ideologies. We need to try to stand out from the crowd to attract potential members into our communities, but at the same time, members also tend to prefer the familiar. (Just look at the disasters that many admins have experienced when upgrading, let alone switching forum software.)
I have a pretty niche site. Anime combined with role playing and creative writing. However, as neat as I believe the concept is, the forum is dead. I probably have myself to blame for it, as I've gotten distracted with life, other projects, and lets face it, I've been battling depression too. I've taken a few months and have looked around the internet to see what my competition looks like. Most of the anime forums tend to be reviews or news based sites, hash about recent or upcoming anime/manga. Most of the role playing forums I've stumbled across appear to be slightly more active than my forum, with many recent entries appearing late last year.
Knowing this, I've made a strategic decision to focus on what I think of as classic anime, that being from 1990 to about 2010. Before CGI took over as the primary method of animation. Before much of the deconstruction-era of anime began. For role playing, I chose to focus on the game systems, because most of what I saw out across the internet were games. Sure, I've got a collection of games, but...they've been dead for quite a while, and considering that I have no active members right now, any game I think about starting dies a painless death. And as for the role playing systems, most game publishers have at least a Facebook group, if not a dedicated forum on their own site.
Recently, I pivoted more toward general creativity. I tried 3D modeling, software applications, the creative writing process.. But there are already forums dedicated to these topics, so my forum would be redundant.
Now with that background out of the way (yes, I'm a determined SoB, and refuse to quit!), wanting to stand out may be getting in the way of attracting members. I'm beginning to think that being witty with my board names could be confusing guests? I'm not actually sure where I read it, but on one of the many boards that I frequent, it's advised to keep naming conventions generic. And even though this goes against my branding, perhaps I should follow this route, because obviously my ideas seems to stink, points to current experience. But I can't help but wonder, maybe nobody truly cares about discussing old anime anyway. After all, those conversations have already been had. Despite newbies discovering the old classics, I'm sure they can just go Google search and find answers to their questions, or get lost in a Facebook group thread.
Maybe I'm seeking more than just naming advice here. Maybe I just need to completely pivot in a totally different direction and start anew with a completely different hobby? Notice: Depression truly stinks. 100% avoid.
