Conflicts What are the key indicators that your community needs a change in direction?

[Cedric]

As we all know, running a community is an evolving process. What worked today, may not work tomorrow. Sometimes everything flows smoothly, but other times, you might feel like things are stalling, or worse, moving backward. So, how do you know when it's time to make some changes in the direction your community is heading?

What are the signs that you should be paying attention to? Whether it’s stagnation, lack of engagement, or shifting member needs, there are usually clear indicators that it's time to rethink your strategy.

Here are a few questions to consider:

• Decline in activity: Has your member activity dropped significantly? Are people visiting less, posting less, or not engaging like they used to?
• Member feedback: Are your members expressing frustration or dissatisfaction? Have you noticed complaints about content, features, or the general feel of the community?
• Outdated vision or goals: Is the original purpose of your community still relevant? Have the needs of your members changed since you first started?
• Content relevance: Are you struggling to keep content fresh or aligned with what members are interested in now?
• Internal disconnect: Does the leadership team feel out of sync with what the community really needs? Is there friction in decision-making or direction?

If any of these sound familiar, it might be a sign that your community needs to change or refine its approach. A change in direction could breathe new life into your community and set it on a path for renewed growth.

What key indicators have you noticed in your experience? How did you recognize the need for change, and what steps did you take to adjust the course? Share your thoughts and experiences below!

 

[fdk]

My biggest forum used to struggle a bit with a downturn in activity at roughly the same time every year - the end of the Premier League football season. In order to counter this, over the years we refined things to give more of a focus towards our off-topic sections towards the end of the season, running competitions and encouraging people to stick around and talk about upcoming transfer news and pre-season football.

I suppose most forums have natural cycles of activity - a forum about BMX riding for example is surely naturally going to be more busy in the summer when people are actively riding and quieter in the winter when it's cold and people aren't out as much.

 

[KatBookTrailers]

It's easy to call it quits instead of changing a forum, but sometimes all you need is time to wait for things to improve. I almost asked a site owner to close the doors on one site, but then it miraculously picked up again. Of course, some of those were trolls, but wow, they really brought the activity we needed.

There is one forum I'm no longer a part of, but if they would ease up on their rules, I'd probably return. Being too strict and making a police state for a forum leaves a bitter taste in a lot of member's mouths and they just walk away, never to return. This was a Christian forum, of course.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

I think when we get to a point where we want to give up because the forum isn't going the way we want it to go, that's the time when we need to look at our current strategies and adjust them as needed. Whether or not I want to monetize my forum or not, I always run it like a business in a few different ways. One way is goal setting. I set goals (small achievable goals) that I can work towards.

If I feel like I'm not making the forum into what I had hoped for, then I'll readjust my goals.

The important thing is not giving up and being okay with easing down your expectations a little bit.