General What part of community building makes you struggle? (1 Viewer)

[Cedric]

Community building can be incredibly rewarding, but it definitely has its challenges. So I wanted to open up a discussion around this: What do you think is the hardest part of building and managing a community?

Is it getting new members to join? Keeping everyone engaged and active? Maybe it’s dealing with conflicts or setting up the right structure to keep things running smoothly?

Share your experiences! Whether you’re a new admin or have been running a community for years, your insights can really help others who may be facing similar struggles. Let’s talk about what makes community building tough - and, more importantly, how we tackle those challenges!

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

 

[fdk]

I've not run a forum or another community-focused website for around 10 years, but for me the thing that made me struggle a lot was the effort required to advertise. I run a semi-successful football (or soccer, if you're American) forum for around 3 years as a teenager. At it's height it had 2,000 posts made daily (upto 4,000 at the weekends) and 250 or so daily active users, but it always felt like we were just on the cusp of becoming a really big community.

It was still great with what we had, but there were quiet periods sometimes throughout the day, and new member retention wasn't as high as I'd have liked it to be.

The upside to it not exploding was that the forum was generally run very well and there were very rarely major problems, with only 2 volunteer Moderators working alongside myself, and if I recall in 3 years we issued perhaps 50 "official" warnings and maybe 10 bans. Another upside of it being a relatively modest-sized community was that most members knew each other, or at least knew of each other, so when one of their teams lost and they were angry there was generally someone around who'd tell them if they're in danger of going too far.

It always felt like a bit of a chore to me trying to advertise, because a lot of websites of a similar niche disallowed the advertising of similar websites, and social media was not as much of a presence back then as it is now. I found that paid advertising did bring some additional traffic, and a handful of members, but having spent our donations for 3 month period of around £500 on advertising and only getting perhaps 20 new active members out of it, I decided not to continue. I had some success with implementing a referral system, but then struggled with incentivising members to refer others.

In the end, I got made an offer for the forum that I couldn't refuse, and unfortunately for some reason the new owner literally decided to just let the forum die. It was a great shame because I put so many years of hard work and effort into it (not that I didn't get rewarded), but it was a shame for everything to just essentially disappear.

So yeah, for me, having to find places to advertise is one thing I definitely don't miss having to do!

 

[Shawn Gossman]

I struggle when I have to take action - disciplinary action.

It's not that I don't know what to do; it's that I wish everyone could get along and we could all keep having a good time. I hate dealing with problem members. I hate having to issue warnings and ban people.

It always created some sort of divide and temporary drama.

Drama is the struggle to deal with.

I'm laid back and like to keep the community laid back, but sometimes, stuff happens.

 

[Cedric]

I've not run a forum or another community-focused website for around 10 years, but for me the thing that made me struggle a lot was the effort required to advertise. I run a semi-successful football (or soccer, if you're American) forum for around 3 years as a teenager. At it's height it had 2,000 posts made daily (upto 4,000 at the weekends) and 250 or so daily active users, but it always felt like we were just on the cusp of becoming a really big community.

It was still great with what we had, but there were quiet periods sometimes throughout the day, and new member retention wasn't as high as I'd have liked it to be.

The upside to it not exploding was that the forum was generally run very well and there were very rarely major problems, with only 2 volunteer Moderators working alongside myself, and if I recall in 3 years we issued perhaps 50 "official" warnings and maybe 10 bans. Another upside of it being a relatively modest-sized community was that most members knew each other, or at least knew of each other, so when one of their teams lost and they were angry there was generally someone around who'd tell them if they're in danger of going too far.

It always felt like a bit of a chore to me trying to advertise, because a lot of websites of a similar niche disallowed the advertising of similar websites, and social media was not as much of a presence back then as it is now. I found that paid advertising did bring some additional traffic, and a handful of members, but having spent our donations for 3 month period of around £500 on advertising and only getting perhaps 20 new active members out of it, I decided not to continue. I had some success with implementing a referral system, but then struggled with incentivising members to refer others.

In the end, I got made an offer for the forum that I couldn't refuse, and unfortunately for some reason the new owner literally decided to just let the forum die. It was a great shame because I put so many years of hard work and effort into it (not that I didn't get rewarded), but it was a shame for everything to just essentially disappear.

So yeah, for me, having to find places to advertise is one thing I definitely don't miss having to do!

Thanks for sharing that. Seems like it was a good community and it's a pity the owner let it die. What was the offer if you remember? I do agree on the paid advertising, it's not worth it. Would be even less worthy today.

 

[Allan]

I have to agree with @Shawn Gossman taking action against a member other members could react in their favor and leave or worse add to it.

 

[fdk]

Thanks for sharing that. Seems like it was a good community and it's a pity the owner let it die. What was the offer if you remember? I do agree on the paid advertising, it's not worth it. Would be even less worthy today.

The offer was close to 5 figures, which is a significant amount of money now to anyone, but to me as a teenager/young adult felt like life-changing money. Of course, it mostly got squandered, but it was a blast and a valuable life lesson at a relatively young age!

The paid advertising did seem to drive a lot of traffic to the forum, but not so much in terms of active members. A fair amount signed up, but would make a single post or not even one and disappear. Maybe I should have worked harder on retention mechanisms - hindsight is a wonderful thing, though! I wouldn't write off paid advertising, even nowadays, but I would 100% want to completely optimise both my website and my advertising budget spend before I invested in that again.

 

[Cory]

I think by owning a resource board, my biggest struggle is having returning members. Many people come for a code or skin they want and then leave for good. I know I'm not doing everything in my power to keep members returning seeing as I've always focused on building up the resources consistently. Even if I were, I think it's still a hard aspect of the forum to maintain.

 

[InMyOpinion]

What do you think is the hardest part of building and managing a community?

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

I haven't run my own community in close to 10 years now but I remember the thing I would struggle with the most is keeping active members. Socia media wasn't what it was today and advertising was a little more difficult. I also found it difficult to find the time to stay incredibly active as my life got busier and more demanding. I always struggled with activity and though I admit some of it was my fault (I should have done more research) I always found that it was difficult to compete with thousands of other similar forums to mine, especially if their stats were more flattering than mine.

I think all in all, it was difficult to not only find new members but to want to keep them on a forum that was similar to many many many other forums. If I were to make a forum today I would implement certain things to make the forum more unique and be a better experience to the members.

I've not run a forum or another community-focused website for around 10 years, but for me the thing that made me struggle a lot was the effort required to advertise. I run a semi-successful football (or soccer, if you're American) forum for around 3 years as a teenager. At it's height it had 2,000 posts made daily (upto 4,000 at the weekends) and 250 or so daily active users, but it always felt like we were just on the cusp of becoming a really big community.

It was still great with what we had, but there were quiet periods sometimes throughout the day, and new member retention wasn't as high as I'd have liked it to be.

The upside to it not exploding was that the forum was generally run very well and there were very rarely major problems, with only 2 volunteer Moderators working alongside myself, and if I recall in 3 years we issued perhaps 50 "official" warnings and maybe 10 bans. Another upside of it being a relatively modest-sized community was that most members knew each other, or at least knew of each other, so when one of their teams lost and they were angry there was generally someone around who'd tell them if they're in danger of going too far.

It always felt like a bit of a chore to me trying to advertise, because a lot of websites of a similar niche disallowed the advertising of similar websites, and social media was not as much of a presence back then as it is now. I found that paid advertising did bring some additional traffic, and a handful of members, but having spent our donations for 3 month period of around £500 on advertising and only getting perhaps 20 new active members out of it, I decided not to continue. I had some success with implementing a referral system, but then struggled with incentivising members to refer others.

In the end, I got made an offer for the forum that I couldn't refuse, and unfortunately for some reason the new owner literally decided to just let the forum die. It was a great shame because I put so many years of hard work and effort into it (not that I didn't get rewarded), but it was a shame for everything to just essentially disappear.

So yeah, for me, having to find places to advertise is one thing I definitely don't miss having to do!

Wow I am soo sorry to hear that. That would be soul crushing especially after working so hard and being so dedicated for so long. Sounds like you really knew how to run an active community though so good on you =) What is the one thing you miss the most about running that community?

I struggle when I have to take action - disciplinary action.

It's not that I don't know what to do; it's that I wish everyone could get along and we could all keep having a good time. I hate dealing with problem members. I hate having to issue warnings and ban people.

It always created some sort of divide and temporary drama.

Drama is the struggle to deal with.

I'm laid back and like to keep the community laid back, but sometimes, stuff happens.

I can understand that. One thing I keep in mind though is the forum values and whether or not that members actions can hinder my forum in any way. I wouldn't discipline the member in public or on the forum (I would send them a PM with a warning and an explanation as to why what they did was wrong or incorrect and then add in the kind of behaviour/atmosphere I am looking for in an ideal member.

It can be tricky and yes sometimes it can mean that that member no longer logs on or is active but in my eyes I've kind of avoided something that could have gotten a lot worse.

To me my members experience on the forum is my priority so if a member is going to sabotage that then I need to take some action before my forum becomes a crap shoot and the only people that are posting are hecklers.

I have to agree with @Shawn Gossman taking action against a member other members could react in their favor and leave or worse add to it.

I agree, that can happen. Though I would still suggest to take action before it becomes too much of a problem or it may affect the activity on your forum. Some people don't take discipline very well and they don't appreciate feedback and that's okay. But is that really your ideal member? And if two members leave because I've punished a member for repeated behaviour then so be it. I may have just dodged a bullet in the sense that the other members that left could have been a potential issue to my forum in the long run.

It's never easy or exciting to take action against another member but one thing you have to keep in mind is your bottom line or your mission statement. If the member is going against your mission statement or what you want for your community then it may do more harm than good to let those behaviours slide.

I think by owning a resource board, my biggest struggle is having returning members. Many people come for a code or skin they want and then leave for good. I know I'm not doing everything in my power to keep members returning seeing as I've always focused on building up the resources consistently. Even if I were, I think it's still a hard aspect of the forum to maintain.

I can understand that. Once the members have what they want they don't have a reason to come back. Is there a way to make it so people will need updates for these skins or codes? If so that may be a way to have them keep coming back.

Another thing I can think of is when there is a skin that comes out that is similar to one a member already downloaded or used you can contact that member to let them know there are new skins and codes and you think they may love the updates. etc.

All the best to your forum Cory =) If I knew more about coding or skins I would sign up but I'm honestly so confused when it comes to that stuff lol.

 

[Cory]

I can understand that. Once the members have what they want they don't have a reason to come back. Is there a way to make it so people will need updates for these skins or codes? If so that may be a way to have them keep coming back.

Another thing I can think of is when there is a skin that comes out that is similar to one a member already downloaded or used you can contact that member to let them know there are new skins and codes and you think they may love the updates. etc.

All the best to your forum Cory =) If I knew more about coding or skins I would sign up but I'm honestly so confused when it comes to that stuff lol.

We have a notice at the top of the skins forum that we recommend they subscribe to skin topics for skins they use with email notifications turned on in case the skin is ever updated.

I have live notifications on my board's Discord channel for new resources posted. Unfortunately, for the years it's been available there are only 30+ users on there.

I suppose I could send a bulk email every time we release X new resources for users to see.

 

[Khantastic]

I remember like 10 years ago, I had a free hosting with big watermark everywhere and I used SMF to build a forum and surprisingly it became so famous so quickly within months I had over 20 thousand active users and my forum could not survive specially with that free hosting. That time I had no idea about IT related stuff and I was just totally new.
Now, I have gained so much experience in IT, I even had 2 android apps and over 15 websites, I still have over 20 domains and the crazy part is I do not have traffic even 10 users.
I don't know if this is my struggling phase or the internet/ SEO has totally changed. But its kind a annoying and I am so disappointed