Creating an online community without the community?

[Niteblade]

Creating an online community without the community?
Original article found at: forum.midessa.net

As a new forum administrator myself, I'm sure that my frustrations are shared among my forum comrades. You've gone through the trouble of registering a domain, picking a host, installing the software, tweaking the coding, and advertising your site. All these things cost money, and you attempt to make use of tasteful advertising in order to offset those inital costs. However, one thing is lacking: a community.

"Well," you reason, "I am advertising my site, after all. It's not like I'm sitting around doing nothing except for hoping that people visit my site and join my community." But still, the people do not come. You've read articles on the internet that suggest to offer contests, prizes, and other rewards to get people to join your community -- your baby. But still, the people do not come. In the back of your mind, you want people to participate in your community because they want to -- not for the prizes. In other words, you don't want "to buy" your community. You want a real community. You've created a myspace profile that advertises your site. You've told your friends, family, and classmates about your site. You're paying Google or Yahoo or MSN to display a link to your site according to the keywords that reflect your site's content. But still, the people do not come.

Are people trying to tell you something when they don't register?
Is your site really that inferior?

It's easy to get frustrated. And in a certain way, you believe people are just not interested in your particular site. "People just don't care," you presume. People do have lives outside of the internet, right? Not everyone has access to a computer, and if they did, chances are that they are visiting busier sites, more established sites, than yours. "So why bother with it? Why go through the expense of attempting to provide people with the resource of your site when people do not take advantage of it in the first place?"

In other words, you've done everything in your power to build a community but the community isn't coming. It's at times such as these that you have to remind yourself of a few things.

1. If you created a site with the expectation of building a community, the people won't arrive immediately.
It takes weeks, months, and perhaps one or two years to build a community. Even though you've done your best to stand out from the crowd, people are slow to discover your particular site because the internet is a huge place. Even though many people will browse your site and will read what little posts that you have, some people take longer than others to actually join a site. And once they join, some people will contribute; others will never contribute. The phrase "long time reader, first time poster" comes to mind. As a concrete example, consider the "popular" forums. There are some forums that have thousands of members, and thousands of posts. However, not all of their members actively post -- only a small percentage of them do. How many times have to seen a forum that has 100 members with 1,000,000 posts?

2. Your site should reflect something that you, as the administrator, is genuinely interested in.
Forums, blogs, and static websites have one thing in common: they reflect what their creator is interested in. And as the creator of your site, the site's content reflects you -- and that should be good enough. If others are attracted to what your site is about, then a community starts to build around the administrator's interests. If people "don't care," then that should not affect the administrator's commitment to their dream -- their baby. In other words, new administrators should believe in their own site first and foremost, and it shouldn't matter (there should be no expectation) whether or not other people are interested in the same thing. That's what makes the interent an awesome place -- there's a site dedicated to any topic that you can imagine. If people are interested, then they will find you eventually (See #1). Other people's interpretation of the administrator's passion should not deter the administrator's passion. The administrator should be passionate about their site in the face of discouragement.

3. In light of #2, new administators should not expect to make money from their site.
I realize that people at least want to break even. You've invested in all those things I mentioned at the beginning of this message, but there's no guarantee that you'll see any return of monetary investment. But even in the face of this possibility, the administrator's passion should not waiver. Any site on the internet reflects its creator's passion. Time, patience, and original quality content will build your community (see #1). Never, ever, count on other people to help you offset your costs. It's your site, your passion, and your content. Accept responsibility for creating a site: you will either nuture your site, or you will abandon it.

4. And finally, you are never truly alone until you delete your site.
Millions of people use the internet. Out of those millions, there has to be several people who are interested in the same things you are. You're never "out of the game" until you hit the delete key. Just focus on building your content yourself -- because your site represents your interests to the world. Like I said earlier, if people find your site and join it, then a community can start. But if you, as the administrator, are half-hearted about your own site, you cannot expect other people to be whole-hearted about it.

[Edit]
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[Toadmund]

If you build it, they will come!
Well, I'm building it, and 2 months later I have 5 whole members, my dad, my brother, me, someone I know from another forum and someone who gave me advice and joined just to give me a member.
My brother has yet to make a post, thanks bro!

I am no longer in any rush, the more members that trickle in, in months to come the more those members will make a reason for new people to post.
It's almost like the common job seekers complaint trying to break into a field, they need experience (posts from posters) but how do they get the experience if they can't get the job (content from posters), people join forums to post with people, if they are not there they will zoom past.

At this time I am building a base of hand drawn comics, I hope to add more to what I got now, I have two new ones in my pocket and some unfinished one on the shelf, I am hoping I can get people checking in to see my comics, to show others and to check back for new ones, that is the hook I am developing, and every page has a link to my forum.
Got to have a hook, a reason for them to come back, and to drag others along with them.

Good luck, and check out my comics, I hope you like them, if you want you can leave a post in the forums 

[StDutch]

People are social animals and like to join crowds.    Personally I never joined empty forums, even though I've seen many that were built around interesting themes and ideas.

I am going to start a forum and I'm seriously considering paying people to post. There're many companies and individuals out there who propose paid forum posting services. Just to name a few, hxxp:www.inb0x.com [nonactive] and hxxp:www.forumpaidposting.com [nonactive]. Disclamer: I am in no way affiliated with mentioned companies, and never ordered their services.

What do you think about it?

[Tanks]

nite0859 ! That is a great article.. thanks, was good to read 

Paying people to post  that's a new one...  I would not do it !

[Isaac]

Paid Posting can work if you choose a good company. 

Read Here
and here

[Dannii]

If the point of your website is simply to exist and make money then I doubt it will be succesful. There are more than enough of those already.

[Joramilea]

Wonderful post!

Pay people to post on your site?? hmmmm  who is really making the money there??


I have had the same problem now.  I have 2 captive audiences.  Guilds with at least 60 active members each.  And it's hard to get them to the forums and register.  I have made these sites at the requests of the guild leaders and officers.

The other issue I have is once they register they end up with 0 posts after 3 months! 

I have been administrating guild forums for the past 8 years now.  And the one that did the best was the first guild website I ran and I was also leader of the guild.  It's sad that I had to take down that forum.  Partly due to the fact that my husband found this wonderful forum to use, and we were getting botts registering with the forums. (this has been going on for the past 2 years)  I just gave up on deleting their accounts and closed the forums and moved them to a new address.

But this artical was a really good read.  Thank you for posting it..

/walks off laughing... "Pay people to post! There is job I want!    "

[Pedja]

It is quite simple. You build forum because it is needed. It is wrong approach to build forum just because you like an idea. First you have to have people who are interested in forum topic. It must not be large number of popele, but enough that they should see forum as better way of their communcation. when they talk, they will get attention of others.

I know no forums that were bulit just to be built and that they suceeded creating community.

[TANDIONO.COM]

Nice article


To get members to post in forum is the hardest part, that's what i think...

[Tanks]

Nice article


To get members to post in forum is the hardest part, that's what i think...

Just throw them a bonus.. on my forum your are not a real member before you make your first post.

When you make your first post you get access to more features 

[pinoy123]

well for me i just made a new site for two weeks now and ive got 38 members. yes its true that not all of em participate and post but later on making your site cool and not the same with other forums will gathered members...   before i was once an admin of such a forum and they really gathered more members everyday, the key was before a member can download any files, they MUST have to upload files, so it would be like a p2p site. people are forced to post to be able to download. 

[Pedja]

I never liked forums that actualy pay users to post. When I run forum, I run it for specific topic and my goal is to get users who are interested in that topic. I do not force them to make posts to get rewards. I prefer if they post because they have to say something valuable, and I like when they come to forum just because participating is valuable to them.

[Re@PeR]

I've started out with phpBB and then I had 4 members of which 2 was active, switched to XMB (and modded it until it almost broke) and then had about 20 members of which 10 was active. Switched to SMF and everyone was oooooing and aaaaaing for the nice upgrade and I now have 38 members of which 16 is active and over 700 posts.
My forum is not for anything specific, it's a general forum with a subsection where we offer support for the products we sell, nobody have ever used the support section, my forum only exists as entertainment for me and my classmates when we're working late nighters, eg working 1 or 2 days straight on projects with no sleep, this becomes our nighttime entertainment. Most posts were made after 2'O clock in the morning and they are usually damn funny. My favourite one must be: "How do you know you've spent too much time in the lab"
This all happened in the past 2 months.

This also helps with keeping the moral of a team high, when you're feeling depressed or down from working too much, you go take a spin on the forums, google for funny stuff and post it and laugh until you feel better.

Getting the community is diffucult, but as long as the forum is all about having fun, you're going in the right direction.

[pinoy123]

now ive got 120 members for 3 weeks

953 Posts: 
589 Topics 
364 Replies

i dont know if its active than others but i love my forums. my beloved members are posting each boards.. i just made my site neat and clean especially for newbies in forums...


www.pinoyclan.com

[Niteblade]

120 Members in 3 weeks? 

I haven't accomplished that feat! Nice going!

However, if you are denying guests from reading your forum, you are also denying search engines from reading your forum as well. However, if you don't care about search engines and the like, then coolness.

[Niteblade]

I've started out with phpBB and then I had 4 members of which 2 was active, switched to XMB (and modded it until it almost broke) and then had about 20 members of which 10 was active. Switched to SMF and everyone was oooooing and aaaaaing for the nice upgrade and I now have 38 members of which 16 is active and over 700 posts.
My forum is not for anything specific, it's a general forum with a subsection where we offer support for the products we sell, nobody have ever used the support section, my forum only exists as entertainment for me and my classmates when we're working late nighters, eg working 1 or 2 days straight on projects with no sleep, this becomes our nighttime entertainment. Most posts were made after 2'O clock in the morning and they are usually damn funny. My favourite one must be: "How do you know you've spent too much time in the lab"
This all happened in the past 2 months.

This also helps with keeping the moral of a team high, when you're feeling depressed or down from working too much, you go take a spin on the forums, google for funny stuff and post it and laugh until you feel better.

Getting the community is diffucult, but as long as the forum is all about having fun, you're going in the right direction.

I love SMF.

[pinoy123]

120 Members in 3 weeks? 

I haven't accomplished that feat! Nice going!

However, if you are denying guests from reading your forum, you are also denying search engines from reading your forum as well. However, if you don't care about search engines and the like, then coolness.

i denied search engines as u said. not even an affiliates. i just told my members to invite others and when they registered they cooperate since they love each boards....

i also disable guest from viewing my forum.

[blkbear54]

Hello

I recently joined a forum SMF type and am unfrimilure with these type of forums.

My question is about collection of members information.

How I got to the forum was A very good friend post were sent to me by the Forum
I'll not name the forum. But the messages were headed from that group.

Soon after joining several friends that I havent had contact with for some time E-Mailed me as to how to reply to my post And advised they were receving every post I had made in that forum. I was upset my addressbook had a lot of contacts not pertaning to content on said forum and was afraid all post were being forwarded to every address in my book. NOT GOOD every thing I post is intended for that group only and should not be forwarded to anyone else !!!!!

Contacting my friend found that she was unaware and had not sent the forum post she had made to me.

Contacting the administrator of the forum I was told spam was not their policy and they were unaware of this happening. So is this something to do with the software used in the making of the forums they would be unaware of.

Or are they well aware of this and just making excuses at being caught

I know anything you post on the internet is subject to being read by others. But things posted in forums are for fun think about it would you like the last joke you posted forwarded to your boss without your knowing it.

feedback please
blkbear54 Mike

[StageStruck]

It is quite simple. You build forum because it is needed. It is wrong approach to build forum just because you like an idea. First you have to have people who are interested in forum topic. It must not be large number of popele, but enough that they should see forum as better way of their communcation. when they talk, they will get attention of others.

I know no forums that were bulit just to be built and that they succeeded creating community.

I'll go along with that.  My motivation for setting up a forum is to serve a community which already exists.  I'm involved in Community Theatre in a large industrial City in the North of England.  There are dozens of amateur theatre societies in and around the city with hundreds of members and none of the groups ever talk to each other.  It is my intention to provide a forum where groups can exchange ideas, amateur performers can find out what groups are planning productions they might be interested in auditioning for, groups can borrow props, wardrobe, scenery etc from each other.  In short to build a community where in the past there has been a large number of disparate people and organisations all isolated from one another.

I have decided to go about this the slow way.  This is why today I registered with this forum.  It is my intention to read the pages here and glean as much information and advice as I can from the experiences of others before I start to construct my site.  Once set up I know enough people involved  in Am-Dram to start a healthy and vibrant community before I launch it publicly.  That way I am more likely to attract and keep more subscribers.  I am of course lucky in that I have a specific target group to aim my publicity at when I finally do roll out the site.

You will therefore probably see my name popping up in posts on these pages quite a lot over the next few weeks and asking a lot of stupid questions so please be patient with me .   

[axlarry]

That was really a very motivating article! Thanks mate!

I'll wait then