People like to lurk - to read what's going on, and possibly, continue to read the content but not participate. In, what ways have you guys done to turn the lurkers into posters? I know lurkers usually come up when they find something interesting to post on.
I'm not a huge fan of contests, so I don't host so many contests at the present time, but what I am doing though is trying to post more content and keeping posts up to date and I'm still trying to promote as much as I can, so yeah. Not much one can do when they don't exactly like contests, but I might try my luck with holding a contest in the future, though.
As an upcoming forum you should try all things. Even if you the administrator might not like. Where you're at now which is just starting out you should try it out. It helps is what it does. So it couldn't hurt.
Keep posting interesting things to keep them coming back and finally make them join. There is many ways to do so.
To see images and links on my board, you must register. After that you pretty much have access to everything. I have a gallery on my site. It is work safe... unless you ask to see the adult parts of it. That brings me one post. After that, hopefully they'll continue to post or at least leave comments in the gallery, grow attached to the website and start participating. I am not saying this method is effective and can be applied universally, it still leaves much to be desired. I too am wondering how to get those lurkers to post. I rewrote the rules to make them more strict, made an announcement to discourage spamming and to promote meaningful topics. I don't have any results from this as I did that yesterday. I will certainly provide feedback when I have enough data to see if all the small steps I'm taking bear fruit.
As my website is a sharing website, it also helps as an anti-leech measure. But yes, your point is completely valid.
We have our reasons... my point is you really dont know, some might get annoyed and leave, and other might actually join to unlock it. It all depends on the lurkers.
If its one thing I learned in the past, its let lurkers lurk. The only thing your going to do by forcing them to become a member is piss them off and drive them away. Let them join when they are ready to become a member on their own.
Not bad, I agree you dont what those lurkers to stop lurking either way if they join or not. Still traffic.
