Are admin forums deader than disco?

Ya, see because a lot of forum owners weren't focusing on building content in their other sections, but instead focused all their attention on the drama. Which is stupid in my eyes because you should always try to build around drama when its going on. Especially if there's a lot of users viewing the drama thread, they'll eventually go on a read the other topics that are available and possibly reply to them. Also, I see less admin forums using postloop to generate more posts/threads onto their communities. It's a great service and it should be utilized to the fullest especially since you can tell the members what they can and cannot post, so you set the rules and standards of what type of posting you'd like to see from postloop members.

 

Can't say I've ever had any interest in Postloop. I don't believe services like that benefit forums we're the only reason people post on your forum is because you post on theirs. It's false.

 

Have you ever heard about technology disruption? It is the theory that basically every technology reaches a peak and then it is championed by a newer technology. Some technologies last longer than others, but there is a definitely life cycle to be seen. Standard light bulbs to energy saving light bulbs. Blackberrys to iPhones. Computers, to laptops, to tablets. I think we are seeing this cycle with forums/ online communities today. They've seen their peak and now social networks are the next technology taking over the "social" side of forums, which was never really their strong point to begin with. I actually do believe, had forums united and and at the same time, would have had better possibilities to be unique, despite sharing the same niche topics, then forums would have lasted a lot longer. The segregation of users is the current downfall of forums. It is a simple fact that one user on a forum will be the same user on another forum. There is no "my users" and it is exactly this mentality, which is also hurting the forum world now. The competition should never be for the users. It should be for the better, more interesting content.

Just my 2 cents.

Scott

 

I honestly think unless your a grandfather forum (aka been around a long time) then you pretty much don't stand a chance anymore. I don't even think my own forum stands a chance. But I am trying to offer more then just a forum. I am using wordpress to publish information and I have a photo gallery.

Besides social websites killing forum, there once was a time where you would go to a forum for information. Today there are hundreds of millions of websites that offer information that you use to only find on forums. All and all I don't think the outlook is good for forums, but I am not willing to give up!

Greg

 

I don't think even old big boards are safe as much. We've read about a few well known forum changing software in an attempt to revitalise things, so think many big boards are even feeling the pinch of dwindling activity happening and trying to stop the rot changing forum software.

 

The problem is its way to easy to find what you want on Facebook. And there is a Facebook group for everything. I just read some where about a month ago that Facebook mobile has 1 billion users.

Greg

 

People who post on forums will always post on forums, I believe that, and there are some that will only use FB, and some that will use both.

I think forums will grow, but they will take longer than they used to, and they have to be better than anything out there, plus they have to build up a reputation to drag members from other forums in the same niche.

I agree with Scott, that forums in the same niche should be looking to help each other, not try to out do each other, people will naturally migrate anyway, and some admins are in a fantasy world where they think that all their members only post on their forums.

As for Admin forums, I was on FP, until I realised I was spending more time on there, than I was on my own forum, just to get enough points to "buy" a review, posting package, whatever, it sunk in eventually the only forum I was helping was FP, and if you look at the Admin forums that sprout up, most of them are FP members doing posting packages !

 

Problem is Jack, it's getting that hard to get a forum going off the ground, that it starts to seem pointless even putting the effort into one adding lots of topics these days. And even if you spend months, a year doing it, chances are it will still get you nowhere and you just wasted your time doing it. These posting sharing schemes, I don't see the point? The minute you stop posting on their forum - they'll stop posting on yours. It's false... and is that how you want to be running a forum, only getting posts because you post on their site? Just sounds (it is a "desperation" method) being used to try and get posts on a forum

And as for offering something different to capture people from other forums in same niche, it's easier said than done, plus some people ain't interested in leaving one forum to another, even if you do offer more.

 

I think we sort of agree, but time is the essence, and it maybe the come and go attitude of a lot of forums that have caused their demise, one thing I have found out is that people hate losing any form of reward points, as well as posts !

 

I just stared my forum and I am not going to throw in the towel. I do know the odds are against me and its probably never going to get off the ground. But I have a disability and I can not work. My website gives me a sense of accomplishment even if no one is looking at it, and there is that slight chance that one day it may take off the ground.

P.S. This time I have learned from all my failures and I am taking things slow and easy. I just spent $60 on a new skin today. And I still need $225 in plugins, but I am not trying to do it all at once. I am doing a little at a time. Last time I went in guns blazing and spent all kinds of money. And I also learned that unless you have super niche its going to take years before (If ever) your forum gets off the ground. And I also know you need more then a forum today which is why I am running a blog too. I plan on adding video the the blog at some point too. I already uploaded a test video and it worked great.

Greg

 

That's fine, as there's nothing wrong with running a site if it gives you pleasure doing it, whether it be used or not. Some even run HTML websites on which comments can't ever be posted back, done out of pure enjoyment running it.

 

If you have the "patience" to run a forum for years doing nothing, not get frustrated in that time taking it down because of it. Then yes, you do stand a better chance of it working for you. Many don't have that kind of patience though. Running a forum for a few months doing nothing is fine, when you get over a year and things are still the same you quickly start to lose interest.

Look at TAZ since they moved to XenForo pitted against this forum. The difference, only Bob is staff here, yet TAZ has loads of staff that make up most of the daily postings to keep that forum looking active. Look at TAZ Top 10 posters block after they first moved to XenForo from vB3. First few days all top 10 posters listed was staff. My point being, Howard is not stupid and uses lots of staff members in place to keep the forum looking "a lot more" active than the place really is.

 

Hi. I actually joined because I got caught up reading this thread. And I wanted to reply to comments here but I managed to lose the quotes that were in the buffer, so from memory....

1. Regarding an admin forum on IPB instead of XF. This would be good because then more admins could get used to how it works from the POV of a member. Give them exposure to a different forum paradigm. And because the topic is admin stuff, the members could ask staff about this and that relative to IPB. This is better than taking a quick look on a demo board or posting some questions on a company board.

2. Regarding all XF boards looking the same. Funny thing is, it never bothered me when I ran into one more VB board that used the default theme, as long as they had a well-done individual logo. Maybe because VB has a generic "columns and rows" look that predates forums moving to the Internet. But with XF, it does bother me. Maybe because they made the index page look less like a ledger sheet, and so it's not generic. I was actually very impressed by the XF theme at first, and now I'm thankful when I see an XF that doesn't look like XF.

3. VB bashing. I've done this a little myself, and now I'm trying to stay away from it. When it starts saturating every thread, it gets tedious. I'm staff at a VB board where I used to be an admin, and so I try to keep up on what's happening. But when every thread turns into "IB sucks" then it is too difficult to sift through to find the tech stuff. There are still plenty of VB communities out there who would like to support each other, but it's become very difficult. And I really don't think the bashers need to be banned or deleted. Sometimes companies need to be bashed. But if the topic is a technical issue, it would be nice to see the "IB Sucks" messages moved over into the "IB Sucks" thread. And I'm not commenting on here because I have not read a lot here. Just speaking in general.

BTW, I would love to see an admin board running on Burning Board. I think it would make for some interesting discussion, at least initially. Thing is, though, it would be quite a risk. If it didn't work out, it would be hard to find a migration script to move away from it.

 

@GTB

Ya, because he turns active posters into staff members. He's playing the forum game smart though because if you have a lot of staff members actively posting, then the users are more than likely going to be more active because they see a lot of new posts and threads being posted. So, they want to join the fun as well. I don't blame him for having a lot of staff because TAZ is a big-board with over 800k posts and 69k members. You can't really beat that especially considering how long their forum has been opened. It took them a lot of hardwork, dedication and patience to grow that large.

Any forum can do it as long as you bust your ads and make content along with market your forum game in various of places across the internet. Without promotion a forum won't go anywhere unless word of mouth is the only thing growing the community.

 

Actually that not good stats. 800.000 posts divided by 69000 users. If my maths is correct averages 10 or 11 posts per user.

 

Its hard to get people to sign up and its even harder to keep them posting. Most people sign up and make a few posts and never some back.

P.S. I have 2100+ posts on TAZ.

Greg

 

This site has less' vB' bashing than TAZ, and I intend to keep it this way. For example, a vB release thread often becomes full of pointless ranting, with very little that adds to the topic. This shouldn't always be the case, and AT should be a nice, enjoyable site.

 

My point was this. I know very well that TAZ has lots of users with a very high post count (per person). Even I have around 2000 posts made on TAZ. So that means if dividing their posts by users. Quoted myself below that I posted above.

They obviously carry a lot of "dead wood" then, users with a zero post count to make member base look large. Who really they should have removed most by now as inactive users, or spam bots that got in and never posted. You only have to knock off my 2000 posts (one user) to see how fast that 10-11 post per user comes down. Do that with more users on TAZ that have a large post count and you quickly run into negative numbers (many users who must have a zero post count then)..