Ways to drive off traffic from your forum?

What are some ways to drive off traffic from your forum? Where people visiting your forum probably would join but decide not to because something isn't appealing to them or not to their liking so they end up leaving your forum without registering?

 

I do that all the time and If its 1 little mistake or I dont like how Admins running then im leaving done it to many forums.

 

Here are few:
Ugly design
Too many forums
Hard to navigate
No content
Not using a real domain

Those are some things I look at when going to a forum..

 

Bad design
No posts in a long time
Pop up or interstitial advertisements.
Loads of advertisements.

 

Gotta hate pop up ads. Normal ads dont bother me if it doesn't get in the way of content.

 

A bombardment of ads is never a good sign, when arguments between staff and members are clearly visible, when the admins/staff don't log in for a while and when there is a bad design/no content

 

Yea I agree, if you are having a staff discussion and it gets heated its best not display in public.. makes your forum look bad and the staff. Thats what a staff section is for.

 

Little activity is a big turn off for me. I also don't like the forums who have lots of flashy stuff on them and it takes an age to load.

 

Tell me about it, those are the admins who worry more about the looks than the content lol.

 

Graphic designs can appeal their psychology. Funky, floral, colorful designs can be very appealing while black or plain white designs are unappealing if you do not have content or posts.

 

As some people have already mentioned, poor site design or using an unattractive template would be a big turn off. But, it might not stop me from looking around the forum. Another thing that bothers me are forums with a black background and white letters. Sure, it's visually appealing. But, if they expect me to stick around for more than five minutes and read the posts, I'm going to need to see the words clearly. And, reading white on black is not easy.

Two other things will make me leave a forum faster than anything else.

First, if the board has almost no new discussions. What would be so difficult about admin or moderators going in and starting a few threads of their own? The forum visitors are not the only ones who can start threads. Or, recruit relatives to come by and post new discussions now and then. They would have their own user names, so it would make the forum look more active. I'm more likely to stay on an active forum than one that is constantly looking deserted.

Second, if I start a thread and no one responds, then I wonder if it's the right forum for me.

And, I'm speaking from personal experience on this one. Just about a week ago, I was on one of my favorite movie forums and started a discussion on werewolf movies and the only person thoughtful enough to respond was the admin. Ironically, the conversation, got 13 views, which tells me that people were actually reading the post but choosing not to respond. How can we (as forum users) have a conversation with other people when they won't talk?

Those are some of my biggest complaints as a forum user. So, then those would be the things I'd work on as a forum owner to fix if I noticed traffic and sign ups were down for the site.

 

Very good points, those are some things every forums owners should keep in mind. I always try my best to reply to every discussion. Because it does make people feel unwelcome, and I have been there myself. Its happens to me mostly on very big forums such as DigitalPoint which doesn't have that community spirit. Its same for all the large forums where no one really cares about anyone in the community or barely knows anyone.

 

Bad Design, No content, lots of ads

 

No posts in a long time seem to be the major factor, people enjoy seeing new content, and dislike a forum if its dead because if nobody is posting, why should they?

Loads of advertisements is also a huge turn off, members shouldn't see so many ads, but guests should.

 

I've noticed that on some forums, new members cannot "do" certain things until they reach X number of posts, or have been a member for X number of days. Also little activity is also unattractive for a forum.

 

You have one of the most responsive forums I have ever been to. Truly, you've done an excellent job of creating a real sense of community. I love talking about SEO and blogs and forums and it's rare to find a forum that discusses all my favorite things in one spot.

 

Thank you very much for the kind words I always try my best to keep my members happy. Something every forum owner should try to do.

I agree, that can be very annoying and actually cause you to loose interest. I have seen on forums like DigitalPoint where if you are new you always have to enter captcha every time while posting and always confirm its the right section, its very annoying.

 

Definitely. A forum must have good content and a nice style for me to join it, and not too many forums or I end up closing my tab.

 

Content, style, activity are all factors which entice people to join your site. If all or one is missing, you could lose a registration or two.

 

Yea, nobody wants to join a forum where there hasnt been posts in days.