How much do you interact with members?

I try to interact with my forum members as much as possible. I see some admins who hardly ever join a conversation. Worse yet, I have seen some who do not reply to feedback or suggestions even when it is something good. When i see a great post or thread, I try to join in on the conversations.

 

I have a shoutbox in our forum where others chat. I do involve in chat and also in every post i like.

 

I'm always interacting with my members - whether if we're talking on a thread, or over Private messages or visitor messages. I consider my community as a place to make friends, network, and enjoy yourself. As an owner, I always try my best to interact with my users, because without them, our community wouldn't be anything.

Can't say I like having the shoutbox though, it takes away activity from the forums, and I find it to be pointless really. @forumhookers

 

Constantly. The main reason I like forums is because of the community, so as an admin, that's still what I enjoy. I would only have a forum in a topic I was thoroughly interested in anyway, too, so that means I'm going to be even more active. I really hate forums where the owner isn't active at all and it makes me feel like they're only doing it for possible monetary gain...which means most times it's not going to succeed and thrive anyway.

 

I honestly, could be a little better at it. In fact, me being here when I probably SHOULD be at my own website is very telling of that. But, when I do interact with them, it's usually pretty fun and engaging to say the least.

 

Depends of the amount of the free time.

 

Well said. Usually when the owner is active, the community has a lot more success. Same here, a lazy owner doesn't impress anyone. I love interacting with my members because without them, my community wouldn't be anything. I believe the more active you are, the more active your members will become.

@L12345 I see what you're saying, but why run a forum if you don't have any time to dedicate to it? IE, communicating with the members.

 

My view of the forum develop is as much as possible admin control. It's good admin to be almost invisible. It's a pity that it's not so possible- you know spammers, adult links and so on.
What I mean is that I would like people to have as much as possible freedom and to communicate with each other.

I wish I could have more time, really ​

 

I'm sorry, I meant "as much as possible LESS admin control"

 

Pretty much the same here. I try to post at least a couple of times daily but if I'm otherwise busy sometimes I can go for a week or two without posting on the boards.

 

It's ~100% impossible for the working people to be regular in the forums. Well, if you're just a teenager or a billionaire, you can afford it. But for us - the working people. No way.

 

In all honestly, I sometimes send out PM's to my members to see how they're doing and if they have any fresh ideas that we could use. It's a great idea to take the time out to interact with your members because they are the reason why your forum is still going on. If you don't make the effort to interact with your members, then what's the point of running an online community? The key to a forum's success is the interaction between members, owners, and staff members.

Also, the key to success is to make sure your members are happy about what's going because if your members aren't happy, then your forum can go downhill. And also, does anyone talk to their members via instant messenger? Sometimes you can get faster replies to threads if you're on their instant messengers.