As the forum grows, do you remain active?

100% right, Cerberus. The moment we stop caring about the community, it will do down

 

It's not that we don't care about the community, sometimes it's just that the community doesn't really care about the site.

I put every ounce of my time on MVC3Forum and making it successful, everything from posting, to marketing, to updating, and whatnot. By the time UMVC3 came out, the site died, when I expected the site to skyrocket on launch. Didn't work. Now, few months ago, I changed the site name from MVC3Forum to UMVC3Forum only in name. If nothing is done by Summer's end, I am going to move the site to a new domain.

 

Ya, that's a real key factor though, but there's also time that's based into that concept. I've never stopped caring for any of my communities, especially when I was younger, and if I needed a break from the actions of the community, I'd allow my staff members to continue on running the community, but you are right.

I'm also thinking that once you're passion is gone, then the community is really screwed. I guess that's when you decide either to sell it or pass it to someone else.

 

I absolutely do stay active. I'm not there for the money or to just "get them up and running, hope they make it big, and then take off." The REASON I like forums is because of the community, so as sites get bigger, I actually want to post even more myself. Now that's not to say that I don't take more breaks or spend more time browsing than "working hard" with providing new content all the time, etc. I do slack off at times but for the most part, I still remain pretty active.

 

Truth be told, as the admin, you should WANT to be and stay active anyway, not feel obligated to. That's your hard work, time, and effort there. If you don't post, it not only looks like you probably don't care. But it also gives the look that your forum might be somewhat of a lawless frontier.

 

Of course, its just like feeding a garden. If you don't seed it, water it, and take care of it, nobody else will. I can honestly say the more active the forum owner/staff members are, the more active the users are. It's really all about having a good team structured, and members that love to post, and market. Well, marketing by the members, I mean, that they attract more people easily.

Word of mouth is really strong, and always will be. If a forum admin is getting tired, or exhausted, then of course, its time to take a break, get focused again, and run the community back to the top.

 

I have to agree with what lots are posting here in regards to an Admin remaining active even if the forum takes off and runs smooth. There should ALWAYS be someone active at all times in upper management of a forum with the ability to assist both members and their staff in situations that require either a more tactful approach or higher permissions level. Murphy's law shows that bad things happen when we least expect it, in this case it would be during a vacation, or an extended off-line venture, etc... Good help is hard to find and most forum owners tend to face that problem all the time, which limits their ability to take any free-time.

If you are or have an Admin that has proven to be dependable, well rounded in their skill sets, able to use tact when dealing with sensitive / heated situations, performs well under pressure, and displays genuine dedication to the forum, then you may have a vacation coming. If you have to question whether or not your community will still be around when you get back or if the wheels might fall off in your absence, then it's probably best you continue stay active. Maybe take your laptop with you on vacation and at least check in a couple times a day (just in case).

I'm a firm believer that an Admin should have an active day to day presence in a community in order to retain staff morale and members confidence. Personally, I'm checking in and active 10 to 16 hours per day regardless where I am, whether it be on my Desktop, Laptop, tablet, or windows Phone. I still have the freedom to travel, enjoy life, and socialize offline using mobile devices, but I have the added reassurance that I can be there when needed. I've also supplied all staff with my Mobile Text number so that in the event I haven't been able to check in for a little bit and something happens that requires immediate administrative attention, I can be there to support staff and community.

In short, Yes, I agree that Admins should continue to be active in their communities even after they get active.

Eric Lyon

 

I have taken a few days off here and there to work on another project but i am getting back out there

 

When I take a few days off, I make sure to get a lot of threads up, that way, my staff and users have more threads to talk on. It's great because now we're seeing a lot more members creating threads, and actively keeping the threads moving, which is really awesome!

That's the truth.

 

I did an experiment on my site. Since last saturday I have been on everyday as usual and in the chatbox but i wanted to see if i stopped making threads would they simply just let the site die out or would they step up.

I had a HUGE problem with members preferring to come to the forum simply to chat in the chatbox and not really post and I really am pleased to see they stepped up. My staff actually stepped up and it showed me that I can take time from the site and not worry that they'll let it die out

Starting tomorrow, I plan to be back full force(i haven't been in the top 20 posters all week. I am ashamed lol)

 

We had a chat box before, and I noticed it was taking away our forum activity. I removed it, a few users were mad but they got over it pretty quickly.
Ya, see, you have a great staff team. I remember I had to step down from my community a year because of my disorder[I'm bipolar] and the community did just fine without me for two weeks. I was so grateful.

 

My site is pretty teen centric and thus VERY SOCIAL so i figure if i ever did take the chatbox away then they'd just make a tinychat(they have before) or go to skype, FB, etc etc

But that does sound like an awesome stafflist.
Since my site originally was 13-16 centric a lot of my staff was very young and immature.

Now the site has expanded to 13-19 and it allows me a diversity of members to chose from.

 

My community is full of teens/adults so I know exactly what you're talking about. You could take it away, and then run a contest to get the boards flowing even more.
What's your forum called?

Some of my members are young as well, but we try hard to help them out, too.

 

I am always active, log in a few times a day and it has always been that way. When it grows I think I will be still active as I am now.

 

I'll always stay active in my forum, if I stop being active I fear my forums will die, even when it becomes big. I may not be as active when I first started the forums, because I was hungry to make it succeed, but I will still remain active.

 

I plan on staying active. If I have the staff to keep things rolling then I could spend less time but I plan on being active. Thats part of the reason I started it. In the end I like to have 3 so that would hurt my time a bit. I might have to cut back on other forums I'm on to make more time for my own. I have always had 3+ tabs up for just forums. I had 8 running at a time and posting on what was interesting to me so it shouldn't be an issue to stay pretty active.

James

 

Of course. I see no reason to make the site if I don't want to be a huge part in it! I'd love to expand in the future actually.

 

I agree with you 100% because I'll post regardless if my members are posting or not. I always try my best to work hard on my community especially on days that I have to work at my part time job. If I take time off/a break, I always try to make it up to my community on the next day by posting a lot of new topics and responding to posts. Running an online community is very fun and sometimes I lose track of time because I'm so busy being active on my community.

 

Forums are my passion. I'll always be active within my community.