are you comfortable talking about your forum to strangers?

When meeting new people and conversing with them, do you have a hard time getting up the nerve to tell them about your forum? It always makes me uncomfortable, and I think they'll think I'm just trying to sell them something and tune me out. How do you get over this?

 

It depends. When you tell these people are you simply generally wanting to tell them you have a forum and what it is like to run one etc or are you deep down wanting to get them onto it?

 

I haven't really come across a situation where i can bring it up. Not in person any way.
I dont think i would have a issue with it, if it were the right situation and i felt it was the right time to bring it up.

 

It really depends, since the focus of my site is fairly narrow unless a person really has an interest I'm not really "selling" the site, just talking about what I do.

 

It depends on the group of people. In some cases (ie: either of my fansites), in the right surroundings, absolutely. In fact, at a band show, a couple months back, the lead singer grabbed my camcorder and just started performing on stage with it, pointing it @ the crowd. Of COURSE the crowd got crazy, and, well, duuuh, shameless self promotion time!

The TV forum? If it comes up, I'm all about shameless self promotion!

 

anyone i come across that owns a toyota i give them a link to my site...

 

I actually bring up such discussion much more now. Whether or not my friends and family members know what I'm talking about, well... that's another story.

 

Hehe, I just asked my bro what he thought of my work online and he said that he doesn't express it much, but that he admires my talent. Made me happy, but the coversation got awkward when he asked about my anime site since he doesn't undertand English nor Japanese.

 

No, not really due to the nature of my content and the value of my collection.

First thing is people are overly sensitive to the subject of firearms. They believe anyone in possession of a firearm is a terrorist..especially if you own a semi-auto rifle like an AR15 or AK47. Now don't get me wrong, talking about guns is one of our ways of making small talk similar to "hows the weather". But not everyone enjoys the site of something like semi-auto rifle. Then I've been collecting firearms on and off for 25 years. It's one thing to mention something over the internet but it's another thing doing it in a small town where everyone knows your name. If the subject comes up I'll mention it but other than that I really don't mention it.

 

No, we have business cards, and take the forum teddy bear to things like concerts so people can get a picture with it and come look for it on the site later. Here are some example pictures from Crue Fest 2009. :devil: It's a lot of fun and it's a great way to try and get more fun and friendly members for your forums. You don't need to worry about forum ice breakers and other such things since the introductions are already done!

-Raymond

 

People I will never see again? I would prefer just to hand them a business card with the sites address. To me that is a lot more professional then telling them about it.

Rarely do I tell people that I do not know about my forum. Chances are they will forget about it as soon as we walk away.

 

I don't really tell new people I've just met about my forum, or discuss it with most people, but I don't really need to, since nigh on everyone I have known for a decent amount of time (and their family and friends) pretty much knows about it anyway.