Your First Members

Do you have a way to recognize your first (founding) members? Perhaps give them a special username color or rank badge?

Especially after your site has been around for a long time and these founding members are still around, I think it would be appropriate to somehow recognize them and appreciate their loyalty to the forum.

Do you recognize them in any way?

 

I haven't on my sites, but I've seen other sites give them titles like Charter Member, Founding Member etc.

 

Not yet, but with the new site [which it's still under development] I'll be giving them something to look forward to.

 

Not recently, but I have in the past. Individuals who became members during the early stages of the community would be transferred over to a "special" usergroup, allowing them to choose between displaying their username "as-is" or having it show as bold and orange publicly.

Needless to say, they were honored.

 

What are your opinions of this idea? Is it good, bad, or not important?

 

Strangely, I've never really recognised the first set of members on my own forum with any special title or usergroup benefits, although it probably wouldn't matter any more due to how few of the very first members are still regular visitors, with only about two or three of them being in that group, and those already being staff.

I'm curious though to if there are any benefits to doing this? Does it keep members around longer? Help community spirit?

 

I've been thinking about this one my self. A lot of sites use titles like founding member or something to that effect.

 

I don't think I'd do that myself, it seems to be a way of granting status that later members could never hope to achieve. I did give the first sign-ups on a "spin off" forum a custom title if they joined before a certain date, though. Later members could always purchase a premium membership or otherwise distinguish themselves to earn the same privilege.

 

I give them a larger pm, a custom user title and the option to have their username bolded or a different color.

 

Yes, the first members are the ones that make the community happen, if it wasn't for the first than the forum would most likely not happen to get larger...

Gifting these members is a great thing to do, especially if they're active and stick around...

 

Ok for the newbs...people like me :o

How do you add things like founding member and the option of the member using titles or bold names etc?

 

The first and active ones are important for me. After the first month(s) I make a selection of who is allowed to get a special rank. These ranks are transferable though all of the community's I manage or plan to found.

I won't just give them to inactive users. Just to valuable users.