TheWayoftheWeb

I’ve been debating part of the new Disposable Media website with a colleague, and it seems to be a topic that will apply to any new website/social app.

Is it worth having a forum? And how do you stop it staying empty?

My feeling is that it’s always worth having a forum. Although they have been supplanted by social networks when it comes to publicity, they are still immensely popular, easy to set set-up and use, and drive a different sort of interaction than many social networking sites. It’s a place for visitors to browse, hang out, and even if 95% of your audience are unlikely to contribute, you can bet a significant proportion will still pop in to have a look.

Getting it populated is trickier. I’m listing ideas below, but feel free to add more in the comments, or contact mcndant at hotmail dot com if you’re shy.

1. Encourage, help and bribe staff to post often. Being able to interact with the people running a forum/website is critical. It means you can judge what your most vocal audience think, and then respond. It also gives you a chance to explain why things may take a long time, get feedback on new changes, and improve things.

2. Keep it simple and grow. It’s pointless starting 200 seperate forums with 1 post in each, when you could have one vibrant forum. You can always split out into categories later, so why force restrictions from the start? And monitor which bits get a decent level of interest. Most cities grew from villages and towns, and weren’t just invented overnight. The same applies to forums.

3. Treat it with respect, and allow users to make it home. Think of the forum like a village. Your job is to provide the gas, water and bricks for building. It’s not to restrict your users. Let them upload avatars and signatures (Images as well if you have the bandwith). Make changes to the navigation to let them craft the way it looks and feels. If you show you’re ready to listening to your forum users, they’ll be far more likely to listen when you have something to share.

4. Rule with a light hand and consistent rules. Noone wants a telling off from a moderator, but the way it’s delivered will make a big difference. And having clear, straight-forward rules which apply equally to all makes life a lot easier for everyone. Noone likes it when the rules can change on them. The flipside is that the best forums all have some form of moderation by owners or users to stop the worst excesses of offensive posting and spamming.

5. Don’t make it different for the sake of it: The majority of forums are based on one or two of the most popular free forum software providers. Which means people know and understand the way those forums work immediately. Throw something different in their face and they’ll have to figure out how it works, before they figure out how to make the most of it.

Those are some obvious, but often missed observations. But really this is just to get the ball rolling, so please do add your thoughts and suggestions. Either comment below, or email mcndant at hotmail dot com.

Alternatively, you can now join The Way of the Web on Facebook.

NB: The following post assumes that you don’t mind anyone with a web browser being able to track your every move…

Now that social networking has reached everyone, there are plenty of people banking on the next way to improve on online networks

And it seems the next step is to further integrate your online persona with your real-life location. It’s fine hooking up with a new friend on the other side of the planet due to your shared love of Japanese animation or vintage cars, but it’s also handy to find someone with the same interest that lives in the next street and comes round for an evening of DVD watching, or can help you change your rear axle.

There’s a whole range of location services springing up. But some have better value than others.

For instance, I’ve been playing with radiusIM today. It’s a social Instant Messaging service, which combines an MSN Messenger like function (And interacts with AOL, MSN, Yahoo and GTalk messaging), with a map displaying the whereabouts of your friends, and the nearest people to you on the service.

The problem with radiusIM is that is deson’t really have a clear function. There’s not enough detail to initiate flirting with strangers of the opposite sex, there’s no way to build groups around a local area, and the one other function, the ability to track where your friends are currently located, falls down due to the fact the locations have to be defined manually by a user. So for my friends to spot me walking to the pub, I’ve got to log in and move my location every few minutes…

A fat better idea is the mobile application Oops I’m Late! I’ve yet to test it thoroughly, but it’s got a winning idea. Set an appointment in your mobile calendar, and if you’re running late, it automatically notifies the contacts you’ve selected, and gives an estimated time of arrival etc… So you can let your colleagues know to delay their meeting, and save your family from wondering if you’ve forgotten the shopping etc, without having to remember to text every single one of them. Perfect for people who travel a lot and can’t use a mobile while they drive or ride their motorcycle…Or to put it another way “Revolutionary, disruptive technology that is designed to keep your common courtesy quota up”

As with anything it’s those ideas which can be explained in a single sentence which work. And with location tracking, it’s those services which don’t involve manual input, and can utilise mobile phones which will show the great benefits.

NB: The following post assumes that you don’t mind anyone with a web browser being able to track your every move…

Now that social networking has reached everyone, there are plenty of people banking on the next way to improve on online networks

And it seems the next step is to further integrate your online persona with your real-life location. It’s fine hooking up with a new friend on the other side of the planet due to your shared love of Japanese animation or vintage cars, but it’s also handy to find someone with the same interest that lives in the next street and comes round for an evening of DVD watching, or can help you change your rear axle.

There’s a whole range of location services springing up. But some have better value than others.

For instance, I’ve been playing with radiusIM today. It’s a social Instant Messaging service, which combines an MSN Messenger like function (And interacts with AOL, MSN, Yahoo and GTalk messaging), with a map displaying the whereabouts of your friends, and the nearest people to you on the service.

The problem with radiusIM is that is doesn’t really have a clear function. There’s not enough detail to initiate flirting with strangers of the opposite sex, there’s no way to build groups around a local area, and the one other function, the ability to track where your friends are currently located, falls down due to the fact the locations have to be defined manually by a user. So for my friends to spot me walking to the pub, I’ve got to log in and move my location every few minutes…

A fat better idea is the mobile application Oops I’m Late! I’ve yet to test it thoroughly, but it’s got a winning idea. Set an appointment in your mobile calendar, and if you’re running late, it automatically notifies the contacts you’ve selected, and gives an estimated time of arrival etc… So you can let your colleagues know to delay their meeting, and save your family from wondering if you’ve forgotten the shopping etc, without having to remember to text every single one of them. Perfect for people who travel a lot and can’t use a mobile while they drive or ride their motorcycle…Or to put it another way “Revolutionary, disruptive technology that is designed to keep your common courtesy quota up”

As with anything it’s those ideas which can be explained in a single sentence which work. And with location tracking, it’s those services which don’t involve manual input, and can utilise mobile phones which will show the great benefits.

Whenever you design a web application or service, a big part of your job is to try and define how it will serve your consumers. Even if it’s something which is totally customisable and designed to be individual to every user, you still need to work out how people will interact with it to set it up…

And there is a great example on www.flip.com. It’s a social networking/slide show type site from Teen Vogue and publishers Conde Nast.

So how will they respond to the fact some girls have grouped together to create their own magazine and publish it on flip? Check it out, here.

The right way would be to take a look, and maybe publicise the fact it’s happening. Use it as a great example of interaction to build their community, and perhaps use it to find new writing talent and ideas.

The wrong way would be to try to stop it, and see it start somewhere else.

And speaking as the Editor of an independant online magazine, it’ll be interesting to see how it turns out…