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.

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