Building a successful forum: Reference site vs community.

[ForumFan]

My forum has been online for 2-1/2 years. It's been very steady until recently. Recently, I've seen an uptick in posts. Mind you, my forum is still "very small potatoes" in the forum world. For quite a while, it's hovered right around 50 - 60 posts per day. But in the last few months, that has shot up to an average of 100 posts per day. Yeehaw! Why? I don't think it's anything in particular other than natural / organic growth.

My forum's primary topic is a narrow niche of a particular hobby. That's what initially attracts members and visitors.

But I intentionally made it open to all things related to that hobby... and beyond (life in general). A lot of forums out there are very picky about "staying on topic." They disallow politics, current events, or anything controversial. They get huffy if you talk about Topic A on a forum dedicated to Topic B, for example. I think that's generally a big mistake.

If you want to develop a real community, you have to let people be people. If a forum is strictly limited to a specific topic, it will be a reference site rather than a community. People will visit only when they need to discuss or research that specific topic (which may not be often). With a community, people will come back just to chat (about anything) or see "what's going on with the gang."

So, it's a marathon, not a sprint. But I think my forum is making real headway. And it's a really good group of active members, too. That's what really makes a forum... the active members. Give them the FREEDOM to discuss anything and everything. Sure, the primary topic is what got us together. But when we find we have OTHER things in common, we become FRIENDS. The forum becomes a gathering place for the community of friends.

My two cents. Your mileage may vary!

 

[Sim]

One one of my sites, our off topic area is almost as busy as the rest of the site. I believe the sign of a strong community is a healthy off topic area.

However, I have had to restrict certain topics (politics and religion being two of them) because we also have very strict rules of behaviour and these topics invariably fall down the rabbit hole of intolerance and things become personal.

My general guideline has always been: I don't want to ban people for stuff they were posting in an unimportant thread that wasn't even on topic for our site - especially when they are generally great contributors elsewhere on the site.

If you take a much more permissive approach with your moderation - then this is unlikely to be necessary, but I made the decision to take a hard line on behaviour early on and it seems to be working well for us. We have a very diverse community and I get a lot of positive feedback on how well it is moderated - indeed, our members demand that we maintain that approach and get grumpy when we don't keep on top of problematic threads.

I'm not suggesting this is the best way to do things - it's just the approach that works for us.

 

[Sim]

Just to add to my previous post - on that same site I have one topic area where there are a bunch of retirees who like to post - I think these guys are in their 70s.

They continually frustrate me because they like to talk about their latest coffee machine or about some new home brew kit they've set up, or some other random topic - in the middle of threads that are about a very specific topic. Despite my best efforts to try and get them to post about their favourite off topic stuff in the off topic area of the site - they are typically only active in a few threads and frequently drag them off topic for a while before eventually returning to topic.

As much as it irks me - I've had to give up on my usual approach to moderating such off topic content - because these guys add enormous value to the threads (when they are on topic!) with their experience and knowledge. I mean "adding value" quite literally - I've made a lot of money out of things I've learned from these guys.

After a few years of butting heads with these guys over moderation - I ended up taking the approach that their off topic posts were mostly harmless, and that the value they add far outweighs the annoyance of having to frequently disregard our own moderation rules in certain threads.

Regardless of how much value someone added to the site - I wouldn't tolerate other, less savoury behaviour - I've had to ban some of our best contributors because their intolerance directed towards other people was scaring other members away from the site. But in the case of our retirees, the guys are definitely in the "mostly harmless" category and so we put up with their eccentricities.

There are threads where members complain about off topic posts - but I think everyone respects our retirees and their contribution enough that they don't mind in those specific threads they post in - and indeed frequently join in the discussion about coffee or craft beer or whatever else has caught their attention this week

 

[CedricV]

My forum has been online for 2-1/2 years. It's been very steady until recently. Recently, I've seen an uptick in posts. Mind you, my forum is still "very small potatoes" in the forum world. For quite a while, it's hovered right around 50 - 60 posts per day. But in the last few months, that has shot up to an average of 100 posts per day. Yeehaw! Why? I don't think it's anything in particular other than natural / organic growth.

My forum's primary topic is a narrow niche of a particular hobby. That's what initially attracts members and visitors.

But I intentionally made it open to all things related to that hobby... and beyond (life in general). A lot of forums out there are very picky about "staying on topic." They disallow politics, current events, or anything controversial. They get huffy if you talk about Topic A on a forum dedicated to Topic B, for example. I think that's generally a big mistake.

If you want to develop a real community, you have to let people be people. If a forum is strictly limited to a specific topic, it will be a reference site rather than a community. People will visit only when they need to discuss or research that specific topic (which may not be often). With a community, people will come back just to chat (about anything) or see "what's going on with the gang."

So, it's a marathon, not a sprint. But I think my forum is making real headway. And it's a really good group of active members, too. That's what really makes a forum... the active members. Give them the FREEDOM to discuss anything and everything. Sure, the primary topic is what got us together. But when we find we have OTHER things in common, we become FRIENDS. The forum becomes a gathering place for the community of friends.

My two cents. Your mileage may vary!

Definitely truth here. If they want to make off topic posts, let them. It's how community bonding is done. And a strong community can literally survive anything. Imagine you'd lost every posts and members would need to restart. For a strong community, that isn't an obstacle. It's another challenge they'll overcome.

 

[Suzanne O]

My forum seems to be working ok with a small membership base.
So what do i do when i want success?
I build slowly and come up with topics such as some questions that builds discussions on my forum with my members.

When it comes to having to clean up after other members that keep on trying to get involved but go a bit too far with the discussion they get their posts that they made deleted in that thread.
A DM is fired off to them to discuss their reasons and we go from there.

We do have a rule that if they mess up the threads and get 5 thread bans it's an automatic day off with 10 warning points.

Rules are rules. I find we need them more than anything because it helps make better discussions.

My off topic section is private so they can go for their lives on there with any private stuff or public stuff they wish to talk about.

Whilst you might laugh at all of this, we've had as high as 12 members on our site.

Aggressive resets help because it deals with the mess that is left behind by others who find themselves banned.

What i do these things, it stops the trolls from joining up.

I've had plenty. One of them kept on posting up his gross imagery. He was a plumber by trade but he was posting up images that are too gross to even show anywhere.

 

[ForumFan]

I don't just have a single "off-topic" section. I have MANY sections that are "off-topic" from the primary focus of the forum. Though many of them are peripherally related to the primary topic. Some completely different.

One example... I have a "Furry Friends" Pet section that has NOTHING to do with the primary topic. I also have a Health & Fitness section.... nothing to do with the primary topic. And while those sections don't get nearly the traffic as the primary topic sections, they are used. People like talking about other stuff... other interests in common... with people they already know from the primary hobby that drew them together. Food & Drink is another. Completely "off-topic!" But people LOVE to talk about that stuff.

Off topic areas keep members coming back when their primary topic interests have been satiated for the time being.

 

[Suzanne O]

I don't just have a single "off-topic" section. I have MANY sections that are "off-topic" from the primary focus of the forum. Though many of them are peripherally related to the primary topic. Some completely different.

One example... I have a "Furry Friends" Pet section that has NOTHING to do with the primary topic. I also have a Health & Fitness section.... nothing to do with the primary topic. And while those sections don't get nearly the traffic as the primary topic sections, they are used. People like talking about other stuff... other interests in common... with people they already know from the primary hobby that drew them together. Food & Drink is another. Completely "off-topic!" But people LOVE to talk about that stuff.

Off topic areas keep members coming back when their primary topic interests have been satiated for the time being.

If you have one off topic area then that's ok too.