Didn't see "site suggestions" for this site so...

[bennylava]

What if this site had a subforum called "Getting off the ground" where members here could help out and go make a few posts on a new site?

So if someone buys a license and sets up their Xenforo message board, and they need the first page of each subforum filled up, the community (here) could go create a thread or two, and make a post or two. It wouldn't hurt anything, and it would get their forums fleshed out and looking good instead of looking like a ghost town.

I've heard of "services" that will do this for you, but I've yet to hear about any kind of results. I have my doubts that such services could offer convincing threads and posts. So that it sounded something like what a new member might say. But if anyone has a good idea for this, I'd love to hear it. I expect to have my forum up and running in about 2 - 3 weeks, and I'm wondering what I'll do to address this issue.

 

[MySiteGuy]

I've seen it tried elsewhere in the past, but it usually fizzles out because people are very enthusiastic about others posting on their forum, but their enthusiasm goes away when it comes to reciprocating.

 

[Digital Doctor]

Thread '[TH] Fake Users [Deleted]'

Nov 28, 2015

wang submitted a new resource:

Fake users - Make your forum appear busy

About this add-on

This add-on is designed to add fake users to your forum so it will appear busy. Fake users will appear as viewing the forum list when viewing the online list.

Cron

A new cron, Fake Users, has been added to the Cron Entries list in your Admin Panel. You can run it anytime that you want to add fake users in your forum.

Settings

• Fake Users
  
• Online Session
  
• Last Activity Criteria
  
• Excluded Groups

There you...

...

• wang
• Replies: 44
• Forum: Add-on releases

That was an old addon.

I don’t see one for xf2

 

[James]

There is a showcase section that people post in and generally get a few sign ups.

 

[AjayJunkies]

Hi, I run a forum admin / forum webmaster site and this is an idea we've come across many times - this is known as a volunteer posting exchange.

Some thoughts:

1. The idea of a posting exchange sounds great. You voluntarily add 5 posts to another forum, you get 5 posts back, etc. There are multiple actual problems with this concept in reality: enforcement, expertise, inequality of contribution, etc. Just because you go out of your way to make 5 posts, how do you ensure you get 5 quality posts back? Also, you're an expert in dogs and gardening and personal finance, but the new forum is about civic engineering, how do you contribute? It's far easier and simpler to actually buy a service bundle for 5 posts, where you get a predefined amount of posts. While not perfect, at least you remove one of the issues by knowing the amount of posts you're getting in advance. You're not relying on voluntary contributions.
2. One of the biggest issues is inequality of contribution, and this is a problem that exists regardless of how large your community scale. You may have heard of variations of this like 90 - 9 -1, where 90% of your users don't contribute anything at all.
3. At the end of the day, concepts like posting exchanges, launch teams, or post bundles are only meant to be supplements to what you're trying to build. If you are worried about not having enough activity on Day 1 of launch, then I would argue you have a bigger problem: you haven't done your homework in your prelaunch. Most people launch their communities too soon. The adage 'if you build it, they will come' is not true anymore for forum building. In your prelaunch, you need to identify and build your own audience, your own followers, or your own group of active users.

 

[bennylava]

I've seen it tried elsewhere in the past, but it usually fizzles out because people are very enthusiastic about others posting on their forum, but their enthusiasm goes away when it comes to reciprocating.

Not sure why, it only takes a few minutes. I'd do it. I'd simply stop by here once a month and go do a few of them. If enough people would do this, there would be no problem getting off the ground with posts.

 

[bennylava]

Hi, I run a forum admin / forum webmaster site and this is an idea we've come across many times - this is known as a volunteer posting exchange.

Some thoughts:

1. The idea of a posting exchange sounds great. You voluntarily add 5 posts to another forum, you get 5 posts back, etc. There are multiple actual problems with this concept in reality: enforcement, expertise, inequality of contribution, etc. Just because you go out of your way to make 5 posts, how do you ensure you get 5 quality posts back? Also, you're an expert in dogs and gardening and personal finance, but the new forum is about civic engineering, how do you contribute? It's far easier and simpler to actually buy a service bundle for 5 posts, where you get a predefined amount of posts. While not perfect, at least you remove one of the issues by knowing the amount of posts you're getting in advance. You're not relying on voluntary contributions.
2. One of the biggest issues is inequality of contribution, and this is a problem that exists regardless of how large your community scale. You may have heard of variations of this like 90 - 9 -1, where 90% of your users don't contribute anything at all.
3. At the end of the day, concepts like posting exchanges, launch teams, or post bundles are only meant to be supplements to what you're trying to build. If you are worried about not having enough activity on Day 1 of launch, then I would argue you have a bigger problem: you haven't done your homework in your prelaunch. Most people launch their communities too soon. The adage 'if you build it, they will come' is not true anymore for forum building. In your prelaunch, you need to identify and build your own audience, your own followers, or your own group of active users.

1. I don't know anything about civic engineering but I'd contribute by simply asking a question (or two) of another poster. We're assuming that the owner would have made a post or two by that time. Even a simple "Where is this located?" in reply would be valuable. Or "I always wanted to visit that one" or "Yes we have something similar in my town".

You're just going there to make random posts, all we're doing is getting rid of the ghost town look. So to me, that problem doesn't sound like a problem.

2. I hadn't heard of this until now. Is that common? You really get 90% of your users that are active, yet don't post anything? So 9 out of 10 people are coming there only to read what other people are saying?

 

[AjayJunkies]

It's a rule of thumb of the proportion of lurkers, contributors, and creators for an Internet community.

1% rule - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[FTL]

I've seen it tried elsewhere in the past, but it usually fizzles out because people are very enthusiastic about others posting on their forum, but their enthusiasm goes away when it comes to reciprocating.

Exactly, my enthusiasm ran away (quickly) when I realised I'd have to reciprocate as much as I got. I have neither the time nor the inclination for this, so never did it.

@MySiteGuy @AjayJunkies FWIW, I actually got my site off the ground by adding all the content myself, ie starting lots and lots of new and interesting threads daily. It was a slog and it was obvious that I was talking to myself, but it worked. It did eventually actually start taking off, getting a fairly consistent 20-40 posts per day that weren't all mine, but then things happened and it faded away down to the low level it's at today, with a tiny handful of dedicated users - not really enough to call it a success in any way, even for a small hobby forum and the monthly cost to keep the lights on isn't trivial, either.

I'm gonna try and relaunch it with a new domain (already have it) a new focus that reflects more accurately the way it's being used today, plus a new theme, then advertise it a bit and see if that helps any. Later, I may restructure it a bit as well, we'll see.

If you want to see how it looks right now, it's linked in my siggy below. It's currently sitting at 1508 threads and 12469 posts, so it's not a trivial amount of content for new users to look at and do feel proud of even this modest achievement.

---

In case you're reading this comment some time later and the changes have since been made, the original domain was nerdzone.uk.

 

[Suzanne O]

Exactly, my enthusiasm ran away (quickly) when I realised I'd have to reciprocate as much as I got. I have neither the time nor the inclination for this, so never did it.

@MySiteGuy @AjayJunkies FWIW, I actually got my site off the ground by adding all the content myself, ie starting lots and lots of new and interesting threads daily. It was a slog and it was obvious that I was talking to myself, but it worked. It did eventually actually start taking off, getting a fairly consistent 20-40 posts per day that weren't all mine, but then things happened and it faded away down to the low level it's at today, with a tiny handful of dedicated users - not really enough to call it a success in any way, even for a small hobby forum and the monthly cost to keep the lights on isn't trivial, either.

I'm gonna try and relaunch it with a new domain (already have it) a new focus that reflects more accurately the way it's being used today, plus a new theme, then advertise it a bit and see if that helps any. Later, I may restructure it a bit as well, we'll see.

If you want to see how it looks right now, it's linked in my siggy below. It's currently sitting at 1508 threads and 12469 posts, so it's not a trivial amount of content for new users to look at and do feel proud of even this modest achievement.

---

In case you're reading this comment some time later and the changes have since been made, the original domain was nerdzone.uk.

Once done let me have a look.

 

[Suzanne O]

I'm looking at a different model for my forum. Currently it's an off topic forum which i might have to theme it with something else.
I am trying a few things but i'm not getting anywhere.
Getting trolled by others isn't what i want.

 

[bennylava]

It's a rule of thumb of the proportion of lurkers, contributors, and creators for an Internet community.

1% rule - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Lurkers are probably ok because they may still click an ad or buy a T-shirt or something.

 

[MySiteGuy]

Not sure why, it only takes a few minutes. I'd do it. I'd simply stop by here once a month and go do a few of them. If enough people would do this, there would be no problem getting off the ground with posts.

No offense meant, but all the other attempts I've seen over 28 years fizzle out, and the longer forums are around, the quicker the fizzle out happens.

Humans have great intentions we don't always live up to.

 

[FTL]

Once done let me have a look.

Thanks, but remember that you were banned from my forum for abuse towards me and another member, so your opinion is not required.

 

[Suzanne O]

Thanks, but remember that you were banned from my forum for abuse towards me and another member, so your opinion is not required.

There in lies the problem.
I'm banned from your forum, yes, but in reality you now have to relaunch your new forum.
Watch how many people you ban and don't go after their posts once you've banned them.
I suspect you won't get many members.
People will turn on you no matter what.
I can imagine you being trolled by some people and not liking it.
This is coming from somebody who gets emails from yourself telling me to shut my forum down.

 

[bennylava]

No offense meant, but all the other attempts I've seen over 28 years fizzle out, and the longer forums are around, the quicker the fizzle out happens.

Humans have great intentions we don't always live up to.

I may be misunderstanding you but - If the forum was around for a very long time, wouldn't it be long past the point of needing help with getting members? Obviously this wouldn't always be the case, but one would assume that during that long period, the owner worked to bring in new members.

To the other guy who said he just couldn't be bothered to return the favor: Maybe I'm built different. If someone does something nice for me, I'm going to treat them well in return. And it's not like this process takes more than 30 seconds. I can sign up to your forum, check my email, and login inside of 30 seconds. Then add another 2 minutes to create a thread asking a simple question, and two make two posts responding two other threads which are threads you did not start. So you can't be bothered to help someone for 3 minutes...

This forum could take a more active role in it. These guys are competent enough to set up an automatic reminder for members here. Every 30th visit to the site, you get asked to go into that subforum and pick a few forums to help. You can just say no, but it would be a reminder and would guide a lot of people into doing it. Have there been any other attempts at this, besides just having that forum open for members to check from time to time? Or has it all just been a kind of "post it" note? Just curious really, I've come up with a method that suits my needs.

 

[Suzanne O]

I may be misunderstanding you but - If the forum was around for a very long time, wouldn't it be long past the point of needing help with getting members? Obviously this wouldn't always be the case, but one would assume that during that long period, the owner worked to bring in new members.

To the other guy who said he just couldn't be bothered to return the favor: Maybe I'm built different. If someone does something nice for me, I'm going to treat them well in return. And it's not like this process takes more than 30 seconds. I can sign up to your forum, check my email, and login inside of 30 seconds. Then add another 2 minutes to create a thread asking a simple question, and two make two posts responding two other threads which are threads you did not start. So you can't be bothered to help someone for 3 minutes...

This forum could take a more active role in it. These guys are competent enough to set up an automatic reminder for members here. Every 30th visit to the site, you get asked to go into that subforum and pick a few forums to help. You can just say no, but it would be a reminder and would guide a lot of people into doing it. Have there been any other attempts at this, besides just having that forum open for members to check from time to time? Or has it all just been a kind of "post it" note? Just curious really, I've come up with a method that suits my needs.

Xenforo already do a lot to get us to help out with new customers.
We don't actually need reminding but it wouldn't be a bad idea if a PM message said something along the lines of "hi you've reached 30 posts, do you need any help with anything? or are you here just to pick up an add on for your forum?"
Problem is that the business is so small that not everyone is online at all times.

 

[Starbucks]

There in lies the problem.
I'm banned from your forum, yes, but in reality you now have to relaunch your new forum.
Watch how many people you ban and don't go after their posts once you've banned them.
I suspect you won't get many members.
People will turn on you no matter what.
I can imagine you being trolled by some people and not liking it.
This is coming from somebody who gets emails from yourself telling me to shut my forum down.

His forum has been more successful than AussieFooty's, with much better vibes.
Unlike the North Korean regime you've got going on over there on AussieFooty's.

Are they asking this via email or on the forum?
if it's on the forum ban them for 3 days for being disruptive.
if it's via email explain to them that they will cop infractions and bans until they learn to shut their mouth.

 

[MySiteGuy]

I may be misunderstanding you but - If the forum was around for a very long time, wouldn't it be long past the point of needing help with getting members? Obviously this wouldn't always be the case, but one would assume that during that long period, the owner worked to bring in new members.

What I mean is the longer "forums" as a thing have been around, not the age of an individual forum. In the early days of forums, exchanges lasted a bit, but fizzled out. Each subsequent attempt since then has generally fizzled out faster than the previous. Even with automated software to track and remind, they don't last.

Why put any resources into something that's going to give and receive thin low quality content, by people who aren't experts in the forum's niche? Google doesn't index thin content like it used to.

I have found time is better spent focusing on a quality site such as good, in-depth content and promoting the site. This keeps users coming back, whereas building a site on exchanging posts... once the exchange stops (and it will) you're back to a wasteland.

 

[Forsaken]

I generally find sites that use post exchanges/paid content/fake users to lack any sense of community, and usually come off as generic or surface level. If the people posting do not have an actual interest in your subject or community, you are just going to get bland discussion that fizzles out or gets not engagement.

Quality over quantity, and especially content that encourages real engagement over off topic posts you can find anywhere.