Fake it till you make it – a take on fake users

[l3ta]

The founders of Reddit admitted they used fake posters to make the site look busy.

 

[Hotfix]

The founders of Reddit admitted they used fake posters to make the site look busy.

That's interesting. Thanks for letting me know. I found an article about it:

According to Reddit cofounder Steve Huffman, in the early days the Reddit crew just faked it ‘til they made it.

How Reddit Got Huge: Tons of Fake Accounts

According to Reddit cofounder Steve Huffman, in the early days the Reddit crew just faked it ‘til they made it.

www.vice.com

 

[Radikus]

I'd rather fail it than fake it.

 

[Mr Lucky]

I'd rather fail it than fake it.

Not unrelated to fake user posts is the very widespread use of FAQs. I wouldn’t mind betting that the huge majority are not literally frequently asked questions, but rather imaginary questions used in a way to succinctly provide the most useful information in a convenient and useable format.

 

[Hotfix]

I cringe at my old posts

 

[Suzanne O]

I keep it real on my forum.
As much as i love to engage with others i only have 5 members on my forum.
I don't let fake users on my forum.

 

[Hotfix]

I keep it real on my forum.

Yeah, I would do this too. I don't agree with anything I said a few years ago.

 

[Wanji]

fake acc
alter acc

 

[Hotfix]

fake acc
alter acc

Okay. I don't think that alts are that bad.

 

[Marcus]

Your idea to create content which attracts users is obviously a good idea.

In the past you could create fake users. I believe today it is enough to use just one account and post threads with it.

It is the age of tik tok. People come for the content (thread) creator, not for other users comments.

 

[KensonPlays]

I use my account under my name on my site for most things. We do have a shared staff account under the name "MesozoicHaven" when we perform actions like ban and whatnot, so other staff can't be targeted. In mod notes we want the name of who did the action, but not public.

I also use it for things like dragonbytes shop add-on.

The only other we use is "game news" for RSS feeds, strictly RSS feeds.

Otherwise I don't use "fake" accounts, except for specific administrative or moderation duties.

 

[Digital Doctor]

Yes, it is much more difficult these days but good content always works. It just takes more time to get traction.

Xenforo doesn't possess the infrastructure for good structured (useful) content. Thread usefulness gets worse NOT BETTER over time, as the information density worsens as a thread goes on. Not to mention, Xenforo search is quite bad. Use the current search and search for XenPorta. You do not receive useful results.

The main content type for Xenforo is unthreaded threads. This is most useful for back and forth chit chat, not structured data. The fact that images and media are actually divorced from threads is another outdated concept. Do you think reddit would do well with a "Media Gallery" ?

 

[bennylava]

Xenforo doesn't possess the infrastructure for good structured (useful) content. Thread usefulness gets worse NOT BETTER over time, as the information density worsens as a thread goes on. Not to mention, Xenforo search is quite bad. Use the current search and search for XenPorta. You do not receive useful results.

The main content type for Xenforo is unthreaded threads. This is most useful for back and forth chit chat, not structured data. The fact that images and media are actually divorced from threads is another outdated concept. Do you think reddit would do well with a "Media Gallery" ?

I've been using Xenforo for a very long time (as a standard board member) and I don't find this to be the case. I've always had an easy time finding anything I've searched for, usually in the first few threads listed. It's also easy to see images in threads, unless you're referring to the site itself hosting your images. That could get expensive fast, depending on the size of your membership.

As for the topic at hand, I know it's old but I did see someone talking about their forum maybe not taking off. I have a marketing background and I'll tell you this - Direct marketing is the only way to go. There are forms of marketing that are widely used while also being mostly worthless. You want to email people, put letters in their mailbox at their house, and put door hangers on the front door knob at their house. These are far and away the most effective means of marketing. And they're cheap. Try mailbox ads letting people know about your forum. And alternate between neighborhoods. You'll see an increase in your forum traffic. And get creative. If you think it's too niched down, mention an "Off topic" sub forum where they can also talk about other things.

 

[Paul B]

Not to mention, Xenforo search is quite bad.

I think you must mean MySQL and elasticsearch is bad.

 

[Dad.]

I think you must mean MySQL and elasticsearch is bad.

Or, "the search experience xenforo offers is bad". Or "self-hosted, small platforms struggle to provide google-class search capabilities" (which may change). Words are fun.