Fake Online Users
- Thread starter Cal
- Start date
- Status
Rigel Kentaurus
Well-known member
Donny
Active member
Why don't you just grow the forum a little and be a bit more genuine about it? I've never seen a forum take off that A) pays an external company to use fake profiles to chat to themselves, or B) hasn't got their topic and content niche right.
If it's not growing naturally, you're doing something a little more wrong than just 'making it look busy'. That alone doesn't make a forum work. Work on some content and guides and things that get people to ask questions! A forum thrives on questions!
If it's not growing naturally, you're doing something a little more wrong than just 'making it look busy'. That alone doesn't make a forum work. Work on some content and guides and things that get people to ask questions! A forum thrives on questions!
Crayo
Active member
These never work. I don't understand why people do this, and lots of people do. If your forum has like 40 members online, but only like 4 new posts in that day, it becomes obvious and quite embarrassing. It's actually a turn off. Being genuine and actually growing it from the start with no deception is always the best way.
I agree with Donny and Crayo. The way you grow a newborn or young forum is by getting a relative small group of very enthusiastic people together and just allow them to talk about what they like and are passionate about. This will create content, and it's only the content that draws the traffic. Fake stats will do absolutely nothing for the longer term. It may fool a few people who will not stay around anyway.
My recommendation instead of this would be to get some (internet) friends, family, partner involved and talk to them about the site and if they want to help. Just make sure you get people that are very interested in what they talk about and practice it themselves. It's important to get that small but strong group in the first weeks and months. Answer any questions from new members as friendly and as informative as possible. This is what visitors will be looking for and why they might hang around for a while.
My recommendation instead of this would be to get some (internet) friends, family, partner involved and talk to them about the site and if they want to help. Just make sure you get people that are very interested in what they talk about and practice it themselves. It's important to get that small but strong group in the first weeks and months. Answer any questions from new members as friendly and as informative as possible. This is what visitors will be looking for and why they might hang around for a while.
I checked your forums. One thing a noticed is you show a very clear message about who is welcome and who isn't in the logo. Now don't get me wrong, I agree with the premise. But what you're doing is creating a small niche and basically saying 'this is what we are and if you are not like us stay out'. Not that you say it with that many words but believe me that's how it is perceived. What you want is an approach that actually makes your site look more open to discussion / opposition. If that is what you're looking for. Just a suggestion.
If you still want to do something with the perception of the traffic that is possible, but it has to be more than that to actually make a dent.
GoodFit53
Member
Hi, I think that this is the best way to go about it as well, but what is your advice on starting out....did you do any advertising...adwords, facebook, flyers?
Or did you have friends help you?
I am starting a new forum, that (of course) I think is great and innovative
, but I don't have a support system at all. I have a personal facebook page, but I don't accept friend requests from anybody that isn't a family member...I now regret this, as now I don't have anyone to market my websites too. My family members are not as ambitious as I am, and aren't concerned about anything that doesn't benefit them.
So, how do I grow my forum? I have a facebook page ready, but I don't want to launch it until the site has some posts on it, I have been posting some things myself, but I'm the only one posting, lol. So, the site is still empty.
Should I go ahead and start advertising or should I post until there is quite a bit of content (all from me) and then start inviting people.
Any help is appreciate.
Flexin
Active member
On a slow forum I think it would hurt things. It would show a lot of people logged in but no posts being put up.
I have joined a lot of forums. I lost count on how many I have joined over the years. I would look at how many members the forum had and see if they have traffic. If they haven't had a post in the last week or so or only a few then it might be hard to get an answer to my question (since that is normally what brings me to a forum). If I see a lot of people but a few posts it just looks odd.
James
I have joined a lot of forums. I lost count on how many I have joined over the years. I would look at how many members the forum had and see if they have traffic. If they haven't had a post in the last week or so or only a few then it might be hard to get an answer to my question (since that is normally what brings me to a forum). If I see a lot of people but a few posts it just looks odd.
James
craigiri
Well-known member
Heck, I would think the tea party movement would be attracting millions instantly!
You just have to be more outrageous like Fox...
Just kidding, of course...but I am with the majority here (on the TP issue also)....that fake users is not a good thing.
My new forum has almost no members - no active members - BUT, I started this last month, will have the grand opening in a month - AND - I am not going to hold any real measure to it until the end of the year. That's a good 8 months that I am giving it to at least prove something to me.
It's easy to forget how long it took us (those of us with old forums) to get off the ground. I was recently looking at my first paying clients list - from the start of 1996!
Back then things took off quickly because there were so few sites. But these days you really need to carve out a niche that no one else is addressing.
wickedstangs
Well-known member
There's a mod already and its located in the Archive and works fine..
http://xenforo.com/community/forums/add-on-releases-archive.32/
Flexin
Active member
Hi, I think that this is the best way to go about it as well, but what is your advice on starting out....did you do any advertising...adwords, facebook, flyers?
Or did you have friends help you?
I am starting a new forum, that (of course) I think is great and innovative
My family members are not as ambitious as I am, and aren't concerned about anything that doesn't benefit them.
So, how do I grow my forum? I have a facebook page ready, but I don't want to launch it until the site has some posts on it, I have been posting some things myself, but I'm the only one posting, lol. So, the site is still empty.
Should I go ahead and start advertising or should I post until there is quite a bit of content (all from me) and then start inviting people.
Any help is appreciate.
You can still use facebook without a big personal account. You can get an ad and target your market and have then go to your fan page or website. I did a small ad campaign with $20 and picked up about 150 likes. I want to try another one but have it send them right to my forum rather then my fan page and see if I can pick up any members that way.
If your now willing to add friends to your personal facebook page you can do that and it will start to grow. Search for some people you know and add them. Others that know you will see that and you will start getting friend requests.
Mine isn't "successful" yet I think I opened my fan account and my twitter account before the forum opened. I had some coming soon posts and a few other thins. I wanted to build a bit of a twitter following while I was getting the forum ready.
James
Deepmartini
Well-known member
This would be handy to have.
Donny
Active member
Would it heck! It'd be totally ruining your own stats, and not a single person registers to a forum because it "has members online" they register because when real members are online, there is fresh content to read and people available to answer questions. You're kidding yourself if you convince a single person that there's a member online when they're not.
Work on creating new threads, ask questions which will always encourage a response from a real member, and create 30 or so threads in each forum category. You'll get traffic from search engines to those, which in turn a % of unregistered will register, and a % of those will posts and start a new thread, and a % of those will gain more traffic.... and so on. That's how a forum will grow.
Not by pretending to have a busier forum than there is, when there are no extra threads being posts.
If you're embarrassed by your lack of activity, remove the activity stats from public view fully and stick a notice there "only registered forum users with 10 or more posts can view our forum stats" - and if you think having active users (but not posts being created) works, that should get you a couple of fools who post just to see your stats. But I'd doubt it.
It's only regular members who notice the activity, and they notice threads being created quicker than they can read and reply to them, moreso than how many members are online at any one time.
Work on creating new threads, ask questions which will always encourage a response from a real member, and create 30 or so threads in each forum category. You'll get traffic from search engines to those, which in turn a % of unregistered will register, and a % of those will posts and start a new thread, and a % of those will gain more traffic.... and so on. That's how a forum will grow.
Not by pretending to have a busier forum than there is, when there are no extra threads being posts.
If you're embarrassed by your lack of activity, remove the activity stats from public view fully and stick a notice there "only registered forum users with 10 or more posts can view our forum stats" - and if you think having active users (but not posts being created) works, that should get you a couple of fools who post just to see your stats. But I'd doubt it.
It's only regular members who notice the activity, and they notice threads being created quicker than they can read and reply to them, moreso than how many members are online at any one time.
Crayo
Active member
I didn't use adwords, Facebook, or flyers funnily enough. When I started mine it was more of a hobby because I am thoroughly interested in my niche.Hi, I think that this is the best way to go about it as well, but what is your advice on starting out....did you do any advertising...adwords, facebook, flyers?
Or did you have friends help you?
I am starting a new forum, that (of course) I think is great and innovative
My family members are not as ambitious as I am, and aren't concerned about anything that doesn't benefit them.
So, how do I grow my forum? I have a facebook page ready, but I don't want to launch it until the site has some posts on it, I have been posting some things myself, but I'm the only one posting, lol. So, the site is still empty.
Should I go ahead and start advertising or should I post until there is quite a bit of content (all from me) and then start inviting people.
Any help is appreciate.
I first made the forum exactly how I wanted it to be with the resources I had (not much money), and then went on to fill it with content and advertise on forums that let me advertise. Once I gathered a small userbase of other interested wrestling fans, the rest was done for me. If you keep the site small and compact (basically not a million sections) then the content will keep rising and eventually the search engines (lol mainly Google) will find you and you'll get search engine traffic, but that obviously has other requirements (good domain, SEO etc).
So as long as your site has content, advertise it wherever you can to gather yourself an active userbase.
Sorry about this being a rather brief post, I wrote this on my phone.
Maybe the people who want this add-on can instead register 20 fake accounts and then post content with them and make it look like they are talking to each other like regular members
(Actually that might work better!)BTW I know how hard it is to grow a forum and I'm not trying to laugh at / offend anyone here
- Status
Similar threads
