My members are boring me

Incognito

New member
I feel as though I should be sending out an S.O.S.

I have been successfully managing my site for sometime now and I have a lot of users. I have one problem though. My members are boring the hell out of me.
  • They post often which is good, but do not make any new threads. They only reply. I've been forced to make several user names to add new threads. I've been doing so for so long, I'm running out of ideas for content.
  • If I do not make a new thread they lurk endlessly and read old post.
  • They agree all the time. So there is no conflict or stimulating interaction.
  • When someone finally does make a thread on their own, I find it boring. Typically just a news of the day post
 
Welcome to the life of an admin .
But it was not always like this. :(

I have gone so far as to post threads that were very heated on other sites. They were so heated on those sites that more often or not, they were locked. Yet my members simply either ignore such threads or all agree with the first person who replies and so it ends real quick.
 
Welcome to the life of an admin .
That's more like, work work work, ;)

@Incognito - Why not disagree with something your members agree with? (have some sort of debate with 'em on a topic, either with your account or one of your fake ones)
Stir the pot... :sneaky:
I'm sure they wouldn't change their mind and somehow agree with you.. hopefully... :coffee:

As for the threads.. it's best for members just to create threads when they have something to talk about. You don't want them adding junk that will attract junk replies..
 
That's more like, work work work, ;)

@Incognito - Why not disagree with something your members agree with? (have some sort of debate with 'em on a topic, either with your account or one of your fake ones)
Stir the pot... :sneaky:
I'm sure they wouldn't change their mind and somehow agree with you.. hopefully... :coffee:

As for the threads.. it's best for members just to create threads when they have something to talk about. You don't want them adding junk that will attract junk replies..
Disagreeing with myself is not easy, but I have tried that. They ignore and avoid trolls and at most they watch in quiet as things play out.
 
We, the Moderators and I, look at the slack times as a chance to catch our breath. It will get much more active after the Summer.
 
I've heard of a lot of reasons that motivated people to run a forum, but this is a new one. If I had to list the top 100 reasons to run a forum, having members entertain me would not make the list. Perhaps you'd be better off if you closed down your forum, or gave it to someone else to run, or sell it or something and find a community that does entertain you and just participate in it as a member. You'll probably be happier in the long run that way.
 
People will disagree with lasting, seething anger even over what table to use and the positioning of chairs (that is what the Vietnamese and Americans did for months before a peace agreement could even be discussed).

If there is no disagreement, then it sounds like the average topic amounts to nothing more than a word game ("This or That"; "What is your favorite color?"; "Abortion" with opening post saying nothing more than "Do you agree?" and replies consisting of "Yeah, I think it's bad" and "It is good because people should be equal").

Even when it comes to, say, religious topics, if everyone is an atheist they will still disagree. If everyone is Jewish they will still disagree.

People submit topics where they spent time and effort elaborating on an issue when they care about what fellow members will say, not simply because they want to say something. One way that happens is when a core group (including the administrator) do exactly that as example.

It also matters where you are getting your members from. If most of them are from promotion forums and are primarily concerned with activity for the sake of activity, rather than community for the sake of community, it does not matter how much time you spend on content; it is not going to affect their substance-less behavior.
 
People will disagree with lasting, seething anger even over what table to use and the positioning of chairs (that is what the Vietnamese and Americans did for months before a peace agreement could even be discussed).

If there is no disagreement, then it sounds like the average topic amounts to nothing more than a word game ("This or That"; "What is your favorite color?"; "Abortion" with opening post saying nothing more than "Do you agree?" and replies consisting of "Yeah, I think it's bad" and "It is good because people should be equal").

Even when it comes to, say, religious topics, if everyone is an atheist they will still disagree. If everyone is Jewish they will still disagree.

People submit topics where they spent time and effort elaborating on an issue when they care about what fellow members will say, not simply because they want to say something. One way that happens is when a core group (including the administrator) do exactly that as example.

It also matters where you are getting your members from. If most of them are from promotion forums and are primarily concerned with activity for the sake of activity, rather than community for the sake of community, it does not matter how much time you spend on content; it is not going to affect their substance-less behavior.
Bingo. :cry:

Except I am the only person making new threads and everyone has very little to say no matter what the subject is. And if they do disagree on issues, they sure hold themselves back and say nothing of it. The few moments when they do disagree which is very rare, the reply will be "I disagree" or maybe "I disagree because" and there will be no follow up reply. So there is no valued discussion and everything seems stale

Thankfully my site has not attracted members from community building sites.
 
I've heard of a lot of reasons that motivated people to run a forum, but this is a new one. If I had to list the top 100 reasons to run a forum, having members entertain me would not make the list. Perhaps you'd be better off if you closed down your forum, or gave it to someone else to run, or sell it or something and find a community that does entertain you and just participate in it as a member. You'll probably be happier in the long run that way.
Entertaining me is not so much the issue. I would fine with a community that I thought was boring, but was busy.

They seem to be lacking entertaining anyone else to join and maybe slowly but surely even themselves (in time).
 
Bingo. :cry:

Except I am the only person making new threads and everyone has very little to say no matter what the subject is. And if they do disagree on issues, they sure hold themselves back and say nothing of it. The few moments when they do disagree which is very rare, the reply will be "I disagree" or maybe "I disagree because" and there will be no follow up reply. So there is no valued discussion and everything seems stale

Thankfully my site has not attracted members from community building sites.
Heh, I would not call them community building sites, but post building sites.

Sounds like you have a stand-alone forum? Is there a topic of focus or is it a general discussion forum? Where do you get your members?

For example, for the first few years of my forum most of the members came from Japanese cartoon and comic forums, so the most substantive discussion tended to be in the forums I set aside for books and television.

Then I picked up a large amount of people from debate forums, which is why my debate forum turned into the biggest getter of posts by far.

In regard to the last point, the far higher amount of posts for a smaller amount of topics compared to the other forum is telling as to the substance of the discussions contained therein. Relatedly, for religious discussions I tended to look for people of different points of view to keep discussions from turning into stale back-patting sessions.

As example, there was one Christian member submitting essays commenting on Judaism, so when a Jewish member found my advertisement stressing that point and my interest in an alternative viewpoint, he provided exactly that, and his essays on Judaism are proudly displayed on a special page for featured write-ups.

In any case, knowing more about your forum may help us (those readers and commenters of this topic) think up a workaround for the problem.
 
Heh, I would not call them community building sites, but post building sites.

Sounds like you have a stand-alone forum? Is there a topic of focus or is it a general discussion forum? Where do you get your members?

For example, for the first few years of my forum most of the members came from Japanese cartoon and comic forums, so the most substantive discussion tended to be in the forums I set aside for books and television.

Then I picked up a large amount of people from debate forums, which is why my debate forum turned into the biggest getter of posts by far.

In regard to the last point, the far higher amount of posts for a smaller amount of topics compared to the other forum is telling as to the substance of the discussions contained therein. Relatedly, for religious discussions I tended to look for people of different points of view to keep discussions from turning into stale back-patting sessions.

As example, there was one Christian member submitting essays commenting on Judaism, so when a Jewish member found my advertisement stressing that point and my interest in an alternative viewpoint, he provided exactly that, and his essays on Judaism are proudly displayed on a special page for featured write-ups.

In any case, knowing more about your forum may help us (those readers and commenters of this topic) think up a workaround for the problem.

Yes, I have a stand alone forum and it is a general discussion forum. My members are from all over, which would make you think they would have more to talk about.

We have attracted one or two controversial people in the past, but unlike most sites were people engage those people, my members seem to grow tired of them and just ignore them. A small few may engage, but not for very long and hardly ever.

I would like to give my site a good shot in the arm of medication and get their adrenaline going. As it stands now it has that "old person" feel to it.
 
Kevin wanted this

worldscollide.webp
 
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