New forums with loads of members

Luke B

Active member
I would never consider myself a jealous person but I can't help but feel a bit envious of forums with a boat load of members. I know this takes time and quality trumps quantity any day so I'm not bitter, only curious.

I see so many forums that are bran spanking new that have a crazy amount of members within the first month. Are they gaming the system? Is the content so amazingly good people just can't wait to join (even if it looks a mess)? Or are they just marketing SEO brain children with motivation perhaps supplied by NTZ (limitless reference) stopped at nothing?

Luke
 
You are in a very competitive niche and with 358 messages you are at the start and the beginning is always the hardest.
 
You need to look at the subject matter of those busy forums. If they're a niche subject or something that is currently very topical or "hot" then that's your answer. If it is something mainstream then they've almost certainly gone out and done things to shove traffic along, such as post exchanges, paid for content, advertising (usually at the expense of quality).

There's a lot to be said for starting small and growing organically. Your community will be more manageable while you get to grips with it, settle down into your style, and get to know people well who will in time become moderators or contributors. It also gives you a chance to engage closely with your user base, small communities are always more friendly, and these people will become the foundation on which you grow.

On the other hand, a huge wedge of traffic at the start brings many problems - an impersonal forum, spam, anarchy, having to rush into getting moderators who you might not know well enough.
 
I would never consider myself a jealous person but I can't help but feel a bit envious of forums with a boat load of members. I know this takes time and quality trumps quantity any day so I'm not bitter, only curious.

I see so many forums that are bran spanking new that have a crazy amount of members within the first month. Are they gaming the system? Is the content so amazingly good people just can't wait to join (even if it looks a mess)? Or are they just marketing SEO brain children with motivation perhaps supplied by NTZ (limitless reference) stopped at nothing?

Luke

your forum looks great!!
I love that clean design!
 
I would rather have 20 returning, contributing members over 10,000 members that don't do anything but lurk any day.

I wouldn't worry one bit about member count and worry more about having great content. Everything evolves around one thing "Content".
 
Thank you all!

There's a lot to be said for starting small and growing organically. Your community will be more manageable while you get to grips with it, settle down into your style, and get to know people well who will in time become moderators or contributors. It also gives you a chance to engage closely with your user base, small communities are always more friendly, and these people will become the foundation on which you grow.

On the other hand, a huge wedge of traffic at the start brings many problems - an impersonal forum, spam, anarchy, having to rush into getting moderators who you might not know well enough.
Your absolutely correct. This is my first venture into forums and I can already tell how difficult it would be to control if it grew like crazy. Truthfully, I really enjoy the few members that I currently have on the site already. Interestingly enough, one of my largest contributors is a member of this forum :). The second is a pro photographer from the Philippines and I have no idea how he found me. The point is, the content as well as the users is high in quality.
your forum looks great!!
I love that clean design!
Thank you! Less is more has always been my design philosophy.
 
Nice looking site.
Cool pictures at the top :)

Your content is too low.
You need either a Wordpress Home page or XenPorta.
I've actually been looking into a wordpress blog for the site but I would rather it not be the home page. Would this still be acceptable? Perhaps a link in the navigation and an address like slruser.com/blog/ ?
 
The point is, the content as well as the users is high in quality.

I agree there. I do have more than a passing interest in the subject (I specialise in fireworks photography) and when I first saw your site in the showcase forum I very nearly joined. That's because your site was well styled, friendly, but above all I thought that I would feel part of a friendly community. In my mind as a potential member of a forum, a friendly site is worth so much more than a busy one where you are just another statistic. To put your mind at rest the only reason I didn't join is lack of time - but I may be back :) I do think you have all the makings of a very successful community.
 
I agree there. I do have more than a passing interest in the subject (I specialise in fireworks photography) and when I first saw your site in the showcase forum I very nearly joined. That's because your site was well styled, friendly, but above all I thought that I would feel part of a friendly community. In my mind as a potential member of a forum, a friendly site is worth so much more than a busy one where you are just another statistic. To put your mind at rest the only reason I didn't join is lack of time - but I may be back :) I do think you have all the makings of a very successful community.
Alright! Encouraging words my friend :)
I love fireworks, unfortunately my opportunity's to shoot them are a bit limited :/
I don't believe I've created a thread in the showcase yet. Would it have been a post I made? I think that I should start a thread there though :)
 
Psh. You wish.

If you're/were a gamer, you would be envious of sites like MW3Forum.

No, not really. I am not a gamer but even if I was I can say I am not envious. 1/5 of our member base of just over 5,000 is active. We also normally have between 200 - 300 people online at all times with members being around 40 - 50 online.

I am not saying lurkers are a bad thing because any visit counts if you want to earn revenue, but please don't put words in my mouth saying that I would be envious of something if you don't know me.

I was merely trying to make an example for a beginning community that you are better off having fewer participating members then a whole bunch that don't contribute.

<please back on topic, nothing to see here>
 
No, not really. I am not a gamer but even if I was I can say I am not envious. 1/5 of our member base of just over 5,000 is active. We also normally have between 200 - 300 people online at all times with members being around 40 - 50 online.
The most members I've had on at one time was about 7 and I felt all warm and fuzzy :)
 
The most members I've had on at one time was about 7 and I felt all warm and fuzzy :)

The best thing you can do is if you build a quality community with good content is watch it grow. Just like the saying "If you build it, they will come."

Our site is small in comparison to thousands of other sites out there, so take my stats with a grain of salt as I didn't post them to gloat. Just merely in response to something.

You have a great, simple, clean site design that is easy to read, you have a great basis between that and using XenForo. So you are off to a great start and just concentrate on the important stuff which is content.
 
It's all about what makes you happy and satisfied. It's all too easy to get caught up in the "more is better" drama. I'm of the mindset that if your site isn't about making you money, just enjoy it and try not to worry too much about those things...there are enough stresses in our daily lives, our hobbies shouldn't be one of them ;)
 
The best thing you can do is if you build a quality community with good content is watch it grow. Just like the saying "If you build it, they will come."

Our site is small in comparison to thousands of other sites out there, so take my stats with a grain of salt as I didn't post them to gloat. Just merely in response to something.

You have a great, simple, clean site design that is easy to read, you have a great basis between that and using XenForo. So you are off to a great start and just concentrate on the important stuff which is content.
Thank you GR :)
 
Speaking of which I will be joining your site here in the next day or two when I have time. We are in the market for a second SLR for when we go to shows so my wife and I don't have to share our D40 anymore. That and our daughter would like to start participating and taking photos as well.
 
Speaking of which I will be joining your site here in the next day or two when I have time. We are in the market for a second SLR for when we go to shows so my wife and I don't have to share our D40 anymore. That and our daughter would like to start participating and taking photos as well.
Awesome! I would love to help out in any way possible. Its cool knowing that I actually have members on SLRuser now that also help with questions.
Next thing I would like to add is a wordpress blog and feature interviews with user photographers along with their work (need to figure outWordPress 3 Bridge).
I'm pleased I have some quality photographers already (this guy is amazing!). Sorry, I'm getting a bit off topic :)

xenForo is the best!
 
One suggesting that I think would be a great idea is to install Jaxel's wiki. Use that to explain what and how to use some of the different camera settings as well as tutorials on how to create different effects. Also information regarding what lenses do what. I am sure other sites may have this information as I haven't googled it but from a normal everyday joe that uses cameras it is the type of information that I am looking for.
 
Top Bottom