Reinvigorating old run down web forums

[Booth]

Okay so I have a site which did moderately well but over the years, but due to past issues the community began to die. I have now converted it from vb3 to xF and I'm in the process of trying to get it back up and running again. However this is a slow process.

Please use this thread to post any tips on getting an old community back up and running, getting the old membership back on the site posting. I'd be very interested to hear from anyone who has been in this position previously and has been successful.

 

[Hannah_M]

offer something unique.

 

[Floris]

Okay so I have a site which did moderately well but over the years, but due to past issues the community began to die. I have now converted it from vb3 to xF and I'm in the process of trying to get it back up and running again. However this is a slow process.

Please use this thread to post any tips on getting an old community back up and running, getting the old membership back on the site posting. I'd be very interested to hear from anyone who has been in this position previously and has been successful.

Inform the users daily about the new fun social features, such as following eachother and liking content, the news-feed and just keep posting.

http://wetalknation.net/threads/click-on-the-avatar.251154/

 

[Shanj]

I have the same situation of a sleeping board.

One of the key problems here is the cutoff on notifications. So when I post in a forum the user is notified that no more notifies will be sent until they visit.
That means my NEXT post in that forum doesn't reach them.
I either have to keep posting in different forums ... tiresome ... or manually contact all my members.

What I need to do is reach out to them with a whole series of lively interesting posts.

Can this cutoff on notifications be disabled at admin level?
(I can't make the time for another week to set up a sample XF but I do want to make plans.)

 

[Jethro]

I have the same situation of a sleeping board.

One of the key problems here is the cutoff on notifications. So when I post in a forum the user is notified that no more notifies will be sent until they visit.
That means my NEXT post in that forum doesn't reach them.
I either have to keep posting in different forums ... tiresome ... or manually contact all my members.

What I need to do is reach out to them with a whole series of lively interesting posts.

Can this cutoff on notifications be disabled at admin level?
(I can't make the time for another week to set up a sample XF but I do want to make plans.)

Danger there is you will irritate the hell out of people who will view the constant contacting as spam.

We're in the same boat looking forward. Will be trying to get one of the old warhorse IPB chat sites back up and running on Xen. Sub 1,000 members but over 500k posts, very very busy site. Will contact a lot of the core members personally, have a regular monthly news letter, and see what we can add to be just that little bit different from other chat sites. Should be a hoot.

 

[Shanj]

Danger there is you will irritate the hell out of people who will view the constant contacting as spam.

Jethro good point - I'd want to replace the cutoff warning with one saying that they can change their options to stop getting notifications on this thread HERE (link).

Good luck with your sleepy board.

Anyway is it really not possible to disable this feature at admin level?

 

[Jethro]

Jethro good point - I'd want to replace the cutoff warning with one saying that they can change their options to stop getting notifications on this thread HERE (link).

Good luck with your sleepy board.

Anyway is it really not possible to disable this feature at admin level?

I was never too sure if the feature worked for either vB or IPB to be honest. Seemed pretty hit or miss, with some threads giving multiple notifications and others none at all. It's a vexed question imho as how it should work and whether it should be on by default or not. Do people prefer to elect to receive notification or prefer to de-select auto notifications?

 

[Shanj]

Oh I think people want to select to get notifies.
However I like as admin to have one or two forums that they can't disable it.

 

[Kim]

Oh I think people want to select to get notifies.
However I like as admin to have one or two forums that they can't disable it.

Gods but I HATE that.. seriously think about it before you active that Shanj, I would (and have in the past) ask to be removed from the membership if I received auto notifications on forums regardless of if I was interested or not.

imho it is a fast track to annoying your memberbase, not inspiring them to get posting

 

[Shanj]

Gods but I HATE that.. seriously think about it before you active that Shanj, I would (and have in the past) ask to be removed from the membership if I received auto notifications on forums regardless of if I was interested or not.
imho it is a fast track to annoying your memberbase, not inspiring them to get posting

It's something I use on a top Notices forum that doesn't send many out. Just big issue stuff from me.
It's more a case of members appreciating not missing stuff like that, being looked after. Depends on the board I think.
Also they get the text of the notice in the notify. So saves them trouble.

 

[Alpha1]

Send out a mass email telling them new forum software. Its amazing all must see, etc.
Make sure you manage your bounces, because if your site is on a blacklist then notifications do not arrive and your members will not return.
Respond to any post they make and post many questions.
Review all old suggestions and follow up on them. See what your community wants. If you dont have a suggestions forum, go kick yourself and start one pronto.
Ask your members for suggestions & improvements. Make sure to follow up on those and add the useful ones.
After a month add a chat room and invite them in for a mass chat. Make it a special event. Dont do that too often.

 

[Shanj]

Send out a mass email telling them new forum software. Its amazing all must see, etc.
Make sure you manage your bounces, because if your site is on a blacklist then notifications do not arrive and your members will not return.
Respond to any post they make and post many questions.
Review all old suggestions and follow up on them. See what your community wants. If you dont have a suggestions forum, go kick yourself and start one pronto.
Ask your members for suggestions & improvements. Make sure to follow up on those and add the useful ones.
After a month add a chat room and invite them in for a mass chat. Make it a special event. Dont do that too often.

Great suggestions Alfa.
Yes I find a fortnightly chat is good - miss one and it's 4 whole weeks till the next.

I'm never too sure about mass emails as they do arrive looking pretty spammy.
As for managing my bounces please sir explain please do.

 

[Booth]

Very good questions Alfa. We do have a suggestions forum though... Here's one of them.
http://www.blackburnweb.co.uk/forum...gnore-threads-that-im-not-interested-in.2124/

I need that mod

 

[Alpha1]

I'm never too sure about mass emails as they do arrive looking pretty spammy.

Yes, make sure you have something interesting to email about and make it easy for members to opt out of your newsletter. Email should explain why members are receiving mail, from who and how to get rid of it.

As for managing my bounces please sir explain please do.

How to keep your board from getting blacklisted as a spammer
^That is specified to vbulletin boards though, but the anti-spam rules are the same for any forum software.

Very good questions Alfa. We do have a suggestions forum though... Here's one of them.
http://www.blackburnweb.co.uk/forum...gnore-threads-that-im-not-interested-in.2124/

I need that mod

Thats a tricky request. I have a modification running on vb that allows VIP members to ignore selected subforums, in 'new posts', but I would not offer it to everyone, and im not sure its a good idea to offer to everyone, as you are letting your users ignore part of your site.

 

[Dean]

To me, email is not that personal. And my best results were at a personal level.

For us phone calls, and sometimes conference calls, work well. The voice inflections cannot be detected through the written word.

So if I wanted to increase activity in a certain part of our forum more, I might contact a few people that were active in there.