Admin Forums

[Sam1]

Does anyone else think that there are WAY too many admin forums for such a small niche? Why are so many people starting them? At least on a webmaster forum you can discuss a lot more than just forum ownership, but the amount of admin forums means you end up discussing stuff multiple times....

 

[Martee]

Depends on the way you look at it in my eyes. Sure, there are ALOT of Admin forums but for me that just means more discussion and more opinions, which is what I like about forums anyway. You got one place and they say one thing but another place will say something else. For me, it's nice to have so many simply due to the diverse amount of stuff that can occur on each one. For example, some forums may be more helpful for me in terms of learning all about hosts whilst another may help me learn about coding a style.

I hope you get what I mean there, but for me whilst there is alot of people the diverse amount of conversation that can be seen on these forums draws me in. Sure, you'll discuss the same things but you could end up with a different end opinion!

But then you have the problem of Admin Forums being centralised and you just see the same people over and over but hey, I'm an optimist.

 

[Sam1]

I understand what you're saying about different opinions and I think that's great. I think it's fantastic to have more than one board for a specific topic- however the shear numbers of admin and promotion forums amazes me. And looking at how they're all doing, I'd say a lot worse because of the amount of competition. What this means is that no one forum has a huge amount of activity on it.....

Admin Forums (that are currently active):

• AdminPeak
• AnotherAdminForum
• AdminForums.org
• AdminForum.org
• Admin-Talk
• Top-Community
• AdminTalk.net
• AdminMB
• AdminsTurf
• AdminsHut
• AdminsKorner.net
• TheAdminZone
• AdminSpot

There is even an admin forum running (or trying to ) on FreeForums!! adminsplace.freeforums.org.

On top of all the admin forums, you also discuss admin related stuff at promotion forums like:

• ForumPromotion.net
• MyMpz
• PromotionCentral.info
• AdvertiseHotspot
• Promotion-Box
• PromotionBB
• PromotionVault.net
• AntiquusForum
• PromotionPlus
• ForumLauncher

There used to be more promotion forums- when I had ForumHoopla there were definitely more. It seems as though people have wizened up in that promotion forums are hard to run and very hard to keep up the posts after you go above 10,000 or so..... A lot seem to have been merged into admin forums- which I think seems to be the likely outcome when making a promotion forum.

The main issue is all admin forums are suffering because there are simply so many.... I was a staff member on AAF, and owned ForumZAdmin.com for a while too, and I could quite easily go and find another admin forum and become a staff member there and almost exclusively use that site.

BTW- Press the like button if you like the fact I spent 15 minutes putting this post together

 

[Martee]

I get exactly what you mean though but for me, that is attributed to the 'lazy' culture of today who think that by taking someone else niche from a popular forum. In this instance, lets say ForumPromotion as it is one of the biggest 'promotional' sites I've seen anyway. I have seen so many sites pop up which have either copied sections, threads or section descriptions right from FP but then you have the idea of the niche itself. Unfortunately with forums today, most people do not see them as a community based area where they can sit and have a nice chat about whatever, they simply see them as money spinning operations.

Take a 'noob' for instance. 'Oh, ForumPromotion has nearly 900,000 posts which must mean this is an awesome niche and I must make a forum based on the same idea with the same stuff so that I can make uber $$$!' and you'll have to agree that this is the mindset of most people today.

I agree totally with your post and I think your points are very valid. There are quite simply too many and of course, with the saturation comes the problem of making your site stand out, making it unique. You can't stop people making sites though but I just wish that people would make a forum for the sake of having a forum, not just to make money. I mean, I can only imagine what places like FP or wherever get in terms of financials and probably, most other people wonder as well.

But hey, you can't stop people being lazy and thinking they can make a quick buck but then again maybe there are so many admin forums because a lot of people like admining, you never truly know. Anyway, I hope that ramble made sense, lol. I do agree with you though, 100%.

 

[Sam1]

Haze I'm not even going to quote that

Personally I don't have any issue with people starting admin forums provided that have a good knowledge of being a forum master and have run a few forums beforehand. I just don't think it benefits the admin forum industry if there are so many- I think, like you all of them loose out with low activity- have you noticed that most of them struggle to get above the 100 post mark? That's not because they aren't good forums but because there are so many of them.

I think there will be some consolidation in the near future with some mergers and acquisitions on the cards Which is a good thing!

I think that there is a perception, from people who have never run forums, that they can make a lot of money with little effort + be in charge of a cool community. I had that exact perception. Now however, I realise that forums are one of the tougher types of sites to start and grow- even for people with money to spend. They also don't make that much unless you are pretty large.

And no you can't stop people being lazy and dreaming of millions in foruming! I had the dream, it faded- but eventually I would love to run a forum again- I caught the bug.

 

[Marc]

I have a question.. Why should anyone care what other people do with their time while using the Internet? If someone wants to create an admin forum, being a webmaster/administrator yourself, why should you care what they do since it's not benefiting you in anyway?

A lot seem to have been merged into admin forums- which I think seems to be the likely outcome when making a promotion forum.

This is something which I dislike and it's also something that's keeping me from joining new forums (or better yet, forums advertised on ForumPromotion.net). I like to decide which forum I register on, not get dumped into another database due to a merge,

Unfortunately with forums today, most people do not see them as a community based area where they can sit and have a nice chat about whatever, they simply see them as money spinning operations.

Some true.. some false... You're referring to the few that you've seen,
Anyway, I ignore new forums with ads and forums that I've seen the owner repeatedly creating forums to sell.
Edit Added: The colours from the quoted message does not represent anything. It's just style for better reading..

Take a 'noob' for instance. 'Oh, ForumPromotion has nearly 900,000 posts which must mean this is an awesome niche and I must make a forum based on the same idea with the same stuff so that I can make uber $$$!' and you'll have to agree that this is the mindset of most people today.

More like activity instead of posts. Since it's a promotion forum and you're allowed to advertise almost anything, they see an easy way of advertising a similar forum that the people of ForumPromotion.net might be interested in.

 

[Martee]

Some true.. some false... You're referring to the few that you've seen,
Anyway, I ignore new forums with ads and forums that I've seen the owner repeatedly creating forums to sell.

I can't refer to anything else other than what I have seen now can I? I am not an all-seeing guru as much as I would love to be! Also, your colours make no sense to me, what is true, what is false? I can't reply properly to this quote, sorry.

More like activity instead of posts. Since it's a promotion forum and you're allowed to advertise almost anything, they see an easy way of advertising a similar forum that the people of ForumPromotion.net might be interested in.

Eh, post/activity is sort of the same thing in my opinion. Sure you can bang on about hits,unique visits and whatnot but hey, semantics. I meant people see ForumPromotion as an area with alot of 'activity' and therefore think they must make their own forum that copies it. It was nothing to do with the promotion of it on FP itself. Sorry I misunderstood what you wrote though, I'm too tired to re-read over things until I get it tonight, haha. (Not his is not an excuse for my poor replies xD)

 

[Sam1]

I have a question.. Why should anyone care what other people do with their time while using the Internet? If someone wants to create an admin forum, being a webmaster/administrator yourself, why should you care what they do since it's not benefiting you in anyway?

I suppose because both Haze and I care about the health of admin forums in general. I certainly believe that the amount of admin forums is not helping forum owners that much.

This is something which I dislike and it's also something that's keeping me from joining new forums (or better yet, forums advertised on ForumPromotion.net). I like to decide which forum I register on, not get dumped into another database due to a merge,

I agree with you partly on that- although I've never been on a merged forum. There are benefits of mergers though: 1. More Activity 2. Possibly more dedicated admin.....

Some true.. some false... You're referring to the few that you've seen,

Which for Haze, means a hell of a lot of forums!

Anyway, I ignore new forums with ads and forums that I've seen the owner repeatedly creating forums to sell.

So do I! Mostly those are "noobs" to owning forums- and you can't blame them! They want to make a return on their investment. They just don't understand they won't grow a community by being so focused on their back pocket.

More like activity instead of posts. Since it's a promotion forum and you're allowed to advertise almost anything, they see an easy way of advertising a similar forum that the people of ForumPromotion.net might be interested in.

Which it is.... promotion forums are well known for being easy to start- especially when using FP. The only issue is keeping up that activity- hence why a lot of them sell out....

 

[dojo]

I'd say the admin niche is cursed or something like this. I see so many new forums that die in 2-3 months that it's crazy. it's indeed a horribly hard niche to work with (need excellent content, good scripts and designs), but still there are way too few relevant forums within the niche. Thank you for mentioning us too in the list

 

[Sam1]

I'd say the admin niche is cursed or something like this. I see so many new forums that die in 2-3 months that it's crazy. it's indeed a horribly hard niche to work with (need excellent content, good scripts and designs), but still there are way too few relevant forums within the niche. Thank you for mentioning us too in the list

Well at least I know, Dojo, that you've spent a lot of time and money getting TopAdmin to where it is. You're unlikely to give up on it and it's a great admin forum so I encourage users here to join!

 

[shadowslight]

haha, I gave it a run. and like its been stated. there are quite a few forums out there in the admin niche. with so many options, youre likely to not be seen..

 

[dojo]

Well at least I know, Dojo, that you've spent a lot of time and money getting TopAdmin to where it is. You're unlikely to give up on it and it's a great admin forum so I encourage users here to join!

Thank you, Sam, for your kind words. It's been a lot of work and some hefty investment, but it's working nicely and I really enjoy running it. And, as you said, there's little chance I'd give up on it :ilike:

 

[Southern Comfort]

I miss the good old days where it was all about the promotion forums... Just a different name now with the same people. I see a handful of good ones (Dojo's yours comes to mind, might need to join up and see if I can design a few things for people) but a big majority of them are usually just copy's of what others have done before. I could keep going but you all have pretty much stated my own opinion.

Still on topic but a bit out there, what is with almost nearly EVERY admin forum using blue as part of their color scheme? Just something I've noticed.