User Engagement Creating fake members

[cpvr]

Has anyone done this before? Creating fake members to help jump-start your community? Or are you against this idea?

Personally, I don't see any point in creating fake accounts just to talk to yourself and build your post count—but what does everyone think?

 

[Dexter]

I'm trying to get my site started, and I will admit to adding a few fake members here and there.

The key thing is that it's an authentic person behind each of the responses and threads (me!), which I still view as better than an automated AI bot.

I saw Xenforo had an integration with ChatGPT, and that to me is the beginning of the end. Then it's jsut a bunch of AI bots talking to a bunch of AI bots. Authenticity of real people is more important than ever

 

[MrDawn]

An abundance of fake members really doesn't help a forum very much. I can see maybe having an account or two to start topics, make it look a little active, so that your primary account isn't spamming up the forum.

 

[Dexter]

I agree, I think the key is that you don't want ONE account starting the messages in ALL of the boards.

 

[Bilita]

One of my sites is RPG-based, so you could say we're all living many personas that are fake (but also wonderful and maybe a tree elf or a midnight raider !)

What matters the most to me is the intent behind the alt accounts. What is the purpose, and why are we creating these fake accounts?

 

[Old Nick]

One of my last forums I created a dozen fake members to feed the different sections... Each of the members had his own personality and political, philosophical orientation, etc...

The forum was generalist and it was necessary to create activity that seems real so with fiery discussions, small tensions between members but nothing serious or complicated. So I found myself writing things that didn't look like me at all, I yelled at myself and then reconciled myself... it was sport to hold so many characters!

Sometimes I lost the thread and the same member said everything and its opposite, I remember having had sacred laughs while rereading me. Yet it worked because the real members never had any doubts about it and I even received DMs on these fake accounts.

I think I have written more than 10,000 posts out of 15,000 in a few months, which is the amount of work I have done hoping to find an audience and have an active forum. But I cracked when I saw that it did not start as I wanted, we were too few on the forum and keeping this pace was psychologically tiring especially when the expected results do not arrive.

To conclude, I would say that the creation of fake members is one of the tools to start a community but it has its limits and can only be considered in a fairly short period of time.

 

[Nomad]

This is my favorite way to start my forum. I create a couple of fake accounts and create topics and posts form these fake accounts. Once, I start getting genuine users, these accounts will go dormant. I do not use fake accounts for creating active users, I use just to create the initial activities on the forum.

 

[jtferdinand]

Does it work? Has any one had success by doing this? We actually have integrated chat gpt to answer questions and stimulate discussion but it doesn't start topics or talk to other bots. People can do this in private (DM) and in a public board. In any case it is challenging to motivate users to engage.

 

[Cedric]

Does it work? Has any one had success by doing this? We actually have integrated chat gpt to answer questions and stimulate discussion but it doesn't start topics or talk to other bots. People can do this in private (DM) and in a public board. In any case it is challenging to motivate users to engage.

Those add ons cost a lot of money with very little in return.

I’m no fan of fake accounts, but even that is miles better than a chatgpt integration.

I can see the fun in messing around, but trying to have it to engage members, not so much.

As @Old Nick said, it feels even more artificial (obviously)

 

[joelr]

I remember reading on another forum about interacting with the XF ChaptGPT bot, and it was basically as a novelty. Once that novelty wore down, then people stopped engaging with it.

 

[MrDawn]

Each of the members had his own personality and political, philosophical orientation, etc...

Sometimes I lost the thread and the same member said everything and its opposite, I remember having had sacred laughs while rereading me. Yet it worked because the real members never had any doubts about it and I even received DMs on these fake accounts.

Erhm....uh what did I just read.....???

 

[Smokey]

I don't recall ever doing this on any forum, personally. I've seen some forums do it and you can tell they are fake or 'sock' accounts. It doesn't usually work too well tbh.

 

[MrDawn]

I don't recall ever doing this on any forum, personally. I've seen some forums do it and you can tell they are fake or 'sock' accounts. It doesn't usually work too well tbh.

My thoughts exactly. It works against you if people find you out you're using sock accounts. A lot of people see that as a dishonest method.

 

[Old Nick]

Erhm....uh what did I just read.....???

Ha ha I understand your reaction but I really had no other choice. I was all alone on my forum, 0 members! How to fill the different sections so that the few visitors who passed by do not end up in a desert? Indeed, it is a dangerous game and the exercise is delicate but I must say that I was rather good at it. Besides, who tells you that I'm not a fake account right now?

 

[Cedric]

Hence why it's important to gather followers before starting a forum.

But we were all inexperienced at one point, so I forgive you @Old Nick

 

[Cory]

I don't like the thought of fake members so much, it seems like you're generating content by talking to yourself almost. I'd prefer one account that just pushes as much content as possible to help create an atmosphere where users feel the need to engage and enjoy the topics that have been created by that one account. That thought is probably why I have a little over 1/3 of the total posts on my forum.

 

[Old Nick]

I understand but when a forum is filled with posts by the same author it's not very engaging either. Starting from scratch with a forum is really complicated. You have to believe in your project otherwise it's hopeless...

 

[Ravenfreak]

I've only made duplicate accounts to test things, that's it. I never make multiple accounts on forums for posting reasons. However, this reminds me of another thread where someone mentioned that Reddit started off like this. The admins made duplicate accounts and it helped build the website. Now look at where Reddit is. So perhaps it does work.

 

[Cory]

I understand but when a forum is filled with posts by the same author it's not very engaging either. Starting from scratch with a forum is really complicated. You have to believe in your project otherwise it's hopeless...

Yes, starting from scratch can definetely be tough and takes a lot of time and thought-processing to help develop your overall vision. I just personally would rather do topic exchanges/content bundles than talk to myself. If you create engaging enough content that is very relevant to your niche, you will likely find participation through the proper means of promotion.

 

[Nomad]

I understand but when a forum is filled with posts by the same author it's not very engaging either. Starting from scratch with a forum is really complicated. You have to believe in your project otherwise it's hopeless...

And when you are new, and there are no topics, or very few topics, or topics only from one member (admin), your forum does not look good and it is very difficult to convince people to join it. When I start I create a couple of fake accounts and so that there will be some content and users. When genuine users join, they will already have content to interact. However, I am not with using these fake accounts forever.