Do you prefer a small community or big board?

[Reverie]

Imagine if a forum was like Reddit where the content was coming in non-stop. There's no sense of community there, in my opinion, just a big cluster of different posts/comments.

Yeah! That would be difficult to monitor as well as participate with people! I go and look at Reddit but I don't even participate in it much because I don't like the layout much lol.

 

[Cory]

Yeah! That would be difficult to monitor as well as participate with people! I go and look at Reddit but I don't even participate in it much because I don't like the layout much lol.

I just use the iOS app and that's for browsing purposes only. I used to participate through commenting primarily, but you'll rarely get enough upvotes for your comments to be noticed, so this is why posting on a more medium-sized community can be a good thing. You'll at least get some noticeability from your forum peers.

 

[Ravenfreak]

When I had a very active forum it was difficult to keep up with everyone, but I had fun with my community though too. So honestly I'd rather own a big board, but I don't mind having a smaller board either.

 

[Bluezone777]

There are two things one can use to measure their forum and that's size versus substance(thickness). A community that's a mile wide and an inch deep is a board with high stats but the cost to that is no one really has any real relationship of any substance and the smallest "storm" that can hit it can tear it apart as no one would care to keep it around because there is no substance or thickness to it The alternative is one that's an inch wide but a mile deep where stats get sacrificed for substance. You might not have a lot of people there but the relationships between the people you do have will be of substance and be able to take the hits that any forum could face. It will be the forum where the people come together to help it through tough times and be the board with the people on it you will remember long after said board dies.

The thing is you can't get farther with one without sacrificing the other so you have to choose just what you want out of your board but if you were to ask me what you should do then I would say care more about substance over size. It might not make sense going forward but looking back is when you will see the wisdom of doing so even if it doesn't seem like you will in the beginning.

 

[Reverie]

There are two things one can use to measure their forum and that's size versus substance(thickness). A community that's a mile wide and an inch deep is a board with high stats but the cost to that is no one really has any real relationship of any substance and the smallest "storm" that can hit it can tear it apart as no one would care to keep it around because there is no substance or thickness to it The alternative is one that's an inch wide but a mile deep where stats get sacrificed for substance. You might not have a lot of people there but the relationships between the people you do have will be of substance and be able to take the hits that any forum could face. It will be the forum where the people come together to help it through tough times and be the board with the people on it you will remember long after said board dies.

The thing is you can't get farther with one without sacrificing the other so you have to choose just what you want out of your board but if you were to ask me what you should do then I would say care more about substance over size. It might not make sense going forward but looking back is when you will see the wisdom of doing so even if it doesn't seem like you will in the beginning.

I gotta agree with this. Substance is so more important than the stats. I would still like to talk to 20-50 people actively at least. I find that forums that only have perhaps 10 members, while they can discuss things in depth, people run out of ideas of content to create. With enough members the content can be continually growing, but not too fast, so members are able to participate in each and every topic they'd like and people are able to go back and forth and have true discussions regarding the topics.

 

[cdub]

I also have a semi private forum with only and 2 to 4 active members. We check in with each other around once a month and congratulate each other on our accomplishments. It's quite nice.

My main board has around 200 to 300 active members (going by XF stats) or lurking members around application season and half that other times. I feel like I'm meeting new people every year and members go away to never return but it's the nature of my site. (For applying to film school).

Posts per day vary from 0 to 200+ depending on the time of year.