How do you reward your community members to keep them coming back?

[AjayJunkies]

I just hosted a Discord Nitro giveaway in my forum Discord! That's something fun that I hope will get my Discord and community more active.

What things do you do to randomly reward your members for staying?

 

[Gemma]

Using xenForo.

For virtual/gamification rewards, I use the a "badges" addon - it also has a built-in tier system (denoted by the different colours - red, blue, purple etc) and can be used quite well with the user criteria option to "reward" your members for activity.



I also a "Content Badges" addon, this allows members to show their appreciation and reward other members for posts they feel add value to the discussion and/or site - I believe it is similar to a rewards system on Reddit.



The last virtual method I use is by integrating the "Thread Type Rating Competition" addon - just now I'm only using it as a Recipe of the Month placeholder but I'm going to be starting competitions for photography, artwork and creative writing in the new year.



We also run "silent competitions", where myself and the staff run competitions without telling the members - this may be when a new feature is added (ie referrals, arcade, articles etc) or it may be when a landmark is met (site birthday, post count landmark etc) or it could be totally random where "we pull a name from a hat". We have given away £1300 in monetary prizes/digital vouchers running these silent competitions over a 3 year period.

 

[Kennysplash]

One underrated way is to make the forum as lively as possible. Let them have the feeling that they are in for fun, they will always want to check in.

 

[SoluDome]

What things do you do to randomly reward your members for staying?

We use trophies with a level system to give users different challenges, that they can accomplish. This is how we are keeping our keeping users engaged.

Other than that, I also use a suggested users addon of mine to make people follow each other



We basically place this widget in between the threads posts and filter members shown there using criteria to show relevant users. Allowing them to engage more and know eachother.

 

[Jane]

TRYING to get them to talk about something other than the poxy weather would be a start! Sheesh… I have SO much in archive because of this. does my head in,

 

[Cedric]

TRYING to get them to talk about something other than the poxy weather would be a start! Sheesh… I have SO much in archive because of this. does my head in,

Can you explain a bit more on your situation?

 

[Jane]

It was as I said in the chat about creating categories. Sadly there are those who just like to pop in..say hello..discuss the weather..maybe comment on a news topic and thats it. For example..I had a category called Fright Night. All kinds of spooky/strange stories in there. I even gave the forum it’s own theme to give it a ‘spooky feel’. Posted some creepy Halloween stories…and..nothing.
That is just one example.

 

[Cedric]

It was as I said in the chat about creating categories. Sadly there are those who just like to pop in..say hello..discuss the weather..maybe comment on a news topic and thats it. For example..I had a category called Fright Night. All kinds of spooky/strange stories in there. I even gave the forum it’s own theme to give it a ‘spooky feel’. Posted some creepy Halloween stories…and..nothing.
That is just one example.

Sounds like you have the wrong audience on your board. If it upsets you, then it’s better to take action. I would PM them and ask kindly if they can refrain from doing said things and instead try focus more on the core of your forum.

If they’re persistent, lock down the topics. You’ve got two options then. 1: They’ll stop doing what they did and reply to core topics. 2: They’ll leave your forum. While the second option sounds terrible, is it really though? If it upsets you and they bring little value, maybe it’s better they leave?

 

[Reverie]

It was as I said in the chat about creating categories. Sadly there are those who just like to pop in..say hello..discuss the weather..maybe comment on a news topic and thats it. For example..I had a category called Fright Night. All kinds of spooky/strange stories in there. I even gave the forum it’s own theme to give it a ‘spooky feel’. Posted some creepy Halloween stories…and..nothing.
That is just one example.

Ah I have noticed some forums do that! They have the weather topic, what’s for dinner, and etc. we have a few but definitely not the focus. If they were the focus I think I would consider closing them for a short period of time like Cedric suggests. Make some new topics and see what happens. If you close them just stay “we are taking a break and this topic will be back shortly” not necessarily to get upset with them but so they know to not create a new one lol.

 

[Jane]

Yes. a lot of the forums I post on have that kind of thing, Whilst it’s ok..it would be nice to actually have people engage in discussions.. I’ve made a couple of new categories..lets see what enthusiasm they are greeted with, 😂😂

 

[Cory]

If it weren't for the coding resources available on the board, I'd probably have little to no log-ins per day, so naturally being a resource board I try and keep the resources coming in. Although, it's very hard to think of consistent ideas for new codes to create. I probably have a plethora of skins I can convert from ZetaBoards to Jcink, it's just hard finding the resources to do so (such as the original author's permission, a Wayback Machine page to see the skin live, etc.).

I do have a forum shop where members can earn extra perks through credits, but it has never seen much use.

I don't know what else I can do since we're a resource board and I'm offering resources, support, and requests to the best of my knowledge. The "general discussion" areas aren't the main focus, but of course, it would always be nice to see that area more active from time to time.

 

[Paul]

One underrated way is to make the forum as lively as possible. Let them have the feeling that they are in for fun, they will always want to check in.

Pretty much this. I've had a Member of the Month award for the last 20 years but that doesn't mean anything except for the title. If the forum is active, you stick with it and there is always topics to post on, they'll keep coming back.

 

[Cedric]

Pretty much this. I've had a Member of the Month award for the last 20 years but that doesn't mean anything except for the title. If the forum is active, you stick with it and there is always topics to post on, they'll keep coming back.

This.

There's a reason why we want to check forums. It's because we want to see what's new. What has been posted. The moment you stop posting on your forums, is the moment your members will too.

 

[~ True Legend ~]

Sounds like you have the wrong audience on your board. If it upsets you, then it’s better to take action. I would PM them and ask kindly if they can refrain from doing said things and instead try focus more on the core of your forum.

If they’re persistent, lock down the topics. You’ve got two options then. 1: They’ll stop doing what they did and reply to core topics. 2: They’ll leave your forum. While the second option sounds terrible, is it really though? If it upsets you and they bring little value, maybe it’s better they leave?

Yes it is terrible. How about:
1) Only allow off topic posts after a certain post count?
2) Exclude off topic posts from post count?
3) Require topics to be posted in the correct sections?