Sam1
Mythical member
Forum Management appears to involve a lot of hard work, some knowledge and perhaps a smidgen of luck. I say a smidgen of luck because it is not the primary aspect but getting a few very active members early on is often just luck. There is no correct path to turning your empty board into a place where members find it impossible to keep up with the new topics, members and posts but there are things to avoid.
Not posting yourself
You most certainly cannot leave your forum to be run by others. Members will not appreciate the lack of an administrator/ owner. Only the owner can make the important decisions on the board: change of theme, changing domains, starting a contest. Members want to see an active admin on the forums. New forum administrators tend to either: participate in some topics and start a few OR start loads and always reply in topics. There are benefits to both approaches.
Too many staff members
Some forum owners feel that giving out staff positions on their board is an easy way to gain activity. While that can be true, the activity of your forum should depend on its regular members rather than staff. Having too many staff can make regular members feel that they have little say in the running of the forum as they are "outranked" by team members. Staff members are intimidating on larger boards. I am always weary, when registering on a big board, of offending staff members who I have no experience with. Lots of staff is also demotivating for the staff themselves. They don't have to do particularly much work so they become lazy.
A horrible theme
Forums don't need to look fantastic in order to be successful. Digitalpoint is a great example of a forum that had a boring green theme and became the largest webmaster forum in existence. People are put of by bad design but things don't have to be perfect. I have seen many forums with everything going for them except members and activity.
A free subdomain
It is not a hard an fast rule but I have found most forums that start on subdomains are not successful. The exception is where the owner of the forum has a number of offline friends who populate the board. The problem with a subdomain, such as .forumotion.com is that it shows that you are not particularly committed to the forum. Domains are easy and cheap to get these days. You can get them free with WebGurubb. This is an easy mistake to avoid.
Slow hosting
A number of people cannot afford to purchase webhosting. If you are one of them, please please PLEASE do not go with typical free hosting from businesses such as 000webhost. These free hosts are not going to handle message boards. You will notice regular downtimes and slow hosting. This will hurt activity on your forum. There are free options that will work well. IcyBoards is my personal recommendation. I reviewed their services for a blog earlier this year. They offer free Mybb hosting. The downside of a free forum host, such as IcyBoards, is that you are trapped in a walled garden and limited with what you can do to your forum. IcyBoards handles both big and small forums just fine. An alternative is a post-2 - host. If you pick a good post-2-host, then you will get quality (like paid) hosting for 10 or 20 posts per month. Finally there is sponsored hosting. A number of webhosts will not mind hosting a few free clients in return for a link back and a mention. For the host, this serves as an example site for speed and uptime.
Not listening
You should decide who your forum is designed for: yourself or your members. If it is the latter you need to take into consideration their suggestions and concerns. Always be open to having members PM you with matters of importance. You hope that only the most important matters will be dealt with via PM and the rest in the open forums.
Ban happy
You have all the power on your forum. With Great Power comes Great Responsibility. Banning can upset members. They may disagree with the reason for the ban. They may also really like the person you have just banned. Treat the ban hammer like any weapon of mass destruction- it is a last resort.
I have pet hates on forums, such as moderators telling members to "Get back on topic" or locking a topic when the discussion hasn't been completed. However, forums which do this aren't necessarily unsuccessful so I chose not to include them in this post.
I wish you all the very best with your forum. Stay committed, work hard and build relationships and you should find yourself the owner of a fantastic forum.
Not posting yourself
You most certainly cannot leave your forum to be run by others. Members will not appreciate the lack of an administrator/ owner. Only the owner can make the important decisions on the board: change of theme, changing domains, starting a contest. Members want to see an active admin on the forums. New forum administrators tend to either: participate in some topics and start a few OR start loads and always reply in topics. There are benefits to both approaches.
Too many staff members
Some forum owners feel that giving out staff positions on their board is an easy way to gain activity. While that can be true, the activity of your forum should depend on its regular members rather than staff. Having too many staff can make regular members feel that they have little say in the running of the forum as they are "outranked" by team members. Staff members are intimidating on larger boards. I am always weary, when registering on a big board, of offending staff members who I have no experience with. Lots of staff is also demotivating for the staff themselves. They don't have to do particularly much work so they become lazy.
A horrible theme
Forums don't need to look fantastic in order to be successful. Digitalpoint is a great example of a forum that had a boring green theme and became the largest webmaster forum in existence. People are put of by bad design but things don't have to be perfect. I have seen many forums with everything going for them except members and activity.
A free subdomain
It is not a hard an fast rule but I have found most forums that start on subdomains are not successful. The exception is where the owner of the forum has a number of offline friends who populate the board. The problem with a subdomain, such as .forumotion.com is that it shows that you are not particularly committed to the forum. Domains are easy and cheap to get these days. You can get them free with WebGurubb. This is an easy mistake to avoid.
Slow hosting
A number of people cannot afford to purchase webhosting. If you are one of them, please please PLEASE do not go with typical free hosting from businesses such as 000webhost. These free hosts are not going to handle message boards. You will notice regular downtimes and slow hosting. This will hurt activity on your forum. There are free options that will work well. IcyBoards is my personal recommendation. I reviewed their services for a blog earlier this year. They offer free Mybb hosting. The downside of a free forum host, such as IcyBoards, is that you are trapped in a walled garden and limited with what you can do to your forum. IcyBoards handles both big and small forums just fine. An alternative is a post-2 - host. If you pick a good post-2-host, then you will get quality (like paid) hosting for 10 or 20 posts per month. Finally there is sponsored hosting. A number of webhosts will not mind hosting a few free clients in return for a link back and a mention. For the host, this serves as an example site for speed and uptime.
Not listening
You should decide who your forum is designed for: yourself or your members. If it is the latter you need to take into consideration their suggestions and concerns. Always be open to having members PM you with matters of importance. You hope that only the most important matters will be dealt with via PM and the rest in the open forums.
Ban happy
You have all the power on your forum. With Great Power comes Great Responsibility. Banning can upset members. They may disagree with the reason for the ban. They may also really like the person you have just banned. Treat the ban hammer like any weapon of mass destruction- it is a last resort.
I have pet hates on forums, such as moderators telling members to "Get back on topic" or locking a topic when the discussion hasn't been completed. However, forums which do this aren't necessarily unsuccessful so I chose not to include them in this post.
I wish you all the very best with your forum. Stay committed, work hard and build relationships and you should find yourself the owner of a fantastic forum.
