Admin Well-being I give up

[Cory]

This is a very encouraging post. Sometimes, I feel like I want to give up on certain aspects of running my board, but I don't very often feel like I want to give up entirely. For instance, promoting the board seems like a workload and burden at times, mainly because it's so hard to find the specific places to advertise your forum that would lure users in. Thankfully, my forum kind of advertises itself through my signature promotion on the official board, and the link back to my board we add to all themes we submit. I know there are many other ways to go about promoting my board, but often I am clueless.

I think I will love and be on message boards for a very long time, if not the rest of my life. They have always been my primary pastime and my passion for coding on forum platforms makes me even more excited to use them.

I gave up on a Yu-Gi-Oh TCG marketplace message board twice already, because I did not have many of the aspects mentioned in the OP to run it. I find such specific niche boards are even harder to promote than perhaps my current board.

 

[Senkusha]

Thank you for pointing out the issue with permissions. I was unaware of this issue. It's been fixed now.

 

[Darth Cognus]

Well since I have two thoughts and looked at this a few times here we go.

1. Observe pass through traffic. Your board has value if people are bothering to look at it even if it's not necessarily growing or popping off. Tracy has the right of this. Getting that traffic to post is a whole nother thing of course.

2. Measure your expectations. As long as you don't look like this you've probably got a shot.

Spoiler: rip 2013-2020

Even then, 1.

If not 1 or 2, then 3. as long as you're putting out something you think is useful on the regular then hey, someone at some point should agree and maybe you've got yourself something to work with. But, it doesn't hurt to step away, look at it and rethink with a clear mind. Or even go do something else for a while and then look at it. Approach it differently, keep going after a recharge, or conclude you're not doing much good and you should focus on something more fruitful. Maybe take its lessons and repackage into another idea, or merge into another project inclusive of your niche for the greater good. Perhaps find a comrade with a fresh perspective or groom a successor who can carry the vision.

If there's one thing I know that's killed me too many times it's dwelling and never taking that step back to rechart the course and the outcome is just an ugly collapse because I've never let go. And I've seen that on too many other places, for that matter.

 

[Jason]

I feel discouraged at times. However, I know the big stumbling block is money. Well, in fact, I have a huge social media page associated with my forum, but I've run out of cash that I could use to connect the two.

 

[Millie]

So don't give up. Don't walk away. Show you're tough. Show your mettle. If you are prepared to put the work in, you will be successful.

Love this!

I think we all go through a period of time as webmasters where we become demotivated and demoralised, but the most important thing is staying focused and grinding - persistence always pays off!

 

[MrDawn]

How many times, as a forum admin or community manager has that phrase gone through your head? 'I give up'.

Once with my own forum 10 years ago and several times serving under other forum administrators who's communities died from lack of activity. After a while I just thought "what's the point?"

 

[Arantor]

I feel that so hard, though in my case it’s not so much about the communities per se but about building the tools for communities.

I still have so many ideas and yet the more I think about it the more of a bad idea I think it would be.

 

[MrDawn]

I feel that so hard, though in my case it’s not so much about the communities per se but about building the tools for communities.

I still have so many ideas and yet the more I think about it the more of a bad idea I think it would be.

I'll never go back to creating my own communities.

I have learned that most forums are struggling to have activity. Some forums are putting up announcements asking members to help promote or to encourage staff members to handle members with kit love. Will not name this community, but they are struggling because their staff members are too strict.

On a forum I will not name. One staff member said, "hey lets do things differently"

only for the admin to basically state they're not making any compromises.

 

[Cedric]

I don't get that. If it's relevant to the topic, let them bump... I'd allow it on AJ.

 

[MrDawn]

I don't get that. If it's relevant to the topic, let them bump... I'd allow it on AJ.

They've gotten worse over the years. I ended up leaving after getting getting disciplined by the owner and one of the staff members over something stupid like what you see in the snapshot. I was just trying to make content and I got reprimanded for it.

 

[Cedric]

They've gotten worse over the years. I ended up leaving after getting into it with the owner and one of the staff members over something stupid like what you see in the snapshot.

Don't blame you. Some people end up losing the touch they had with their community.

 

[MrDawn]

Don't blame you. Some people end up losing the touch they had with their community.

I had been a member with them since 2008 and had a high post count and was well known. I'd been there for a long time and they just shit on their members and run them off. Then they wonder why they're struggling with activity.

 

[Arantor]

A forum I’m on has the odd necro bump. It’s almost never relevant, it usually gets an eye roll or two. But we don’t generally mind because it’s usually vaguely on topic without being spammy.

 

[Empire]

End of the day people need to support those that are in those times of about to give up and also people need help in hand

 

[Bluezone777]

The reason why people quit is because they haven't bothered to find themselves reasons to fight on. If you don't have a reason to fight the impulse to quit, you will find yourself a reason to cave in and you will take it gladly. I couldn't even imagine myself selling either of the boards I owned because in a sense my entire essence of who I am a person was in both of them. They were in a sense everything I am turned into a board from the top to the bottom and even the people who made up the membership was me as well as even the membership of those communities was a reflection of my character and I am as I wouldn't allow anyone unlike myself character wise to be there for long.

Most boards are carbon copies of each other in the areas that truly matter. It's why so many boards come and go so easily off the net and out of people's memories. Why so many boards people join yet later on can't even remember much about them but the truly unique and special ones can somehow be gone for years off the net yet can remain long after in the memories of the people who went to them when they were online. To be successful as a forum owner is to own a board that people find worth remembering long after it's gone.

 

[RedPanda]

i feel this way constantly as i try to get my roleplay forum off the ground, ironically ive said it twice last week but was encouraged by my bf to keep trying, and by a member to keep going even if some members were lost because maybe they didn't want to see it grow. but sometimes its hard to keep going, and sometimes i feel like i can put all the time and effort into it but never get results. im glad to know im not the only one who wants to throw in my keys when times are rough.

 

[Arantor]

Roleplay especially is a harsh mistress unless you’re doing the most cookie cutter generic bland thing. Real life in a big city? Relatively easy. But anything with flair and a point of view is hard, let alone if you do something wild like original lore with a ton of detail.

We’ve opted to go basically-private, not worry about finding new members in general and just have fun - there’s 6 of us actively writing, but 4 of us have been friends for *years* so roping that core group into it wasn’t ever going to be a challenge.

It turned out that having fun writing was more important than having a ton of people all writing together, the friends we made along the way were a bonus (but a very welcome one)

 

[Darth Cognus]

In my experience public roleplay has always been a useful vessel to find useful additions to private groups. I'm sure there's a strategy in there somewhere.

 

[RedPanda]

Roleplay especially is a harsh mistress unless you’re doing the most cookie cutter generic bland thing. Real life in a big city? Relatively easy. But anything with flair and a point of view is hard, let alone if you do something wild like original lore with a ton of detail.

We’ve opted to go basically-private, not worry about finding new members in general and just have fun - there’s 6 of us actively writing, but 4 of us have been friends for *years* so roping that core group into it wasn’t ever going to be a challenge.

It turned out that having fun writing was more important than having a ton of people all writing together, the friends we made along the way were a bonus (but a very welcome one)

see that is what im going through now lol. i based the rp off a fandom but went pretty original with lore and what not, and a lot of people are comfortable staying in their spot, so getting new members has been few and far in between.

I can see why going private could work because you basically get to write with people you know are going to participate in the story. I've had too many people in my boards not participate in the story, and then only rp with one other person just do their own thing.

yeah i agree with you. ive decided to just slow down on the advertising because at some point i have to actually get the story going instead of worrying about numbers.

 

[JoshB]

It's great to come to these kinds of posts and see that everyone has their struggles and how they try to combat them. I know for myself it's hard to go through the motions but there are those moments when just chatting in someone's stream they mentioned how I helped them find a place they are enjoying streaming too. It's that helping just one person gives me hope to continue and keep going with the project.