Managing your member base

[Cedric]

Do you ever find it too difficult to deal with your member base or keep your users happy?

Discuss your tactics for managing the member base here.

 

[Nomad]

My forums have a small member base. There are less than 20 active members on most of my forums. Since there are few members, it is not very difficult to manage my member base, However, if you have a huge member base, you can hire a moderator to help you

 

[Shortie]

At the moment the member base we have on the forum I co-own is only somewhat small still, so it is really easy at the moment to be able to manage the member base and any issues we have with the members. We know that one day we may grow, and our member base will grow as well and when that happens, that would be the time to hire moderators on the forum who want to work with us and have the same passion for the forum as we do, having more staff would help to manage the member base that way.

 

[Cory]

My member base generally registers for the resources and doesn’t stick around for long, so it’s quite easy to manage. I think most members are happy with what I have to offer since I think I’m one of the largest boards on the Jcink network in terms of resources. I have yet to have any problems with my member-base I think and my forum has been around since 2018 and has 1000+ members.

 

[Reverie]

I think if you kind of have an "open door" policy where you're open about what's going on, as well as people feel like they can come to you with feedback the community can remain happy. I've seen communities where administrators banned members due to suggestions or complaints... It's rather sad that some think that is the way to go about it.

There will always be someone that is unhappy, but the biggest point is to find out why they are feeling that way. Is it the social aspect, is it a feature aspect, or is it not even related to the forum and the member is just having a hard day? That can be hard to figure out from time to time, but we must remember we are all human. Sometimes I like to handle things privately to allow the member some dignity if I see they might be having a hard day.