Standing out from the crowd

[Cedric]

I was thinking about what makes our forums stand out from the rest. There are so many communities out there, but what do we do differently that makes us unique?

So, I wanted to ask you all: what do you do on your forum that sets you apart from the rest? Is there a particular feature, activity or event that your members love and keeps them coming back for more? Maybe it's a unique theme or design that catches their eye? Or perhaps you have a specific approach to moderation that creates a friendly and inclusive environment for all?

Whatever it may be, I think it's important to share our experiences and learn from one another. After all, we're all trying to create a space where like-minded people can connect and exchange ideas. So, let's start a discussion and share what we do to stand out in this crowded online world.

 

[Uncrowned]

Passion for your own project is key and making sure you are making your project is also key. Basically, you need to love your site and your need to have the drive to push it through years of "meh" and avoid simply copying what worked for others as that removes your ability to be better or a different reason to attract a user.

 

[Kale]

I honestly haven't even thought of it much. I think forums do not have to truly do as much to 'stand out' since hardly anyone uses them much. Passion for the forum is a good one as said above.

 

[Cory]

I think I may be one of the boards on Jcink that offer the most codes for people to use, so that's definitely one aspect that makes us stand out. We have a useful resource index that is different from your everyday topic index that even has a search feature to find the resource you're after. We have a skin slideshow that displays a thumbnail of every skin posted in the Skins forum, and we are essentially affiliated with a Jcink directory where we display the last 5 submitted forums on our board index. We too have a skin unique to our board. These are some things I can think of that makes us stand out from the rest.

 

[Heatman]

Passion for your own project is key and making sure you are making your project is also key. Basically, you need to love your site and your need to have the drive to push it through years of "meh" and avoid simply copying what worked for others as that removes your ability to be better or a different reason to attract a user.

This is one of the reasons why I will always advice any of my friends who wants to start a forum to make sure that it's a niche which he or she have a great passion in, otherwise the zeal to push it on when it gets difficult and challenging will wane completely. It's going to mark the end of the forum in most cases.

 

[~ True Legend ~]

Content and community.
It depends on what you want really. If you stand out too much , you attract trolls from what I've seen. This is what occurs in the most active communities. But don't worry too much about that - it's hard to get to that stage if you're just starting out

 

[joelr]

If you're trying to build a community where you don't already have an audience, you must provide value that no other community on the entire internet offers to attract organic users.

To put it another way in context of the OP, you must stand out not just from "the crowd" - but from the entire Internet.

This is what hobbyist admins miss as their #1 failure. They literally offer nothing unique of value from the sea of endless other communities. You must sharply define something that nobody else offers.

 

[~ True Legend ~]

If you're trying to build a community where you don't already have an audience, you must provide value that no other community on the entire internet offers to attract organic users.

To put it another way in context of the OP, you must stand out not just from "the crowd" - but from the entire Internet.

This is what hobbyist admins miss as their #1 failure. They literally offer nothing unique of value from the sea of endless other communities. You must sharply define something that nobody else offers.

We have a member section where members can have their *own* subforums and a nerd section . It’d be cool to hear your feedback on SCF 😎

 

[Ravenfreak]

I offer a roleplaying section on my general chat forum. It's a feature I haven't really seen on any other general chat forum. I also just opened a Gex forum, which to my knowledge is the only Gex fan forum on the internet currently. I tried searching for "gex fan forum" and was only met with results from forums like Atari Age and other gaming forums not based around the Gex series of games.

 

[~ True Legend ~]

I offer a roleplaying section on my general chat forum. It's a feature I haven't really seen on any other general chat forum. I also just opened a Gex forum, which to my knowledge is the only Gex fan forum on the internet currently. I tried searching for "gex fan forum" and was only met with results from forums like Atari Age and other gaming forums not based around the Gex series of games.

FTBU or TZ ?
I don't remember this - I assume this is a new feature?
I'm not into RPG so I probably just don't pay too much attention to it, in case I missed it ;P

 

[Ravenfreak]

FTBU or TZ ?
I don't remember this - I assume this is a new feature?
I'm not into RPG so I probably just don't pay too much attention to it, in case I missed it ;P

TZ has the roleplaying section. I added it about a month or two ago lol. I was thinking of ideas for new features, and since I hadn't really seen general chat forums add this section I went ahead and tried it. Though I'm wondering if it was a good idea... I suppose that's why no one has really added it on a general chat forum before. :V

 

[~ True Legend ~]

TZ has the roleplaying section. I added it about a month or two ago lol. I was thinking of ideas for new features, and since I hadn't really seen general chat forums add this section I went ahead and tried it. Though I'm wondering if it was a good idea... I suppose that's why no one has really added it on a general chat forum before. :V

@Kyng has added it to TCH
https://tch-forum.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=56
https://admin-junkies.com/threads/standing-out-from-the-crowd.1486/#post-30020

 

[veloman]

My main goal with mine - to start with - was to create a modern forum that looks nice and works perfectly. Most other forums in my niche were either old fashioned, lacking in most features, or just ugly, slow and non-responsive.

I mean, the largest Cycling Forum in the UK is run on a base install of phpBB - and I thought, "I can do better then that". One of the largest news sites has a forum which looks like a modified version of disqus with almost zero features beyond replying.

Since then I've been trying to stand out with the same "try to be better" philosophy, combined with my own passion for the subject. Is it working? Not yet... but I'm optimistic! 🤞

 

[Shortie]

With Chat Addicts, I would say that with it being a general chat forum but also allowing not only the promotion of other websites, forums and blogs but also the promotion of live streaming channels, YouTube channels, TikTok pages and such that is what makes us stand out a little more.

We also offer an area for business chat and also money and cryptocurrency chat as well which I feel is pretty unique for a general chat forum as well.

 

[Xilia]

what do you do on your forum that sets you apart from the rest? Is there a particular feature, activity or event that your members love and keeps them coming back for more? Maybe it's a unique theme or design that catches their eye? Or perhaps you have a specific approach to moderation that creates a friendly and inclusive environment for all?

My Naruto site is currently in the works, but my ad for it basically states....
+ Time actually flows on our site! We are a seasonal-year site so seasonal events (celebratory, weather events, etc.) can happen anywhere on the site! This means technology also gradually advances (including weapons!)
+ We openly encourage ninja of all kinds (courier, medical, hunter, etc.) as well as non-ninjas on our site to create as diverse a world as possible for our lovely characters.
+ Low activity requirements, we understand life gets hectic
+ We allow a LOT of character elements from the show that you might not find on other Naruto sites (retired kages, special jounin, Uchiha, etc.)
+ We offer a short app OR long app so players can write up their character how THEY prefer.
+ We put the focus on writing, period. We consider ourselves an "old school" Naruto site where players can go through the minimum time it takes to write up their character template, get approved, and start writing.

I made the site because I miss just plain/simple "old school" Naruto sites where the focus was on the joy of writing in the world/lore of Naruto. I always liked it when admins made a point of having regular big and small events which is why I threw in the seasons idea to help keep things constantly flowing/moving on the site. I wanted a site that actually encouraged ALL types of individuals you could find on this kind of site which is why we actively encourage say Medical Ninja, Non-ninja, and hunter ninja characters. The app variation is there because it's impossible to please everyone with whatever app you have on your site for members.

 

[Nomad]

If you have managed to rank top on search engines for a couple of high traffic keywords, you are already standing out from the crowd. Having a better design or having a lot of people as member do not matter if you do not have searh traffic.