The hardest part in maintaining a Forum?

[xpl0iter]

What is the one thing that you find the hardest in maintaining a forum?
I think the only hard part is finding enough active members!
one you have that, almost everything is somewhat easy.

What do you say? Do you feel the same too, or do you consider someother stuff as the hardest part?

 

[Kevin1]

I think the hardest part is getting the first 10 active members. After that, they start helping to get your forum active, and the traffic to your forum compounds

 

[Jason1]

Hardest part is finding the first 10-20 members who can actively participate and contribute. Once it is done. We get a good amount of users soon.

 

[dojo]

Getting the initial members. Keeping a serious activity level. Getting people to trust your new site, even if they don't do it, since it's too new. The first months are the most difficult, so, if you pass them well, you're gonna get to enjoy your forums, not just work like a dog

 

[Kevin1]

I would believe the first two weeks are the most difficult. Its the time when your forum is basically dead. Many people will want to quit by that time.

 

[dojo]

Well, after 2 weeks the forum still won't have picked off. You don't have traffic, you don't have any PR, so people are less likely to trust the site. I've run my forum for almost 4 months and, even if it runs nicely, I can't say we're out of the woods. And I have invested approx 200$/month in it for various scripts and features, plus editors. If you don't want to invest so much it might be even harder to kick start

 

[flame]

What about getting members to read the rules lol. I mean I have the rules on the sign up, and on a page on the Rules and announcements board, and a link in my signature - and I still keep getting people saying they didnt know such and such was against the rules - and even worse "thats not against the rules on other forums".

I think the sheer repetitiveness of some tasks can be a drain - and having to be totally diplomatic about it. Not being able to write that a brain dead baboon would be able to work out how to underline text or get an avatar when you have a library of them can kind of stress you out.

 

[Kevin1]

Well, after 2 weeks the forum still won't have picked off. You don't have traffic, you don't have any PR, so people are less likely to trust the site. I've run my forum for almost 4 months and, even if it runs nicely, I can't say we're out of the woods. And I have invested approx 200$/month in it for various scripts and features, plus editors. If you don't want to invest so much it might be even harder to kick start

Well, if it has, it makes the future much easier, and when people notice that they have no members, some will quit

 

[dexterlablab1]

The hardest part of maintaining a forum is keeping your visitors interested. It's a test to keep content coming and ideas fresh daily. But you can ease some of the tension of that with having moderators that pitch in and carry some of the load off.

 

[Soulwatcher1]

The hardest part of maintaining a forum is keeping your visitors interested. It's a test to keep content coming and ideas fresh daily. But you can ease some of the tension of that with having moderators that pitch in and carry some of the load off.

I have to agree, until your forum is running on autopilot its up to the admin to keep coming up with new topics. And this can make or break a forum.

Greg

 

[dexterlablab1]

I have to agree, until your forum is running on autopilot its up to the admin to keep coming up with new topics. And this can make or break a forum.

Greg

The problem is doing that can take a REAL long time.

New forums are popping up everyday. So it's a constant struggle to make new, QUALITY things for your visitors on a day in, day out basis.

 

[flame]

It is one advantage of basing a general forum around news/current affairs - although there are odd slow news days there is normally something to give me inspiration - if not I fall back on old chestnuts like abortion, death penalty or whatever as people seem to have unlimited capacity to post the same things over and over on those - and dont seem to mind reading the same thing in different words.

 

[YanOri]

I don't think the first 10 active users are a problem, unless you are not satisfied yourself, you can always hire posters and get a fair ( fake ) activity. After that, there should not be any complaints on that part.
According to me, the hardest part is maintaining a friendly, at the same time a professional relationship with members. This is hard because when you're on the internet, there's no way every single member is satisfied with your administration. Also, you'll have to deal with conflicts between members Or maybe between the management team and a member (s). The way you deal with such issues, decides the respect you earn. Meanwhile, people will still visit your site, even though they don't have real work there, just because of their love towards you / the forum. This is what helps preventing the death of any forum, I guess.

 

[Sam1]

I personally think the hardest part is maintaining forum growth. I've seen a lot of forums start off really well but their owners get bored or annoyed at being the main topic starter and they slow down a lot! You really have to be relentless at promoting the forum, being active etc. for the first 6 months of a forums life- and that's hard!

 

[Sylar]

Getting the initial members. Keeping a serious activity level. Getting people to trust your new site, even if they don't do it, since it's too new. The first months are the most difficult, so, if you pass them well, you're gonna get to enjoy your forums, not just work like a dog

True that! You still have to work like a dog, but it's *fun*

The hardest part could also be keeping the motivation to run your forum(sometimes), depending on your situation :ilike: