time zone issues?

[Xilia]

So I work night shifts. I'm on the east coast of the USA (-5 on global time scale I believe?). However, I work night shifts, so I'm awake when most people in this time zone are sleeping and vise versa (sleeping when they're awake).

I want to open a new 18+ board but I'm worried with how my current life sleep schedule is like, I won't be able to properly engage with people. Is hiring staff the only way around this in different time zones and sleep schedules?

 

[Tracy]

As Jimmy Buffet and Alan Jackson sang... it's 5 o'clock somewhere.
This affects any person that has a business/site that is global in reach. It would be no different if you were 1/2 way around the world...
If you want instant response/interaction, you would have to have staff whether you worked an 8am-5pm job or a 5pm-8am job, either using staff from the same country just working different hours, or those overseas in different time zones.

 

[Dismal_Bliss]

The good thing about a forum is that most members know that conversations take place over time. But you would still want to hit it up both before work and after work, and maybe even make a post during your lunch break, to reflect activity until a memberbase carries that on their own. You may want to partner with or appoint a staff member with a different schedule than yours.

 

[Ravenfreak]

Like Dismal_Bliss said as long as you put the effort into posting on your forum when you get the chance, your schedule shouldn’t affect the activity on the forums. If anything while you’re sleeping, people will be online posting so you’ll have new posts to read when you log back in if the community is active.

 

[otis booard]

i was once in an online relationship with a woman living in the states. me being in the uk there were problems because of the time zones.

 

[Ravenfreak]

i was once in an online relationship with a woman living in the states. me being in the uk there were problems because of the time zones.

I can imagine having a long distant relationship in a different time zone must have been difficult, you'd have to work around each other schedules and probably could only talk for a little bit at a time. :S With a community though it's a bit different since you're not talking to someone one on one, unless you're in a relationship with one of your members who happens to live in a different time zone.

 

[Nomad]

I have been working online since 2012. I have worked with clients who live in another part of the globe, working in different time zones can be really difficult but if you want to run a community, time zone is the least important thing to care about. You do not have to necessarily interact in real time.