Site Management When you create more categories and

[Jane]

No interest is shown after a fair while..what would you do? Keep plodding on and hope or concede defeat and archive said categories? I try to think up different subjects other than the weather etc to actually start conversations. Sometimes it works and sometimes… I do have a suggestions section but so far no one has suggested anything... Advice welcome.

 

[Reverie]

have you tried creating the content in those areas? Any responses? If not archive and move threads.

I always created new sections based on the content already being created. I.e we had an entertainment forum for all media, movies, music, etc. but there was such a lot of threads about movies and tv so we created a separate area for it as a sub forum. It’s all based on what your community is headed.

Maybe in the suggestions area you could create a suggestion thread for new category ideas and people could vote based on what they like.

 

[Jane]

Yes..lots of content but interest has been zilch. Oh well…

 

[ClicketyKat]

If that area is important to you to have on the site, just keep adding new threads and hopefully someday you'll get a member who is as enthusiastic as you on the topic. If it's not so important to have, merge it into another section.

I guess you need to stop and think about which categories are important to discuss, but also which ones are important to your current userbase. Plus, there will be times of the year when your members might change to a different type of topic they prefer to discuss. Members come and go, so the interest changes as well.

 

[joelr]

No interest is shown after a fair while..what would you do? Keep plodding on and hope or concede defeat and archive said categories? I try to think up different subjects other than the weather etc to actually start conversations. Sometimes it works and sometimes… I do have a suggestions section but so far no one has suggested anything... Advice welcome.

What's the purpose or objective behind your community?

 

[Jane]

What's the purpose or objective behind your community?

To get people talking..having conversations..about things more than the weather,,,I’ve moved the aforementioned categories into the archive. No point me keep posting different things in there if no one joins in. I’m always trying to come up with new ideas..hence my latest addition..the arcade. Jcink got rid of their built in one so I found one and added it myself,

I just dont want to be another ‘bog standard’ discussion forum where all anyone talks about is the weather etc. Friendly CHATTING..chatting being the operative word here, I keep plodding on

 

[Cedric]

To get people talking..having conversations..about things more than the weather,,,I’ve moved the aforementioned categories into the archive. No point me keep posting different things in there if no one joins in. I’m always trying to come up with new ideas..hence my latest addition..the arcade. Jcink got rid of their built in one so I found one and added it myself,

I just dont want to be another ‘bog standard’ discussion forum where all anyone talks about is the weather etc. Friendly CHATTING..chatting being the operative word here, I keep plodding on

Are you sure it's your forums that are at fault?

I mean no disrespect but the first view as a guest is a bunny repeating background. Personally, that's an instant red flag for me to disappear. I see you have a bunch of other skins available. But as a guest, your first seconds are crucial in gaining a member or the fact that they bounce.

Furthermore, free hosted forums do have a harder time gaining traction. This is mainly because we are all very busy with real life and often prefer more established / premium forums. I've written a blog piece about this a while ago. This might be interesting for you:

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For me personally, I pay less attention to free hosted forums when I'm browsing the internet. While I have ran countless free hosted forums for over 15 years. Maybe that's just me though.

We're here to help anyway, so if you have any concerns, post them. But as with anything: Content is King.

 

[Ravenfreak]

Furthermore, free hosted forums do have a harder time gaining traction. This is mainly because we are all very busy with real life and often prefer more established / premium forums. I've written a blog piece about this a while ago.

I think it depends on the niche of the forum. For example the community for modding Sonic 3 Angel Island Revisited is hosted on Proboards and it gets a bunch of posts daily with a bunch of members online daily. I suppose if a community is offering something, the platform doesn't matter too much. However, if it's a niche that's been done often the free hosted communities do tend to get overlooked.

 

[Jane]

Are you sure it's your forums that are at fault?

I mean no disrespect but the first view as a guest is a bunny repeating background. Personally, that's an instant red flag for me to disappear. I see you have a bunch of other skins available. But as a guest, your first seconds are crucial in gaining a member or the fact that they bounce.

Furthermore, free hosted forums do have a harder time gaining traction. This is mainly because we are all very busy with real life and often prefer more established / premium forums. I've written a blog piece about this a while ago. This might be interesting for you:

Boost Your Forum’s Success: Upgrade to Paid Forum Software

Struggling to gain traction with your free hosted forum? Discover the benefits of upgrading to paid forum software such as Invision Community, Xenforo and Woltlab. Engage your community like never before!

freeforumhosting.com

For me personally, I pay less attention to free hosted forums when I'm browsing the internet. While I have ran countless free hosted forums for over 15 years. Maybe that's just me though.

We're here to help anyway, so if you have any concerns, post them. But as with anything: Content is King.

No offence taken. What is wrong with my bunny theme? As you said I do have lots of others. Why would a theme make you disappear? I have run Mybb..phpBB and SMF. All were good experiences but not something I’d want to do again. And what is the problem with a free hosted forum? zetaboards was free hosted and it was very popular. Give me an example of content that would encourage you, or anyone else to join?

 

[Tracy]

No interest is shown after a fair while..what would you do? Keep plodding on and hope or concede defeat and archive said categories? I try to think up different subjects other than the weather etc to actually start conversations. Sometimes it works and sometimes… I do have a suggestions section but so far no one has suggested anything... Advice welcome.

Depending on your software... why use categories. If your software supports it... use a general type category and then specific prefixes within that category.
If your software allows it, you can have one category, but 20-30 "specific context forums" within it.







You minimize the number of catergories on your list, but you allow much more specificity for your posts within those categoriees, and the are (in my software case) filterable.

 

[Jane]

Right I have categories and forums within those categories.. I have an archive with a ton of categories and forums within those categories. They were archived because no one seemed that interested. Maybe I’m boring,, I’ve changed the default theme as well.

 

[Cedric]

No offence taken. What is wrong with my bunny theme? As you said I do have lots of others. Why would a theme make you disappear? I have run Mybb..phpBB and SMF. All were good experiences but not something I’d want to do again. And what is the problem with a free hosted forum? zetaboards was free hosted and it was very popular. Give me an example of content that would encourage you, or anyone else to join?

It’s a bunny theme, haha. Cute for some people, but not for me. Like you said, you have different themes, choose something more neutral for a default one.

We need to think of our guests as people who don’t have the same knowledge of forums as we do. Therefore they might not be aware of several themes. So with a bunny theme your bounce rate will be much higher than a neutral theme.

For those who do know what forums are about, you have the fact that you’re running free forum hosting. Some don’t care about that while others do as their time is limited and choose to spend time at more premium software because they don’t want to waste their time. Premium software is often more linked to more serious community leaders.

Like I said, no disrespect to you. It’s how I see the current age in forums. There’s no guarantee what you do, and free hosted forums can get very successful. But the chances are more slim to premium ones.

People who choose forums over social media are people who generally know more about them than people who don’t. But we can only do our best to offer diversity to all audiences. Hope that makes sense. Just woke up, haha.

 

[Al]

It looks as if you have made some changes from when I first clicked on your link. The bunnies are gone! It immediately looks more appealing. Have you also reduced the number of forums? It looks much more inviting (the bunnies made my eyes bleed). Try to avoid having empty sections:


This is a huge number of posts. Where are you hiding them all?

with a bunny theme your bounce rate will be much higher

 

[Darth Cognus]

Cover and encourage core topics, trial specialized ones as desired/needed and keep them around if they stick. Introduce after member input, so you already have some expectation of use instead of just hoping for use.

Free forums are limited for sure but I have seen gems in the wild, I think if you truly have an audience then even a forum stuck in vbulletin olden days can gather eyes and voices. I'm more concerned when a free host can't even do a let's encrypt certificate...

Frankly to me the issue is a lack of niche. General discussion is a dime a dozen and handled already by social media and chats not to mention the bustling market in forums. For the ones I've seen on this site I've seen a lot of very similar topics and repeat users, especially across the "general" forums offered. So at the end of the day I think this will strike you regardless of presentation. And if the bunnies are presented tactfully and without excess... why not? That's actually something that stands out a bit from ye typical GenD area. It won't appeal to everyone but combined with the following it might appeal to particular someones and that is a reason to exist. General theme, general audience, oversaturated general market...

You want to encourage content, provide something specific that is done well with clear passion that invites others of a similar niche to do the same. It depends what you're willing to sweat for or explore to provide this. If it was that easy everyone would have their bustling forums and if I could detail it step by step here I'd not need to go to work in ~30 minutes, but I digress. Food for thought...

 

[Jane]

It looks as if you have made some changes from when I first clicked on your link. The bunnies are gone! It immediately looks more appealing. Have you also reduced the number of forums? It looks much more inviting (the bunnies made my eyes bleed). Try to avoid having empty sections:
View attachment 2800

This is a huge number of posts. Where are you hiding them all?
View attachment 2801

Made your eyes bleed? . Ok fair enough. Someone made that theme for me because I have FIVE rabbits… A lot of categories/forums were archived because as I said..they didn't prove hugely popular at the time. Trying to think of interesting things to discuss,other than the weather can be a challenge… hmm.

 

[Jane]

Cover and encourage core topics, trial specialized ones as desired/needed and keep them around if they stick. Introduce after member input, so you already have some expectation of use instead of just hoping for use.

Free forums are limited for sure but I have seen gems in the wild, I think if you truly have an audience then even a forum stuck in vbulletin olden days can gather eyes and voices. I'm more concerned when a free host can't even do a let's encrypt certificate...

Frankly to me the issue is a lack of niche. General discussion is a dime a dozen and handled already by social media and chats not to mention the bustling market in forums. For the ones I've seen on this site I've seen a lot of very similar topics and repeat users, especially across the "general" forums offered. So at the end of the day I think this will strike you regardless of presentation. And if the bunnies are presented tactfully and without excess... why not? That's actually something that stands out a bit from ye typical GenD area. It won't appeal to everyone but combined with the following it might appeal to particular someones and that is a reason to exist. General theme, general audience, oversaturated general market...

You want to encourage content, provide something specific that is done well with clear passion that invites others of a similar niche to do the same. It depends what you're willing to sweat for or explore to provide this. If it was that easy everyone would have their bustling forums and if I could detail it step by step here I'd not need to go to work in ~30 minutes, but I digress. Food for thought...

Yes...a niche. I knew someone who had a forum dedicated to New Zealand,because that is where he lives..it wasnt popular at all..and he wouldn't take any advice..(Liam will remember him from ZB support…Sandy) . He got quite arsey if you tried to make suggestions

 

[Cedric]

Cover and encourage core topics, trial specialized ones as desired/needed and keep them around if they stick. Introduce after member input, so you already have some expectation of use instead of just hoping for use.

Free forums are limited for sure but I have seen gems in the wild, I think if you truly have an audience then even a forum stuck in vbulletin olden days can gather eyes and voices. I'm more concerned when a free host can't even do a let's encrypt certificate...

Frankly to me the issue is a lack of niche. General discussion is a dime a dozen and handled already by social media and chats not to mention the bustling market in forums. For the ones I've seen on this site I've seen a lot of very similar topics and repeat users, especially across the "general" forums offered. So at the end of the day I think this will strike you regardless of presentation. And if the bunnies are presented tactfully and without excess... why not? That's actually something that stands out a bit from ye typical GenD area. It won't appeal to everyone but combined with the following it might appeal to particular someones and that is a reason to exist. General theme, general audience, oversaturated general market...

You want to encourage content, provide something specific that is done well with clear passion that invites others of a similar niche to do the same. It depends what you're willing to sweat for or explore to provide this. If it was that easy everyone would have their bustling forums and if I could detail it step by step here I'd not need to go to work in ~30 minutes, but I digress. Food for thought...

What a great reply!

There is no size fit all answer sadly. It takes a lot of experimenting, dedication and some luck. But with the help of our community, I’m sure some significant changes and improves can be made.

 

[Jane]

John..who owns Jcink has given me a lets encrypt certificate.

 

[Cedric]

John..who owns Jcink has given me a lets encrypt certificate.

John is great. It’s been proven multiple times. Even with the closure of icyboards he really did much for the community migrating to Jcink. I also recommended him a while ago.

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[Jane]

He’s a Good man. Jcink is idiot proof. It really is. Love it.