Ram8349 Posted June 18, 2012 Share Posted June 18, 2012 For a new forum, how many minimal active members, how many new posts, how many visitors are required every day in order to have a sustainable forum where it will keep growing on its own? I know at some point there can be a snowball effect, but I am not sure when. In either case, I am no where close to the minimal requirements to get the snowball rolling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Nathan Posted June 18, 2012 Administrators Share Posted June 18, 2012 I'm not sure there is a set number. I would think you are well on your way though with 10-20 daily active members, ~50 new posts per day and a few new topics. The views really just depends on how much content you have for them to view. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Posted June 18, 2012 Share Posted June 18, 2012 Honest answer to this is never. It will never grow on its own and continue to grow. The second you stop concentrating on your forum it will die regardless of its size. I say this from experience of running a couple of forums I have lost interest in over the years, a couple that are very active however none of them will continue without your continuous input into them. Yeah you can step back a little once it starts getting busier as I do currently with my own forum, however it will never be completely self servicing. As for gaining its own members, I think your google rankings are more important for snowballing than the amount of members. If you have 10 members posting each day it will look like your site is active, however if nobody sees that it is active then you will gain nothing from it. However in the same situation with high google rankings on various search criteria you will gain members constantly as people will see that content and want to contribute. Thats when you will start seeing your site snowballing. One thing I did on my site which I found quite handy was to have a topic which simply asks people how they found you and why the joined. That way you can start to build more in the areas that seem to be attracting more members. bryce12 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Victor Leigh Posted June 19, 2012 Share Posted June 19, 2012 How about using an addon to automatically post to Facebook and Tweeter whenever a new post is made? That might attract some attention to the forum. Marc 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Nathan Posted June 19, 2012 Administrators Share Posted June 19, 2012 How about using an addon to automatically post to Facebook and Tweeter whenever a new post is made? That might attract some attention to the forum. Or look like spam, when I see this kind of stuff I don't even bother. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ram8349 Posted June 20, 2012 Author Share Posted June 20, 2012 How about using an addon to automatically post to Facebook and Tweeter whenever a new post is made? That might attract some attention to the forum. I only add popular threads to Facebook and Twitter. If I add every post to there, it will look like spam and might make fans and followers leave instead of participating. I try to limit posts on the Facebook wall to no more than twice a day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Nathan Posted June 20, 2012 Administrators Share Posted June 20, 2012 I try to limit posts on the Facebook wall to no more than twice a day. I think that's a good choice. I find myself unliking things all the time just because they update too often. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ram8349 Posted June 21, 2012 Author Share Posted June 21, 2012 Honest answer to this is never. It will never grow on its own and continue to grow. The second you stop concentrating on your forum it will die regardless of its size. I say this from experience of running a couple of forums I have lost interest in over the years, a couple that are very active however none of them will continue without your continuous input into them. Yeah you can step back a little once it starts getting busier as I do currently with my own forum, however it will never be completely self servicing. As for gaining its own members, I think your google rankings are more important for snowballing than the amount of members. If you have 10 members posting each day it will look like your site is active, however if nobody sees that it is active then you will gain nothing from it. However in the same situation with high google rankings on various search criteria you will gain members constantly as people will see that content and want to contribute. Thats when you will start seeing your site snowballing. One thing I did on my site which I found quite handy was to have a topic which simply asks people how they found you and why the joined. That way you can start to build more in the areas that seem to be attracting more members. There are forums quickly gained tens thousand of people. They get 50~100 new members signing up per day. Sure they will need to be moderated, the posts from admin isn't really needed any more when there are thousands of people posting. My forum seems to have near 0 natural growth. I was wondering what it take for people naturally join in on their own without me asking them personally. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Victor Leigh Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 It's not really true that no one wants to join your forum. It's just that you haven't given them any compelling reason to do so. Would you consider making your forum a bit hotter by discussing controversial topics? Things like the fur trade? Yes, it's not exactly about pets but it's still about animals. So chances are people who are passionate about animal rights and abuses may also be pet owners. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ridwan sameer Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 Doesnt matter. I think Activity is seen better how conversations go on.. Not how many posts and threads there are. Quantity of members is important... but Quality is more Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Nathan Posted June 21, 2012 Administrators Share Posted June 21, 2012 There are forums quickly gained tens thousand of people. They get 50~100 new members signing up per day. Sure they will need to be moderated, the posts from admin isn't really needed any more when there are thousands of people posting. My forum seems to have near 0 natural growth. I was wondering what it take for people naturally join in on their own without me asking them personally. Do you have a big board? I would listen to Marc as he does. Marc 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 (edited) There are forums quickly gained tens thousand of people. They get 50~100 new members signing up per day. Sure they will need to be moderated, the posts from admin isn't really needed any more when there are thousands of people posting. My forum seems to have near 0 natural growth. I was wondering what it take for people naturally join in on their own without me asking them personally. No worries. Stop posting yourself once its busier (say 20k posts a month). Will give it 3 month before your forum is dead completely. Edited June 21, 2012 by Marc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ram8349 Posted June 22, 2012 Author Share Posted June 22, 2012 No worries. Stop posting yourself once its busier (say 20k posts a month). Will give it 3 month before your forum is dead completely. You can only post so much as one person. If there are hundreds of others posting, missing one or two shouldn't make any impact at all. Moderating is needed, sure...but what makes you thinking the posts from mods and admins are so special to random members? As a member on varies forums, I would only stay if there are interesting topics or if the forum can solve my problems. Who make the posts is totally irrelevant to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ridwan sameer Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 Admin posts are definitely imporant. I mean if there are no new announcements or atleast the admin isnt always on and chatting with members.. people are going to think you have given up and so will they. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 You can only post so much as one person. If there are hundreds of others posting, missing one or two shouldn't make any impact at all. Moderating is needed, sure...but what makes you thinking the posts from mods and admins are so special to random members? As a member on varies forums, I would only stay if there are interesting topics or if the forum can solve my problems. Who make the posts is totally irrelevant to me. However your missing the point. Members are the activity of the forum, whereas staff are the face of the forum. If the face of the forum dissapears, so does the activity Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Victor Leigh Posted June 23, 2012 Share Posted June 23, 2012 However your missing the point. Members are the activity of the forum, whereas staff are the face of the forum. If the face of the forum dissapears, so does the activity Speaking purely from the viewpoint of a regular forum poster who had never been a moderator, I would say that staff are not only the face of the forum. They also represent the whole idea of the forum. It's not good enough that they are active. They must be active in a way that reflects the aspirations of the forum. Let's say, just as an example, that the forum is about love and romance. The mods on such a forum must show a strong interest in love and romance and this must be seen clearly in their posts. If they are constantly being cynical about love and romance, then the members will begin to wonder whether they, the members, are in the wrong forum or they, the mods, are in the wrong forum. It boils down to the old but tested adage "Justice must be done and seen to be done". Marc 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ram8349 Posted June 23, 2012 Author Share Posted June 23, 2012 I never said as the admin we should stop posting. I was just saying that if a forum get hundreds or thousands of posts a day from hundreds or thousands of members, then even the admin is actively posting every day, his posts would be buried in a pile of so many other people's posts and would be insignificant as far as keep the activity going. The original question was how much activities do we need before the forum can grow on its own instead of require the admin, a single person to do most of the posting as well as still doing daily advertising for the forum just to get one or two people joining. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Posted June 23, 2012 Share Posted June 23, 2012 Speaking purely from the viewpoint of a regular forum poster who had never been a moderator, I would say that staff are not only the face of the forum. They also represent the whole idea of the forum. It's not good enough that they are active. They must be active in a way that reflects the aspirations of the forum. Let's say, just as an example, that the forum is about love and romance. The mods on such a forum must show a strong interest in love and romance and this must be seen clearly in their posts. If they are constantly being cynical about love and romance, then the members will begin to wonder whether they, the members, are in the wrong forum or they, the mods, are in the wrong forum. It boils down to the old but tested adage "Justice must be done and seen to be done". That my friend, is ABSOLUTLY spot on!! I never said as the admin we should stop posting. I was just saying that if a forum get hundreds or thousands of posts a day from hundreds or thousands of members, then even the admin is actively posting every day, his posts would be buried in a pile of so many other people's posts and would be insignificant as far as keep the activity going. The original question was how much activities do we need before the forum can grow on its own instead of require the admin, a single person to do most of the posting as well as still doing daily advertising for the forum just to get one or two people joining. OK fair enough, the answer is that there is no specific amount. Im not only talking from the experience of running a big board, Im talking from the experience of running a big board in the very same genre as yours. Lemme give it to you by example. My forum at the moment is very active, however I look at the stats of the forum on a monthly basis and compare to last month, the same month last year etc. At the moment I am starting to post a lot more on my forum as I have noticed the stats dropping off a little, and have also asked my staff to do the same. This is from a forum which is very very active, and therefore thinking about it in relation to your own forums at present is pointless. The reason I say this is that by the time you get to the kind of levels I experience on my own forums, you will know yourself. If your asking from the point of view of "How long do I have to put in silly amounts of time before I can slack off a little?" then the answer to this is if you expand at the same kinda rate as we have it will take you around 12 month. Baring in mind we expanded very quickly. After this you will find you can have a day off it every now and then. However even now I never leave my forum for more than a day without checking in and neither does any other member of admin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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