hey everyone, right now my forum has 231 users but i'm only having people post maybe once every 2 days or so. the design of my forums is pretty much geared to having a lot of members(there are a lot of forums). so basically i get the feeling that the forum is just too big for the amount of members i currently have. here is the link PSU Forums so this is where i need some advice. i was thinking about condensing all of my forums into maybe 4 or 5 general ones. the way it is now i have very specific forums, i would just combine all of them into a more general forum. then all of a sudden my member to forum ratio increases and there is a possibility that this will cause more discussion on my members behalfs. but this is just a thought i have, i'd like to get some input on it because i don't want to change everything and then have to change it back because it will be a lot of work. so forum owners.. do you think this idea will work? or should i just stick it out and wait to get more members??
I think the bigger question, is what do you offer that facebook and the rest don't? Why do people want to go to your forum instead?
Creating too many forums is possibly the biggest error you can make when trying to start up a new forum. It makes the site look empty and inactive and will deter potential customers almost all the time. I strongly suggest condensing these forums into more general ones. Treat forum creation as a sort of demand and supply concept. Only supply the forums if there is a demand for them. If you make less forums then the posts you make with your fake characters and yourself will look more active as well. It will lessen the strain on your part.
I second with what PlateFish said, you should be keeping less forums until you gain some decent traffic and regular posters.
Best advice in the whole thread. Rome wasn't built in a day - you have to realize that it will take time to make the forum grow.
Its important keep the number of forums low, that way your site would not look empty. Once you have significant posts you can add more forums.
When starting a forum, it is best to start with fewer categories and add new ones as the need arises. The main reason is because it always looks empty. It does take a long time to build a forum to a point where you will see recurring members that show up everyday. Keep investing and keep spending time promoting the forum and you could see success.
It looks boring. It can't compete with Facebook in this Niche. It took me a while to figure out what it was about because I am not from Pennsylvania. Students are busy. Is this for entertainment or education? What is the primary reason a person would visit and post to this site? There are just a lot of reasons why this is going to be a slow place. Plus with student turnover who will be back?
for those of you that compared the forum to facebook .. i don't see them as similar at all. i created the forum to be used by psu students. basically the idea is to get as many studnets as possible on there .. and then have them use each other to get knowledge about classes to take, things to do, talk about sports or anything else. facebook doens't offer all of this in one spot, and you cant just start a discussion on facebook. i intend for this forum to just be a useful tool where a student can ask a simple question about school an then have other students answer that question the best they can. this simply cannot be done via facebook, so i figured this site would have its own niche .. i just have to get it to that point. thanks for the responses about condensing the forums, it definatley is good to hear that it is something i should do. i think i'm going to condense them tonight or tomrrow. my hope is that more people will start talking. and in that respect hopefully the forum will grow quicker
Agree with the advice that less forums is more in this case. It is all about the perception of activity. Keep the most active ones. Comment out the rest for now.
Wow, I just read the comments about facebook... There is absolutely no similarity between his forums and facebook. Facebook can't offer everything and it can't cover every niche. It's almost like saying, what's the point in starting up a shop, there's e-bay. People need forums for specific chat, facebook just can't do that. There are hundreds of ways a forum benefits from a tight community and discussion on a niche. Facebook is irrelevant.
Eek. I just read your PSUforums, nuthin2lose and saw your competition. I have some strong words of advice, if you want that contest to be successful in the slightest you're going to have to change who wins the money. You can't just have the guy with the most posts, your site will get filled with spam. Also legitamate posters won't want to post if the comp has started already and they're 10 days behind. I suggest making putting all posters with 20+ posts into a prize draw. That way someone will make 20 posts and have a chance of winning rather than 1 or 2 people posting insane amounts while others can't be arsed to keep up. Hope you read this, you need to change the format of the comp.
i'm glad someone else agrees with the facebook thing.. i thought i was the only one that saw things that way. and today i will be making less forums, instead of keeping the most active .. i think i'm going to generalize a few of them and create them like that. and platefish i like your idea, i think i will be incorporating that as well. I was actually thinking about the contest yesterday and i was going to make the rule that you need at least 50 posts to be eligable, but i like the whole raffle idea .. i think that will work much better. thanks for the advice again