Forum Owners should be active

IMHO there are times when a forum becomes huge and the owner of that forum stop participating. I know a forum where the owner is making hundreds of thousands per year yet hardly participates at all in the forum. I think it's a mistake.

Absent forum owners lose their focus and their connection with the community overall that's harmful to it's growth. That owner had 28 posts for 2008. Compare that to their overall 28,000 posts and you wonder about what's going on.

Anyone else have an opinion about absent forum owners?

 

Most of the time it's all about the change of the targets in your life. Things you want to accomplish.

So, if you are about to do or thinking about doing such a thing it's very important to find and introduce your successor to your Community.
The reason for that is:
- you let your Community know that there are changes to be made so they can prepare;
- lack of information is the first sign of being concerned, nervous; people feel that something's not right;
- it makes YOU feel better.

In the short-term a 'absent forum owner' can act more actively on forums but in a long-term he/she won't. It's just what happens, 2-3 years and you go.

The least you can do is to prepare a 'I'm going now' Plan.

 

A owner should be on daily, If he decides to post only 28 times in the past year then why not sell up? it must be making him a bit so sell it for a good bit then spend the money on something else

 

The only reason I could see why a forum owner would stop visiting their own forum is from lack of activity on their forum. This happened to me, I spent hundreds on my forum for advertising, hosting, paid posts and I saw no forum activity at all and I gave up for a while. Now I just got about 15 new members, and I am glued to my screen. I am always posting and welcoming them. I even post from my phone when I am away from my computer. I can't see at all why an owner of a forum that size with only 28 posts for 2008, that's amazing.

 

We all know that the forum owner also has a life... That's why it's important that moderators should be around when the forum owner is not available.

 

ya you are right,

The owners are least active everywhere you go on the forum world.

 

I am the owner of a very active forum. I also have the most post on the forum.

I believe that the owner/admin needs to have a presence in his/her own forums. It shows that he is involved in the community which for it's user is a good thing to see.

Currently I am not posting as much, but I still visit the forum numerous times a day. Take the time to read tons of threads/posts, and continue improving the forum.

 

True but an average of one post ever 2 weeks?

I semi agree. Especially when the site is basically a full forum community. There are some sites where the forum is a secondary part of the site..a segment. That's not the case here. Owner is making probably 99% of income off the forums. Obviously it's a lot of money. My guess is a $xxx,xxx range.

 

I always believed that a community administrator should always continue to participate on the front end; I felt very strongly about this.

But now as my most successful community turns one year old, I have found myself not participating anywhere near as often as I used to.
There are a couple of reasons for this:
1) Lack of time
2) A bit of a lack of desire, despite my members' eagerness for my presence

Now I understand that, like Allen said, peoples' goals do change; and they also get accomplished.

My goal was to create the number-one forum for a type of parrot that provides the members with all the information they would ever need, as well as a heavy community aspect that allows them to interact candidly and have their own little place on the internet.
Done; my only competitors are little Yahoo groups. My members have become good friends and often meet up publicly to enjoy a cup of coffee or something alike.

And now that I feel I've accomplished this, I don't have much more to work for. The only thing I feel I need to do is ensure that the community I have created doesn't disappear; and that's what I do by paying the bills and maintaining the back-end of things.
It doesn't require me to continue to be active on the front. But I do anyways -- just not as much anymore.

 

Well if you're making hundreds of thousands per year, have you own staff, and living fine - why do you need to post? You're taking care of the backend server crap, and that takes up all your time. It's not his fault that he's always busy.

Also, so you're saying if a forum has 50 million posts, the owner should still an active poster - posting at least 100 times a week or what?

 

I Agree, if he has the staff managing the forums he can be managing the backend.

 

Good question and I think I answered it in my first post.

Imagine the President stopped showing up for events and was on vacation constantly because well..he has a great staff. The same could be said of ANY company. The CEO's of this world don't sit around and say..."well I have great staff I don't need to be here". That's not how it works. Eventually the company suffers if the CEO doesn't have a strong handle on the daily workings of his company.

Forums are no different. They are even more socially needy as they are by definition a community. Large communities need clear leadership. This at least is my opinion.

I don't believe I say that anywhere. However a very active site should have a very active owner. Does that mean he needs to make 100 posts a week..probably not. Yet 1 post every 2 weeks for over a year in lame. As a member of such a community I would feel neglected.

We all have lives but when you "make your living" from a community one would think that the community would be a part of your daily life. Just paying the bills doesn't cut it imho.

 

That's a great point. So if the owner loses focus, then the community as a whole loses focus on what the owner visioned the community out to be, right?

Ya, now that's so true. Just like you've started in your previous post from above - you need to be involved with the company, at least a couple posts here and there to show the members that you're still alive.

 

agreed with you the forum owner shawn has Total Posts: 19,800 (10.96 posts per day)

very funny to see. for a forum owner you should be a regular member and community lover.

Time dedication is must for a forum owner

 

I very much agree.

I think the problem occurs because the forum owner is so busy trying to attract new members they get overwhelmed and are not as active as they should be in the forum.

Time management is the key to making sure that you spend a fair amount of time on your forum and then take care of your other responsibilities such as marketing, advertising, etc.

 

I totally disagree with this, a forum is a living breathing thing in its own right as soon as its got regular traffic, and a good MOD team.

My biggest forum which I sold about six months ago (for mid $xx,xxx) I used to spend all day on for the first six months, a few times a week for the next six months, then only once a month for a few months before I sold it.

did the forum suffer for my absence? not at all, infact it continued to grow at an exponentially higher rate and on the date that I sold it, it was getting around 2,000 to 3,000 posts per day. all without my help.

SO: if your community is self sufficient, the removal of any key members are irrelevant.

 

exactly. I will probably always post on my boards, simply because I enjoy it, but I sure hope to one day not be the most active poster on my boards lol. and be passed in post count by many many people.

 

I have mixed opinions about this particular case, however in a much smaller community the owner does have to be active if they want their site to grow especially if it's about a topic with a lot of competition.

But one thing that I'm 99% sure about is, if both the owner AND moderator team are inactive, the site will go to crap. If just the owner is inactive, the site can still survive. But without GOOD moderators, I doubt it.

 

first when forum is small administrator play the most role and when forum is large then forum moderators play the role.... administrator must have a good relation with forum moderators and the moderators do the rest work..

 

each and every person has their own problems I don't say they should be in-active for that reason, but they could appoint their deputies to take over the job role to help them in their in-active sessions