Hi, I am just thinking about starting a forums and was wondering that when you post a thread or post and you subscribe to them with instant email notification, then would it be best if I the owner of the forums make sure that the emails includes the posts content or shall I make sure it doesn't include it. This post content will be the post from the poster that has replied after your post. I was thinking that there are advantages and disadvantages of both. * With not displaying the content in the email and just the title of the thread will mean that the forum member will have to click on the url in the email to see the reply to the thread or their post. This will help to keep traffic flowing on the site and once they are back on the site they may browse around. * But then if I don't show the content of the replying post in the email, it could just get on the forum members nerves having to keep going to the forums and they may stop using it altogether. So what do you think is the best, have the post content in the email or not? I would like comments from forum owners aswell so that I know what has worked best for them. I want to know what would work out the best for the most traffic gain. Thanks!
I hate receiving emails altogether from forums about those subscribed threads. I usually just delete them and mark them as spam. Either way, it's really annoying for me, so I wouldn't use that feature at all. By the way, I'm a forum owner myself, and I find that those emails actually lowers traffic.
I can't believe I have just heard that. Most of the time I reply to a post is because I want to see what the outcome will be and see what people may say about my comments. Forum emails is something that most users want. If you start a thread, you want to subscribe to it so that you receive an email when someone answers your questions. You don't really want to go back to the forum a few days time and search for your thread that you started. There is an option in most, if not all forums so that you can stop receiving them as a member. Each member can decide whether they want to subscribe to threads, whether they want emails, etc. from checking the appropriate selection boxes in the options section of your CP. Why don't you just change your CP instead of wasting the forums resources and your internet resources. I will definately be having emails sent as most users want them especially in some niche forums. Sending emails will definately increase traffic. I think your forums is the only forums on the web that must have a decrease in traffic from using this service. lol I was with a forum where their subscribe emails stopped getting sent to me and I were not using it that much after that. They got it back working again and I started using the forums more again. It also showed in the forums stats that traffic decrease during that time.
You've identified the pros and cons accurately and I'd agree there's no simple or clear answer. Practically, the best thing you can do is poll your existing members and ask what THEY would prefer. If you're lucky, you'll see a clear majority vote towards one or the other.
The thing is, I don't have any users. I had only bought my forums about 3 days ago and I'm still in the process of setting it up.