How did you attract your initial audience to your forum?

[ForumFan]

I find it weird to be the only one that create topics it looks like someone talking to themselves

Understandable, but it goes with the territory on a new forum. Ya gotta "prime the pump." Try to do it with quality rather than quantity. Try to start threads that will get people talking.

I need to find a way to attract at least a few real people that create topics, so that it feels more natural.

Yep. That helps. But initially.... and for a while... you're going to have to carry the water, so to speak.

If you can find some chatty / knowledgeable people, encourage them to post threads and comments.

What kinds of topics did you create when you started? did you also have a website? because I have to be careful about SEO cannibalization (between my website and forum)

One approach is to be controversial or use controversial topics within your forum's focus. Stuff people will disagree on! If they disagree, they are more likely to post about it! If they agree, they're not as likely to comment, "I agree."

Post polls. Or questions.

 

[ForumFan]

I saw some tweets about this on X, maybe forums will become popular again?

I think the pendulum has already started to swing back towards forums. Forums have SO much more to offer when it comes to special interest topics.

 

[CedricV]

Understandable, but it goes with the territory on a new forum. Ya gotta "prime the pump." Try to do it with quality rather than quantity. Try to start threads that will get people talking.


Yep. That helps. But initially.... and for a while... you're going to have to carry the water, so to speak.

If you can find some chatty / knowledgeable people, encourage them to post threads and comments.


One approach is to be controversial or use controversial topics within your forum's focus. Stuff people will disagree on! If they disagree, they are more likely to post about it! If they agree, they're not as likely to comment, "I agree."

Post polls. Or questions.

I like this, controversial topics is actually a great idea. Can’t believe I never thought of that. Thanks for the tip.

 

[Deleted member 184953]

I like this, controversial topics is actually a great idea. Can’t believe I never thought of that. Thanks for the tip.

I disagree !!

 

[ForumFan]

I like this, controversial topics is actually a great idea. Can’t believe I never thought of that. Thanks for the tip.

Yeah... "Trigger" them into posting a comment!

 

[ForumFan]

I disagree !!

LOL! I see what you did there.

 

[Mr Lucky]

I disagree !!

Me too. That would be fine if what you want is a controversial forum. On ours we like to have healthy debate but to start out and build a forum up on controversy is asking for trouble IMO. In other words I believe that some boundaries are a good idea. Some controversial topics - mainly political and religious - can often bring out the worst in people ending up in hate speech and generally offensive posts.

 

[Deleted member 184953]

Some controversial topics - mainly political and religious

But why reduce controversial topics only to politics or religion? Any discussion is subject to controversy: how to plant tomatoes, how to turn off your PC, how to brush your teeth... That's why discussions exist, if everyone agreed we wouldn't talk much anymore...

Me too

I was joking...

 

[Suzanne O]

Be aware if you post up misinformation about something serious, for example covid 19, many people will flag it as a misinformation site.

 

[ForumFan]

On ours we like to have healthy debate but to start out and build a forum up on controversy is asking for trouble IMO. In other words I believe that some boundaries are a good idea. Some controversial topics - mainly political and religious - can often bring out the worst in people ending up in hate speech and generally offensive posts.

I didn't mean controversial like politics and religion. I meant controversial within the primary forum topic. An example would be on a car forum... "Which is better? Dino or synthetic oil?" LOL! Trust me... do that on a car forum and grab some popcorn!

Or on a watch forum.... "Are watch winders worth it?"

Any discussion is subject to controversy: how to plant tomatoes, how to turn off your PC, how to brush your teeth... That's why discussions exist, if everyone agreed we wouldn't talk much anymore...

BINGO!

 

[Mr Lucky]

But why reduce controversial topics only to politics or religion?

I didn't reduce all controversial topics to politics and religion. I said "some controversial topics."

Right now we are having a very healthy debate on EVs. That's is fine, but at some stage it could easily get political especially if people start quoting climate conspiracy theories. It was the sawed with COVID, all fine until mask mandates and anti vaxxing got involved.

Another grey area is hunting and guns. In the UK a gun control thread can be fine, in the US it's hard to have that discussion without it being political. It's the other way round with hunting where it's fine in the US, but political in the UK.

I do agree that controversy within your own community topic can be good. Even then I got death threats via PM once for suggesting that it wasn't necessary to have a rotation system for new/old saxophone or clarinet reeds when practising.

 

[ForumFan]

Even then I got death threats via PM once for suggesting that it wasn't necessary to have a rotation system for new/old saxophone or clarinet reeds when practising.

LOL! That's funny! And sad. And alarming. People get their panties in a wad over the craziest and most benign things!

Unfortunately, I lost many friends and family (they rejected me) for daring to question and actually research the covid narrative. My own sister terminated our relationship. Many friends discarded me. It was their decision to do that. But it's also my decision to not let them back in.

 

[Deleted member 184953]

There is no room for controversy about covid, everyone knows that... no nothing, forget it.

To be more serious, there have been, there are and there will be more discussions that get heated on the forums. Sometimes they serve to discover the true face of certain members and in a certain sense this can be useful. And then there are forums mature enough to handle this kind of situation, the moderators are experienced, the heart of the community too, etc. There are probably topics to avoid on certain forums, an aggressive vegetarian would not last long on a forum devoted to charcuterie, that's how it is... Currently I don't encounter this problem on my forum knowing that it is very young and I'm more or less the only member, but I'm not safe from arguing with myself or even banishing myself if I cross the line.

 

[ForumFan]

Same here.. We weren't a replacement, though. Might call it a "spin-off." In fact there were at least 3 spin-offs. But mine has run away with the lead. I started with a good core group of maybe a couple dozen prolific posters from the defunct forum. My forum is now 7 months old, and we're at 985 members as of this moment. Almost the 1k mark!

Quoting one of my comments earlier in this thread and about 1-3/4 years ago... at almost 1000 members.

Here's an update of my stats.

 

[Suzanne O]

Quoting one of my comments earlier in this thread and about 1-3/4 years ago... at almost 1000 members.

Here's an update of my member numbers.

View attachment 305065

Oh my that's a heap of members

 

[ForumFan]

Oh my that's a heap of members

I want to be way bigger! In the world of forums, mine is still very much small potatoes.

 

[Whistle]

With Youtube videos

 

[Deleted member 184953]

With Youtube videos

Yes and ?

 

[Whistle]

Yes and ?

It was mainly about programming. Firstly, question and answer topics provided activity. Afterwards, members started producing content.
I also added new ranks of user group and rewards to keep members active in the forum

 

[MentaL]

We were the first at what we did and thus, word of mouth.