Off Topix: Embrace the Unexpected in Every Discussion
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- Thread starter Nebulous
- Start date
Well, Theez ol' chum... I guess the three days of silence in this thread answered your question.
Forums are kind of like pubs (sure leave it to the Irish guy to work pubs into a conversation).
Pubs are where people go to be social, hang out, talk & have a laugh. There can be many pubs in one town, and there may be one pub that everyone likes and goes to all the time. There are times when the place is packed.
The pub owner loves it and thinks he had it made.
Then one day for not apparent reason the numbers shrink, then more, then some more until there are just a few of the old regulars around sitting at the bar.
So the owner thinks.. what went wrong??? and the answer is ... Nothing
people just decided it was time to try another place, a few did , they liked it, word spread and now the pub that was almost empty for the past couple of years is now the place to go to.
the pub owners starts to panic and wonders what he should do to change the place to get people back???
The answer is... nothing,
so what he always did, serve his regulars and be there for them because after a while the people will move on to another pub, then another one until eventually someone will say.. 'hey how about that place we use to go to, lets go there tonight' and the circle comes back round.
Pubs are where people go to be social, hang out, talk & have a laugh. There can be many pubs in one town, and there may be one pub that everyone likes and goes to all the time. There are times when the place is packed.
The pub owner loves it and thinks he had it made.
Then one day for not apparent reason the numbers shrink, then more, then some more until there are just a few of the old regulars around sitting at the bar.
So the owner thinks.. what went wrong??? and the answer is ... Nothing
people just decided it was time to try another place, a few did , they liked it, word spread and now the pub that was almost empty for the past couple of years is now the place to go to.
the pub owners starts to panic and wonders what he should do to change the place to get people back???
The answer is... nothing,
so what he always did, serve his regulars and be there for them because after a while the people will move on to another pub, then another one until eventually someone will say.. 'hey how about that place we use to go to, lets go there tonight' and the circle comes back round.
I just viewed two forums. Both had no members online but there was one Admin on one and two Admins on the other. There have been no new topics for 3 to 4 days either. Now, don't you think instead of doing nothing, these Admins should be posting up as many new topics as they can while it's so slow?
I have always been opposed to creating fake accounts to generate activity, post exchanges, member exchanges and the like because then you are filling your forum with garbage - you are mass producing yourself and therefore devoid the forum of the unique qualities different personalities give to it.
Likewise, I am also against mass producing threads during a dead spell because then you inadvertently crowd out the creative spark of other individuals: when I notice I take up the "recently added threads" I back off what I am creating and wait for members to post up some threads.
Does it mean I have to wait a few days to do so? Yea, but I will wait.
My little forum has dedicated members; dedicated regulars I would not trade for the world and I've done nothing really to push for content being added, no real advertising and the like: I just let it be, for the most part, natural.
Likewise, I am also against mass producing threads during a dead spell because then you inadvertently crowd out the creative spark of other individuals: when I notice I take up the "recently added threads" I back off what I am creating and wait for members to post up some threads.
Does it mean I have to wait a few days to do so? Yea, but I will wait.
My little forum has dedicated members; dedicated regulars I would not trade for the world and I've done nothing really to push for content being added, no real advertising and the like: I just let it be, for the most part, natural.
This is actually a very large misnomer: staff do not generate activity, though they can. Doing so repetitively results in psychological and sociological issues, actually (see helicopter moms). You all may find me absurd in my comparison, but there is truth in it.
A community is not comprised of staff; a community is comprised of members.
A community is not comprised of staff; a community is comprised of members.
Keep posting, sending out mass-emails, asking people directly through Facebook/Twitter etc. I had to do a bit of nagging to get people to post, but I think I'm past that stage now. Just a few occasional, friendly reminders. 
