That new forum feeling..

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

Ive noticed, when a new forum opens.. People flock to it like crazy.

After the new car smell fades away, people move on to the next new thing.

Why do you think this is?



Do you think that forums go through phases?



Example of different phases a forum may go through:

1 - fresh new forum! = activity boom

2 - newness wears off = moderate activity

3 - forum gets stale = activity dropping by the day

4 - old = forum is a ghost town

5 - admin gives up and closes it. = RIP forum, nobody will miss you.

ALTERNATE #5 - admin doesnt give up, takes opportunity to re-generate interest in the forum

6 - forum is now known as an established community = moderate activity

7 - forum keeps working hard to provide fresh content (new topics and posts) = undecided onlookers finally decide to join

8 - forum keeps growing and growing = activity increasing again

9 - stable community with steady traffic lives on for years

 

[Evil Eye]

Maybe to establish themselves as the old gang in case it lives on? Or to promote their own sites in a place where not too many others advertise?

 

[Cranos]

I always noticed this with forums on zetaboards, idk why really, I guess they're just hoping the new forum will actually be more interesting than all the others. This is especially the case with hyped forums.

 

[McConnaughay]

Several of the forums that I've ran have strong appeal at first however, once the novelty of it being something new fades away they stick around but it's never quite the same, the reason is entirely because the loss of novelty exists. Which is why it's necessary to shake things up every now and again.

 

[McConnaughay]

I've been thinking about this and I've come to a new conclusion, there is no such thing as the new forum feeling. There is a chance that you already have friends and somewhat of a following before you start running a forum or that the forum has garnered the reception of a forum that you once ran enabling for you to start out somewhat strong but the people that are forced to start from scratch have to claw their way up. I think that once people get their first taste of popularity or start having members on a day to day basis they get lazy or content, you need to continue advertising and promoting your website or get people that will help you do so, in-order to keep a forum going strong, and you can't lessen the load you have to greater it. Don't let yourself believe that all your members you have now are still going to be here in a month or so, they'll get bored and leave or they'll stop posting as much. Consider each member as a spoke on the wheel, and that wheel has to keep turning so you need to get more spokes as time elapses, you have to keep your community evolving.

 

[McConnaughay]

People often set unrealistic expectations in their mind before clicking the link to a forum when it's advertised, often due to the way it's advertised. When people see it's not going to have ten million posts in a month and be the instant success they thought it would, they move on to the next big thing that has been promoted to death.

Yes, which is why you have to continue promoting your website to death to keep picking up new members that have a brain in their skull and don't have those expectations.

 

[RJH]

I would not know as I refuse point blank to join new forums, I only join more established sites with an established userbase.

 

[Chatsie]

Well if everyone thought like that, there wouldn't be any active forums

 

[RJH]

Well if everyone thought like that, there wouldn't be any active forums

Called choice

 

[Jazzy]

I only join more established sites with an established userbase.

I'm with you on this. I've been burnt too many times on new forums. I spent time and effort posting and trying to help build up the forum and they wind up closing it down. All my time and effort was wasted. I don't have time to waste so I don't jump aboard a new forum until I see it's getting an established member base. The other problem I've found with new forums is that they open the forum too soon. Half the board isn't set up, they haven't installed the mods, the logo isn't done...etc. They then wind up taking the site off line to work on improving it. Bingo...members are now gone to another forum. Setting up a new forum takes time and patience. When you rush it along, it's called a disaster waiting to happen.

 

[McConnaughay]

I'm with you on this. I've been burnt too many times on new forums. I spent time and effort posting and trying to help build up the forum and they wind up closing it down. All my time and effort was wasted. I don't have time to waste so I don't jump aboard a new forum until I see it's getting an established member base. The other problem I've found with new forums is that they open the forum too soon. Half the board isn't set up, they haven't installed the mods, the logo isn't done...etc. They then wind up taking the site off line to work on improving it. Bingo...members are now gone to another forum. Setting up a new forum takes time and patience. When you rush it along, it's called a disaster waiting to happen.

I've always thought that the idea of a site closing down deems the posts and efforts wasted was silly, Forum Advertiser and The Island were closed down but you don't see the members complaining about wasting their time because they got much enjoyment out of it and met new people. It doesn't take a lot of effort to make a post and that's coming from somebody that can ramble on and on for hours and hours making multiple paragraphed posts. I agree that numerous sites start-up too early and I've even seen some sites have administrators that start there site whenever they really haven't got a grip of what they're doing, I saw somebody recently that had a banner made from using paint and a skin that really had no resembling of the banner.

 

[WordsOnly]

[font=lucida sans unicode,lucida grande,sans-serif]Where would one get a listing of sites ?

[font=lucida sans unicode,lucida grande,sans-serif]Are they available on google ?

[font=lucida sans unicode,lucida grande,sans-serif]Or is this info hush hush ?

 

[Jazzy]

[font=lucida sans unicode,lucida grande,sans-serif]Where would one get a listing of sites ? [font=lucida sans unicode,lucida grande,sans-serif]Are they available on google ? [font=lucida sans unicode,lucida grande,sans-serif]Or is this info hush hush ?

A lot of members here advertise their forums, websites and blogs. You can find them here: http://offtopix.com/forum/10-advertisement-station/

 

[Geoffrey]

This is oh so true and the phases in the OP are an unfortunate reality. Few forums make it like this one has any more, it's kind of depressing to see honestly.