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I post a few new threads every day. Some might see that as spamming, but it helps pull the lurkers out of hiding. I also private message my members once a week and ask them how they are doing. I try to make it personal and show them I "care". This can get overwhelming really fast ,so I leave the more "private" members alone and let them know I'm available if they want to chat.
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roleplay wrote: I post a few new threads every day. Some might see that as spamming, but it helps pull the lurkers out of hiding. I also private message my members once a week and ask them how they are doing. I try to make it personal and show them I "care". This can get overwhelming really fast ,so I leave the more "private" members alone and let them know I'm available if they want to chat.
Same here, pretty much. There are some sites where the Admin doesn't even respond, and others like your site. Guess which one creates more of a retention bond? ;)
roleplay wrote: I post a few new threads every day. Some might see that as spamming, but it helps pull the lurkers out of hiding. I also private message my members once a week and ask them how they are doing. I try to make it personal and show them I "care". This can get overwhelming really fast ,so I leave the more "private" members alone and let them know I'm available if they want to chat.
I don't post new threads that much, as I like to leave room for others to post, but I have pretty much the same procedure. I don't bother my members through PM either; they can PM me but we have a shoutbox and various other means to get to know people. My goal is to get the whole place feeling like a community, not just between me and the members.
Chatboxes take away from the forum in my opinion. Since my forum relies on the members paying attention to the threads being posted, I find that chatbox does more harm then good. I can understand why members use it and I do acknowledge the fun it can provide. But my community was hurting when I had it on my forum and I found that members like to "live in it". Even my ex staff members enjoyed posting in it more then actually taking care of the forum itself. Needless to say when I made the judgment call to remove it from the forum, I had a lot of members revolt and try to hack my account.
After kicking the nasty ones off, my community is doing a lot better. But I'll never forget the nightmare that chat box caused.
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I have a "featured threads" box on the front page, and when a new member posts a new thread with an interesting question or observation, I make sure they get featured.
Chatboxes were a nightmare for me, they were server heavy when more than 3 people were using it at once and the forum died because of it.
When I removed it, (apart from a day or two of grumbling) the forums went from 15 posts a day to over 100 posts most days, all because they didnt have the chatbox to chat on.
Since then i have a fully integrated chatroom now for proper chat conversations that doesnt seem to be effecting the forum use at all so i am pleased with how its worked out.
Also, don't be shy about saying "You should start a new thread about this" when a conversation starts getting off track or someone brings up a tangential point. Sometimes I've moved posts to their own thread, explaining I thought it deserved a thread of its own.
Soliloquy wrote: Also, don't be shy about saying "You should start a new thread about this" when a conversation starts getting off track or someone brings up a tangential point. Sometimes I've moved posts to their own thread, explaining I thought it deserved a thread of its own.
That is a great point. Many really productive threads with lots of posts have started as spin offs from other threads. Good point Soliloquy!
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Man if anything the chatbox on my site has built the community! Our members are closer and posts haven't decreased at all. It only loads on the front page so it's not a resource hog, and enough members use it to warrant its existence.
There are some sites where the Admin doesn't even respond, and others like your site. Guess which one creates more of a retention bond? ;)
