Building The Community

[Jax]

D E B A T E

#1.5.

Building The Community

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I N T R O D U C T I O N

As some of you may know I like to create debates on the forum that covers the workings of forums, I have sometimes created arguments, but what I am thankful for is creating a good debate between different members.

This is no different, in fact, I am hoping to combine all of our collective knowledge and possibly construct the perfect forum for all of us. The intentions are simple, share your ideas and see if it will work. This can be a resource for all of us wanting to build our own forum.

Bellow, I will break this down into categories, those ideas with the most likes will be quoted and added to the list bellow! I would like to ask @Allenafaith and the CT team to help with this by adding quotes to this post.

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D E S I G N

The design is an important part of a forum's success, the quicker a user can get to the content they are after the better, with this in mind here are my own thoughts and your thoughts on the design of how a forum should be.

-- Rearrangement --

On every forum that I visit, the layout is always the same for its content. Three forums at the top for news, updates and new members. This is an okay format but I do feel that you could improve this.

What I would like to see is flexibility with the forum design, I think that the most popular content (content that has a lot of replies), should be placed at the top of the forum. my reasoning is that any new visitor to the forum would see an active forum, without scrolling down. Of course, that does affect the categories of the forum.

-- Editable Forums --

Going off of the idea above, many members may prefer an older format that we currently use, that is why I am suggesting users having their own customisable forum display. Think of a drop and drag website but for forums. each user can move the boards that interest them the most to positions suited to them. That will make the site very cool and customizable, and does away with constant scrolling.

-- PM's In A Popup Chat --

Forum's are becoming more and more social, we now have a users timeline with a customizable cover picture to show that much more of our personality. Following the idea of easily accessible content, I think having a popup window like on facebook for pm messages will benefit any forum. how many times have you ignored a PM because you are in a deep discussion on the forum? this means you can do both at the same time, without having to leave that conversation!

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T E A M ' S

Team's play a critical role on forums, they function as the voice of the community. I do feel that the staff system can be simplified for the modern day forum and allow staff to be flexible with hours. Over the last few years, I have seen how forum owners have struggled to get staff and I feel there is an easier solution.

-- New Admin Team --

A large majority of Admin Teams are formed by the forum owner and two other developers. its a system that works but I think we can develop the position further. Here is what I was thinking;

Admin Developer

The admin developer is a role that stems from the current role. They are people with a working understanding of the forum software and are there to fix bugs and support members. Their role will not change so much but I do feel they should focus on forum systems.

Admin Designer

This role is split away from the normal admin role, this person could be the forums designer, working on all areas of the forum design. It's their role in keeping the forums design on trend and complete work for the Admin Developers.

Admin Owner

This is the owner of the forum, their role is to head up the forum, organising both the designers and developers admin roles. These people may have a skill in one area and so will need to focus on that role taking advice from the role that they have no understanding of. These people can also do nothing for the forum other than lead, they could be focused on staff and their problems leaving the other members of the Admin team able to carry out work for them.

Admin Jr

The junior position is given to a member that may not understand everything about the forum but is good enough to become an admin. The role was an idea that new admins coming in can easily transition with ones leaving allowing them to learn how the former admins ran things. The role is to allow a smooth transition without major resistance from the community.

-- Event's Team --

Moderators > Community Team > Events Team.
This role is the same as all those listed. The idea of having an events team rather than a community team has come about because most of us on forums know how to behave. The role allows for flexibility, meaning that staff members in the team can log on every month to once a week. it also allows them to moderate the forum without having to post all the time.

-- Request Team --

Reviews > Package > Design > Support
The Request Team is made up of all types of services, all members can work together to offer a wider range of help to their community. Rather than having a single team for each added feature, having one team that can cover it all would make sense. It allows the forum to be super flexible without the need for new graphics and allows team members to help each other out without stepping on each other toes.

-- Joining Team's --

I think that being able to ask to join a forum team is great, but I think you could do something much cooler. My idea has driven from the idea of Dribbble, in which you have to be invited by a member to join the site and post content. I think the same could be used here for forums.

How cool would it be to have staff members that have been asked to join the team rather than them asking to be team members. I mean this is a difficult one as you could argue you would get the same result, and I would agree with you. but, I still think this would be a cool idea.

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C O N C L U S I O N

I feel that shrinking the teams down to three core concepts and adding functionality to forums could possibly improve the overall experience of a forum. I am not saying that all these ideas are right I am saying that these are different concepts that can be used or at least thought about.

Please keep a note of this post as I will be quoting some of your ideas. Also, remember this is supposed to be fun! share what you think a forum should be like!

Thank You!


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[Page]

What I would like to see is flexibility with the forum design, I think that the most popular content (content that has a lot of replies), should be placed at the top of the forum. my reasoning is that any new visitor to the forum would see an active forum, without scrolling down. Of course, that does affect the categories of the forum.

All websites tend to keep the support/suggestions/website errors and website news on the top as it's very important matter can't have that on the bottom of the website. I find the board layout should be kept as is. If an member joins and only wanted to post about there website then they have to scroll down to that board to able to post there, even thought they need to make posts beforehand.

I think having a popup window like on facebook for pm messages

Agreed 🙂 My websites have that option and FP doesn't so I agree with you on that 🙂

Admin Developer

Why Admin? have an different name, Like just "developer" We had an rank name "Technicians" that deals with allot from coding to theme. It's now just @Jordan on that team and to my mind it's somewhat not going well? Lets say not active then. I also don't want to see FP full of 100s to 1000s staff ranks 😛 tend to keep in low. "Manager" is an good name to use that will fill two of those slots ranks up, like Admin Jr.


Keep the rest in mid that you have mention

 

[Jax]

All websites tend to keep the support/suggestions/website errors and website news on the top as it's very important matter can't have that on the bottom of the website. I find the board layout should be kept as is. If an member joins and only wanted to post about there website then they have to scroll down to that board to able to post there, even thought they need to make posts beforehand.

Although this is important, if you follow the basics of design for websites, for example, the F pattern. then you need the content that has the most interaction. Our eyes view across the F shape then down then across in the centre having the most popular content there will keep it active.

On FP the community support gets a lot of interaction, this is because when we load the site our eyes do the F shape. That makes the topics more noticeable than other areas of the forum.

Agreed 🙂 My websites have that option and FP doesn't so I agree with you on that 🙂

This is more of a handy option, but I think it could improve any forum. I am not focused on FP per say.

Why Admin? have an different name, Like just "developer" We had an rank name "Technicians" that deals with allot from coding to theme. It's now just @Jordan on that team and to my mind it's somewhat not going well? Lets say not active then. I also don't want to see FP full of 100s to 1000s staff ranks 😛 tend to keep in low. "Manager" is an good name to use that will fill two of those slots ranks up, like Admin Jr.

The idea is to do away with multiple ranks, the Admin Tech, Admin Design and Admin Owner will all share the Admin rank. this will usually be the 3 man unit. That work together to develop the forum. There would then be no need for a Developer or Designer ranks.

Admin Jr is for larger forums wanting to replace a leaving member, this would make an admin team a 4 man team for a small period of time, this also gives the community and new admin time to learn the ropes before taking over.

For this concept, you would only need 4 staff ranks, Admin, Admin Jr, Events and Request. then you can also cut staff teams down too or grow them.

 

[Cryptonic]

I still think the more staff ranks the more usless clutter.

 

[Jax]

I still think the more staff ranks the more usless clutter.

I would do away with ranks entirely if I could.

 

[Cryptonic]

Keep a few but kill the rest.

 

[Jax]

Keep a few but kill the rest.

What teams would you kill and why?

 

[Page]

this is because when we load the site our eyes do the F shape

But I'm not one of those people 😛

I would kill the teams that aren't doing much or at least merge it together, but what I see that all teams are being used other then the #yellow team by @Jordan hehe 😛 PT and RT aren't fully staff anyway, they don't have full powers other then what the team is design to do, not like CT they have powers on all boards.

Really I don't see much of an chnage! can't add anymore as it might kill the damn place then can't kill otherwise it's going to be more killed on the staff

 

[Jax]

this is because when we load the site our eyes do the F shape

But I'm not one of those people 😛

I would kill the teams that aren't doing much or at least merge it together, but what I see that all teams are being used other then the #yellow team by @Jordan hehe 😛 PT and RT aren't fully staff anyway, they don't have full powers other then what the team is design to do, not like CT they have powers on all boards.

Really I don't see much of an chnage! can't add anymore as it might kill the damn place then can't kill otherwise it's going to be more killed on the staff

Ahh but you are, it has been researched and proven many times. Just saying you do not do that does not mean you don't it's done subconsciously. There is also the Z shape which still hits the community feedback in the balls eye.

 

[Page]

Ahh but you are, it has been researched and proven many times. Just saying you do not do that does not mean you don't it's done subconsciously. There is also the Z shape which still hits the community feedback in the balls eye.

no wounder my nuts harts

 

[Deleted member 5665]

Oh my where should I start?

Well firstly, design is indeed important, but at the same time not entirely true either. I have seen many successful sites with crappy designs. Quality of content will always prevail in this case which no one can really argue about.

Secondly, as for teams the smaller the better. Over whelming your community with a bunch of different teams isn't a good thing. Always try to balance out how many staff members you have compared to active user base.

As for communication, communication is key to any site I personally believe social communication is a strong key to success for any site. Such as Facebook, Twitter and so on. I also believe forum software in general should take the next step into creating more instantaneous social posting so people can communicate more at a much faster rate.

 

[Jax]

Well firstly, design is indeed important, but at the same time not entirely true either. I have seen many successful sites with crappy designs. The quality of content will always prevail in this case which no one can really argue about.

I would obviously disagree, but I can see your point! websites like reddit have the content there but not the design. however, as a personal preference, if the website is not clearly laid out then I would not like to visit for long.

Secondly, as for teams the smaller the better. Over whelming your community with a bunch of different teams isn't a good thing. Always try to balance out how many staff members you have compared to active user base.

I completely agree you don't need complex teams, you just need a few that are willing.

As for communication, communication is key to any site I personally believe social communication is a strong key to success for any site. Such as Facebook, Twitter and so on. I also believe forum software in general should take the next step into creating more instantaneous social posting so people can communicate more at a much faster rate.

Although I can agree with you, having too many social media sites at the beginning creates problems. having a focus on one area such as twitter. will make it easier for you to target and keeps your viewers in one place.

 

[Page]

I would obviously disagree, but I can see your point! websites like reddit have the content there but not the design. however, as a personal preference, if the website is not clearly laid out then I would not like to visit for long.

Websites that have very good content with crap theme doesn't make any difference. I have seen so many websites with very poor theme and what makes them to get so much content and traffic is that they are very big!! people join not for the looks for what the site got to offer.

One website had like over 400K members

 

[Jax]

I would obviously disagree, but I can see your point! websites like reddit have the content there but not the design. however, as a personal preference, if the website is not clearly laid out then I would not like to visit for long.

Websites that have very good content with crap theme doesn't make any difference. I have seen so many websites with very poor theme and what makes them to get so much content and traffic is that they are very big!! people join not for the looks for what the site got to offer.

One website had like over 400K members

I didn't disagree per say, I only pointed out my personal preference. I think forums are clunky and outdated, and change should happen.

 

[Page]

outdated,

always

 

[MasterA]

Well firstly, design is indeed important, but at the same time not entirely true either. I have seen many successful sites with crappy designs. The quality of content will always prevail in this case which no one can really argue about.

I would obviously disagree, but I can see your point! websites like reddit have the content there but not the design. however, as a personal preference, if the website is not clearly laid out then I would not like to visit for long.

There are some good points raised here. Personally, I like a nice, simple and user friendly theme. If I went on Google to search for something and found a website with a bad theme, then I would probably leave. However, if I know that the website has a very good reputation for the niche and has good advice, then I would still join. First impression is always important and the theme gives you your first impression but of course there are other factors that decide whether you use the website or not. Honestly, I found the Reddit theme pretty bad but I still go on it to look up stuff because I know there are lots of useful information on there.

What I would like to see is flexibility with the forum design, I think that the most popular content (content that has a lot of replies), should be placed at the top of the forum. my reasoning is that any new visitor to the forum would see an active forum, without scrolling down. Of course, that does affect the categories of the forum.

A lot of forums has sidebars which shows popular topics. That is a good point but some popular content might be outdated so it may not always be a good idea to keep it at the top.

I think that being able to ask to join a forum team is great, but I think you could do something much cooler. My idea has driven from the idea of Dribbble, in which you have to be invited by a member to join the site and post content. I think the same could be used here for forums.

How cool would it be to have staff members that have been asked to join the team rather than them asking to be team members. I mean this is a difficult one as you could argue you would get the same result, and I would agree with you. but, I still think this would be a cool idea.

This is actually an interesting idea but the problem is that you may not know members well enough to be able to invite them to the team. With applications, you can at least get to know about their experiences and passion (given their application shows passion). Of course, you also look at activity when deciding. If you know someone is a very good at the role and they didn't apply for the job, then you can invite them but I don't think this will work all the team. If someone has passion to work for the team, then surely they would apply.

 

[Jax]

Well firstly, design is indeed important, but at the same time not entirely true either. I have seen many successful sites with crappy designs. The quality of content will always prevail in this case which no one can really argue about.

I would obviously disagree, but I can see your point! websites like reddit have the content there but not the design. however, as a personal preference, if the website is not clearly laid out then I would not like to visit for long.

There are some good points raised here. Personally, I like a nice, simple and user friendly theme. If I went on Google to search for something and found a website with a bad theme, then I would probably leave. However, if I know that the website has a very good reputation for the niche and has good advice, then I would still join. First impression is always important and the theme gives you your first impression but of course there are other factors that decide whether you use the website or not. Honestly, I found the Reddit theme pretty bad but I still go on it to look up stuff because I know there are lots of useful information on there.

What I would like to see is flexibility with the forum design, I think that the most popular content (content that has a lot of replies), should be placed at the top of the forum. my reasoning is that any new visitor to the forum would see an active forum, without scrolling down. Of course, that does affect the categories of the forum.

A lot of forums has sidebars which shows popular topics. That is a good point but some popular content might be outdated so it may not always be a good idea to keep it at the top.

I think that being able to ask to join a forum team is great, but I think you could do something much cooler. My idea has driven from the idea of Dribbble, in which you have to be invited by a member to join the site and post content. I think the same could be used here for forums.

How cool would it be to have staff members that have been asked to join the team rather than them asking to be team members. I mean this is a difficult one as you could argue you would get the same result, and I would agree with you. but, I still think this would be a cool idea.

This is actually an interesting idea but the problem is that you may not know members well enough to be able to invite them to the team. With applications, you can at least get to know about their experiences and passion (given their application shows passion). Of course, you also look at activity when deciding. If you know someone is a very good at the role and they didn't apply for the job, then you can invite them but I don't think this will work all the team. If someone has passion to work for the team, then surely they would apply.

I agree to most of your points, for the teams I think it should be left to the teams TL, the idea of having people invited only really works for review team and design teams, as you can see there work on the forum. for package teams and admins it becomes more about aplication than invite.