This is a pretty crucial question: Can your community run smoothly without your constant presence?
As community leaders, we often find ourselves deeply involved in every aspect of our forums. From moderating discussions to organizing events, our presence is often felt everywhere. If you're the only admin, you need to be front, back and side-to-side. You can't just work on the back-end and expect your community to thrive magically. But what happens when life gets busy, and we can’t be as active as we’d like to be? Can our communities continue to thrive without us? Is your community healthy enough to take a step aside?
Some thoughts:
Leadership Structure: Do you have a team of moderators or admins who can step up in your absence without the risk of having chaos?
Automated Systems: Have you set up automated processes for routine tasks? Think: monthly events.
Member Engagement: Are your community members motivated and engaged enough to keep things lively on their own?
Clear Guidelines: Are there clear guidelines and policies that members can follow even when you’re not around?
Looking forward to hear your thoughts and experiences on this. Have you ever had to step away for a while? How did your community handle it? What steps have you taken to ensure your community can operate independently?
In the early days of the forum I was running, I needed to be there all the time. Once there was a team in place, I was able to take some time off (unless there was a major issue that needed my attention), as they were able to keep things going while I wasn't around.
I try to invoke enthusiasm and fun when I create my communities. I try to set an example and make my presence set the mood.
So, I think it's important to keep being active in order for the forum to be active.
Facebook Groups are a totally different monster, however. I have one with over 40K members, and it remains active even if I take a break from it for a few days. They don't need me to do what they do.
But social media and a forum aren't the same kind of community. We know so many people on social. On a forum, we only know the community, and to me, that makes it unique.
Yes, and no. My community needs me to grow, but my admin, and moderator also do a good job to keep the content flowing. Too much time away for admins is never good.
I can't see Thee Zone thriving without me. I have another staff member but she's rarely active these days. Gex Forums might thrive without me, but I wouldn't want to go without logging in for a long time since it doesn't look good. I noticed someone mentioned Facebook groups. I have a huge group for a popular Youtuber and I don't really post much in it anymore. I do have other staff though at least and they help keep things in check. To be honest I feel like the activity kind of died a bit. Either that or Facebook isn't showing me my group on my feed since I haven't seen it since returning to the platform about a month ago...
No, my community cannot thrive without me. That's because I am the only user on the site who is active daily. I have less than 50 monthly active users. If I don't log in, there wouldn't even be any activity. 😀
I have some serious doubts. I think it would eventually die at some point if I wasn't there, especially since I'm the only staff on there at the moment. It would either die out or become a haven for spammers, rule breakers, etc.
