For a few months there, I was ready to give up on Hortorian. It wasn't so much that real life was taking over, because a forum can actually survive without a 24/7 admin, so long as the rest of the staff do their job. It was just that posting on the forum was constantly sliding, for three months in a row. As well as that, Google Analytics showed that traffic on the site was at an all time low. It seemed that the website's days were numbered, and my staff team's spirits were low too.
For some reason though, I decided to push ahead and launch our v2 changes. Then I sent out an email to everyone who hadn't logged in, in the previous 15 days. I'm not sure if the email was the exact cause of this, but over the the last two weeks "old timers" have just been coming back. Posting has started looking healthy again, the atmosphere has improved and the staff are back in high spirits again.
Forums have low activity periods, but that's not a reason to just give up. Don't lose your head - instead use the respite to plan some cool projects, like competitions, for when they come back!
For some reason though, I decided to push ahead and launch our v2 changes. Then I sent out an email to everyone who hadn't logged in, in the previous 15 days. I'm not sure if the email was the exact cause of this, but over the the last two weeks "old timers" have just been coming back. Posting has started looking healthy again, the atmosphere has improved and the staff are back in high spirits again.
Forums have low activity periods, but that's not a reason to just give up. Don't lose your head - instead use the respite to plan some cool projects, like competitions, for when they come back!
