How did you get your forum active?

[noreturn]

We've been trying to get http://www.hzforums.com active for around a week now and all we have gotten is a couple of exchange members..

What did you guys do to make your forum active?

 

[Mik.]

Maybe a change of theme or even a posting contest.

Change is good but not too much or anything major. If you decide to ever convert forum softwares get the communitiy's opinion first!

 

[Cap'n Tech]

I really like the logo and the theme but just give it time. Took mine about 3 months and I still only have 34 members.

 

[XcapeX]

It takes a while to get a forum going. It just takes faith and hard work!

 

[noreturn]

So what should we try to make more members want to join.. We have lots of really cool features on our forum liek points shop awards and stuff like that.. And soon to come gallery.. What else can we do?

 

[AnAccount]

There is no way you're going to get your forum active in just one week. Forums take a lot of time and dedication. You really need to promote and add new content, rather than just sitting around and hoping for something to happen.

 

[noreturn]

Ok thanks for all the help for now on I'm going to try and see if I can get staff members to post 20 threads a day and at least 30post.. Maybe that will be engough content.

 

[AnAccount]

Ok thanks for all the help for now on I'm going to try and see if I can get staff members to post 20 threads a day and at least 30post.. Maybe that will be engough content.

20 to 30 posts a day is kind of pushing it in my opinion. Not everyone has time to be online as much as they'd like, so really, forcing a limit is unfair and could cause your staff to resign in protest, even if they like your site well enough to stick around. None of us have all day to be online as we have real life commitments to attend to, so I would seriously consider lowering the post limit.

 

[Spazmatic]

Well, as the owner of Hobby Zone, we have been working together on the project for about a month.

We spend hours each day implementing new features and posting new content, so I too think it just needs more time.

And yes, I will be buying a gallery so that members can upload pictures easier.

Thanks for the advice!

 

[AnAccount]

Well, as the owner of Hobby Zone, we have been working together on the project for about a month.

We spend hours each day implementing new features and posting new content, so I too think it just needs more time.

And yes, I will be buying a gallery so that members can upload pictures easier.

Thanks for the advice!

All forums need to have a chance to grow and at least try to become active. It won't be easy, but at the end of the day it will be worth it. Patience is also another key factor. I see way too many admins these days who close their site before the month is even out because things don't turn out the way they want to. Then it becomes a sick cycle from there and pretty soon no one will join their forums anymore because they're afraid all their hard work will be wasted. I would still say tone it down on the posting limit. Even 5 posts a day would be enough to keep your forum going, but I still feel that 20-30 posts is pushing it. You aren't exactly a post 2 host site, so there's no need to be that strict.

 

[Spazmatic]

Thanks for the advice. And don't worry, Hobby Zone is here to stay. I see a good future for it with hard work.

 

[Fergal]

You have well over 5,000 posts on your forum and that really is fantastic, you should congratulate yourselves on the excellent work and keep on doing what you have been doing.

 

[Spazmatic]

You have well over 5,000 posts on your forum and that really is fantastic, you should congratulate yourselves on the excellent work and keep on doing what you have been doing.

Thanks. We'll keep trying. I hope to eventually get in the hundreds of thousands. Hard work and time.

 

[noreturn]

I hope so...

 

[Xuan Zhongda]

What has really fueled my forums is having made a lot of good forum friends in past forums and inviting them over to my forum. If you've been around the block a few times, it certainly wouldn't hurt to invite some of your closer forum buds.

 

[Luke]

What has really fueled my forums is having made a lot of good forum friends in past forums and inviting them over to my forum. If you've been around the block a few times, it certainly wouldn't hurt to invite some of your closer forum buds.

I've had a friend PM report me for advertising when doing that once :lol:

 

[Xuan Zhongda]

What has really fueled my forums is having made a lot of good forum friends in past forums and inviting them over to my forum. If you've been around the block a few times, it certainly wouldn't hurt to invite some of your closer forum buds.

I've had a friend PM report me for advertising when doing that once :lol:

Really? An invite, or trashy PM spam?

 

[Luke]

What has really fueled my forums is having made a lot of good forum friends in past forums and inviting them over to my forum. If you've been around the block a few times, it certainly wouldn't hurt to invite some of your closer forum buds.

I've had a friend PM report me for advertising when doing that once :lol:

Really? An invite, or trashy PM spam?

It was just a invite.

 

[Xuan Zhongda]

What has really fueled my forums is having made a lot of good forum friends in past forums and inviting them over to my forum. If you've been around the block a few times, it certainly wouldn't hurt to invite some of your closer forum buds.

I've had a friend PM report me for advertising when doing that once :lol:

Really? An invite, or trashy PM spam?

It was just a invite.

Ai, that's harsh. You didn't actually get the warn raise did you?

 

[AnAccount]

What has really fueled my forums is having made a lot of good forum friends in past forums and inviting them over to my forum. If you've been around the block a few times, it certainly wouldn't hurt to invite some of your closer forum buds.

I've had a friend PM report me for advertising when doing that once :lol:

Really? An invite, or trashy PM spam?

It was just a invite.

Ai, that's harsh. You didn't actually get the warn raise did you?

That's not harsh at all. It's called PM advertising and many forums, if not all forums, take this very seriously. The ones that are most strict about this are advertisement sites such as this one. First couple times you may get a warning, any more offenses and you could even be temporarily suspended or even a permanent ban. So really, what happened to ZINC is not far out of the common way. I know many new promotion forums offer a PM Advertising service, and I really am not crazy about this idea at all. Actually I hate it I hated when I came on the site, only to read a PM asking me to join someone's site.