Should you care about people who aren't fans of your niche?

[Luigi1632]

Like say.. a person who doesn't even play games joins a gaming forum and mostly posts in the general discussion area.

Or even a person who doesn't watch/play/read the stuff, that your niche is related to..

My point is.. should you even care about people who are non-gamers or not fans of whatever your niche is?

I originally had my anti-spam question set, to where only people who were full-on gamers or anime fans join.
However, since a packager on here requested that I make the questions easier, so a package could be done...

I'm not even planning on having my gaming board turn into some kind of "general discussion" schtick.
I mean, I don't mind causal gamers(sans the crowd that thinks Facebook games are great..) or casual anime fans.. but people who aren't even fans of anime or video games.. I dunno..

 

[Migi]

Re: Should you care about people who aren't fans of your nic

I honestly think we shouldn't be too picky. While it is understandable that we want those who registered at our forums truly know what the forum is about, thus they can contribute to the on-topic forums, I think we can be a bit more lenient about this.

When my forum was still around, I had a member who registered not knowing the singer my forum is based on. She mainly just hang out at the general discussion section. I was sad, of course, but when I saw her welcoming people and interact with them over at the general discussion sections and the other members enjoyed it, I didn't regret it. In fact over time other members and I managed to 'push' her to try listening to the singer the forum is based on, so she could post at the on-topic sections as well.

I think it depends on how the community goes, and how we as administrators can 'use' this kind of member to help grow the forums.

 

[Eternal]

Re: Should you care about people who aren't fans of your nic

I don't think you should care to much, but if the person is constantly spamming or being way offtopic because they have no actual interest in your forum then you may need to say something to that person. Other than that, if someone wants to join your forum, and maybe post around a little bit, I say let them.

 

[SpeakWhatsReal]

Re: Should you care about people who aren't fans of your nic

Check out my reply here:

viewtopic.php?p=927392#p927392

Not everyone is into anime or even watches TV for that matter. For me to answer your registration spambot question, I would have to google each name and see if it's a Anime tv show or what, I already gave you a second chance from 2days go when you had even a harder spam bot registration question.

Registrations need to be simple and FAST, none of this spam bot registration crap will help you, you need to use the basics, recaptcha or some type of human verification like differentiating the animals from insects or Dogs from Cat kind of system, not everyone is a gamer.

And by you saying that your community is for gamers is wrong, it should be open for everyone, if it was for only gamers... some of those gamers might not specifically be into anime. You need to set up your registration page and your forum where ALL is welcome if you want to receive maximum user exposure.

 

[Luigi1632]

Re: Should you care about people who aren't fans of your nic

I honestly think we shouldn't be too picky. While it is understandable that we want those who registered at our forums truly know what the forum is about, thus they can contribute to the on-topic forums, I think we can be a bit more lenient about this.

When my forum was still around, I had a member who registered not knowing the singer my forum is based on. She mainly just hang out at the general discussion section. I was sad, of course, but when I saw her welcoming people and interact with them over at the general discussion sections and the other members enjoyed it, I didn't regret it. In fact over time other members and I managed to 'push' her to try listening to the singer the forum is based on, so she could post at the on-topic sections as well.

I think it depends on how the community goes, and how we as administrators can 'use' this kind of member to help grow the forums.

Good point, although.. some people may not really become fans, no matter how many times you try.

@SWR:
reCaptcha was hacked by spambots, so that's a no-go.

Also, the questions have been changed up, to where it includes only popular or well-known stuff.

 

[Migi]

Re: Should you care about people who aren't fans of your nic

Good point, although.. some people may not really become fans, no matter how many times you try.

It doesn't matter, at least you have tried. Unless the members turn into a spam person and starts to write non-sense things, as long as the member stays friendly and behave well, I don't think we should push them over. We never know, anyway. If that member has no interest in your forum at all, he/she would not bother registering in the first place.

 

[The Reverend]

Re: Should you care about people who aren't fans of your nic

I think admins should appreciate every member, although if you have paid the guy to post or asked him to post, you should tell him to post more in the niche categories.

 

[CyberFreak]

Re: Should you care about people who aren't fans of your nic

In the early stages of a forum, you really need all the help you can get. If you are too picky then you will struggle even more. Having users join your site and posting in general sections not related to the main topic of your site can help you gain posts, encourage more users to contribute more and make your forum look more appealing to new potential members. More active forum = a more attractive forum to join in most cases.

Stopping people from joining because they don't like your main subject of your forum is too harsh in my opinion although at the end of the day it is your site so you should manage it how you want to. If you prefer a smaller community of just people who like your niche then go for it.

 

[Fiona1964]

Re: Should you care about people who aren't fans of your nic

I have quite a few members that don`t really read or write but I always welcome new members as they are what makes a forum and you never know they might find something interesting in my Niche which is a plus for us

 

[SpeakWhatsReal]

Re: Should you care about people who aren't fans of your nic

I have quite a few members that don`t really read or write but I always welcome new members as they are what makes a forum and you never know they might find something interesting in my Niche which is a plus for us

Yeah like me. I hate reading and never have a read a book in my life and never will (Besides the bible) but I still continue to post on her forum and post in the off-topic section/etc. Which in the long run does help her site out 😀

But if there was no sections for off-topic I would never post on her forum and she would lose a value user.

 

[Hotspot]

Re: Should you care about people who aren't fans of your nic

I don't really mind at all, although my current forum does have a big General Chat board...it is also about certain games.... but one could join for the game discussion... the General Chat or both.... two of my previous forums had a couple of members who hadn't played the games it was for and I did not mind one bit. I actually had it in the rules that it was okay to join if you hadn't played the game it was about.

 

[Nuke]

Re: Should you care about people who aren't fans of your nic

Phio Chan pretty much summed it up. You may prefer people who are interested in your forum's genre, however, you should allow people who are just there for the community to stay. For example, look at a lot of FP being either a blog owner or a former forum owner that no longer operates anything.

 

[PandahFish]

Re: Should you care about people who aren't fans of your nic

We all have our interest and dislikes. I think that you should make some sort of rule or deal with these members so they will post more in the sections you want.

 

[Darthmaul]

Re: Should you care about people who aren't fans of your nic

You shouldn't really have a bias in my opinion. I think that as long as someone is posting around on the forum, I'm happy 🙂 I do try to encourage on-niche posting though, and it seems to even lure those general discussion lurkers out every once in a while 🙂

 

[Azareal]

Re: Should you care about people who aren't fans of your nic

It's not really a good idea to restrict the people in the community as activity tends to attract activity as users tend to prefer forums with higher levels of activity so, that in itself could deter users who actually are interested in the niche which you offer.

 

[Yoda]

Re: Should you care about people who aren't fans of your nic

I think that you need to care for members, if you don't it could put people of if you gain a negative reputation of not caring if they are not interested in your niche. Just because a person isn't interested in your niche doesn't mean they don't want to be a part of/ enjoy the community.

 

[Fiona1964]

Re: Should you care about people who aren't fans of your nic

I think that you need to care for members, if you don't it could put people of if you gain a negative reputation of not caring if they are not interested in your niche. Just because a person isn't interested in your niche doesn't mean they don't want to be a part of/ enjoy the community.

I agree with this and you never know they may become interested in you niche

 

[Zuinag]

Re: Should you care about people who aren't fans of your nic

I think everyone should appreciate a person who takes time to be an active part of their forum. Whether they contribute to discussions pertaining to your niche or not, any activity on their part helps the forum. I'm thankful for anyone who chooses to visit and take part in one way or another.

 

[Hotspot]

Re: Should you care about people who aren't fans of your nic

I do not think it should be a big deal, it at least shows that the forum is still active to some extent.
Who knows, maybe those people know someone that would be interested in the niche of the forum?

I think.... or at least something that leads me away. Is that necromancy rule on your forum, where you can't make posts in topics over 3 months old. I find it's a little binding; I'm the kind of person that goes onto a forum and will just post in every topic I can, but if you can't post in a topic if it's too old... then I wouldn't bother posting in it or making a new topic... as then I would make like 50 new topics and it would just seem like I or someone else was spamming.
I've especially noticed that there are not many new topics on your forum, in one board it's all from 2011. I think it would help to allow people to post in them, even if they're a bit old... it would definitely spruce things up and add more activity.
But I think it's also good to make some more topics as well, it helps and encourages others to post.

On my forum, it's actually a rule that you do grave dig! XD
I personally cannot stand when there are like 10 topics about the same thing, it just clutters up a forum.

 

[Acorn]

Re: Should you care about people who aren't fans of your nic

I don't really mind if people join my site but just hang out to chat. As long as there's still plenty of roleplay going on too, and there is. Also we have a trend recently of many people joining to roleplay non warriors. That's the fastest growing area of our site.