Shutting down my forum..

[Umbreon]

The biggest mistake you can ever do is shutting down a forum that has the potential to be active. I've been there, and done that. It really hurts to see a forum with active members go down. And selling will kill the forum basically. So its best you stay active there and hope you kick in some traffic in. Do some advertising from here and there, and before you know it, you will hit 50000 posts.

 

[Mike G]

No need to close, just advertise more 🙂.

 

[IAAM Radio]

The biggest mistake you can ever do is shutting down a forum that has the potential to be active. I've been there, and done that. It really hurts to see a forum with active members go down. And selling will kill the forum basically. So its best you stay active there and hope you kick in some traffic in. Do some advertising from here and there, and before you know it, you will hit 50000 posts.

Offering the devils advocate view:

Does not everyone think their forum is as you say, "has potential" at some point you have to known when to get up and leave the dealer's table. Too many sites out there that are open should not be, it's not just activity its the lack of any meaningful content. Regarding advertise more, hmmmm well if you are referring to places like FP yes that is ok for a few members, but most of these promo boards have the same members and so it's really site owners advertising to themselves. Do not get me wrong, FP type boards are great but that is not going to make you the next big sensation.

If you are having fun, then enjoy the board but if the stats are starting to take away from your fun and your focus is on the next members and post count, then you may want to go be part of a board that has made it already.

I will use my site as an example, I could really care less that I have 250 members, we had 1,000 and we pruned the accounts, FP for example has over 10,000 members and guess what; nearly 3,000 have never posted or have less than 5 posts. You have to get into the numbers to see the real story. Activity what does that really mean? Is it members or guests or both. For us, it's both we have an internet station so guests come all the time; unique urls.... hence the activity if one goes off members alone would think we are a dead board, reality is we are far from it. You have to open the book sometimes to see if it's better than the cover.

I shared a negative perspective so you had both sides of the story. I think I read most boards do shut down by their second year for various reasons. Again, if you are having fun then build it, tell people about it but do not depend on promo boards alone to gain members.

If you are in school put your forum in the school flyer, posters, get your friends and family to join. If you are an adult there are many ways you can get members but it will cost you money and you will want to make that investment back (at least in most cases).

This is a good thread, everyone has offered perspectives that you should think about but make sure you do not take them just on the surface, dive into each and an conduct analyses on how the perspective fits your situation.

Some do not like negative perspectives and then start to bash the person for it, I offer this in kind and not meant to break you or anyone down. We all need to hear the good, bad and the ugly to make a sound decision in regards to being a going concern (to close or not.)

One last thing, if you are spending more time on other boards like promo forums than your own in which lots of people do, then you may want to re-focus that energy and put those posts on your own board for content. The point is, if you have to go to another site to get social interaction because it's just not their on your site, then perhaps you should close it.

Good luck and please keep us posted.

 

[SpeakWhatsReal]

Now it's gone off-topic..

Not exactly what I like to see, let's get back on-topic, please

Wat more are you asking for? You shut down your forum and t hen you post about it? What do you want to us say? lol

Your fault you shut it down?

All I can say is that I hope you start it back up again?

 

[Luigi1632]

I never shut it down.

At the time I posted this topic, I was thinking of shutting it down, but didn't.

 

[SpeakWhatsReal]

I never shut it down.

At the time I posted this topic, I was thinking of shutting it down, but didn't.

Well don't shut it down unless you think you're in the hospital bed and got days to live.

KEep it up and try to make it a huge forum good luk

 

[IAAM Radio]

Oy may I have some more "whine" with that cheese - lol

 

[Real]

This is one of the most truly perceptive posts I've read on an Admin/Promo board in a long time!

I've gotten to the point where, I am concentrating on why I created the forum to begin with. Chat chat about TV shows with like minded. There at least 15 active posters I genuinely enjoy interacting with so that is what I am concentrating on. Having fun talking about mindless things

Offering the devils advocate view:

Does not everyone think their forum is as you say, "has potential" at some point you have to known when to get up and leave the dealer's table. Too many sites out there that are open should not be, it's not just activity its the lack of any meaningful content. Regarding advertise more, hmmmm well if you are referring to places like FP yes that is ok for a few members, but most of these promo boards have the same members and so it's really site owners advertising to themselves. Do not get me wrong, FP type boards are great but that is not going to make you the next big sensation.

If you are having fun, then enjoy the board but if the stats are starting to take away from your fun and your focus is on the next members and post count, then you may want to go be part of a board that has made it already.

I will use my site as an example, I could really care less that I have 250 members, we had 1,000 and we pruned the accounts, FP for example has over 10,000 members and guess what; nearly 3,000 have never posted or have less than 5 posts. You have to get into the numbers to see the real story. Activity what does that really mean? Is it members or guests or both. For us, it's both we have an internet station so guests come all the time; unique urls.... hence the activity if one goes off members alone would think we are a dead board, reality is we are far from it. You have to open the book sometimes to see if it's better than the cover.

I shared a negative perspective so you had both sides of the story. I think I read most boards do shut down by their second year for various reasons. Again, if you are having fun then build it, tell people about it but do not depend on promo boards alone to gain members.

If you are in school put your forum in the school flyer, posters, get your friends and family to join. If you are an adult there are many ways you can get members but it will cost you money and you will want to make that investment back (at least in most cases).

This is a good thread, everyone has offered perspectives that you should think about but make sure you do not take them just on the surface, dive into each and an conduct analyses on how the perspective fits your situation.

Some do not like negative perspectives and then start to bash the person for it, I offer this in kind and not meant to break you or anyone down. We all need to hear the good, bad and the ugly to make a sound decision in regards to being a going concern (to close or not.)

One last thing, if you are spending more time on other boards like promo forums than your own in which lots of people do, then you may want to re-focus that energy and put those posts on your own board for content. The point is, if you have to go to another site to get social interaction because it's just not their on your site, then perhaps you should close it.

Good luck and please keep us posted.

 

[Quacker Jack]

I'd recommend a referral contest. Have it so that for each time a user refers a new user who makes more than say, 5 posts, they will get entered in a drawing for a nice prize. Include consolation prizes. It can actually dramatically help. Additionally, offer incentives for these newly "referred" members to stay active.