That new forum feeling..

[Nebulous]

Ive noticed, when a new forum opens.. People flock to it like crazy.
After the new car smell fades away, people move on to the next new thing.
Why do you think this is?

Do you think that forums go through phases?

Example of different phases a forum may go through:
1 - fresh new forum! = activity boom
2 - newness wears off = moderate activity
3 - forum gets stale = activity dropping by the day
4 - old = forum is a ghost town
5 - admin gives up and closes it. = RIP forum, nobody will miss you. 🙁

ALTERNATE #5 - admin doesnt give up, takes opportunity to re-generate interest in the forum
6 - forum is now known as an established community = moderate activity
7 - forum keeps working hard to provide fresh content (new topics and posts) = undecided onlookers finally decide to join
8 - forum keeps growing and growing = activity increasing again
9 - stable community with steady traffic lives on for years 🙂

 

[Joshua Farrell]

I wish I had a new forum that had people flocking to it. Infact, several forums that I have owned that I also owned the domains to, I started, advertised like crazy, got 1 member, and quickly died. Not all new forums gain members and activity quickly.

 

[Fergal]

Ive noticed, when a new forum opens.. People flock to it like crazy.
After the new car smell fades away, people move on to the next new thing.
Why do you think this is? ...

I have seen examples of what you are talking about theezy, but my experience has been different. When I start a new forum it is very difficult to make it active and to stimulate discussions. Then with hard work momentum builds and the forum becomes more active over time. In my experience it is much easier to get people to participate on a busy established forum than on a new one.

 

[AnAccount]

Interesting point, Theezy. I too have seen this happen numerous times. My site's almost a year old and we're still trying to get it off the ground, although I'm not a huge fan of big forums anyway, so I'm not too worried. I suppose it could all depend on the forum's niche and the general interest in the topic at hand. Say for instance if someone were to start a forum about cars. I dunno, like building cars, selling them, repairing them, etc, you could have all these sales people, mechanics, whatever come on and you could see the best activity ever for probably the first six months, but then that forum hits the one year mark and people generally start to lose interest. I actually think you summed it up quite well, though, because I don't know what else to add, really..

 

[Saruman]

Remember that feeling about 1 year ago...then the work came.