What if your forum didn't have posts for over a month?

[Beverly]

So let's say you start a forum but it never really gets off the ground. There are some initial sign ups and even friends who drop by to post on occasion. But the forum doesn't get many fans. Still you love the forum and want to keep it open and make it a success. And, despite all your hard work it just doesn't find an audience. And, then you go from a few posts a day to none and it stays that way for over a month.

What would you do in taht situation?

Would you call it quits? Would you struggle on and continue to be the lone poster on your own forum?

 

[VirusZero]

If the forum isn't getting any posts from anyone, staff included, then I have to ask how much the staff actually cared about that forum.

I mean if even staff aren't posting then why should anyone else? Staff are supposed to be there to help create new content and drive discussion forward. They can't be sitting back waiting for things to happen... That's a clear sign that staff are not good staff at all (and any sites they make should be avoided).

Supposing though that only the staff are posting (and by the original question it mean no posts from non-staff members) then I think it'd be worth looking to find out why people aren't joining and posting.

Are the rules too strict or lenient?
Is the layout clean and easy to navigate or use?
Does the theme look good?
Does the forum look like it's dying (ex- too many forums with no posts)?

Is there perhaps something else? (Like maybe the admin has a reputation for being a serial site maker... I mean if someone makes a site then gets bored or deems it a failure after 2 months and people know this... Are people really going to want to join their site?)

So it can be worthwhile to get a review done or just ask a friend.

 

[rottenforums]

Circle the wagons. Got 20 forums? Knock it down to 5 and merge those suckers to fill them up. Post. If you don't care enough to post on your own forum for a month why the hell should anyone else??? That right there can kill off a site on it's own.. Ghost ship.

 

[Migi]

It's hard to keep on going if you are the only poster around; there's nobody to talk to. Other than probably sending mass e-mails to all members and ask for their opinions in the situation of the forum, I would probably ask assistance from post packages or exchanges to sustain activity for a while as I figure things out with my community. If after trying to revive it still no activity seen, and my time is very limited, I would probably close it down.

 

[Chadook]

You should boost your activity somehow, buy posts, request packages, make exchanges.... it could work out instantly or after period of time.

 

[CM30]

One month? One day without any new posts is a 'you're doing something badly wrong' situation. One month without anything new means you've got a ghost town and are likely utterly hopeless at forum management.

 

[Elenitsa]

I agree with everyone, but especially with VirusZero. At least the staff should be the ones to write daily, to interact one with the other.

 

[karateninja]

rottenforums said it best.

 

[Delirious]

I try to add at least 1 piece of content daily. A forum post or a blog post or anything that might attract more visitors that in turn could be a new member that can make more posts.

You have to be diligent and never let your forum die down. Like others have said. Get posting packages, try exchanging with other people. Anything to keep your forum moving forward.

 

[milksheikh]

For 1 whole month, that is quite long for not to have activity at all, in that situation I would try my best to pick it back up, if not possible maybe relaunch the forum maybe even add in new features.

 

[Crete]

Get some new staff, put some of your good posts on reddit and leave the link.

 

[Moonface]

A whole month with zero activity would suggest to me that the staff don't care and lack the dedication to keep the site going. At that point you either need to really step up your game and get the forum moving again, or shut it down and either keep it that way or bring it back at a later time. The problem there though is if I saw someone running boards who can't even keep them going for a month, I'd quickly lose faith in any new boards they open. Especially if it was of the same genre as the one that just failed.

 

[SEO]

www.postloop.com will help you tremendously.

 

[cpvr]

http://www.postloop.com will help you tremendously.

Exactly, you could create your own topics; seed your community and then use postloop along side post exchanges to get your community rolling again. My community will never go a month without any posts as we currently do 100-150 posts per day on average and when I'm not around, my staff members usually pick up the slack. Same with my members.

 

[Joshua Farrell]

Forums should never shutdown from a bad month, the biggest thing with any forum, even new ones, is if the admin cared about the forum at all, would the admin post and create topics during the slow times, or would the admin just let it sit, expecting the members to go and post on it?

Personally, the best idea for a small forum, or a new forum, is that the admin needs to go and atleast attempt to make a few topics a day, to try to stimulate discussion. If the admin does not do this, how is the forum going to ever stay active?

 

[SEO]

Writing articles and other content that might be seen on Google would help too.
Worst comes to worst you could write posts and pretend to be other people. This would at least make it look like it's active. I actually started a pretty successful forum this way....Once upon a time.

 

[Beverly]

It's hard to keep on going if you are the only poster around; there's nobody to talk to. Other than probably sending mass e-mails to all members and ask for their opinions in the situation of the forum, I would probably ask assistance from post packages or exchanges to sustain activity for a while as I figure things out with my community. If after trying to revive it still no activity seen, and my time is very limited, I would probably close it down.

This is always a way to keep a forum alive with some activity while you turn up the promotion machine. At least, you have some posts coming in so there are not so many gaps in posts as happens with abandoned forums.

 

[MusicJumper]

Some hosted forums as mine, I have seen actually are like these. I'm also wondering really despite the arguments above.

 

[CM30]

It's not that hard to keep posts going. I mean, is one or two topics a day impossible for some people? Cause even that could be enough to eventually keep the site looking semi alive until the activity comes back.

 

[Soapbox]

I'd have a good look (and let other people look) at the functionality and interface/design. If all that is fine, and there is a market for your forum, then if you don't have posts, it's not the forum at fault, but you as the owner are doing something wrong, or maybe you're not doing something right. Is the site good & attractive? Does it load fast? Then get the infrastructure together to make it work!