So many ebooks have been published about internet marketing and blogging. But, how many good forum management books actually exist? Would love to have a link to a good ebook to read about forum management.
Many forums start out as an impulsive idea and then never go anywhere. And, you'll find these forums all over the internet, littering the super highway. But, some forums defy the odds and stick around for years. What ...
With all the social networks such as Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter and myriad of other publishing options including Blogger and Tumblr, which have built in communities similar to forums, are real forums even relevant a...
Over time, I've had some success with promoting my general chat forum on other generic forums. Though usually, it's harder to promote a general chat forum and get new members as most people will just pick a chat forum t...
Do you tolerate drama or hysterics on your forum? What would you do if a good forum member started acting up and showing attitude toward other members and staff?
What do you think of the idea of having an offical count down timer to the official opening of a new forum? When advertising the upcoming forum, you could let potential members know they can't register right away but sh...
Most of the forums I've seen are related to webmaster or gaming. Though some are very unique such as a Japanese culture or historical mysteries forum. I love these highly specialized forums as they allow the member to ...
Most people take a holiday vacation, especially around Christmas. And, that goes for forum staff too. What will you do on your forum when your mods or admin take vacation? Do you have a back up plan for staff, or will yo...
If you have a niche forum, you might assume most of your forum members would come from other related forums. But, sometimes you can get forum members from unrelated sites, even Facebook. Do you know where your forum memb...
On my own forum, I'm very quick to modify an offending signature link, such as one from a new member who is advertising spam or linking to illegal sites. Also, not every forum member deserves a signature link, especiall...
Xenforo has a very interesting feature called Discouraged which can be enacted on individual members. The feature causes delays and discourages them from posting with other annoyances. The hope is that they get disco...
If I was no longer interested in the forum or didn't think there was any possible way to revamp the forum or send it in a new direction, then I would most likely delete the forum. Though I'm sure I would keep the datasba...
Some of the top free hosted forums include Proboards and Zetaboards. When I first started out in internet marketing many years back, I tried out these sites. There was always a glitch that made the site less than desir...
Do you ever get into a situation where forum members retaliate against each other for perceived slights and threats? This type of thing can get out of hand quickly if you don't step in to stop the trolling. What is to ...
I am looking for a mod for my phpBB forum that will show a monthly (and daily) statistics history. I currently count the stats at the end of each month, then enter the information into a table, but I just seen on the fol...
When I go to move a thread on XenForo forum, it has the option.. Redirection Notice: 1) Do not leave a redirect? 2) Leave a permanent redirect? 3) Leave a redirect that expires after? Then also gives me an option for h...
I like to spend as much time a possible on my new forum so that I can respond to forum members quickly and keep the discussion going. It's good when they see an active owner on the site. That keeps people coming back.
If everyone is posting to just one subforum, do you move forum threads around, so there are no bare spots on your subforums and it looks as if all subforums are well used?
If you make recent posts viewable to guests, this could be a good way to get many to sign up as posting members. It's nice to see what everyone is talking about more recently rather than having to dig through subforums t...
On a forum where I am moderator, many of the members are very passive and wait for discussions to be started. They don't even bother to start discussions. And, it could be a week or month before anyone but the owner or...
What do you think when a forum member creates a thread title and then repeats that title in the body/description of the forum post. Most times, I would prefer they actually take time to give a short backstory or explain...
Was there ever a point at which you seriously got tired of being a forum owner? What caused this to happen? And, did you just quit?
What would you do if a very long time forum member came to you and asked that their account be deleted along with all the forum posts? Would you oblige this person?
If your forum gets DDOS or attacked by hackers, should you take it offline so it is inaccessible to members?
So let's say you have 100 active members posting daily. How many moderators or admins would you need to police the forum for spam links, trolling, bad behavior, etc?
Do you ever see heated arguments and grudge matches between your forum members? If so, how do you handle these tense situations? Do you penalize or warn? Do you ask forum members to avoid each other? What's the best solu...
On some forums that I visit, I see a lot of subforums where the last post was many years ago. And, this makes the forum look very inactive. Maybe one solution for this situation would be to simply merge the inactive subf...
Most people have jobs and family responsibilities, so it's not possible to be on forum night and day. So how often does a moderator need to be active, especially one who is not paid? For instance, if your moderator only...
How do you deal with the situation where a former staff member wants to establish a competing site of their own, such as a similar niche forum? Maybe this person used your forum to learn the niche, make contacts/friends ...
Creating a posting contest is an effective way to stimulate forum posting. The key is to make the contest last a long time, such as one full month, rather than simply a week. There could be a downside to having such a lo...
What's your view on using real names versus an alias as a forum username? Do you prefer to see forum members with real person usernames or do you discourage this for the sake of privacy? From one point of view, I think r...
With a forum, you can get great daily content which is generated by the forum members. But, if you add a forum blog (such as on a subfolder of the site), you can also benefit by posting ever green content. This content w...
I used to be part of this really large forum where members would get on during weekend hours acting drunk. They didn't say anything about drinking but many acted beligerant and hostile and easily riled up. I'm wondering ...
Right now, I'm thinking about starting a forum about mishaps and odd events, such as natural/manmade disasters. I think there would be enough content for this type of forum but not sure if anyone would post there, unles...
It just makes sense to be active on your competitor's forum, assuming they allow you to have a signature backlink. You would want to contribute your very best posts and new discussions on the forum and create trust with...
For instance, there would be one main category, let's say 'general chat' and that's it, no other sub-sub forums or subcategories. And, literally ALL discussions would go into that and you'd have to sort through page afte...
I started a forum to have another place to talk with my blog readers and it was just more fun having them start discussions and not always having to come up with the posts for everyone to talk about. What were your reaso...
Does your forum suffer from tempermental forum members or forum dramas that seem like a big deal at first but then pass easily?
Do you have a plan for what your staff will do, if you decide to shut down your forum?
A moderator who has worked on your site for awhile might be the perfect source for a new hire. Chances are, this person already knows at least one other person who would work well within the forum community. Do you ask...
