What Makes A Forum Successful?

**Sephiroth** · 08-25-2009, 02:24 AM

Originally Posted by forrealee

forum has proven to be a good one in my books.. for the short time ive been here..

damn right we will prove ourselfs to the world *evil laugh*

**Setsuken** · 08-25-2009, 03:09 AM

I have run and been a part of many forums, and only ONE of them has really been "successful" for me or to me.

I think what makes a forum successful is when it becomes a gathering place for people of similar mindsets and likes. Some of it is just pure dumb luck, some of it is careful and dedicated filtering by the staff of the forum and most of it is brought by whoever joins the forum.

For me personally, I'm always looking for something in every forum I join these days, and while there are many welcoming and nice communities around (this place being one of them) I have yet to a place that caters to MY needs.

I want a place where:

Members all speak in CLEAR english. No net slang, no shortenning stuff, no memez e.t.c
Where you're easily able to get in and become "a part" of the forum. Many forums which are decently active have their members already forming cliques and groups, and it's really hard for people to get into the fun. I've met this problem at some of the best places I've been to.
A personal need of mine, is for there to be people on the forums that KNOW their stuff. I'm a very big anime fan and gamer, and RARELY do I meet individuals on forums who are actually as into anime/games and have seen/played as much as I have.
The Skin is well made. I've found a few forums with great looking layouts, but said forums lack the other more important things XD
Members need to be fair, along with staff. Too many forums I go to have unfair voting as far as stuff like SOTW goes, or anything else.
The staff is nice, fair and at the same time strict against people who ruin the experience for everyone.

All in all, if you can deal with all those points I listed, I can GUARANTEE that you'll have something awesome. Of course, how it can be done? I have no clue. As I said, I only joined one forum waaay back when I first started to browse the internet.

So yeah, that's my little drabble on the topic XD

**forrealee** · 08-25-2009, 01:35 PM

Originally Posted by Sephiroth

damn right we will prove ourselfs to the world *evil laugh*

mwahaha
>_<

**ack!** · 09-03-2009, 10:03 PM

I think everybody has said everything I've wanted to say... My big big big one though is my ability to get along with people. I go on the internet to enjoy a laid back atmosphere with cool people that are also laid back. I live to laugh, and if all the members have sticks up their butts, I'm out.

**Unclesatan** · 10-01-2009, 02:35 AM

1. Non-Abusive moderators. Abusers make people leave.

2. Attentive moderators. Nobody likes the spam or troll freak to hang out for days at a time.

3. Good selection of forum boards. General and Spam boards are good boards to have in any forum. I noticed that forums without spam boards usually get fucked over by the spammers, and it just ends up with who makes the most posts by the end of the day.

4. Events. I like events alot.

5. Graphics or SotW. There are graphic artists on every forum, no matter where you go.. there's nothin more fun than competing with other graphics artists hehe.

6. Fun emotes make the forum unique.

7. Of course, assholes on the staff really makes a forum dull and annoying.

I'm sure I could think of alot more, but these are just off the top of my head.

Looks like you guys are homefree though. You're doing good in all but #7! You guys aren't assholes dammit, why not.

**BlackJack** · 10-01-2009, 02:47 AM

I agree with everything Drac said.

I left another forum for those reasons.
OK, I can't lie, I was banned.

But many people left after my (and Lind's) ban because of our bans and because of the things listed above.
The mods/admins are stuck up, rude, and let certain users get away with murder while bringing the hammer down on minor offenses.

I get pissed off just thinking about it.

**Unclesatan** · 10-01-2009, 02:50 AM

What really gets me, is when the main admin moderates the spammy or random topic forums, and gives people warns and suspensions when they don't follow the rules. God.

This one dude who makes a Warcraft 3 map, moderates the hangout on a daily basis. He won't moderate the rest of the forum, only the spammy bullshit that gets posted every day.

**BlackJack** · 10-01-2009, 03:08 AM

Here's how things work on that one forum I mentioned.

I'm a new user, and in one month, I have made 2701 posts.
I get permabanned for "spam". (read: making too much of a presence)

But a veteran member (read: troll) tells another member to kill themselves MORE THAN ONCE, and got a tempban.

**Unclesatan** · 10-01-2009, 03:10 AM

Rofl yeah. Those are the forums you never want to ever participate in.

I joined a forum, and I was global mod within a month. Completely new.

Sad, though, alot of people got pissed at me and I was unpopular because they wanted the veteran members to be global mod.

I still ended up being admin rofl.

**Fuyumine** · 10-01-2009, 12:20 PM

Jesus Christ, dude. I know frictions are bound to happen in communities and such, but certain members, veterans or no, just ain't worth having around if they're going to go around saying stuff like that. What the hell, dude.

**Contra Fates** · 10-01-2009, 12:28 PM

Maaan, all of those stories really bring me back a bit to when I was on forums like that. I try really hard to make RSF a fair and friendly community, because of all of the utter bull shit I've had to experience on other forums. Favoritism is always something that is hard to avoid on a forum, but stupid favoritism is another thing. If your friend is absolutely belligerent and trolls other members, never, in any case, should that be supported. If your friend is a douchebag, freaking tell them! Don't let them get away with murder while other members who do far less are punished for it.

Spam is something that's viewed differently in different forums, and no two forums seem to feel the same about it. Though, that story about Moderators moderating the Spam section of a forum cracks me up! xD I've seen that before, and it's so ridiculous. It's SPAM. Unless it gets reported, leave it alone.

I can't believe you were banned for spam, BlackJack. Especially not after having that many posts! I'd understand it a little more if they gave you repeated warnings and infractions for it, but just a straight up ban? My guess is you stepped on the toes of an attention-whore and they couldn't handle it...so they swung down the ban hammer.

Hot damn, if any member on RSF posted 2,000 times in a month, I'd be ecstatic! That's why I think it was just some butthurt attention whore.

Man, I'm so nerdraging over what these other forums do. xD If RSF ever feels like that, you guys are welcome to give me one big fat e-slap and set me straight.

**Inu** · 10-01-2009, 12:59 PM

Originally Posted by Poison Ivy

Maaan, all of those stories really bring me back a bit to when I was on forums like that. I try really hard to make RSF a fair and friendly community, because of all of the utter bull shit I've had to experience on other forums.

well from what i've experienced this last week or so, you're doing a good job. /suck-up

**Fuyumine** · 10-01-2009, 01:34 PM

Yeah. One of the good things about a "hyperactive" member is that they inspire others to continue posting, which in turn brings about more activity, which may then bring about more members! It's a win win situation, I think. I mean, sure there are limits, as there are with anything, but that goes without saying.

**BlackJack** · 10-01-2009, 02:09 PM

I'm going to say this to be fair.

I was warned. Once. 2 weeks before the ban. And no ban was mentioned.
And I had made considerable efforts to clean up my act.
I made at least 7 or 8 threads just to redirect spammy conversations to a place where it would be on topic. I also used the search engine to find old topics that had been buried where the current spam conversation would be on-topic. Lind and Inu can attest to this.

That was my 2nd forum (this is my 4th). My first forum had absolutely NO spam rules, so I was taken by surprised when I was warned.

What I didn't realize was that they didn't mean "stop going off-topic", they meant "GTFO of our forum".

And I was a HUGE contributor. And what makes it worse was that an all-out civil war started when me and Lind were banned. So the people that would have just not given a damn, became hostile. Now people get flamed out the ass for mentioning Lind. Less so for me because I was less confrontational than he was. The mod that banned us even admitted he liked me. For the difference it made. ¬__¬