Happy with your forum?

[akulion]

Hi,

Ok everyone who starts has a 'target' in mind - or maybe they are just doing it for fun. But either ways, my questions in general to everyone is:

1- are you happy with your forum? (im not talking about software or themes here, im talking about ur memberbase and activity level)

2- did you achieve your targets if you had any? (activity level, number of members, traffic, making money, etc etc)

And finally the most important question....

3- IF you did or did not reach your targets, WHAT or WHY do you think that happend?

Looking forward to some replies here so we can discuss strategies for improvement...

Aku

(PS: my answers in next post)

[akulion]

1 - I am not happy! Even though my membership level is above 1000 now, but the activity level is very low and amounts up to about 30 to 40 active members a day at different times. Most online can range from anywhere between 4 to 14 depending on time of the day.

2 - NOPE! My target was based on activity level more than anything! Even though currently my website is offring far more services than any other website of its kind, but the activity level remains low and I cannot pinpoint the cause of this and it really agitates me!

3 - I just cant pinpoint the reason why! Maybe its the flash stuff I use on my site? But I doubt that cos people seem to love it, but then again it also hampers users with flash not installed.

At one time I even started thinking maybe its SMF? But then I soon realized SMF is actually far better and easier to use than most forum softwares available.

The real reason continues to evade me, but I have a very high suspicion that it could be because I have a huge downloads section and most people sign up to get to the downloads and then leave.... I'm thinking of restricting downloads by a post based membergroup currently to see if that helps boost activity on he forums.

The End

Looking forward to other peoples replies - maybe common points may help each of us pinpoint issues.

Aku

[RoarinRow]

Good question Aku!   :up:

Here's my answers:

1- are you happy with your forum?  Most times I am.  I was actually surprised that we even had 30 members the first 2 month.  For a local truck club that's all I was expecting for the first year.  But it's been a year now and we have 314 members and nearly 80k posts.  But relatively speaking, only about 10% are active posters.  Which brings me to the next question.  My goal would be to strickly admin the forum instead of being the top poster.

2- did you achieve your targets if you had any? I was hoping that at least 30-40% of total number of members were 'active' members.  Our club doesn't generate any revenue, it's a free club.  We get a lot of guest and spiders and I think as of late our traffic numbers have increased.  I account that for the TP. 0.9.6 upgrade which allowed me to add more Google AdSense code in different boards.  I believe that we might double our member base by this time next year, at least that's what I hope.

And finally the most important question....

3- IF you did or did not reach your targets, WHAT or WHY do you think that happend?  We did reach most of our target goals and I account that success to our members, our unintentional spamming on similar sites, and of course word of mouth. 

Compared to other Chevy Avalanche sites, except for MidWest Avalanche Club, which also uses TP, we provide unique features, are less restricted as far as policing the threads, and we have special member only sections, which keeps those members on our site.  We have special badging for different goals and a Member of the Moment recognition to hot members.

Of course to keep our member base and targets, we leverage SMF and TP and continually add/update features to keep the site fresh and exciting.

Not sure what we can do to increase activity/member base.  There definitely is a trend for us.  Most members post Mon-Fri, however, on Friday nights people are out and about and posting is much lower.  Saturday and Sunday is hit and miss depending on weather, events, etc.

[akulion]

Good to hear u got ur targets made

Most members post Mon-Fri, however, on Friday nights people are out and about and posting is much lower.  Saturday and Sunday is hit and miss depending on weather, events, etc.

Completely opposite for me here - my site gets swamped during the weekends (this weekend is an exception, cos we have a Muslim celebration called Eid goin on, so everyones busy) and during week days you could actually count the dust particles in the air, its that slow lol

Acording to my estimations activity level for me is a shameful 3.75% ( 40/1078 * 100) thats why im so unhappy

[RoarinRow]

Good to hear u got ur targets made

Most members post Mon-Fri, however, on Friday nights people are out and about and posting is much lower.  Saturday and Sunday is hit and miss depending on weather, events, etc.

Completely opposite for me here - my site gets swamped during the weekends (this weekend is an exception, cos we have a Muslim celebration called Eid goin on, so everyones busy) and during week days you could actually count the dust particles in the air, its that slow lol

Acording to my estimations activity level for me is a shameful 3.75% ( 40/1078 * 100) thats why im so unhappy

Dust particles.  Yeah I can count that on my forum right now.  Typical for a Friday night.  Hahaha, I just used your formula and got about 10% is what I estimated above.  That's the number I'd like to increase regardless of the member base.

[akulion]

10% is excellent!!

If it keeps up then ur in luck cos it means more activity

[christicehurst]

1- Are you happy with your forum? Posting Levels have improved for the 4th straight month, can't be much happier. The membership is a dog's breakfast, not impressed and need help now.

2- Did you achieve your targets if you had any? My target for the end of the year was 200 members and 10 000 posts. Currently 122 members and 8700 posts.

And finally the most important question....

3- IF you did or did not reach your targets, WHAT or WHY do you think that happen? If it reached it, the forum would be running very well and fast. The membership has failed to fire and my saying goes "If you look after the membership, the post count takes care of itself". We have a large amount of posts and Writersmuster works well but the membership threatens the forum's future.

[grabman]

1- are you happy with your forum? (im not talking about software or themes here, im talking about ur memberbase and activity level)
To some degree I am happy with activity level given the membership level, most people post etc! 
However THe memberbase I'm not happy with, members I have are great, there just needs to be more of them!  I cross post on other brewing sites etc but still can't increase membership, especially outside of Oz!

2- did you achieve your targets if you had any? (activity level, number of members, traffic, making money, etc etc)
No real target other than to not be my only member!!  Having said that I would like to increase member base, that was probably an area I wanted to buil, had hoped for around 150 by end of year!

And finally the most important question....

3- IF you did or did not reach your targets, WHAT or WHY do you think that happend?

No idea why memberbase is not still growing rapidly!  gained 50 in first 10 weeks, now has slowed right down! 

anyone with ideas is welcome to share !!!

Grab

[leewalker]

1- are you happy with your forum?
Definately. The site was intended for communications with my friends, both local and abroad. So when someone goes away for work or generally moves away from the area, they can still keep in touch and see how everyone is doing back home. The site has only been up and runnng for about nine months or so, and we have 23 members that are all good friends. In saying that, I do know that none members have been on the site, as they have come upto me in my local drinking establishment saying "Hey, your that bloke who has that website about you and your mates". It' nice to know that people care.  

Need to add a few more items to the site before it's perfect though.

2- did you achieve your targets if you had any?
I did have a target. I wantd to achieve 1000 posts by the fist year, which we have done already. I know that this target is a little low compared to the rest of you. But it's quality, not qauntity.lol kidding.

[JPDeni]

The existing site that I have has been around for nearly four years. There was another site that most of us were members of that was closed and several of us decided that we didn't want the community to die so we opened ours. I think we had about a week between finding out the old site was going down and our new site went up. It still is using a very old version of Invision Board and I'm taking my time converting everything over to SMF/TP so that we can have a better-looking and better-working site all around. With that background in mind...

1- Are you happy with your forum? Pretty much, although activity level has lessened over the past year or so, a major reason for which is the fact that the we're a fan site and the actor we're all a fan of hasn't been doing much onscreen for a while. Not that many of the fans are as obsessed dedicated as we are. But we have a community of people who really care about each other, aside from our interest in an actor. We revel in each other's joys and cry with each other's sorrows. We support each other emotionally and laugh together a whole lot.

2- Did you achieve your targets if any? Yes. Our goal was to create a community and we have done that. In some ways, I'm just as happy not to have huge crowds of people like we used to because it's a much more closely knit group now. But we're still going, which can't be said for a number of other sites that are fan sites of the same actor. With his recent hiatus, quite a few of them have bit the dust.

3-Why did that happen? Because we realized from the beginning that our board was about a comminuty of fans and not about the actor himself. And because we don't have a lot of flashy graphics and animated smilies and colors that make posts hard to read. We're pretty sedate -- more about substance than style. The members who have stayed prefer that sort of site, although I'm sure that others have come by and thought we were too boring and just left.