http://www.seorefugee.com/seoblog/2007/02/16/10-mistakes-that-will-kill-a-forum/

Quote :

"Cliques - OK look, your forum is supposed to be an online community, not an online clique. If your community is not open and welcoming to new members and fresh ideas, your forum will quickly stop growing, become stagnant, and eventually die out. People want to be accepted. It’s perfectly fine to have a group of friends in your forum, just be sure you don’t isolate yourself from the rest of the web."

Quote :

"Trolls - Everyone’s encountered a troll whether you knew it or not. The Urban Dictionary defines a troll as “someone who gets pleasure by typing annoying/controversial/offensive words on internet forums or message boards.” If you run a forum long enough, probably every one of your members will annoy you from time to time. That’s just human nature. Trolls on the other hand, bring absolutely NO value to the forum and instead sit back and generally annoy you along with everyone else on the forum. They simply aren’t worth the hassle. To top it all of, many times, not only are trolls an annoyance, but they end up starting…"

Quote :

"Fights - Now don’t think for one second that everyone on your forum will agree with each other all the time. It’s just not going to happen. In fact, you don’t even WANT it to happen. Controversy is good remember? However, there’s a BIG difference between a healthy debate/heated discussion and a fight. Once a discussion or debate devolves into name calling and personal attacks, it’s time to shut it down. If you let fights fester, they’ll begin infecting the rest of the forum and will likely end up driving away people on one, or both sides of the issue. You’ll also lose members who simply don’t want to hear the pissing and moaning anymore. The internet is a vast and wonderful place, if your site loses its appeal, your members can abandon ship and jump over to an alternative with just a few quick keystrokes."

Quote :

"# Lack of Moderation - Yes, I just got done telling you that Over Moderation will kill your forum. The truth is, so will a lack of moderation. If you find yourself spending hours a day just trying to control your forum spam, it’s time to find some Mods. Get friends or family to help out or promote some trusted and long time members. And most importantly, use them. Consult them, give them a heads up before implementing changes, and listen to them when they offer up suggestions. You may even want to create a private “Moderators only” section where you can discuss any issues that pop up. But whatever you do, make sure you give your members a nice place to come. You wouldn’t invite friends over to your house if it looked like some back alley. The same holds true to your forum."

Quote :

"Over Posting - Look, people don’t come to a forum to hear one person talk all the time. It’s a community, not a soap box. If you want it to be all about you, start a blog. It’s very easy to dominate a forum, especially in the early days. There’s not a lot of activity and you’re eager to keep the conversations going. But, you need to give others a chance to answer questions, give advice, or offer up their opinions. If a post goes ignored for too long, by all means reply, but you’ll smother your forum if you’re the first to reply to every single post. As the old saying goes, “Better everyone think you a fool, than to open your mouth and prove them right.” And who knows, you might even learn"

2/17/2007 11:45:22 AM

10 5 mistakes that will kill your forum

2/17/2007 11:53:43 AM

Mistake #6 Users who cant count to 10

2/17/2007 12:07:53 PM

mistake 11: people who dont see that there are 10 mistakes in the link but i only quoted a few

2/17/2007 12:26:52 PM

que interesante

2/17/2007 1:39:44 PM

i think all of those pretty much apply around these parts

2/17/2007 1:41:04 PM

this is stupid. tww has had those for a long time and it's fine

the only thing that's killing tww is that crazyj hasn't done anything to it in years

[Edited on February 17, 2007 at 1:42 PM. Reason : oh yeah, and receivedeath]

2/17/2007 1:41:46 PM

^

2/17/2007 1:44:48 PM

haha this site is not doing fine

2/17/2007 2:08:27 PM

youve got quite a few ppl who have been here for years and keep coming back. tww isnt designed to be a forum that draws each and every person from NCSU in.

2/17/2007 3:02:16 PM

0/10 B

2/17/2007 3:49:11 PM

^^^lol, how do you figure? you haven't even been here a year.

i don't see this site going anywhere any time soon. it only keeps growing, despite having each one of those things as a quality.

2/17/2007 4:20:58 PM

I think this site is GREAT because of all of those reasons....

seriously.

2/17/2007 5:03:48 PM

FIVE REASONS WHY I LOVE TWW:

(1) Cliques
(2) Trolls
(3) Fights
(4) Lack of Moderation
(5) Over-posting

...

as soon as TWW loses these elements, I'll quit.

if you dont like it, feel free to go start up your own forums.fuckmeintheass.com

2/17/2007 5:58:00 PM

i think tww has a bit of all of them and it still succeeds

2/17/2007 6:10:33 PM

shit i've been here for ~3 years and it hasnt changes... and it never will, and theres nothing wrong with that.

2/17/2007 6:15:13 PM

it hasnt changes????

2/17/2007 7:47:19 PM

haha dude sucks at spelling/typing

2/17/2007 8:41:04 PM

eh, it has changed while I was here.

damned school tool and stuff stopped being used. It's just not as cool as it used to be.

2/17/2007 9:22:01 PM

i cant spell... get over it dudes, i still spell better than some of these fucktards

[Edited on February 17, 2007 at 10:04 PM. Reason : i just mistype alot and dont proofread worth a shit.]

2/17/2007 10:01:14 PM

i have to agree that this site is not doing great. this site used to get lots of new students and there was relevant conversation but because of those reasons no one new stays around.

2/18/2007 9:43:17 AM

i mean it has changed, but you still have such a dedicated former userbase that it wont be dead for quite a while. everyone who has been here for more than a few years knows that.

that said, it has always been cliquey, full of fights, had spammers, and low on moderation. i think it has more to do with who has joined and who has left than the forum itself.

2/18/2007 10:52:48 AM

Aha. We do a pretty good job of discouraging new members. Everyone that's still here took their n00b lumps. Screw them and their thin skin.

2/18/2007 1:57:04 PM

haha, oddly enough, no one ever gave me a hard time when I first started posting on TWW

I guess that's the reason that I don't really pick on "n00bs" myself

2/18/2007 2:06:07 PM

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"haha this site is not doing fine"

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2/18/2007 4:19:15 PM

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"haha this site is not doing fine"

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2/18/2007 4:19:15 PM

you are one of the people that need to be purged

2/18/2007 4:42:43 PM

WHATEV

im not just a troll, i moonlight as a contributor to this website

hell im not even a troll, i just hate certain types of people

[Edited on February 18, 2007 at 4:53 PM. Reason : d]

2/18/2007 4:52:42 PM

well your receivedeath-like constant posting of pics and gifs really knock you down a lot of notches

2/18/2007 5:13:44 PM

Quote :

"haha, oddly enough, no one ever gave me a hard time when I first started posting on TWW I guess that's the reason that I don't really pick on "n00bs" myself"

Yeah, but look how long ago you registered. You were part of the original crop before we reached our current culture.

2/18/2007 7:10:15 PM

all of that (^) started in 2004 and has just gone downhill since

2/18/2007 8:44:58 PM

i dunno, i don't remember the trolling/bashing/etc. being much different when i registered.

it probably has gotten a little harsher and more frequent though.

2/18/2007 9:08:14 PM

^^Not true, that's been going on since I started posting in 2001.

2/19/2007 9:18:51 PM

and even back in 2000 when i joined.

also, this is the least worthless thread ever in feedback forum.

2/19/2007 9:27:55 PM

too many stinky brown indians

2/19/2007 9:36:50 PM

I'd take your job and outsource it to my cousin in India, but even they're above picking cotton.

2/19/2007 10:03:16 PM

mods? what and who are these special bred of internet folks? Do they exist and what happened to their responsibilities in the classified section?

2/20/2007 2:27:12 AM