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Forumotion Interviews : Today "All About Big Brother" |
Hi All! As you know, every two weeks I interview a Forumotion founder, to discover the keys of success. Today, I decided to interview a forum dealing with a social phenomenon: Big Brother. The Forum has 2900+ users and 306,000+ messages. How to stand out from the competition on a subject so popular, and thereby, generating a lot of forums and sites? We'll find out now ... 1. Tell us about your forum. What do you think is the secret of its success? My forum is call All About Big Brother ( AABB). It is a forum that discusses the television show Big Brother USA. We also discuss other reality shows, and other entertainment topics. We have a "Lounge" to discuss just about anything and we even have a Latest News section and a Cooking and Baking section. Most of our posters are women. Our forum is successful because the subject matter fosters a lot of viewer participation and people want to talk about it. I think that another reason is that I have set a reasonable set of rules and follow through enforcing the rules. I never let things get too out of control. That said, I also know when to let things go and take their natural course. We never worry about off-topic for example. Sometimes the best discussion happen when things go off-topic. I also have a great group of moderators. We have a hidden forum to discuss issues. They give advise and keep an eye on things when I am not online. Issues come up less frequently now than in the past because I have banned troublemakers and abrasive posters. I don't ban very often, but sometimes for the health of the site, it has to be done. 2. After its creation, what are the tools that you deem necessary and that you were lacking to advance and publicize your forum? Then, what strategies have you followed to solve this problem ? And which of these methods have been the best? Our forum is four years old. I was with another provider before moving to forumotion two years ago. I had some experience running the previous board, but really couldn't say that I knew very much. It is all trial and error and learning by doing. I think the set up that forumotion has in the administrative area is fairly intuitive. If you read the instructions or just try something out, it is not too hard even for a novice. I also learned early on: no discussions of politics or religion are allowed. 3. What are the major decisions that have really improved the popularity of your forum? Do you have tips, ideas, methods you use to maintain interest, activity and loyalty of your members? I asked the moderators to answer what makes the site popular. This is what they said. Listen to the posters. Open forums that are of interest to them. Have an administrator who moderates with an even hand. Encourage mature people to join; those who are funny and smart Discourage group-think Keep the look of the site interesting. Note from me: I change the theme of the site to go with the season. Since we mostly have women, I keep the colors light and pleasant. I would never use a black background for my readers. Although it seems to be popular, it doesn’t appeal to my readers. 4. How much time do you spend per day to take care of your forum? You get help? The time I spend depends on what is going on. Sometimes I spend just a few hours a day, but often it is many hours. I usually read all the threads just to keep an eye on things. I have a really great group of moderators who look after the site and also post on the site. Because they participate, post, and offer their opinions along side the other posters, everyone tends to behave. They also can direct a conversation or inject some humor if things are getting tense. 5. Based on your experience, what advice would you give other webmasters who wish to see their forums as active and successful as yours? My advise to others would be to stay out of the discussions as much as possible, keep the site free of "junk" and make it as readable and as organized as possible. One thing I would have done differently is to create a second username without the ( admin) tag. In that way I could have participated in the forum as an anonymous user and not as the "boss". When the administrator participates it can tend to intimidate or even anger some if you have a differing opinion. I would have only posted as the administrator when it concerned subjects dealing with the functions of the forum. My other advice is that sometimes you just can’t avoid "drama". Sometimes it actually helps increase interest, but you really have to know when to shut down the drama and move on. An administrator with good judgment and maturity is essential. 6. What would you have done at forum creation (a thing which you may not think in the beginning by lack of experience) that would have made you gain time and traffic more quickly? I have no idea what I would have done differently to gain more traffic. I didn't really care how many people were here. I started the site for fun and entertainment, and that is still my goal. It's probably a good idea to not let your ego get involved in how many members you have. Thanks to http://allaboutbigbrother.forumotion.com for this interview, see you in 2 weeks for another success story!  Want to be interwiewed? PM me! Best, Forumotion Team |
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