[hawkie]

I now have three members in my forum,one of them is non active ,so besides advertising on other forums is there anything else that I can do to attract new members?Also would you please have a look at my forum and teel me what you think about it or if theres anything els you think I could do to it

http://shutterbugs.myfreeforum.org

[admin (no pm's please)]

You have 21 posts here and 49 articles on a forum you want people to join! I think that says a lot.

Why would people join when there is that little to join?

[wildgarlic]

Got to say that I agree with Admin - I've looked at your forum a couple of times today as I'm an avid photographer. You've got some fantastic ideas (and great photos) but you need to do the same thing as we've all done when we've started a forum... and that is to post, post, post on your own forum with interesting stuff. It won't happen overnight but if you've got interesting info on your forum you'll find that the word will spread and people will join, the word will spread again, and more people will join.. etc etc.

I'll be honest - you need a spell checker. I never pick people up for their spelling, but if you want it to look like a professional forum you'll need to get someone to run a spell check for you as there are lots of mistakes on the forum index page and that will put people off.

You might also want to think about setting up a group on Flickr - you'll be out there with lots of other photographers (and a lot of competition too though) Good luck!

[scottish-jim]

I agree with the spelling comment.


Spell checkers are great for eliminating smelling pistakes  

[Sapp]

For some reason I'm restricted from viewing the board there.  

[hawkie]

Ive had the spell check done and thats sorted but Ive dissabled my forum until I can get it looking more origional because an admin from another forum says Im just copying that one,Thats why you cant get in sapp,

[wildgarlic]

Copying in what way? Layout or subject matter?

Mine is just the bog standard layout - one day I might get around to sorting it and making it fancy but I'm not in a rush

[hawkie]

They say sbject matter,but I cant see any other way of having a photography forum as it is a specialist subject.You have your forums for various styles of photography,all the forums for general chat and discussions then the forums for info on a particular subject.

[admin (no pm's please)]

You need to seperate out in your own head real copying issues from sour grapes, you cannot do a forum on a similar subject without having some similarities.

I have taken this road before and started from scratch with as clear an attempt as possible to make a forum different, even so we got the odd copying complaint. It did not effect us as we knew we were neither copying actual material, nor copying any ideas beyond what we were inevitably going to end up similar on given the subject.

[scottish-jim]

Totally agree with admin  

Get your forum open and get on with it

[scottish-jim]

... oh, it is open and you are getting on with it  

[Sapp]

Yeah, it doesn't matter whether you're using the same template or have a similar subject, the other admin has no right to get mad. It's just unintended competition, which if fine. Anyone who would believe that you're copying their forum by having the same subject must not have much forum owning experience.