The A-Z of how to build a successful forum

[admin (no pm's please)]

Feel free to change.

N is for No Nonsense

Very few people enjoy boards where aggravation is the normal course of events. Whilst I am sure elsewhere in the a-z a light touch will be recommended in the way a board is moderated, that is not the same as being a push over. You as Admin and your moderators must be a force to be reckoned with, you define the rules for your board and must apply them fairly consistently and forcefully. If you are flexible and put up with nonsense from members, soon those members will be only only sort you have left.
A no nonsense approach may lose you some members, but you will be better off without them in the long run.


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[admin (no pm's please)]

O is For Original

You want plenty of original content on your forum, especially in "stickies". Original high quality content is the stuff search engines love to index, and the stuff new punters want to read.
Create FAQ threads on the topics your board covers and place them as a sticky at the top of each forum. Use all the keywords people might search on.
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[admin (no pm's please)]

R - Is For Readable

Not only is it against the terms and conditions of the myfreeforum system, but also if you stop guests from reading your forum, it will also stop search engines indexing it, and when you think about it, why should anyone make the effort to register on the off chance that you are a good forum?
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[admin (no pm's please)]

S is for Security

Whilst myfreeforum makes every effort to ensure you are safe from real "hacks", many forums on our systems do get trashed. They get trashed in three ways.

1) You leave the forum logged in as admin.

But you have a kid brother, sister or the pet dog that has developed keyboard skills. With browsers that can remember passwords, you don't even have to leave it logged in!

2) You use "password" as your password.

This has happened and will no doubt happen again.

3) You give other people "admin" rights.

Whilst many forums do run successfully with multiple admins. For example the myfreeforum admin is a joint admin on a forum with 8 admins! This is the exception and not the rule.
Sometimes to get a forum going, you are going to have to share the power but judging characters over the net is a very hard business So take the issue of admin power very very seriously.
Ask yourself do you know the persons character? are they level headed and not easily offended, are they responsible?
If you can get away with it, simply don't give anyone the idea that they can be joints admin, make a big thing of the position of moderator!
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[admin (no pm's please)]

T - is for Tolerance

Be tolerant in your rules when it comes to petty matters. I have known boards where moderators are on power trips and will pick on people for trivial things like "quoting" a bit too much No one likes to be "treading on eggshells" when posting on a forum.
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[admin (no pm's please)]

U - Is for Usability

Consider your colour schemes in particular from the usabilty angle. If there are any potential contrast issues with the text, get people with different eyesight to look at the forum on both a TFT and a CRT monitor.
What ever you do, do not place topics text overlaying images.
Weird colour schemes may seem clever, but for most people they get intolerable in just a short space of time.
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[admin (no pm's please)]

V - is for Variety

Even if you are running a highly successful forum on green widgets, you will find your members do occasionally, or even a lot more than occasionally, want to simply natter amongst themselves.
Accept this! variety is the spice of life and if you strive to hard to keep people "on topic" you may well find you get "no topic".
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[admin (no pm's please)]

W - is for Work

Arn't you getting a bit repeatative on this one! you may well ask? Well of course we are, but as it is probably 90% of what making a successful forum is about in the first few months, it deserves a few letters in the alphabet.
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[admin (no pm's please)]

X is for the X Factor

That thing that makes your members/guests feel that your forum should be their new home.

Perhaps you will get the ultimate accolade and find someone has made your forum their homepage

Admins "own" forum downsizer.net has had the home page complement a number of times as well as dozens of people saying the site has changed their lives There are other sites in the "downsizer" field, but we decided our "x factor" was to be more friendly and welcoming, to be totally non judgemental, to have top quality information, toprovide fast answers to peoples questions and never to take a pious tone with people.

Ask yourself what will keep people on your site?
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[Viper]

Y is for You

It's you who builds the forum. You have the responsibility of all your members and everything that goes on. If something goes wrong, you get the blame.

[admin (no pm's please)]

Z is for Zen
You as admin may not have achieved "enlightenment" quite yet, but to run a forum you must appear at least a little on the way to your members.
An admin who is unreliable, childish, petty, tempermental or bullying will send the message to their members that the forum stands no chance of lasting.
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[David]

[Symon]

Your d has been added david as its agood if you think of any more please post them
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[David]

A-for Activity


Keep your forum active. Don't let it die!


By the way, Symon, sorry if I messed up the thread by posting "D" right after "Z!" I didn't realize.

[Symon]

no the idea is for people to post there ideas and then if any good they get added to the list.
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