What kills a forum?

Briggs Level 1

April 22, 2014, 1:50 pm

21

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What kills a forum?

If the owner stops caring about the forum and doesn't want to be involved, that's a sign the forum is dying or about to be out of business. What are some other things that can kill a forum?

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Jade

Lack of new forum posts can kill a forum or make it look so inactive that any forum members don't want to stick around to post. You need new forum posts to keep the forum alive.

12 years ago

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Violet

If the community fights a lot or has too many debates, there could be flaming and trolling. And, that would kill the forum as all the good members would leave.

12 years ago

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LizAnne

Bad staff who are inactive or don't care to post daily can kill your forum. That's why you must be sure your staff are motivated to post on the forum.

12 years ago

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Beverly

Too much competition in a forum niche can keep a forum from becoming very big. If there are other large forums that are in a similar niche, they are more likely to get the members than your own new forum.

12 years ago

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Jadster

Some things that I see that kills websites and forums in particular is not posting frequently, copyrighted material, spam flooding the site, and begging for money. I see those to be the biggest things that kill a forum.

12 years ago

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SocialandYou

One word- Spam but for building a forum it takes years of hard work,good content and a dedicated team of moderators.

12 years ago

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Jadster

That is true, it takes a lot of hard work and dedication.

12 years ago

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Dayton

One word- Spam but for building a forum it takes years of hard work,good content and a dedicated team of moderators.

Active moderators and on site staff is essential to keeping spam off the boards. You need someone who will come by daily to clean up the spam as well as good spam prevention plug ins for your forum.

12 years ago

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LizAnne

Too much competition in a forum niche can keep a forum from becoming very big. If there are other large forums that are in a similar niche, they are more likely to get the members than your own new forum.

Trying to start a discussion forum that is very similar to another forum is always a bad idea. For instance, there are already too many game forums online. Same goes for promotion forums. Sometimes you just have to find your own perfect sub niche to stand out.

12 years ago

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Avery

Keeping a forum afloat on your own, without the help of staff or active members can be discouraging and might cause you to want to shut the forum down.

12 years ago

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Beverly

Keeping a forum afloat on your own, without the help of staff or active members can be discouraging and might cause you to want to shut the forum down.

A friend of mine kept his sci fi forum open for several years without too many regular members. And, though I tried to post there occasionally I was just one person and without too many others posting, there was just no one to talk with. And, that was very depressing. Recently, he shut the forum down and it made my heart very sad. :/

12 years ago

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Keith

Too many spam bot messages will kill the look of a forum. That's why you need good plug ins for your software or your moderators will get over run and have to spend all day cleaning up spam.

12 years ago

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Justin

Indifference is just one thing which can kill a forum and other than spam, lack of new posts or content is another.

12 years ago

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spotondot

If you are marketing your forum to the wrong crowd, such as advertising on an internet marketing forum (in your signature link) for your relationship forum. This would be be one example. That might not kill your forum but it would result in very few click throughs so not a good use of your advertising time.

12 years ago

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Ashlyn

Sometimes, when just one person dominates every discussion, that can kill the sense of community in a forum. Then it's not about everyone, it's about that one.

12 years ago

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tangee

Spam kills a forum. If there is too much spam on a site, I usually leave.

12 years ago

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Beverly

Spam kills a forum. If there is too much spam on a site, I usually leave.

One type of spam that is particularly bad is when people on a forum are always saying, 'Check out my signature link', rather than giving any real type of advice on the forum discussions.

12 years ago

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Griffin

Having too many subforums can be a bad thing for your forum as those subforums will be hard to fill if you don't have many members. That might not kill your forum but it would make your forum look inactive if you didn't get many daily posts.

11 years ago

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Jagger

Spam could be a leading cause of failure on a forum. Well more likely lack of forum staff to clean up the spam could kill the forum.

11 years ago

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Corzhens

There are many ways to kill a forum. But the first in my list is the lack of enthusiasm of the owner. When you own a forum and you don’t have the volition to visit it because you are not interested anymore, that forum is about to die sooner or later unless it is a big money-maker so the staff will exert effort in maintaining it. Another reason is the dead activity that there are no new posts on the boards and the logging in is very rare. A forum like a cemetery is considered dead.

8 years ago

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vinaya

Inactive members kill the forum. Having members is the key to become successful with forums. However, having members is not enough, the members must also be active in posting.
Another thing that kills a forum is spam. A forum attracts a lot of spammers when spammers post low quality contents, the forum will be dead soon.

8 years ago

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