How to run a forum [Personal Experience]

[Laughynose]

Well, I've owned quite a lot of forums in my time and there's quite a lot of pointers I've picked up and I thought I'll share with Support Forums, this is my first time posting this so let's go.

CONTENT

Now if you're going to open a forum you must remember you need a lot of content to attract you're members, now I'm not saying you must go around posting random stuff like "Oh my god! This is my random stuff for more content", I'm saying stuff like 'tutorials, sharing, images, graphics, updates', the only reason I wanted to start of with this is because most forum owners normally just make the forum and throw loads of categories up and then not post in them and expect users to do it all.

CATEGORIES

Now this also falls into the "CONTENT" section of the thread but I thought I'll make a new bit for this since this is the #2 most common 'fail' of a forum, now if your a new forum around the internet and you want to attract users to the forum then you might as well just have one forum with a load of content since most users are "EXPECTING" loads of content. Now having loads of categories but still so little content that'll make you're forum look tacky and nonprofessional.

THEME

Now this probably is the most important piece of a forum since this represents the forums unique identity, now if you've got all the above points but a tacky THEME then you'll not get many users since the theme is what they stare at most, now if you're good at theme making I'll advise you make a theme.

RANDOM STAFF HIRINGS

When being the owner/founder of a website you want to make sure you keep your staff team under control since if their not under control there can be chaos, now I normally hire users based upon activity and skill and quality of posting, but if you're someone that is comfortable with staff applications nothing wrong there, this bit of the section is to warn you don't give out staff until the site is in need of staff, around 50 users or when ever it gets to much for you to handle is possibly the best bet.

QUALITY

Coming Soon

I don't want to read this thread over so if any spelling mistakes/errors please post below and I'll correct them, I'll post more content once I get more pointers,
Thanks for reading.

[AceInfinity]

These are just the basics, you're forgetting a few of the most important ways to run a forum successfully.

Including: Incentive and Motivation, Recognition, and Quality.

[Laughynose]

Well, as I said I'm going to add more as time goes on, I forgot to add some important things I know, but last night I was so tired, I'll probably add: "Motivation, Quality of the forum, Topic of the forum"

[EaGLeZ]

Another big thing is who you give staff to. Many site give staff out to too many people and that causes the site to fail.

[Laughynose]

I've added the section "RANDOM STAFF HIRINGS", next I'll be working on "Quality" of posting the forum content.

[AceInfinity]

Quality of posting as stated by you isn't one of the best options for choosing staff. They could be lousy posters, who cares, at the end of the day it still comes down to 3 things; Maturity, responsibility, and self control. They need to have those for the basis of being a good staff member in my opinion. Nothing to do with quality of posting. However, I would say that you can relate that idea to saying that it means their dedication to the forum. But quality of posts alone, no.

[Sykez]

Thanks for the contribution, Laughynose. This simple guide could help people who are new to running a forum. I can't wait till you improve it.

[davidmarker]

Thank you for this.. I knew I was missing something. I need to work on my content way more, it gets stressful maintaining content on a forum though

[Laughynose]

You guys are very welcome, when I get some more time I'll update and post some more, I'll possibly do a video guide later on.

[Zoidberg]

don't give out staff until the site is in need of staff

I can't tell you how important that is, it's ridiculous when you see a forum with a maximum of 15 active members, 5 of which are moderators and admins.