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This is one of those promised articles i’ve talked about a while later, well, the first in the series is about common mistakes in new forums, or common mistakes among new forum owners(newbies).

I’m a forum owner myself, infact, i was the first to own a free forumer PhpBB forum in the SnootySims community (AKA SimVibe, With B.Purchase), which later led into a huge vibe of new forums: Pink Imoen, Kosara, Chocolate Insanity and more of those…

I’m a forum owner for about 9 months now, my newest and only current forum is Infinity Forums, that is about 4 months old now

In this post i’m (mainly) going to talk about common mistakes among forum owners, and will of course, mention alot of essential info on not just how to raise a good forum, but how to keep it up

Before you start reading:Although the writer is talking from exprience, This is a personal imprinted article and shouldn’t be taken as a must-follow, if you have any problems or contentions, you can kiss my ass

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I’m sure alot of you who are reading this post do own/owned a forum of their own, so this post is opened for discussion, and i’d love to hear some feedback

Here are the common mistakes in newly created forums:

1.“Please Join my forum! omg! nobody joined it since 1992!”

- This sounds desperate, now i know it sucks when no one is joining, but sounding desperate will only make it worse, do not beg for members, and do not oblegate!

2.“Mods From The First Day”

-I have noticed one thing in alot of forums, whoever joins first, gets the mod postion, why? he simply applies the first, and the admin “jumps on the bargain”. When i enter a forum with 5-10 members and see 3 moderators, i get a very bad first impression.

Mods are meant to help forums, not to be the forum, hiring more and more mods won’t make your forum the best, it’d just make it look as you can’t manage 10 people, or you can’t make good descions.

3.“The Theme, God The Theme”

-It’s great to have cool board names, such as “Chatty Chat”(bad example ) for the off topic board, but when it gets to complicated names and complicated descriptions, i (as a guest) won’t even bother looking at the rest of the forum, i’m to shallow to start decipher what the admin “coded” there. (and yes, you should consider those shallows like me)

4.“Under Construction-Don’t come back in two days”

-That’s what i see when a forum owner announces his forum in tons of forums, but is still constructing and getting his boards created, one thing i learned for a good take off “Get everything done before you announce your forum”, and i see its’ reflection @ Infinity Forums. I spent 3 hours making this forum, configuring it, naming it, setting up the boards’, i just like to do important things slowly…it paid off, i got 20 members within my first week (which isn’t bad at all in my opinion), Bottom line: do not open two boards and expan after you announced the forum, it’s amateurish!

5.“I’ll give you a cookie, cause i’m desperate” ( in other words: spam advertising)

-Yes, i know this whole “i’ll give you a cookie if you join my forum” thingie was a little joke, but don’t you think that updating( ) saying that a cookie will be sent via e-mail to the new members is a good step? meep(no ), see, when you spam while advertising, you’re actually showing how stupid admin you can be, don’t misunderstand me here…but i think that “i’ll give you a coookie” is not an update, it’s spam!…….Instead, try attracting members in other ways, like talking about the projects you’re doing, how many members you have, what is the hottest new feature at your forum etc…

6.“Lack of originality”

-Sometimes i visit forums that i think i have visited before, and i ask myself “did the admin change the name”….of course not, it’s just that the admin copied the exact same pattern and model, changed the forum name, the boards name the descriptions, and called it a new forum, so lucid ….please, do us a favour, start your own forum, don’t rename others

7.“Do the job, don’t be the job”

-Well, in this clause i have a little confession, i once was my own job, when i managed The SimVibe forums, i was so submerged into doing my job, seeking technical perfection, and trolling spam…that i forgot that i’m actually a member, i’m a member that post, read, excite, get excited, i’m a member with duties, that’s all. I can give examples and go on forever, but admins, you do know what i’m talking about…please, do your admin job, don’t let the admin job do you.

*8.“I’m closing this forum, but i’ll create a new one soon, wow…i’m a genius”

-You’re not, infact, you have just lost your members, posts, and created yourself an image of a loser. And the healing key here is patience, building a good community takes time, if you don’t have the nerves to wait and to work on it while waiting, close now, and disappear forever, nothing happens within a minute, a day, or a month…but as long as you keep working with consistency on a forum you created (see clause 6), you’ll reach your targets

9.“She should be hired, he should be fired, that member will be my assistant admin, that guy will be…”

-Calm down son, fast descions never made a good result, guys & gals: think well before making crucial descions, think well, and take all considerations so your forum will be safe and protected from bad causes. Always create an alternative Admin account, just in case…shit happens, beilive me

10.“Ahhh…finally, I’m done…”

-No you’re not, actually, those are just the basics for a forum success, from this point…you need to start thinking of new ways to attract members, and more importantly, keep your current members active.

A follow-up post coming soon, stay tuned!

Related Articles:

• Launching a forum- The First Steps