Looking for opinions on what makes a good community site.

StephanieCordray

New Member
Message boards are the biggest example of community sites one can find on the internet. Some message boards have been around for decades. Others die quickly or never become popular or heavily trafficked.

Beyond the message board software, the graphics, and the type of site what are some essential elements of creating and developing a productive wholesome internet community site? I have my ideas of what makes a great internet community but would like to hear some of your opinions.

Yes, I'm going to use these suggestions/opinions on a site I'm developing right now... if that's okay with the respondents. :)
 
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ian

Administrator
Staff member
well, this forum is not exactly popular, but my other forum computerforum.com is quite popular, close to reaching the 500,000 post mark.
It really is a combination of a large number of things, not any one point.
-simple not overly complicated site design which loads fast
-colors which users find easy to read
- a team of good moderators in charge of the community.
- an atmosphere where members opinions are taken into consideration
- regular deletion of spam
- a friendly atmosphere
-recognising valued members in some way
-something never to be underestimated, the power of good seo.
-using a good script, the fact remains most of the biggest bulletin boards around use vbulletin and members are used to that, and like to use what they are familiar with.
-patience and persistence to be in the project for the long haul.
But it is the members themselves that make a good forum community.
 
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velvet

New Member
Hi there.
I dropped in for a little help about 10 days ago and popped back to let you know how I went.
I thought I would contribute as I have a little insight to this question.

I moderate on a site (completely different subject matter), which has recently grown quite rapidly of late. It's main competitor was quite large and I used to frequent it allot until the owner got a little funny about its members playing in more than one site. This led to a few of the good contributors vacating and resulted in a bigger exiting of members.

Numero Uno!!!!
I have observed is that it is the tone of the site and the involvement of its leader (welcoming and friendly), that seem to attract people and make them want to stay and to be loyal to the forum.

Graphics that entice participation are usually a few fun emoticons, a cheary header graphic.

Another asset can be a chat box.

Competitions and prizes can help.

Some people love to showcase their work or promote a little more than signatures and so a section for showing off is good.

As is critique sections and tutorials bring heaps of traffic.

I hope that will be useful. Yes it can be difficult to generate more participation but usually you need a few good socialisers and away you go.
:)
 

StephanieCordray

New Member
Thanks for the input. I hope more comes in. I think mainly I want to stick to what makes a good community... one people can join and feel comfortable being there. I suppose a little background would be useful, eh?

I've come across some real horror stories about some community sites... especially those geared toward internet businesses, whatever the business itself may be. One particular story keeps sticking out in my mind about this lady who was so badly maligned that a site was developed all about her using awful images such as depicting her behind bars with a pig. This lady depended on community members to help grow her business and the result was the opposite, she was financially ruined. And that's only one of the stories I've heard recently.

I don't know the name of the group who did that nor the name of the site that was set up but the story really bugged me enough to want to set up a page advising people what to look for when looking for good community sites... beyond the graphics and outer appearances.

I've been around ian's boards, even one he no longer has that I have some pretty good ideas of my own( backhanded compliment to this board's owner) but I am looking for ideas I might not have thought of.

In addition to that... as a member of any community, I rarely advertise my services or what I do on a day to day basis. I mean, how many members here know I'm a webhoster? Ian, zkiller, and likely a few others do but in the normal course of communications, I don't bring it up. I don't think things like that are conducive to having a good productive board. Ian has sections for webhosting and offers but I haven't used them, either. I'm really not much of a salesperson.

Another thing I don't do is let everybody know everything I know, lol. Sometimes I can play really dumb if I feel it's warranted... bad experiences of my own have brought about that habit.
 

velvet

New Member
Re: Promoting and Teaching/sharing information

I would have assumed in a web design forum, apart from students, most of the members would have been either designers, programmers, web host or developers anyway.

There is a thread in here that prmotes what services you do anyway.
I am an artist, recently turned web designer, who offers most other associated services.
I find it sometimes frustrating but very rewarding work. I love taking ugly duckling sites and make them soooo much better.Not keen on fixing bodgy sites as I rather start fresh and make a cleaner one my way (thats the female in me LOL)

Sharing what you know is productive for everyone as there is plenty to go around on the Internet and I do believe it is true that what goes around comes around.

A fear of lack of abundance can be counter-productive.
I personally love helping people and teaching what I know & find this more rewarding than anything. I do think God blesses us each time we do a good deed or help a neighbour.:)
 

velvet

New Member
Special note for you Ian.
Dont be afraid of letting you members know how they can suport their forum by taking notice of
 
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StephanieCordray

New Member
I would have assumed in a web design forum, apart from students, most of the members would have been either designers, programmers, web host or developers anyway.

That's a fairly large area when you really think about it. In a lot of ways, I'm some of each, lol.

I find it sometimes frustrating but very rewarding work. I love taking ugly duckling sites and make them soooo much better.Not keen on fixing bodgy sites as I rather start fresh and make a cleaner one my way (thats the female in me LOL)

If I could afford it, I would have someone do it for me... just because I have the knowledge doesn't mean I have the artistic ability, :p


Sharing what you know is productive for everyone as there is plenty to go around on the Internet and I do believe it is true that what goes around comes around.

Yeah, but sometimes I'd prefer not to have to wait on the come around when something negative happens to me. I'd rather avoid the situation altogether if I can see it coming beforehand.

A fear of lack of abundance can be counter-productive.
I personally love helping people and teaching what I know & find this more rewarding than anything. I do think God blesses us each time we do a good deed or help a neighbour.:)

If I feared that I would be out of business already, :) . I like helping people, too. As for your last statement, I totally agree.
 

SiteExpress

New Member
I have a successful directory that is doing well. By using a combination of the directory, doing blog reviews, and offering free stuff, like wordpress templates, blog ratings, blog poll script, a "Fun" look, and various other resources, I am able to generate a good deal of traffic. I recently added a blogger forum to the mess and it is starting to take off quite nicely on its own and with no advertising.

I think the key for my site was to produce more than just one thing. By consolidating lots of useful tools, the traffic takes care of building the community.
 

SiteExpress

New Member
Special note for you Ian.
Dont be afraid of letting you members know how they can suport their forum by taking notice of your ###############################################

I guess i have said it for you anyway:D

I just want to add that just posting remarks like that can get him banned from the G###gle program. It is a major violation in their TOS and they do not waste any time banning people for it.

You might want to edit your post and remove that.
 

zkiller

Super Moderator
Staff member
- regular deletion of spam
no comment...

anyways... i agree, a personal and accessible staff is crucial. i used to have tons of people IM me back in the day asking me for help outside of the forums which i gladly did despite being a professional web developer back in those days.

when people find a place where they not only find information they need/want quickly and have positive encounters with members and staff in the process, they are almost guaranteed to come back.

most of the basic ideas for a good community were outlined by others already. but when it really comes down to it, it's the people that make the community. while the users are essential of course, i truly believe that at least in a forum environment it's the staff that make the difference. ian, just think about it... WMF.
 

StephanieCordray

New Member
when people find a place where they not only find information they need/want quickly and have positive encounters with members and staff in the process, they are almost guaranteed to come back.

I think this is one of the hardest things to get going. I'm not a big conversationalist (in case you haven't noticed, :rolleyes: ). While I'll visit frequently to see what questions I can answer, I don't often post anything for others to comment upon.


but when it really comes down to it, it's the people that make the community. while the users are essential of course, i truly believe that at least in a forum environment it's the staff that make the difference. ian, just think about it... WMF.

I think the biggest difference between WMF and this board is the timing. When WMF was new the whole concept was still fairly new. Now, there are tons of boards that are WMF or something else with the same kind of name.

That's not to say this board won't ever be anything because it will. It's getting to a point where there needs to be a couple of mods to help with the spam, if nothing else, and that's saying something there. If people(even spammers) can find it, they will come, right? It's just going to take more time and good people like you, ian, SiteExpress, velvet, winterchase, and some others who are here frequently.
 

zkiller

Super Moderator
Staff member
actually, there were many large community sites based on the same topic as WMF back then, but they lacked one thing that WMF provided and that's character. i am not saying that these other sites have no character, or that they aren't good sources of information, but WMF wasn't just a source of information due to the friendly and helpful staff. it made it a fun site to visit even when you weren't looking for something specific.

i wasn't trying to compare this site with WMF at all. this forum is much to young and undeveloped to do so. i was just trying to use WMF as basis for explaining what i meant.

and yes, i agree, this site could greatly profit from an active staff.

also, i am not the most talkative person in the world either. i am actually very laid back.
 

ian

Administrator
Staff member
hopefully vbulletin will add some more inbuilt measures for spam protection.
 

fairdoes

New Member
This forum seems to have most things spot on (if that's what you're really asking!). I don't recall ever receiving a promotional email from staff, and that's a good idea once in a while. Even the best forums can slip one's mind when you are busy, and a reminder would help.

Some posts go unanswered.

A site feed with a BOLD symbol, for members and visitors to add to their live bookmarks would surely help. Just point at the bookmark (on Firefox) and see the titles of the last 20 or so entries on the sitefeed. Plus the url of the feed (at FeedBurner or wherever) is another magnet for search engines.
 

kiko_friendly

New Member
Me! I am a great reason that places like this stay around!

Okay, I'm JK. :eek:

I think that the owner needs to be active and update often. That's pretty much all really. A Google listing, too.

I have a suggestion. It's about referring! I will go and make another thread in GC, or somewhere more appropriate, if a place exists.
 

kiko_friendly

New Member
What a nice thing to say!

Well I feel quite cool with "2005" next to my name. I am somewhat of a phogey here, I guess.

I don't post much. Well, I have more so recently since I started my site.

I am gonna make a poll...
 
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