Why do so many forums fail?

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[Harro]

Admin activity is ESSENTIAL. If even the owner won't take the time to post, why should anybody else?

True. Like I said in a previous post, this is something I noticed on my other forum.
But sometimes it's difficult to stay active.
Also asked my friends to become active on that forum. But they also lost intrest after a while and don't visit anymore.
Bit sad though. It was a nice community. And now it's dead.

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[gam3r]

Yeah if the Admin posts a lot, and a potential visitor does come along, at least he/she will be exposed to some sort of communication, and might join. If the Admin just gives up, the forum will just fade away quicker.

Lack of advertising & good posts are other factors that contribute to a forum failing.

Even free advertising like link exchanges or making a thread in those advertise your site sections in forums are useful. But if you don't try at all, you'll likely not get any results.

[Olly]

I just think if the person in charge doesn't try to keep active then it's going to go downhill.

On my forum I try to post as much as possible but the fact that there's hardly any active members, if any now, it feels like I'm talking to myself and it puts me off

[Harro]

Just keep up. People will come eventually if you keep advertising and keep adding content
You can also try to create a few accounts for yourself.
You'll still be talking to yourself then, but other visitors won't know it

[LennyP]

I think most forums fail either from choosing the wrong niche or a lack of effort. If the need is already being met for your niche it will be very hard to attract members from a site that is already fullfilling their need. If there is no need in the first place then why would anyone visit it? Many other times it is simply from a lack of effort. Either not putting in any effort at all or not working at new ways to get better results.

[Rotten Robert]

For what it's worth, I see the forum as one element of a package.  I started off blogging, so I'm used to talking to myself.  I'm hoping that I can convert my chatty regular commenters to Forum users.  I'm also hoping that I can successfully use the traffic that I get on my blogs to force traffic to the forum.
Only time will tell, I guess.

[Harro]

Well, if you keep seeing the same members in your blog comments I think chances are big that they'll sign up on your forum as well

[Scolls]

Yeah, I also get the feeling that even friends start to wonder what's the point, and once they lose interest, you kinda don't really feel like anybody else will have any interest either, so invariably you lose interest yourself. Fortunately, there's more than enough spambots around who just never lose interest, in fact they seem to become all the more interested proportionately to the rate at which you become disinterested! Now, if you have an AI chatterbot on your forum, this makes your forum rather active, as your AI bot posts loads of rubbish in reply to the rubbish spam posts made by the bots. See what happens? The f*cking machines take over!!! That's what happens!!! Before you know it we're working our butts off for the machines.

[trebul]

Well I'm really new to this forum and website making stuff.  I think most fail because they think people will come on their own.  But I've learned that people aren't going to find your site unless you get out there and promote it.  Just make sure you don't do so in a way that gives your forum a bad reputation, like spaming it everywhere.

[Harro]

Think I said it a couple times before on this forum.
But starting a forum and getting it active is indeed more difficult to do then most people think.
Installing and setting one up has never been so easy, but the amount of time and work to create a good community is something most people underestimate

[bambolin]

I think a forum is a kind of website that you have to do a lot of initial effort. Say 1 year promoting full blast your forum. In this year few members join. But the first members are the hardest to get. Once you get some members you will get momentum.

I think most forums fail because administrators do some effort and don't see the result immediately. They give up early. I think forums are like physical exercise. You have to train hard to get a good physique..You will not a good physique in 1 day. the same with forums.

[Captain Tycoon]

I think its just pretty much either that they can't afford to run it or they don't have the time or experience to do it.

[Phillip]

Its a click thing. What I mean is you have to make a couple million posts on a forum and become an established member where the folks there know you know your stuff. All this meta tag stuff, SEO and the like will not help a bit because if folks don't like what they see they ain't coming back that simple. As far as being able to afford one, hell who has to buy one with about half million free ones out there. I have a paid forum and the only difference I see is the updates are easier to come by and the support is there if you need it.
Subject matter is a problem to. Take gaming forums, how many different ways can you design a gaming forum and it not look like the other two million out there.

[iweb]

Its a click thing. What I mean is you have to make a couple million posts on a forum and become an established member where the folks there know you know your stuff. All this meta tag stuff, SEO and the like will not help a bit because if folks don't like what they see they ain't coming back that simple. As far as being able to afford one, hell who has to buy one with about half million free ones out there. I have a paid forum and the only difference I see is the updates are easier to come by and the support is there if you need it.
Subject matter is a problem to. Take gaming forums, how many different ways can you design a gaming forum and it not look like the other two million out there.

I agree, its all with advertisements.

[Phillip]

You can advertise till the cows come home..bottom line is that there are so many out there on everything from cooking to gaming to music and every genre in between coming up with something original is very hard to do. People can afford to be selective in what forums they do or do not join because of that reason.

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