What It Takes to be a Successful Forum

[snowyh]

1. Good topics/meaningful discussion. So much has already been said, and said well, that it makes me tired to think of having to re-create all the good advice that has already been written (elsewhere). I guess it'll come along naturally.
2. A warm & welcoming "home" for those seeking others who share common experiences. Members should be able to express (even unpopular) views without fear of being flamed or over-moderated.
3. A mix of seasoned & new members. And enough of us actively participating so that it's not just a few people making all the posts.
4. Adequate moderation. Keep out spam. Delete inappropriate posts. If necessary, suspend members. But don't overdo it.
5. Marketing. Once we have the forum up & running, encourage members to invite newbies. Find out how to get search engines to move us up to the top of the list (without us having to pay).
6. Lively, sometimes even controversial, discussion threads. Allen, do you think you have it in you to be an arse sometimes just to liven things up?

Helen

[allenuk]

Sept 1, 2009 19:44:52 GMT -7 snowyh said:

Allen, do you think you have it in you to be an arse sometimes just to liven things up?

Helen

What, you mean you want me to start playing the guitar and suspending the forum? Any signs, act immediately!

(Otherwise, I quite agree. I will start a google blog called amputees.proboards.com, because as soon as you have a google blog, it automatically gets somewhere on the google list).

A

[allenuk]

A few minutes later....

No sooner said than done:

allen-uk-amputees.blogspot.com/

is the google blog. It isn't IMMEDIATELY put on the Google search list, but it does get there eventually. I might stick a few more links to other amputee-oriented sites on the blog, as apparently the number of links helps, too.

Oh, and that was the closest I could get to the name I wanted, which was amputees.proboards.com. They don't allow full points, so I thought I'd keep it general, i.e. anyone searching for amputee should find it. Any suggestions for a better name are welcomed.


Allen.

[stonecutter]

Shortly after the forum was created, I "registered" them with google here. I don't know if it's that I don't have the correct keywords entered, or what but I can't get "us" to show up in search results. Maybe they haven't sent their "crawlers" out yet to check us out.

[allenuk]

Just a couple of random thoughts on forums.

Whatever happens, I don't want this to become known as 'Allen's' forum', or for that matter Stonecutter's.

He set it up, I pushed, it happened, that's all. What I want to happen over the next few months is to devolve all responsibilities to as many of us who want them. This will mean more moderators than usual, because ideally I think would should aim at having very little hierarchy. Yes, of course we need some control over new members, at least till they prove themselves not to be spammers or fakers, but at the end of the day we're all just amputees, and none of us is more important than anyone else. (Alright, except maybe Ted, to whom enormous thanks for joining us and giving freely of his knowledge).

Disagree as much as you like - it's your forum, not mine!


Allen.

[stonecutter]

Yeah!! That's exactly the way we need it to be.

[jmoore]

Thank you two for all your hard work and everone else that help made it happen

[stonecutter]

The thanks belong to the people like you who joined and contribute, and tell their friends to join and contribute.