Defibrillating the forum

[BobTD]

I have to say, I'm a big fan of the idea of bringing more life in to this forum. I've joined since the glory days have past but what remains is still really good. I've looked at a lot of forum communities and this is the only one that isn't filled with jerks. It's a small community but those that remain are good. I'd be happy to help out. My general forum lurking grounds are League of Legends, Neverwinter topics, and Computer Support.

A thought that might help generate a bigger community. More team oriented forums. We're all gamers here and many of us play the same games but how many of us actually interact with each other in game? It might start helping the forum be noticed in games. I realize it wouldn't apply to every game but say a "Gamers-Forum" guild on Neverwinter (Maybe a different MMO? I don't think many on here besides me play much Neverwinter). Make every instance of it in game a team that is friendly, helpful and about the person not necessarily skill level.

If this idea is considered a good one I'll gladly kick one off on Neverwinter provided there are other members on there to get it started and start spreading the word. You have to have 5 to initiate a guild. I would need 3 more.

I have neverwinter installed on both my computers and wouldnt mind playing it a bit, but I fear I dont have the ability to focus on one game for very long. The ideas you have are actually really good. Maybe a group that centers around getting together and trying new games with members fromt he community. You can base a PC group on meeting certain days on the voice chat servers this forum (hopefully still) has. We have a TS server right? You can do the same thing with Xbox parties and Playstation groups.

Sounds like a great way to game with other people and get to know them.

I agree with a lot of what you said, but you don't have to be a mod to post new topics. I've been apart of a lot of forums and very rarely do the mods create the majority of threads. It's hard for a few people to keep up on EVERY game coming out and new stuff about it; especially if what they're posting they're not even interested in. It's the community as a whole that keeps up current news about games, if each person creates threads as they find news about their favorite games then the forum would be a lot more active. People shouldn't feel like they need a special label just to create threads. A mod or non-mod can create as many threads as they like; their isn't a limit. Every member should feel they can contribute to the forum as much as they can or would like to.

IMO, the forum mainly needs active posters. New threads about current hot trends is what brings people to the forum. People search for something on google and click links to read about games they want to get. The more threads we have about new games, the easier people searching in google or bing can find us.

There are some smaller things as well, definitely still a lot of bugs that haven't been fixed since the vB upgrade. As you said, the layout could be changed, it's been the same since I've joined 5 or 6 years ago. The main thing is just activity though, the more active our current members are, the more likely that new members will join and start posting as well.

I understand the problem is a lack of active posters. But the problem wont fix itself. A more active forum would have a natural influx of new membebs and topics naturally created by member activity. That was the case here as well for a long time.

It clearly is not the case right now.

My suggestions about creating a support team of mods that generate enough content to stir the forum back into activy is a much better plan than "we need active posters". You stated the problem not the solution. This is how we incentivse active posters to check the board and become more active.

Mods do not need to keep up on every new game, just the ones they are interested in. But giving people a title and place in the community, like mod status is an incentive for those members to contribute to the forum. Who doesnt like to feel included? If simply giving an active member a status might be a solution you are better off trying it than hoping active members will just start showing up and posting, the worst thing would be to keep staff members to an exclusive friends list. It doesnt make sense.

Mods powers can be limited from the admin panel and should, and mod status should be fairly easily obtained by anyone who is enthusiastic about maintaining an active forum. After you see a significant increase in forum activity, mods wont even be able to keep up with an active forums content. Maybe thats why you dont see that on active forums.