Have your forums gone dead?

[Rex]

Anbody ever experienced a dead forum and what do you think are the right remedies for resurrecting it?

A simple email out, a few new Modifications, a contest?

[LeeD]

A simple email won't do. If I had a dead forum and wanted to resurrect it I would get a solid staff team in place, come out with a new design, then spend a bit on ads to drive some new traffic.

Your forum needs to offer something to your users, why they should visit. Not just a general talk forum, there are plenty of that.

[cyberman]

What do you mean dead forum ?? in term of what ??

[Rex]

Originally Posted by cyberman

What do you mean dead forum ?? in term of what ??

No activity.

[i8670]

Originally Posted by LeeD

A simple email won't do. If I had a dead forum and wanted to resurrect it I would get a solid staff team in place, come out with a new design, then spend a bit on ads to drive some new traffic.

Agree^ Also Yes a contest 4 Free ViP Members ect..

I think it really depends on the forum... I hate to keep saying that, but it's true. If someone has a forum that has "died", they should post a URL, let this community take a look, and then make suggestions. No generic solution exists.

My forum is "dead". I get one or two new members every week or so. It can go days without a post. I really don't care. When someone does join, they are usually a very good business contact for me. When someone does post, it is always on-topic and appreciated.

[cpvr]

One of my forums have gone dead, but that's because we didn't go in with a good plan or anything.

[hotwheels]

mine is pretty much dead too.........I built it for me and people that just want a place that is different. I also have built it as a ford mustang reference base for myself, basically if there is anything, and i mean anything i need to know about a mustang, i have it on my site now.

I have done alot of suggestions, such as contest's, selling stuff, vip room's, but nothing seem's to really get it to just gooooooo. I believe that part of the reason is that there are just so many other great mustang site's out there.
Which is the same with vbulletin site's, seem's they are popping up left and right. Hopefully with some of the coder's that are here right now, the stuff they do and share will bring more member's to the site. I believe as stated earlier, a site need's to offer something and i sure wish i knew what that something was/is, but i am not that smart i guess when it come's to website's.


doug

[Vaz]

I started off with no signs up now I'm getting roughly 5 new signups a day. However, I've got the other problem where the users dont post. They dont even post any introduction posts. There are the few that are active however but the nonposting ones outweigh them.

What worked for me:

-Providing a service such as free SMS which I later made for registered users
-Pornography. I'm fortunant that my host allows porn so we have a section dedicated to that. Many users signup for that and post requests.
-Treating users less harshly and having near to no rules. We arnt strict on language or what's talked about. We simply ask them to post in the correct forum.

I've also added a radio & arcade hack which are used quite often.

I think that this has leaded to some sort of success. There's content there and when users see content they signup.