Page 1 of 1

Forums missing

Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 2:13 pm
by Leon
Where is all forums that was here before bb3 ?

Re: Forums missing

Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 3:20 pm
by battye
Ultimate Quiz MOD and Website Creation & phpBB MOD Support have been merged into Web Design

Virus Alerts, Cool Software and Computer Discussion have all been merged into Computers

WinMX Discussion, P2P Philosophy and Other P2P Applications have been merged into P2P File Sharing.

Movies and TV discussions are now to be posted in OT Forum :)

Welcome back Leon :)

Re: Forums missing

Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 3:51 pm
by Leon
To much inactivity in those forum i suppose ?
Yee i know that fealing, i still standing still with my forum :?

One thing i havent understood is that, volunteers that is known for being activists in some ways.
Is the absolut most inactive on the web (the only global volunteer forum and none uses it) i really don't get that one...

What do you think, should i stop it now and delit all or continue alittle more ?
Is 3 years enought, or when should you breake up a forum ?
When is enough enough ?

Re: Forums missing

Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2008 3:21 am
by battye
Leon wrote:To much inactivity in those forum i suppose ?
Yee i know that fealing, i still standing still with my forum :?

One thing i havent understood is that, volunteers that is known for being activists in some ways.
Is the absolut most inactive on the web (the only global volunteer forum and none uses it) i really don't get that one...

What do you think, should i stop it now and delit all or continue alittle more ?
Is 3 years enought, or when should you breake up a forum ?
When is enough enough ?
The forums were reasonably active, but I think they will be even more active if they are in the one place :)

If you are the only one in your niche, then I would consider doing everything in your power to make the site popular. If you are considering closing the site down, you might as well go all or nothing and try and make it successful.

There are a few options, I think you should try any or all of them.

I would suggest doing what I have done with the merging of forums. It looks like you have about 30 different forums? That is far too many for a site that isn't on its feet. I would try and cut this down to about 3 (three), perhaps:

-General Site News
-Volunteer Discussion (English)
-Volunteer Discussion (Swedish)

If that fails, it may be worthwhile dropping support for the Swedish language. You say it is the only global volunteer forum... if you want to target a global audience, that pretty much means you want to target America. If the Americans jump on the bandwagon, you are destined for a higher degree of success. On the flipside, you might decide you only want to target Sweden - which is fine too - but I'd hazard a guess that America has more volunteers, simply due to the larger population. English language also targets UK, Australia and a myriad of other countries, so by concentrating on English I think you will be better off.

Another tip would be to keep things simple. You can start with the portal - http://www.volunteerforum.se/forum/portal.php - I actually don't mind the look of the portal, but a lot of people would think it is too big and too complicated. I would consider dropping the portal and writing something custom made, and keeping it very simple. Also, include a lot of content. What I am struggling to find (although I may be missing it) is the site content. I see the forum, but you have nothing on the main website outside of the forum context. Including content will ensure you get a higher spot on Google, as well as more people finding your site through searches.

Finally, advertising. You could use Adwords or other types of advertising to get your name out there :)

Good luck :)

Re: Forums missing

Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2008 9:59 am
by Leon
I know, i have been thinking about remove the swedish section for a long time now.
But perhaps that one could be only 2/3 forums for all, gona thing about that today.
I already merged alot of forums 4 weeks ago :roll:

Update 1:
i merged all swedish forums into 4 now :)
Update 2:
i merged all english forums into 4 now :)
(Damn the forum looks small, different now), and im not sure its to the better, what do you think ?
Update 3:
I removed more forum from "English and Swedish" section and merged the posts

Also, i now changed the first page to the forum and not to the portal.
(See how that goes for a week)

All content pages is here:
http://www.volunteerforum.se/forum/portal.php?page=12

And i do advertise with AdWords already
800 000 Views per week, with around 400 clicks

Re: Forums missing

Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2008 10:21 am
by battye
I think it's better, but you could probably condense it more. When I merged my forums, I wanted to ensure each had at least 1000 posts. I think you should consider something similar. Having 3 forums with 1000 posts each make the forum look more active than 30 forums with 100 posts each, even though effectively it is the same thing. It's all about first impressions.

The content pages look quite good. If you could get it out of the forum context more (like removing the login boxes, latest posts, etc) it would look very professional. See how I have done it here: http://www.cricketmx.com/category/computers/

But you are doing well, keep up the good work :)

Re: Forums missing

Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2008 10:43 am
by Leon
It feels like it hurts so damn much removing forums, its like i tear my self appart and all i have worked for..

Well 1000 posts per forums not gona happend with mergin in this way, i only have 1971 articles in total =(
But each forum gona have alot more, i just split the news forum to ~300 more posts to swedish and english category (^_^)
Now i gona fix stories board to and remove it =P

Update, now then i dont think there is any other forum i can merge atm.

Re: Forums missing

Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2008 11:08 am
by battye
Yeah, it's a weird feeling, but you aren't losing the posts. Just moving them.


http://forums.cricketmx.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=4347
BONGOMAN wrote:I'm going to try and beat Leon into 10th place....


Hiiii all! :bigsmurf:
You have a challenger :P

Re: Forums missing

Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2008 11:16 am
by tunebud
Maybe his should be a sticky to let everyone know were everything is at now
I know I was lost for a min. myself :lol: but thats normal for me

Re: Forums missing

Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2008 12:39 pm
by Leon
Now then, i removed the "normal" portal with the general "first" page

It might start to get better i think.

One thing im thinking about that i don't want to do, but still do, and such is the:

General Forum
and the
Other
forum, to merge those 2 togheter, but somehow i dont want that, because i dont want to merge
volunteer related topics with non related topics into one forum..

And to merge the english other with the swedish other in a new forum, that would aslo be an idé
but somehow i don't want to mere swedish and english topics into one forum eighter.

Update, i have now changed the portal page to..