General Tips for Forum Set Up

[Donna_Kx]

Regardless of the software platform you use for your forum, there are some tips that'll help you navigate the process. I've set up several forums over the last 15 years, and managed community forums of some large social network platforms. Hopefully, the things I've learned will help some of you. 

Setting up a new forum
If creating a new forum, keep the registration disabled while setting up. It'll help you to focus on how you want everything before you start getting members. Here are set up tips for a new forum:

1. Plan your member levels. Ensure you know what access you want each member level to have. For example, here we set it so that new members need to have a few approved posts and be members a few days before they can move up. This can help prevent spam. 
   
2. Set up reCAPTCHA or Stop Forum Spam if your software has those integrated. Spam can ruin your forum so it's best to keep it to a minimum.
   
3. Set up SMTP for mail delivery from your site (notifications, etc) and email addresses (support, contact, etc), including noreply email. If you're making a personal, hobby community, you may not need extra emails.
   
4. We replace the default contact page with a support desk to reduce issues from spammers. We use the free Fresh Desk (or paid), and embed it to make it easier for people to contact us. 
   
5. Brand your community. Colors, logo, favicon, default phrases, menus, etc. If you have a niche site, this can be a fun task as you change various phrases to match your niche.
   
6. Don't forget to set up your banned words if your forum has such a setting. 
   
7. Create test users and test, test, test. We set up a private "Archive" area and test in that. We don't delete posts or threads as that can make holes in the database. So, we use the archive area to move posts into. This is a good tool to remove bad threads or posts, without deleting them. This allows you to preserve the posts in case you need them for evidence in case of banning a repeat offending member. 
   
8. Have an "Admin" user that only does settings and administration. Create a second user for yourself and other staff that interacts, posts, makes friends, etc. This is a safer method than always logging in with your Admin user to interact and post.
   
9. Plan your categories. If you check our forum, you'll see we limit the number of main categories and subcategories. If you have too many, it can make it confusing for new users and may discourage them from posting. 
   
10. Before you open, make sure you post, post, post. Try to have at least one thread in every section. When you post a thread, try to have each post be at least 500 words and be interesting for your members.
    

Established forum
One of the communities that I managed had devolved into a free for all againsts "noobs/newbs" (new users). Anyone who asked a question was ridiculed or ignored. When I started there as a client, I was afraid to post but needed help. Eventually, I posted a question which was ignored. I looked over the forum and saw many other ignored posts, or some pretty mean answers to other posts. So, one day I dared to answer a post and that started my journey there. I answered many more posts, became an admin and eventually a manager of that software platform (social network script). When I left years later, I had 46,000 posts in the community and it was, and still is, thriving. 

If you find that your community is too quiet, or needs to be revived, here are some tips that might help:

1. Check the tone of the posts. Too many negative posts, wars, spam, etc can kill your community. Move spam posts/threads to an archive area and ban the offending users. War threads (those that spiral out of control), can be a huge downer so perhaps move those to your archives as well.
   
2. Start creating more useful, upbeat posts to change the direction and feel of the community.
   
3. Promote some more active members who post good content to Moderator status. This can be a huge boost as it can spur them to create more content and also perhaps to invite more members.
   
4. Share interesting, upbeat posts to social media to get more views or interest for your community.
   
5. Maybe check your emoticons if you have those and add some fun to your forum. This software (MyBB) allows us to customize the emoticons. We removed most of the negative ones and added some positive ones.
   
6. Encourage new users to post, and make them feel welcome. This will help grow your community as word of mouth is the best advertising you can get, and once these new members feel comfortable, they usually invite friends.
   

Whether a new or established community, ensure that your Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, and Forum Rules and Guidelines are up to date. Also, create tutorials for users to know how to use your site. This is an important step as each forum can have different features. Use screenshots when you can as well.

That's all I can think of for now. I'm sure there's more and will post when I think of more stuffs. Everyone is welcome to post their own tips either in this thread or start a new one. 

[Tiffany_Kx]

Donna, you covered a lot of helpful information, thank you.  I think what I've learned the most from you is get to know your member side of your platform as well as you know your admin control panel (acp).  At times, I've marveled at several different admin panels at their ease of use or difficulty.  An admin panel should have a great user experience, so the admin and moderators can spend most of their time on the community side.  There was a time when I was new to a platform, that I spent more time with the admin panel, rather than the member side and that shortfall caused a lapse in really seeing the potential in building my community and the features I was not optimizing for my members.  Once I pushed all of the buttons and surfed around my member side, I realized there was more potential to capture my audience, plus I also saw the effects of my admin settings in micro experiences where I needed to make some changes.

For emoticons, love those and member's do too.  They can really add to conversations when you use them.