What's the toughest thing about running a forum?

Daniella Level 1

September 26, 2014, 9:28 pm

6

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What's the toughest thing about running a forum?

Is there just one job that you would consider to be the toughest job (as staff or owner) when running a forum?

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Beverly

Beverly

When everything goes wrong, you get blamed as the forum owner. As for being staff, you can take a lot of heat from people who don't like staff decisions (such as decisions to lock/delete threads that don't comply with site TOS) and you get hostility thrown at you.

10 years ago

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Quinton

Quinton

When everything goes wrong, you get blamed as the forum owner. As for being staff, you can take a lot of heat from people who don't like staff decisions (such as decisions to lock/delete threads that don't comply with site TOS) and you get hostility thrown at you.

Ironically it will always be the people who had their forum thread locked or deleted that hate on you most. Those people are just looking for a fight and need a chance to cool off. A temporary ban will help in that situation

9 years ago

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Jagger

Jagger

Knowing what to post about next.

Sometimes I run into a creative wall and don't know what discussion topics to post about. That can be a real challenge for me.

9 years ago

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Gemison

Gemison

Having the common sense to know when a forum should be abandoned or shut down. That is the hardest part of owning a forum. Sometimes you just can't bear to let it go even when you should.

9 years ago

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Corzhens

Corzhens

My husband has been the admin for their office forum for a long time. The forum was running good when it was launched and after a month, the community was doing okay in numbers and the posting are just fine. But after a year, a squabble broke up between some members who were the most active. When they left, the forum became a ghost town. Reviving the forum was the most difficult part because it was so hard to get new members. I think it took them many months before the forum stood up on its own again. They had been paying posters just to keep the forum alive.

7 years ago

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vinaya

vinaya

Bringing members and making them active are the hardest things for a forum. In order to survive, a forum needs a lot of members. Having members is not enough, these members also need to actively participate in the discussion.
You may even have to reward for joining and posting. If you don't have many members and live discussion, your forum will die.

7 years ago

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