Important Boosting Forum Activity

Just going to quote my idea for @ShadowLinks seeing as I presume he hasn't noticed this thread yet.

 

Just poking my head in here. I like a few of the ideas I've read so far. I know I'd like to see the current active members keeps posting and new members to keep returning. It'd difficult getting members to return, and is a problem almost all forums face.

 

I would tend to agree with Shogun13. It seems to me that the people posting on the forums are the same people posting regularly. Bolstering activity should be seen more as a byproduct of attaining more recurring members. Even if you were to incentivise half of the newly registered members to keep coming back to the forum and continue positng, I'm sure you would see a notable increase in activity. I'm not an expert, but perhaps the best way to do that is to create relationships with these people. If they have friends that use these forums, they will be more likely to engage in the discussions that take place. And from the sounds of it, this Skype thing might be the key. (I'm assuming at least all the staff members interact via skype) If the new members got in on the Skype thing, and started interacting with the people in there on a more personal level, they might not want to abandon the forum a few days later. So I would make an effort to push the Skype thing to the forefront. Be it on the home page, or what have you. I'm not familiar with the goings-on with the social media groups, but I would be shamelessly promoting the Skype group all the time if it were in my hands. Maybe even host contests or discussions in Skype. Not enough to detract from the forum discussion, but enough to make it clear that it is a big part of the site's community.

Admittedly my presence on these forums is a small one, so take my thoughts with a grain of salt.

 

Perhaps going with a smaller index page forum list would be ideal for drawing in activity. The "Anime Chat" category just seems a bit too big right now for the weak amount of threads. Instead of going with genre names, go with names that would condense the list, like an age range:
General, Teen (13-16), Mature (17+). Supporting the use of tags will allow users to tag their threads with the genre that fits the topic.
For the "Community" category, make "The Asylum" a sub-forum of Off-Topic. They pretty much go hand-in-hand with each other. You could make "Elimination Games" a sub-forum of "Contest and Events" located in "About JustDubs Online."
"I Found It On The Web" could be made into a sub-forum of "Tech Temple."
AMVs rarely get topics not titled with "AMV of the Week" so you could eliminate that as a forum, move all the "AMV of the Week" threads to the "Contest and Events" forum, and any remaining topics to "Creative Design."
You could probably merge "Video Games" with "Movies and Television," call it "Movies, Video Games, and Television" and then add prefixes, so users can label their threads.

That will at least lower the amount of scrolling for new and returning members and the forum won't seem so intimidating at first glance because of it. If there is a tab plugin, that would be even better. You could instead put each category in their own tab to make the forum seem smaller. I think the biggest hindrance to activity is that the index page of the forum just seems way to long and intimidating.

 

Not saying the current index page is best, but the majority of the forum's index is based off JD's original structure. Not to mention moving nodes and threads properly takes a lot of work and coordination. If the forum's site map were to be modified, it'd be best to do it next scheduled maintenance so things aren't being moved while members are using them.

 

I can always help with this I did this before when all the threads were transferred into Anime Chat from being threads for specific anime on Dubtopian Review. I also like the sound of @Vashnik 's idea. We might be on a similar wave length for this one!

 

That's great to hear. Always good to have another set of hands with stuff like this.

I figured as much. There are forums out there that are much much longer (I'm looking at you XDA).

 

I have another way to boost activity.... Gimme about 50grand. Then i can quit my job and live like a bum for a year and then go back to school. That's me on the internet 100% of the time.

Results may vary. Subject may go insane from too much free time. Side effects include: Memory loss, brain explosion, loss of will, acting like a rich faggot, caring less about society. Please consult with your financial doctor before contributing to the corruption of the poor.

 

Here is the last archived stats for JD.net that was archived by the Wayback Machine:

Here are the current stats (as of this posting) for JustDubs Online:

That is quite the noticeable difference in stats.

If you condense the forums and make the stats imply that the board can expand, you could potentially bait some members into sticking around and post more frequently. It might even get them to ask for another forum when one particular forum gets crowded. What I was suggesting was that the board have the appearance of a smaller community so that members don't feel intimidated at the sight of a large and desolate board. Right now, JDO looks like it's desperately trying to fill the shoes of JD.net's board instead of trying to become new community for new and old members.