How to run a discussion board

lbt/cty_lover · **on:** August 22, 2008, 02:21:00 AM

This is directed mainly towards the admins here, but can you give me a few pointers at how to run a discussion board?

I am asking because I started one focused on the Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini. I borrowed a few ideas from the GoF board, but I think that it will still be successful.

Here is the link to it: http://z10.invisionfree.com/Alagaesia_At_P...dex.php?act=idx

landbeforetimelover · **Reply #1 on:** August 22, 2008, 02:34:12 AM

Know how to code and modify CSS? If not then you'll never be able to create a cool customized forum such as this. You can change the images without knowing it but that's about all you can do. No color changes, no background changes, nothing.

Malte279 · **Reply #2 on:** August 22, 2008, 04:45:50 AM

I suppose it is a good idea to have more than one person (people in whom you have absolute confidence) as admins to help you run the board. There are often cases where admins have to make decisions between several different choices and to make a good choice it can be helpful to have a second, third, or more opinions. The advantage of this is that there is less of a likelihood that emotions will get the better over senses in important decisions. The drawback is that it sometimes takes more time to discuss things over before a decision can be made. Other admins can be advisers whose suggestions shouldn't be ignored, but you should be the one to ultimately make decisions if there is no common line among the admins about a certain issue.
Managing a forum sometimes takes a lot of time to discuss things (and there are also periods where there is no need for any staff discussions whatsoever) but it can be a lot of fun too.

Petrie. · **Reply #3 on:** August 22, 2008, 07:12:10 AM

What Malte said--surround yourself with people you can trust. You can't run the place by yourself. That right there will be one of your biggest obstacles.

Coding can be a major obstacle if you don't know what you're doing. I know the basics, but not much else. Even then, the basics allow you to change colors, add new images, transparency, etc. I'll have to see if I can find it, but there is a thread on the support forums that gives you pointers on what parts of the code change what parts of the board.

Petrie. · **Reply #4 on:** August 22, 2008, 07:14:33 AM

Heh, the rules are practically a carbon copy. Not that its an issue--I guess I'm honored that my rules/wording work well enough.

lbt/cty_lover · **Reply #5 on:** August 22, 2008, 12:34:24 PM

Yeah. I thought that the rules here worked really well, so I wanted to use them on my board.

As for multiple admins, I will wait for a little while until I have more people to choose from. As of now, I only have Starfall to choose. I just want a couple of more choices. Who knows, maybe a better choice will come up.

I don't know a thing about CSS, though. Could you give me a little bit of help?

Also, to help get more members, I moved my fan-fic to the "Eragon" section of FF.net and put the URL of my website as an author's note in the prologue. Good or bad, since I can't do music videos that well, and since the board is mainly based off of a book series.

Petrie. · **Reply #6 on:** August 22, 2008, 09:01:25 PM

Found the things...I had saved them to my photobucket account.

AvestheForumFox · **Reply #7 on:** August 22, 2008, 09:40:41 PM

with some experience myself, all I can tell you is that it takes patience and good leadership to have a successful forum. that and I agree with Adam and Malte, you need to be surrounded by people you can trust.

the patience is needed when your trying to bring in people to populate your community. It sometimes can prove a headache as some members yo invited may only go there the day you invited them there but they never really come back afterwards.

Also, make the forums look good and start several interesting topics before opening your community to the public.

Once you've got a few peeps populating the forums its your duty as the leader to keep them entertained. Make them want to stay. soon if they find it good enough they'll invite friends and their friends may invite more friends and so on.

the bigger it gets, the more trustworthy admin and moderators you'll need to help keep the forums disciplined and well cleaned. Expect trouble!

Also follow the leader's code! Never let your heart control your mind. be a fair leader and stand firm by your laws.

Good luck =)

Petrie. · **Reply #8 on:** August 24, 2008, 07:58:58 AM

I've gone to your board and as Brian has said, you need to make it active. Don't expect your new members to post topics out of the blue. Usually when people first join, they reply to topics already there. As far as I can remember, only one person here came out swinging and posting topics upon their arrival instead of replying first. (You know who you are.

) Its the exception, not the rule.

If you're still interested in making this board, post some topics all over the place and show potential new members you're interested in making this board active and full of life. Right now, I see a new site that's been up for about three days with no apparent activity at all.

landbeforetimelover · **Reply #9 on:** August 24, 2008, 08:13:58 AM

Well I've noticed that a lot of people here make their first post in the welcome section, but Petrie is right. They tend to look at what others have posted before jumping in themselves. Heck, there are a few people here that spent weeks just browsing before deciding to join.

One suggestion I can make is to allow anonymous posts for a while until your board becomes popular. Then make an announcement that anonymous posts have been disabled and you have to join in order to post. Then you'll get a lot of members if people like what they see. This isn't a good idea once the board gets started though because then you'll get a lot of spam crap. If you go with lefora they'll catch the spam for you so that's kind of nice.

lbt/cty_lover · **Reply #10 on:** August 24, 2008, 02:23:36 PM

Well, I just modified all of the permissions. Only banned members can do absolutely nothing.

lbt/cty_lover · **Reply #11 on:** August 24, 2008, 04:21:25 PM

Can someone help me make a banner? I would do it, but I lack any photo-editing programs.

landbeforetimelover · **Reply #12 on:** August 24, 2008, 04:31:33 PM

How about adding something unique like buttons, backgrounds, and color schemes? No offense man but it looks hideous right now.

Seriously, if you don't know any CSS, go with lefora.com. At least it's not hideous out of the box and it's much simpler to run than invisionfree forums. Also, no ADS!

lbt/cty_lover · **Reply #13 on:** August 24, 2008, 06:26:23 PM

I just started one there. It isn't as good as InvisionFree.com, but it will do for now. I'll try to get people to come to my other one through that forum.

Also, LBTlover, if I were to give you my admin password (not my true one, just one that I changed temporarily for something like this), could you help me get the forum customized.

I just got some icons. What do you think?

I also have a banner.

Just a few things, first:

How do I get the background customized?
How do I center the banner?
How do I change the color options?

Petrie. · **Reply #14 on:** August 24, 2008, 08:08:20 PM

Eh, that place's forums remind me of a blog. Maybe I'm the old school forum person that is out of touch (as they say).

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