most recent 30 from http://www.gatejumper.net 2010-07-30T19:22:23Z http://www.gatejumper.net/feeds/user/105 http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/rdf http://www.gatejumper.net/questions/267/how-to-get-new-members-to-a-new-forum/287#287 Rich Seller 2010-01-17T19:15:44Z 2010-01-17T19:15:44Z

<p>I'm new to building a community and would by no means consider myself an expert on these things, but I would say that content on the site that is useful to people is a good thing.</p> <p>My general principles have been to find likeminded people (via twitter, forums etc.), help them where I can, and be nice to my "competitors". There are quite a few AV forums and blogs that I could view as my competition, instead I've taken the view that you get more flies with honey and I've linked to them if they have helpful content, and posted a few times on their sites. </p> <p>As far as building a community is concerned, no one likes to feel as if they are the only one in the room, so I think it is important to keep a steady turnover of content so your regular users don't drift away. I've seen this happen with one of the sites I like and post on regularly. The admin was very anonymous, and after a few weeks with little new content, the regulars stopped showing up and it is now pretty much dead.</p> <p>Another reason to seed with content is that the core users on forums are often pretty hardcore. They are less likely to ask questions as they know how to find out the answers. So me playing a little dumb is a good way to draw some of that wisdom out. I reason that eventually drive by users who've found answers on my site via Google 3 or 4 times will start to come straight to us to look, and start asking my core users.</p> <p>I have posted several questions/answers on my site to help build the content, especially on quiet days. A lot of them are FAQ-like questions that I get asked by friends and family. Having posted these on my site I can now direct them to the appropriate question and have got a few new users as a result. Some of the people I've helped have gone on to use my Amazon affiliate for their next purchase by way of thanks, which helps me advertise.</p> <p>I also post some questions that I know <em>an</em> answer to, but would like to find out what alternatives, if any, there are to my default approach. Some user answers have opened my eyes to whole new approaches and technologies this way, which is great.</p> <p>I've been active on other sites and forums using the same technology or on the same subject. I don't always know the best answer, but am willing to spend a little time googling and collating my findings from several sources so at least I've contributed. I've been particularly active helping other administrators of StackExchange sites, and sharing some of the tricks and hacks I've made to my site to get it up and running. As a result of this I think I've generated a bit of good karma, a few new friends, and around 1/3 of all my hits to my site come from my activity on other sites.</p> <p>Despite my natural inclinations I've been pretty active on Twitter. I've got some new users by following other Twitterers who post on keywords related to my site. I look for words like HTPC, HDMI etc appearing in their tweets and occasionally I spot someone asking about something covered on my site and tell them where they can find an answer.</p> <p><hr /></p> <p>One thing I would never do is speak ill of my competition. Even if my opinion is valid, mud slinging comes across as mean spirited and paints me in a bad light. As BasicallyMoney says, better to win people over than to win.</p>