The Life Cycle of a Forum

[Guest Emad]

Or mailing list if you prefer :lol: :

1. Initial enthusiasm (people introduce themselves, and gush a lot about how wonderful it is to find kindred souls).

2. Evangelism (people moan about how few folks are posting to the list/forum, and brainstorm recruitment strategies).

3. Growth (more and more people join, more and more lengthy threads develop, occasional off-topic threads pop up)

4. Community (lots of threads, some more relevant than others; lots of information and advice is exchanged; experts help other experts as well as less experienced colleagues; friendships develop; people tease each other; newcomers are welcomed with generosity and patience; everyone---newbie and expert alike---feels comfortable asking questions, suggesting answers, and sharing opinions)

5. Discomfort with diversity (the number of messages increases dramatically; not every thread is fascinating to every reader; people start complaining about the signal-to-noise ratio; person 1 threatens to quit if *other* people don't limit discussion to person 1's pet topic; person 2 agrees with person 1; person 3 tells 1 & 2 to lighten up; more bandwidth is wasted complaining about off-topic threads than is used for the threads themselves; everyone gets annoyed)

6a. Smug complacency and stagnation (the purists flame everyone who asks an 'old' question or responds with humor to a serious post; newbies are rebuffed; traffic drops to a doze-producing level of a few minor issues; all interesting discussions happen by private email and are limited to a few participants; the purists spend lots of time self-righteously congratulating each other on keeping off-topic threads off the list/forum)

OR

6b. Maturity (a few people quit in a huff; the rest of the participants stay near stage 4, with stage 5 popping up briefly every few weeks; many people wear out their second or third 'delete' key, but the list/forum lives contentedly ever after).

Feel free to add your own stages/substages :-k

[Guest Paul [MVP]]

So where are we at?

;-)

P

[Guest superkingdave]

a tough one though it must be number four. i went away for two months in the summer and when i came back it seemed like the forum was slowing down. there werent half as many posts in off topic (i still think there are less than six months ago) but i think the rest of the forums are as strong as ever especially customization. maybe some are slightly diluted because of the plethora of extra boards added. definately not 6a!

Posted from my SmartPhone!

[Guest nickcornaglia]

I'd say between 4 and 5 with a tiny bit of 6 thrown in. :wink:

[Guest spacecowboy6982]

Gotta be 4 :lol: However 5 is starting to rear its ugly head. This thread here: http://smartphone.modaco.com/viewtopic.php...p=319508#319508, ive never seen anything like it on MoDaCo :shock: Alot of Orange Bashing I have to admit, wit hsome fair points thrown in coupled with some shockers :oops: ....

spacecowboy

[Guest morpheus2702]

I'd say 4a - generally very informative, a good crack, but mods being too heavy handed & coming across as condascending, especially to newbies.

[Guest Coucou]

It does get quite sprawly at times on here (is that a word?). I've started seeing MoDaCo as one of those fairground Whack-A-Mole machines, some topics just keep on popping up here and there all over the place and what you really need is a big mallet and a quick hand. ;)

Maybe there's another stage of the life cycle,

5.3.1.6a: Introspection: The point at which Forum Members start navel gazing and discussing the life cycle of their own forum. :lol: (only teasing)

[Guest Paul [MVP]]

but mods being too heavy handed & coming across as condascending, especially to newbies.

No way, you're kidding right?

One of our mods, for example, (awarner), basically devotes his life to answering posts in the 'Help & Advice' section. I think the above comment is pretty unjustified!

P

[Guest morpheus2702]

Posted from my SmartPhone! no I'm not kidding. Ok forum rules they may be, but I have seen times when a new kid has asked a question, failed to search or double posted - and the response has been curt, unfriendly and uppity. Fine for us that should know better but I think its out of order for the uninitiated.

[Guest Emad]

And so it begins..

500 posts for me and another star. Slow but sure.. :lol:

[Guest fraser]

Ok forum rules they may be, but I have seen times when a new kid has asked a question, failed to http://smartphone.MoDaCo.com/search.php>Search or double posted - and the response has been curt, unfriendly and uppity.

What happens just now when you create an account? Do you get some sort of welcome page? Perhaps there should be some mention of the search function there (in largish print), and how it solves most problems. Then each new user will get this helpful hint at least once before their first post.