[shellspeare]

It's always helpful to learn from some others' mistakes. This is especially so in the case of community building, promotion, and e-commerce, where the entire field is alien to the new user.

If you could pass on any advice or tips from your past mistakes as a forum admin what would they be.........?

[gprime]

Not my mistakes, but things I've noticed are common problems:

1) Don't go hogwild with forum creation. You don't need 150 different forums upon launch. Add them only when the need arises.

2) Have a plan. Don't just hope it all works out. Especially true if you're spending money on it.

3) Do your modding in advance of a major launch. Obviously you sometimes need to add mods after the fact, but the bulk of the work should be done in advance to avoid traffic distruption.

4) Consider finances first. Figure out if you intend to make money, break even, or lose a bit. Determine how to go about that. Figure out where funding will come from.

[imported_Azhria Lilu]

Don't give up hope after a week. Building a forum from scratch (ie, no memberbase) takes a long time, lots of patience and perserverance. Don't give up at the first hurdle and don't.. under any circumstances.... let people get away with stuff that you wouldn't normally allow simply because you know them as then it breeds a trend that will be extremely hard to break later on.

[Moonlight]

Don't burn your bridges - you never know when you'll need that extra help.

Enlist the help of your on-line buddies. Keep them close - they make great mods if you get too busy with everything. Enlist the help of those you trust off line as well. They also make great mods.

Get in with other communities that are like yours. Then when the time comes to open up to the world, you can present it to them. Also you'll learn a lot about your chosen people base.

[Alptrauma]

Forum Building"

1. Don't act like you know everything about a forum, just because you have one. Listen to advice from other people, because they can often help you in certain fields of your community.


With your community:

1. Be open-minded, always!

2. Be fair.

3. Make your members comfortable around you, by showing them you are no better than they are just because you run a forum.

4. Always give second chances, unless it is absolutely nessacary that you don't.

5. Don't be quick to jump the bridge. Analyze it first, before you leap.

[imported_Azhria Lilu]

Also make sure you're enjoying it. The day you stop enjoying running your forum is the day to take a step back and look at why.