The hidden power of Emoticons
If you are setting up or running a forum, one of the most important things with creating a relaxed atmosphere is to select the right emotioncs for your boards. That may sound funny, but on every forum I’ve ever run, I have had a set of carefully selected emoticons, and people LOVE them. On one board, they came such a part of the community, that I felt compelled to give them a week off from work. (This was to rearrange them really, but I informed people that they have been working so hard that I’m giving them a week off.) The...
read moreDifferent types of discussion boards
I love discussion boards. To me they are the BEST THING about the Internet. Blogs are good, but discussion boards are super duper. Running one is like combining the blog and a discussion board, people still come to your site, but you get to see them STAY even though you weren’t active for days. That is so cool. There are different type of discussion boards though. I don’t love all of them. 1. Super popular general boards Example: MySpace Forums These forums rarely produce discussions that are worth following. They are riddled with...
read moreThe perfect set of rules
On the post Handling conflict on a forum I was pondering situations that put your discussion group in danger. One of the best ways to pre-empt a problem is to come up with good set of rules, that are easy to read and easy to understand. Most free boards and site packages come with a default terms of use, but practically nobody ever reads them, so they are useless in the sense of creating harmony, but perfect for covering your ass legally. If you can be bothered to read them through yourself, I congratulate you, I haven’t yet… So I...
read moreHandling a conflict on a forum
I’ve been running discussion boards of different topics for years… I would say since 2001 but I’m not sure. Anyway, I’ve learned a lot of things, one of them is that no matter how innocent the topic, there’s always going to be problems with members not getting along – and it’s often your job to stand in the middle. The following is to ponder about how to handle these situations with as little interruption or damage to the board morale as possible. When ever there is a group of people who don’t...
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