Most saturated forum niche?

Discussion in 'Managing Your Online Community' started by cpvr, Jul 28, 2012.

  1. Shawn Gossman

    Shawn Gossman Regular Member

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    To directly copy and paste content is bad, yes I agree to that, that actually happened to AAF once but the copier agreed to change all the posts he copied. He was young and didn't have a lot of experience, so I let him off with a warning but a stern one at that.

    Now, going to an admin forum and looking at posts for ideas --- that isn't wrong IMO because WE ALL do it, lol, don't try to deny that, haha. But you must write the post in your own words and for it to be a successful post, it needs to be more than the one you found for the idea, you need to add something more to it. Is that wrong in the eyes of you all at all?
     
  2. GTB

    GTB Regular Member

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    I don't disagree with you. The problem today is, you can write something original from scratch and some joker comes along and steals it anyway from your site. So you might as well jump in same boat and change a few words to sound different. Otherwise all your doing half the time in writing something yourself new from scratch, making the job easy for others coming along taking it for their own sites as fresh content, while you're wasting extra time than need be doing it. I still write my own stuff, but like when adding movies I don't, take information from other sites and just change the description to read how I want it to be.

    Sadly, that's a hard fact on the web. Why waste time writing every single thing yourself from scratch, when you know it's only going to get took. I don't see anything wrong in re-wording something read on another site for your own site, but a blatant "copy and paste" job changing nothing I don't agree with,
     
  3. Shawn Gossman

    Shawn Gossman Regular Member

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    Well most of the topics in any admin forum has been discussed many a time for years and years, there are unique topics which I have made on my own and there has been some that I thought was unique but I found them to already exist later on. That is why I bring up the idea of adding something else to the topic. I mean if you and I both own a forum about fish tanks and you post about "the largest fish tank you can get for your medium size home", I will look at that as an idea and post something like "the largest fish tank for a medium size home that is green friendly and uses less power resources to keep the tank clean". When you add something unique, it not only makes the topic a bit more original but it also give someone something new to talk about so they are not replying the same thing that they have on another forum.
     
  4. CM30

    CM30 Regular Member

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    Nah, it's not that big a problem. I'm on about ten admin forums, and they are generally do have different content from one another, haven't seen too many cut and paste jobs anywhere. Besides, if you write something original, isn't there always the pride of knowing you're the one who actually wrote it? And generally, don't more people usually read content on its original site anyway?
     
  5. Shawn Gossman

    Shawn Gossman Regular Member

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    Yeah there is a pride of it but the issue at hand is how original is it really? I mean, chances are you will find the topic has been made before you made it, on another forum. How original can we be anymore now since everyone, well most everyone is online talking about things?

    But that doesn't mean you shouldn't try it. I am always thinking of original stuff to ask, I keep a notebook and pen near me all the time to write down ideas :P

    Hell, even some of my article I feel are extremely original like the one I wrote about, an emergency management plan for message forums. I combined the emergency management principles of mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery to running a message forum. I have not seen that anywhere else at all, maybe I am the first person who combined the two topics. I know that I am the first according to google search :P
     
  6. CM30

    CM30 Regular Member

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    True, there's a high chance you'll find an article similar to one you want to write elsewhere. But it's not certain. I mean, I write a few articles here and there, and a very, very high percentage of them cover ground that few other sites have posted about.

    Hell, even the obvious is less common than you think. I mean, take this article:

    http://admin-talk.com/threads/42108/

    Dead obvious, but rarely actually emphasised enough.

    And heck, you know another interesting example? This one by cpvr:

    http://admin-talk.com/threads/6942/

    Not many articles about admin forums in particular are there?
     
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  7. cpvr

    cpvr Regular Member

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    Yup, you're right which is why all my competitors died off once my forum attracted everyone back. We won the users over because we had more original and quality content than what our competitors were offering their users.
     
  8. Shawn Gossman

    Shawn Gossman Regular Member

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    Writing quality content is the ultimate challenge really, especially in overdone forum niches. Many times, the suggestion is posting about the niche news but there is only so many XF-vs-VB posts an admin forum can make without annoying everyone since that seems to be the most dramatic and popular news about forums these days lol.

    So I guess the next quality content generator is problems, scenarios and stuff that really makes people think about the subject.

    The best kind of forum content is content that the reader can relate to, write the content about them and they will want to respond.

    Get away from your forum and go out into the niche, read about peoples problems, experiences and so on and write based on those subjects rather than trying to think of new topics that the other guy hasn't thought of yet.
     
  9. BamaStangGuy

    BamaStangGuy Administrator

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    Gaming by far.
     
  10. Finish

    Finish Regular Member

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    The internet seems to be littered with Gaming forums. Same for General discussion forums too.
     
  11. cpvr

    cpvr Regular Member

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    And usually a lot of the newer ones don't last longer than two years because the owner loses interests or realizes how hard it is to maintain that type of forum.
     
  12. GTB

    GTB Regular Member

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    General discussion forums (like I'm running) isn't a good idea to start a forum on. Even I'll admit that, but can't be bothered changing mine to cover something else. Could quite easy add some niche boards extra and turn the forum into both really, covers general discussion and certain niches - but again, I just can't be bothered.
     
    Last edited: Jul 17, 2014
  13. Jack Rouse

    Jack Rouse Regular Member

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    A general criticism I have of webmaster forums is not only that there is a lot of them, but that a great of them are full of the wrong info, or it's out of date, I haven't seen one yet where articles are updated, or even posters corrected in threads.

    The other problem is a lot just don't read the whole thread, the question posed has been answered and answered well, but the thread remains open for others to either a). post the right answer over and over again or b) post utter bullshit.

    The most guilty one of this I have found is FP.
     
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  14. GTB

    GTB Regular Member

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    There is a downside to that though. Lets say you're spending time trying to write a lot of original stuff, nothing taken from other sites, edited and posted on yours. Then you spot other sites are taking your content written, editing it slightly and posted on their forum. Keeping in mind it takes longer to think up something and write it all in your own words. Why should a forum owner bother keep doing it for, only to see others copying it on their own sites fast.

    No wonder forum owners get that way were they think - stuff it, I'll do same thing as them and make adding content on my forum just as easy and fast also. Not saying you should do that, but you can see why many do start thinking that way.
     
    Last edited: Jul 22, 2014
  15. Jack Rouse

    Jack Rouse Regular Member

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    The answer is "Copyscape"
     
  16. Zardoz

    Zardoz Regular Member

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    All of them.
     

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