Forums where the Off Topic/General section is the most active

Discussion in 'Managing Your Online Community' started by Kaiser, Jun 22, 2011.

  1. Kaiser

    Kaiser Regular Member

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    Whats your thoughts on forums where the Off Topic/General section is the most active?

    On most forums, I often see their Off Topic forum having the most posts out of all the forums... in my opinion its fine if the forum is a offtopic/general discussion forum but not if the forum is of another genre, in that case the main sections should have the most posts.

    I often see admins avoiding the main sections on their forums and just posting mainly in their off topic section, isn't that what they should be avoiding? I don't encourage posts in the Off Topic section here on AdminBB instead I do all the posting in our main sections, constantly coming up with new threads and posts. All admins should do the same, what are your thoughts? Am I wrong?
     
  2. SpacewardAsh

    SpacewardAsh Lurking From Space

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    If it's a general forum then I don't think it matters, but a forum like this your active forums should always be the related ones, and if they are not, you and your members are most likely not interested/have any ideas on that genre and shouldn't be there in the first place...
     
  3. Se7eN

    Se7eN Regular Member

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    I see this all the time. If this were to happen on my forum, I'd do everything in my ability to get activity to other areas of the forum. An easy way to do this would be to make it so that posts don't go towards the post count in the Off-Topic section. Or, if your forum has a type of currency, you could make it so that posts don't give any/as much points as in the main sections of your forum.
     
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  4. cpvr

    cpvr Regular Member

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    It happens a lot because some communites take a life of their own, and members feel that the given subject can't be discussed too much, so they focus on posting on the general chat areas.
     
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  5. Se7eN

    Se7eN Regular Member

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    If I feel that I can't talk about a subject much, I just won't make a forum for it. Why make something like a golf forum if I know nothing about golf?
     
  6. KMRock

    KMRock Regular Member

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    I think it is wrong. It is good to have that, but just for members to chill out. In an admin forum you need activity in the main genre of the forum.
     
  7. cpvr

    cpvr Regular Member

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    Well, I agree with you on this point - but what can you do if your members start talking on the other forums? Post on the main forums, and hope things pick up from there? You can't help the fact if your community gets a life of its own.
     

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