Drama and publicity: Good for forums?

I think it's safe to say that drama and publicity are good for forums in terms of both traffic and forum activity. A couple of months ago, AA was linked to in a news article discussing the vBulletin-craze, and it brought some traffic and a ton of new members. Some of the new members stirred things up and caused a bit of trouble, but in the long run, I feel like we've gained a handful of new, legitimately active members.

Do you think a little drama on your forum every once in a while is a good thing? Is it worth possibly losing some long-time members in exchange for a few more new ones?

 

Depends on the type of drama. If it's civil and well managed, then it might be good for members... it's kind of why I hear a lot of sites deliberately write things meant to annoy half the internet.

If not, it's great for activity (because let's face it, flame wars and arguments bring massive activity boosts for a short period of time), but it's absolutely horrible for getting new members or the community's image.

 

i think some drama is good, and will bring in new members, but other times it can make the forum seem intimidating to new members

 

I'd rather keep good members over losing them but gaining a few new ones any day.

 

Controversy sells papers. However, you can't use that a sales technique for long.

 

We need more drama and controversy on our teen forum, I have known an admin cause drama deliberately when there hadnt been any for a while, although I would never try that myself.

I think its good in small portions and short term, constant drama leads to headaches and people leaving.

 

In the case of AA and vB, I believe it was a good thing. It brought some quality members that otherwise may not have joined. It was also an excellent example that real life drama & publicity is enough without creating it. That topic affected many peoples lives. I cannot imagine how much anxiety and headaches that caused you Nick.


In general stirring things up for its own sake drives good people away.

 

Someone stole ImperialBB code, and a developer for another software posted the issue on our community as a show of good will.

We've never had more members visiting per day than we do now. Plus, we made a new friend.

 

theres one forum im on that is filled with drama. theres trolls, arguments, two rival forums fighting, umpleasant clique of drama queen oldies, the moderation varies on what mod is online, the admin regularly presses the wrong thing and messes up the forum.....they get activity. regularly.

thats even if the newbies who have joined declare it the most unfriendly forum ever, they still come back and post again. the drama queens get fed up and flounce off the forum.......they come back a day later!! i think the forum is one of the worst ive ever been on, but still i come back....why??? ive been registered there for 4 years, ive been trolled, flamed, over moderated....but i dont care, when we arent fighting eachother we have good discussions and make friends

 

In my experience, drama has only been good for increased activity during the period of drama; and once that passes, activity drops lower than before as people visit less frequently.

 

Yes it is, with the caveat that it can depend on how the overall forum appears to the curious that visit to see what it's all about. I think the question is whether a membership boost is a lasting positive. If they come look and either don't like it or later loose interest, then I'm not sure that's so helpful. But if they do stick around as active members then it's a very good thing.

Whatever trash is out about a forum, I think one has to be confident that reasonable people make their own decision when they see for themselves. Those are the only kind one wants as members, anyway.