Forum Drama: An Activity Killer?

"Oh, the drama!"

Forum drama is a common issue that many forum administrators are faced with. Whether it be caused by a specific member or an "iffy" discussion, it's painfully frustrating to deal with. This "drama" can also interfere with inter-member relationships, and because of this, activity can (and most likely will) decrease.

Do you find that "dramatic scenarios" cause a significant drop in overall activity? If so, please share your experiences.

 

Nope I've never found that to be true. If anything, people join to get it on it, and it draws traffic and activity. Nevertheless, I never let it get out of hand.

 

I can see in Google Analytics whenever there's been a fight on my forum because traffic peaks sharply... and you can see when the mods put a stop to the fight because traffic dips lower than before the argument.

 

That's not been my experience, thank goodness. The new members usually tend to stick around and for the mostpart, become fairly regular posters and good members.

But then you have the ones who sleep, eat, and breathe drama...

 

I've noticed that the traffic tends to reach all-time heights during only specific situations (i.e. intensely active fights).

 

It depends on the type of people that see the "drama" and join in. Some people like drama while others do not. I dont think its harmful to the site, because some people actually like that kind of stuff.

 

It's funny that you post this, Chris because I was going to post a similar thread asking if drama attracts attention and activity on forums. :lol:

I think drama will bring some attention/traffic to a site quite a bit. For example, when the vB 4 leak happened, one forum took the approach that differed from all other forum admins - the promoted the discussion and speculation of the leak (which is completely fine). The thread got a lot of attention and quite a few people joined the forum just to get in on that thread and put their views and opinions forth.

That's an example of how drama will put a site in the spotlight and bring activity. This is good - because some of those members may end up sticking around and becoming active members of the site.

 

I have seen that myself on forums I am on. They all of a sudden all come on and read and/or get into it. But I have noticed there are quite a few lurkers too that come on just to see the fight.

 

In my opinion, fights/arguments/intense disagreements brings traffic, but not good traffic.

 

I do not know about you guys, but in the niche of anime, I think it's the most dramatic one.

In anime, not only it creates drama when people disagree in "Anime favorites" but we have a lot of e-dating in this niche specifically. Not long ago, drama killed Pisoga.

Ok, well I will tell a small story about Pisoga and why it's been dead.

Pisoga started as a VERY known community for anime lovers. We had two administrators and a efficient set of moderators. When I came in Pisoga[two months after it actually opened] the admins were Hunter2001 and Gibson. Due to inactivity of the admins[which was a turn off for me] we had an outcry for a new Admin so we could talk to him and he could take Pisoga one step further. Around December 2007, an old user appears, Kurikun. He was a user since the site begun [June 7th 07] but he became inactive for x reasons. When he came back he was spotting to be an admin. I have to say, my experience with Kuri was the worst one, I have to say he is the WORST person to be a admin due to his mental instabilities and his quick judgement. He was made a mod and quickly gained Hunter2001's trust due to a lot of promises he made. Hunter2001 is the one actually made the site. After his 'proclamation' Kuri's Proclamation to the Community of Pisoga he was made moderator of both chat and forum. As you can see on the thread, it created drama,on the poll it clearely stated that none of the users wanted Kuri as a mod, our voice wasn't heard. This was the first wave. Shortly after that, he was made an administrator New administrator many people were iffy about it. We didn't like him. We had a user council, which had the idea of influential users in the community to help people be heard. This user council was composed of three of te most outspoken people in Pisoga, CapeRyche, KingdonHeartsFanatic[Kingy] and Me[Fmb]. We asked MANY people their thought son Kuri as an admin, moderators and we created a report, The long awaited report.. Me and CapeRyche did anyways. By this time we, the user council, were handling Pisoga and keeping Kurikun on check. There was another outbreak of his behaviour, and that was the last straw for us. Me and Caperyche were made moderators and quickly we became the 'rolemodel' for mods. The drama that Kuri have created uptill this point was inmense. People were leaving because Kuri was abusing powers and not listening to the users. One day, after a vast insult from a moderator, he left. This is what you wanted. Not only that, but he demoded all the mods from the chat and left us with out admin acess. I had to go to the creator of chatango and beg him to give me acess to the chat, back end anyways. That's how I was made admin. The drama level was elevated to such point that mods were aiming to ban Kuri from the chat. He was immideately banned from the forum by me. Another mod banned him on the chat, he threaten us with putting the forum offline... I love Pisoga, I had to budge in... this was the first time we lost people... people were discouraged by this situation.. In my birthday, Kuri decided to play with me and put the forums offline. We lost people who viewd the forums as a guest, he wanted, in exchange for putting the forum back online, he wanted me to unban him and give him admin powers again. I prefered my community not to suffer his admin ways than see my community crumble. At this point, drama killed pisoga. I am trying so hard to get it back up, which I just got an idea. Let's see how this will work out.

 

Now that's a situation, Nei.

 

Well I posted my idea for the users. Hopefully this would be a good one. A new pisoga, a BETTER pisoga forum? Labrocca's mod for tabs would be awesome for this idea.

 

Great idea.

I support it, fully.

 

Drama promotes memberships...I sometimes feel like making another user and shouting out Obama RULES!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :lol: Serious, I can't count how many forums I've joined just to voice my opinion or support someone due a drama drama. But I try and stay away from the childish ones.

I remember one time Ford Motor Company was going to sue a car forum for making a calender out of members cars. :mad2: So I joined in and supported the group...and I own stock in Ford Motor Co and I'm good friends with the Guy who owns the largest Ford dealership in my area. I simply felt people should be able to do what they want with their cars...including selling pictures they took of the car they bought!

 

It depends on who the target of the drama is ... if the general membership is not targeted, then drama and controversy is a major draw. If members think their own posts will be attacked/criticized, and/or themselves personally, they will stay away. That's on my forum, anyway.

A good controversy can re-vitalize a forum. Too much clean, on-topic, polite posting is boring and members loose interest in the forum.

People are always interested in a page-turning story, wanting to know who will say what to who, and what will happen next.