Good forum descriptions?

Discussion in 'Managing Your Online Community' started by Soliloquy, Jun 17, 2009.

  1. Soliloquy

    Soliloquy Regular Member

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    I'm finding it difficult to write good descriptions for each forum; it seems like they all end up being some variant of "Come discuss x here!". What are some examples of great forum descriptions you've seen or written yourself?
     
  2. Ryan

    Ryan Regular Member

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    Mine are odd tbh. My forum for administrators has "Lot's of dancing feet here" as the description.
     
  3. FullMetalBabe

    FullMetalBabe Zealot

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    Uhh, mine are xD different, somewhat. They are wierd to be honest.
     
  4. Chris

    Chris Regular Member

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    When it comes to forum descriptions, I spend hours working on em' - I'm a perfectionist. I'll find some examples and post them up here.
     
  5. Justin S.

    Justin S. Regular Member

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    I'm extremely satisfied with my forum descritions... I think I've managed to keep them fresh and different. A few examples:

    Introduce Yourself!
    New to RCTgo? Get welcomed into the community while introducing yourself. We'd love to say hello!

    RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 Discussion
    Discuss and get help for all versions of RollerCoaster Tycoon 3. Be sure to post about the expansion packs in their appropriate forums!

    The Originals: RCT1 and RCT2
    Discuss the games that started it all! Talk about both RollerCoaster Tycoon 1 and 2, as well as their expansions in this forum.

    The RollerCoaster Tycoon Exchange
    Share all of your creations for all games of RollerCoaster Tycoon here. Get comments on your latest park, coaster, group park, and post a link to the download when it's finished, if you'd like.

    The NoLimits Exchange
    Share and discuss all of your NoLimits creations. Plus, discuss and ask questions about NoLimits, one of the most realistic coaster simulators.

    All That
    Ever wanted to talk about anything? Do it here - just make it tasteful!
     
  6. Chris

    Chris Regular Member

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    I've always been a fan of your descriptions, Justin - concise and logical. ;)
     
  7. Blackout

    Blackout Addict

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    The problem with forum descriptions is making sure that they are long enough to describe the subject matter but short enough not to distract members.
     
  8. Tyler

    Tyler The Badministrator

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    Michelle, because I am frequently faced with the same problem, something new I've been trying is adding some kind of fact or statement to the description before you say exactly what it's for. Here's an example:
    Very lame, but it kind of shows what I meant.
     
  9. Blackout

    Blackout Addict

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    Why not say something more like:

     
  10. Tyler

    Tyler The Badministrator

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    That. Was. Flawless.

    There you go, Michelle, go update your topping forum. :p
     
  11. Blackout

    Blackout Addict

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    I've had a bit of practice. But if you want to use that go ahead. I just offered that as an idea of a better description.
     
  12. Soliloquy

    Soliloquy Regular Member

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    Actually I'm thinking an amalgam of yours and Blackout's might be the better choice, Savage X... you squeezed a couple more keywords in the first sentence, but your second sentence turned into the old "Discuss x here!" standby ;)

    I reworked it a bit to

    a definite improvement from

     
  13. Blackout

    Blackout Addict

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    Definitely, though sometimes having a short and to the point description works.
     
  14. Nick

    Nick Regular Member

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    I'm never really good at writing descriptions, but in my case, they have been picked up (and are heavily focused upon) by search engines, so I have disregarded any sense-making and turned them into keyword-heavy and relevant descriptions:

    There are very few stop words in there. :P

    As I said, they're horrible to the human reader, but I have adjusted them to please the search engines and return highly-relevant results for searches. And it's worked a treat, so I am definitely willing to make that trade.
     
  15. Tyler

    Tyler The Badministrator

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    I like the first one especially. :lol:
     
  16. Nick

    Nick Regular Member

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    Yeah, that one is probably the worst of them all. :lol:
     

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