Comments on: What’s the best way to build community? Delete your forums http://www.gamesbrief.com/2009/12/whats-the-best-way-to-build-community-delete-your-forums/ The Business of Games Wed, 08 Feb 2012 22:58:59 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Phaethon http://www.gamesbrief.com/2009/12/whats-the-best-way-to-build-community-delete-your-forums/comment-page-1/#comment-4598 Phaethon Sat, 05 Dec 2009 08:07:08 +0000 http://www.gamesbrief.com/2009/12/whats-the-best-way-to-build-community-delete-your-forums/#comment-4598 Definitely. But speaking from observations of large forums and how little staff can moderate, control or provide for them yet they still hang around, it's because of the loudness of the members. There's a group of people who are well tempered and rational, who won't jump on someone for their opinion, and might not even bring up when they are blatantly wrong. But those type of people will always be outmatched by the loudness of others, and those louder types trigger a chain reaction which is met by similar types. <br><br>Polls are an excellent way of gauging all active participants. More anonymous ways such as surveys like you at Goozex do is another way as well. But at the end of the day, if you're a company that has no qualms about strictness or merit of discussion and have a product to sell, you don't mind letting the loudness of your community work for you rather than leveling it out. Definitely. But speaking from observations of large forums and how little staff can moderate, control or provide for them yet they still hang around, it's because of the loudness of the members. There's a group of people who are well tempered and rational, who won't jump on someone for their opinion, and might not even bring up when they are blatantly wrong. But those type of people will always be outmatched by the loudness of others, and those louder types trigger a chain reaction which is met by similar types.

Polls are an excellent way of gauging all active participants. More anonymous ways such as surveys like you at Goozex do is another way as well. But at the end of the day, if you're a company that has no qualms about strictness or merit of discussion and have a product to sell, you don't mind letting the loudness of your community work for you rather than leveling it out.

]]> By: Mark Nebesky http://www.gamesbrief.com/2009/12/whats-the-best-way-to-build-community-delete-your-forums/comment-page-1/#comment-4586 Mark Nebesky Thu, 03 Dec 2009 18:57:27 +0000 http://www.gamesbrief.com/2009/12/whats-the-best-way-to-build-community-delete-your-forums/#comment-4586 Phaethon,<br>For us it is the opposite. We know the vast majority of our members are the quiet type and on the forums are lurkers. I believe that to be true for most any organization, community, company. And the truth is, you have to balance the wants of the vocal minority with the wants of the silent majority. Problem: how do you know what the silent majority wants? There are ways and one of them is polls on your forums. We get far more votes on the poll than posts on the thread. That's just one tactic, and there are others. Phaethon,
For us it is the opposite. We know the vast majority of our members are the quiet type and on the forums are lurkers. I believe that to be true for most any organization, community, company. And the truth is, you have to balance the wants of the vocal minority with the wants of the silent majority. Problem: how do you know what the silent majority wants? There are ways and one of them is polls on your forums. We get far more votes on the poll than posts on the thread. That's just one tactic, and there are others.

]]> By: Phaethon http://www.gamesbrief.com/2009/12/whats-the-best-way-to-build-community-delete-your-forums/comment-page-1/#comment-4579 Phaethon Thu, 03 Dec 2009 14:30:28 +0000 http://www.gamesbrief.com/2009/12/whats-the-best-way-to-build-community-delete-your-forums/#comment-4579 Unorganized forums are definitely a mar against any company's online image, but it doesn't mean that they aren't effective. I'm of the opinion that there are more loud people than quiet people, and loud people tend to attract other loud people. Quiet people tend not to attract anyone. Quiet people can't hear them, loud people can't hear them. To a company a rabble of teenagers who are willing to argue and defend their products is just the type of thing they want to increase. <br><br>Games like Halo are known for having a lot of 9 year olds online, and simply because I won't engage in their forums doesn't mean I won't partake in the gaming experience. When looking at it like that, a bunch of loud people spreading loudness and getting more loud people wouldn't necessarily be something you'd want to moderate. They're growing your product. It's why I believe sites like Gamespot and IGN are really loose with their moderation. That and when you have that many loud people, you're going to do a better job with headphones than yelling "QUIET!" <br><br>But there are some forums like NeoGAF I believe have a well tempered group of individuals and they have a very good moderating staff. I believe it honestly depends on what you want your forum to be and the type of people you want there. Unorganized forums are definitely a mar against any company's online image, but it doesn't mean that they aren't effective. I'm of the opinion that there are more loud people than quiet people, and loud people tend to attract other loud people. Quiet people tend not to attract anyone. Quiet people can't hear them, loud people can't hear them. To a company a rabble of teenagers who are willing to argue and defend their products is just the type of thing they want to increase.

Games like Halo are known for having a lot of 9 year olds online, and simply because I won't engage in their forums doesn't mean I won't partake in the gaming experience. When looking at it like that, a bunch of loud people spreading loudness and getting more loud people wouldn't necessarily be something you'd want to moderate. They're growing your product. It's why I believe sites like Gamespot and IGN are really loose with their moderation. That and when you have that many loud people, you're going to do a better job with headphones than yelling “QUIET!”

But there are some forums like NeoGAF I believe have a well tempered group of individuals and they have a very good moderating staff. I believe it honestly depends on what you want your forum to be and the type of people you want there.

]]> By: Mark Nebesky http://www.gamesbrief.com/2009/12/whats-the-best-way-to-build-community-delete-your-forums/comment-page-1/#comment-4572 Mark Nebesky Tue, 01 Dec 2009 20:28:42 +0000 http://www.gamesbrief.com/2009/12/whats-the-best-way-to-build-community-delete-your-forums/#comment-4572 When we started the company we made it a big priority to get forums up and running in a way that retained the look and feel of our game trading site. Once it was launched we made it a point for the founders to be on there on a regular basis. Conscious to making the new member feel welcomed we have done two things: 1) give mod power to those to members that are extremely friendly 2) maintain open channels for new members to contact the founders whenever they feel not welcomed. I would say that for three years now we have had for the most part a peaceful forum community that does have some cliques, but no serious barriers to entry for the new members who want to participate or lurk.<br><br>Regarding your solutions:<br>Blog -- who has the time to keep it fresh? Instead we support a member driven blog site by supplying them games to review and whatever else they need to keep the blog fresh<br>Twitter -- great and we use it a lot, but can't capture dialogue the same way a forum can<br>Facebook -- we haven't bothered with the Fan Page as we see it taking up resources with very little return -- we have turned the keys to our FB group over to a few members to manage.<br>Youtube -- Yes we have a channel, but you need to promote it. So we recently gave an enthusiastic member some expensive video capturing/editing gear so they post new content<br>Listening -- that's the majority of what we do on our forums. Polls work great there too. <br><br>I wouldn't advise any startup to ignore the power of the forums. The trick is you have to personally invest your time into it to keep it straight and true. If you set it and forget it, then it will turn on you quickly. When we started the company we made it a big priority to get forums up and running in a way that retained the look and feel of our game trading site. Once it was launched we made it a point for the founders to be on there on a regular basis. Conscious to making the new member feel welcomed we have done two things: 1) give mod power to those to members that are extremely friendly 2) maintain open channels for new members to contact the founders whenever they feel not welcomed. I would say that for three years now we have had for the most part a peaceful forum community that does have some cliques, but no serious barriers to entry for the new members who want to participate or lurk.

Regarding your solutions:
Blog — who has the time to keep it fresh? Instead we support a member driven blog site by supplying them games to review and whatever else they need to keep the blog fresh
Twitter — great and we use it a lot, but can't capture dialogue the same way a forum can
Facebook — we haven't bothered with the Fan Page as we see it taking up resources with very little return — we have turned the keys to our FB group over to a few members to manage.
Youtube — Yes we have a channel, but you need to promote it. So we recently gave an enthusiastic member some expensive video capturing/editing gear so they post new content
Listening — that's the majority of what we do on our forums. Polls work great there too.

I wouldn't advise any startup to ignore the power of the forums. The trick is you have to personally invest your time into it to keep it straight and true. If you set it and forget it, then it will turn on you quickly.

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