Post by Admin on Sept 15, 2015 6:54:26 GMT -8
About ten weeks in, I'd say the forum is doing well: 430 members, 8,600+ postings, and it seems the first little gliches have been ironed out and things are good. There, that should jinx it, right?
It might be a good idea to give you some better understanding of how this works:
I used to also moderate a forum for OrganicGardening.com; it was a Rodale site, and Rodale decided last year to change editorial direction, dropping the forum that was not pulling its weight in attracting users. But the core group of users were left homeless and starting trying to figure out how they could find another spot to continue friendships. I took a bold move and found software and built them a forum and it worked.
Fast forward:The old forums were so broken that I couldn't do much of anything. I had two radical choices: quit, or offer to help in the only way I could. I had built a working forum and I thought I could help HQ build a temporary forum to use while work continued on fixing the old one. I was asked to put together a sample.
I chose to revert to the early days of the forum and named it Basecamp. I stayed with the familiar format names, made a few changes I thought helped, and was basically expecting some time for testing by HQ! Then a twist of fate:
The Backpacker site went down! Unavailable, no forum at all. Odd timing, as moderator I notified HQ. They asked if the new forum was ready to open?
So with no testing and no members, I sdent a note to Zeke who could post on FB to announce the new digs! It worked, and in short time more than 100 expats had signed up.
Whew!lLong Story! But wait, there's more…
These are the official Backpacker forums. It's inevitable that there would be some better branding of the forum; an ad or two. But there is little need (IMHO, no need!) for flashing floating ads, so I will be working to keep things more the same than "new". But I am just a moderator.
I am really pleased that this has gone so well and that there is so much positive feedback. In fact I've enjoyed having some control over making things be what you have asked for, even if it meant putting Nevada in the Pacific states!
Now to post, then I'll find my typos.
It might be a good idea to give you some better understanding of how this works:
I used to also moderate a forum for OrganicGardening.com; it was a Rodale site, and Rodale decided last year to change editorial direction, dropping the forum that was not pulling its weight in attracting users. But the core group of users were left homeless and starting trying to figure out how they could find another spot to continue friendships. I took a bold move and found software and built them a forum and it worked.
Fast forward:The old forums were so broken that I couldn't do much of anything. I had two radical choices: quit, or offer to help in the only way I could. I had built a working forum and I thought I could help HQ build a temporary forum to use while work continued on fixing the old one. I was asked to put together a sample.
I chose to revert to the early days of the forum and named it Basecamp. I stayed with the familiar format names, made a few changes I thought helped, and was basically expecting some time for testing by HQ! Then a twist of fate:
The Backpacker site went down! Unavailable, no forum at all. Odd timing, as moderator I notified HQ. They asked if the new forum was ready to open?
So with no testing and no members, I sdent a note to Zeke who could post on FB to announce the new digs! It worked, and in short time more than 100 expats had signed up.
Whew!lLong Story! But wait, there's more…
These are the official Backpacker forums. It's inevitable that there would be some better branding of the forum; an ad or two. But there is little need (IMHO, no need!) for flashing floating ads, so I will be working to keep things more the same than "new". But I am just a moderator.
I am really pleased that this has gone so well and that there is so much positive feedback. In fact I've enjoyed having some control over making things be what you have asked for, even if it meant putting Nevada in the Pacific states!
Now to post, then I'll find my typos.
