41 replies to this topic

[iModMuch]

try it

[Con]

Getting friends to contribute is an alternative, although they're probably going to have to be teh interwebz nerdz and geekz to contribute enough to make a noticeable dent on your site. But then again, I don't expect that to be a rarity among many of the folks actively posting on a forum about forums.

[IPS_Fan]

Getting friends to contribute is an alternative, although they're probably going to have to be teh interwebz nerdz and geekz to contribute enough to make a noticeable dent on your site. But then again, I don't expect that to be a rarity among many of the folks actively posting on a forum about forums.

Not hardly. I often have members contacting me, asking very basic questions on how to make their first posts. Once they learn the basics, many become very active posters.

[Con]

Not hardly. I often have members contacting me, asking very basic questions on how to make their first posts. Once they learn the basics, many become very active posters.

I was referring to the friends that some people manage to get to actively contribute on a beginning, empty site, as numerous posters in this thread have said that they tried using. But we can extend that to any member if you like.

The point is that if a site is just starting out, chances are that the admin will have to track down individuals that are very, very dedicated to contributing to the internet, given the goal of churning enough contributions to the site out of users to make a significant difference in the perceived activity of said site.

If you have encountered many members who don't know what the fudge 'post' means yet soon start bombarding the site with their posts, fine, but technically they could still be categorized as the individuals that I just mentioned, due to their level of activity.

If you're able to easily track down such individuals and get them to actively contribute to a beginning, empty site, and to do it for free, then good. But I don't think that that's necessarily universally feasible.

[IPS_Fan]

I was referring to the friends that some people manage to get to actively contribute on a beginning, empty site, as numerous posters in this thread have said that they tried using. But we can extend that to any member if you like.

The point is that if a site is just starting out, chances are that the admin will have to track down individuals that are very, very dedicated to contributing to the internet, given the goal of churning enough contributions to the site out of users to make a significant difference in the perceived activity of said site.

If you have encountered many members who don't know what the fudge 'post' means yet soon start bombarding the site with their posts, fine, but technically they could still be categorized as the individuals that I just mentioned, due to their level of activity.

If you're able to easily track down such individuals and get them to actively contribute to a beginning, empty site, and to do it for free, then good. But I don't think that that's necessarily universally feasible.

I am aware of what you meant. That doesn't change anything. The main topic a person chooses to focus their forum on is what determines the amount of (actual) activity they get, and the members who join.

I may be wrong, but I would think that, most people who are creating forums online are younger people. They are probably under 30, probably more impatient than older people (I'm 45). Regardless, if people are going to host, install, and run an online forum, they need to learn patience. Start populating the forum with posts. Start asking friends, or people who are involved in the main topic of the forum to start joining.

For example, a license I hold was not doing anything for anyone. No reason to renew it if I were not going to do something with it. So, I got with a friend, installed the software, and set up the site for him to run. He seems to enjoy it, by the way.

Anyway, we have begun contacting others, asking them if they would like to join and post. (The topic is about Cambodia.) We have offered business owners all the advertising they wish to do, for free. I set up a user group specifically for them, so they may put a link, banner, and other information in their signatures. So far, we have three members who do that. We have 43 members, and the forum was started a month ago. I think that is pretty good, considering the forum is just starting out. In time, if we are patient, it will grow. There is no rush for it to do so, however. Patience, friends. Patience.

The alternative is, if / when members find out the owner / administrator lied or deceived them by putting false stats up, may cost them in the end.

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As a personal note, any hacks / mods like those, which allow the owner / administrator to alter the actual stats of a forum should be banned by IPS, period. Of course, this is only my personal opinion. I'm sure yours, as well as others, may vary.

I just hope some of you will think, and do things the proper way, rather than to resort to such measures.

Okay. I am done with this topic. I think everyone is pretty sure of my view on this matter.

[ipbconvert]

With all due respect, ethics aside, this is a terrible idea. This method is analogous to covering a huge, gaping hole in your leg with a nice foundation of Loreal makeup. "It's the hole, dummy!"

[⚔ Kirito]

That seems a bit tacky to me.

If I joined a board and found that they had fake members that made fake posts I would never return. I would do a lot of hard work to gain legitimate users, and if that didn't pay off I would shut it down first.

I'm honestly glad to see this post had the most likes of any here by far.

Aside from giving the impression you have a mental disorder causing you to create multiple personalities, it would very likely leave a bad impression to most others, should they ever find out. Which like another user here said, not everyone out there is so easily fooled.

To be honest, it seems like flat out desperation to me, more than impatience. I don't consider it hard to start up a community, you just need to help encourage users to post and reward them for it.

Add premium content to your site that users need to post to gain access to. Thank members for being active an posting quality content. There are plenty of ways to help encourage activity on your boards, you don't need to, and shouldn't, try and fake that your site is active to get it active.

try it

No.

[wingman23]

well im afraid people who are agiasnt this are just wrong...try opening a board with no memmbers at all, dont invite your friends or your aunty or uncle, grandma's dog.and see how fast it dies, you can post all the content you want, but nobody is going to join a forum with no members at all no matter how good it is..

people need to stop jumping the gun with this idea and imagining that your very few fake members are a permanent fixture like you are creating a forum that is fake. its only while you get your first few members who are posting then you get rid of your fake ones. only takes a few weeks if you have good content....

To be honest, it seems like flat out desperation to me, more than impatience. I don't consider it hard to start up a community, you just need to help encourage users to post and reward them for it.

and if you have no users, how do you encourage them to post and who is going to join a forum with no users..

i encourage all new forum owners who are sat there with a great site and no members and are worried that they wont be able to get it off the ground as the site is dead.., it works, and it works well, dont forget to get your links out on facebook and the like, and join something like twitter feed and get all your content fed up to facebook and then bang content on your site daily and you will soon get members rolling in...

[⚔ Kirito]

and if you have no users, how do you encourage them to post and who is going to join a forum with no users..

If you think all there is to being an administrator is starting up a site and waiting for the traffic to come to you, you're doing it wrong.

You advertise, promote, and share your site and then encourage those visitors to sign up and partake in the community. I didn't include this bit because it's common sense.

[TaffyCaffy]

...nobody is going to join a forum with no members at all no matter how good it is..

One major and well thought out social networking blast will get you enough members to kill the idea of sprouting multiple personalities and relegate it to the forgotten bin, right where it belongs. If you provide what people are looking for, they will sign up regardless of how many members are already there. There's a caveat to this, however. You have to be offering something really good.

Lack of membership is the symptom and not the disease. What's the disease? There are a few. Lack of situational awareness in regard to a given market, especially if said market is already oversaturated. Overloaded, user unfriendly layout. Unoriginal content. Unprofessional communications. Lack of time investment in community development. Lack of proper marketing.

"If I build it, they will come?" Not in this day and age. People are not going to seek you out. You have to approach them and catch their eye in a time as short as a cursory skim over a Facebook news feed. If you do it right, it works a lot better than giving the fairytale book known as DSM-IV a run for its money in a digital version of the dissociative identity disorder.

[Rimi]

Hey guys.

There is nothing wrong with having multiple personalities.

That is all.

[supm]

some of you...... chill! whatever your standard of ethics its f-ed to make a big deal out of faking a few ppl or posts on a FORUM.
and its not like it kills your site. i know a few places used the method early on. maybe a dozen fake members, and nothing bad happened. in fact some are doing well. one of them has over 200,000 posts and is active. also the owners are perfectly sane, lol...and no its not easy to be caught. i mean its just text!

[⚔ Kirito]

some of you...... chill! whatever your standard of ethics its f-ed to make a big deal out of faking a few ppl or posts on a FORUM.
and its not like it kills your site. i know a few places used the method early on. maybe a dozen fake members, and nothing bad happened. in fact some are doing well. one of them has over 200,000 posts and is active. also the owners are perfectly sane, lol...and no its not easy to be caught. i mean its just text!

Like the members on my site that pretended to be younger females but were actually older males. It's just text, so everyone underst-oh.. wait, no they didn't.

Hey guys.

There is nothing wrong with having multiple personalities.

That is all.

Of course not! My name is really Sarah, after all!

[lordi]

ahahaha, exactly what I do on my forum at the first time,
I only make 2 member, so the communication can back and forth, and start fill the forum,
and success LOL

[Hearthless]

A friend of mine and I started a new forum in April. We simply invite people to join in and start posting.
This idea is as bad as the "fake" stats idea that recently came up.

[BIGGGMIKE]

Now we all like talking to ourselves, well i talk to the PC, the fridge and the telly, but thats enough of my problems
When a new board kicks off, usually it has no members, and nobody is going to join a board that has no members or no activity,

So a good tip is to create a few members, say about 10, and just go around talking to yourself for a bit, when members start to join then you can gradually lay them off one by one until there is only you and your real members.

It might sound like a shifty way of doing it, but it does work and so long as you dont abuse it like giving yourself false feedback and so on, its harmless and can make all the difference when starting a new member base.. specially if you are Billy no mates like me

I disagree...first sites are always shared with friends........MSN'S even as the owner...a BIGGG no-no.....my 2 cents worth

[BIGGGMIKE]

Not hardly. I often have members contacting me, asking very basic questions on how to make their first posts. Once they learn the basics, many become very active posters.

agreed.......

[GameSlum]

well im afraid people who are agiasnt this are just wrong...try opening a board with no memmbers at all, dont invite your friends or your aunty or uncle, grandma's dog.and see how fast it dies, you can post all the content you want, but nobody is going to join a forum with no members at all no matter how good it is..

people need to stop jumping the gun with this idea and imagining that your very few fake members are a permanent fixture like you are creating a forum that is fake. its only while you get your first few members who are posting then you get rid of your fake ones. only takes a few weeks if you have good content....



and if you have no users, how do you encourage them to post and who is going to join a forum with no users..

i encourage all new forum owners who are sat there with a great site and no members and are worried that they wont be able to get it off the ground as the site is dead.., it works, and it works well, dont forget to get your links out on facebook and the like, and join something like twitter feed and get all your content fed up to facebook and then bang content on your site daily and you will soon get members rolling in...

I did it why can't someone else? I'm sure I'm not the only one. If you post your content right without inviting friends and family and proper submit your site to search engines it will grow as well. In fact we, me and my partner only invited two people and 70% of the community have come from facebook, google and twitter. Social media is a powerful tool as well. Like I say to each his own I just rather have a nice tone for the community laid down before mass amounts of users start random joining. If that makes any sense.


I prefer just asking some friends to signup, most of the time they will stay on board anyway.
I agree with most of what IPS_Fan said. I don't really agree with making fake accounts to just make a board look active I know it's seems like it won't be easy to fill that way but in less then 5 days after getting our board setup and asking some family and friends to join it's alive in kicking. 647 Post from 12 members in that time is pretty nice and it's good topics, and fun post not just made up content or reply's from fake accounts. It's not about members counts to gain users but the content if people like the content they will join. You also risk how users of your forums may feel finding out about that, in a way some may see that as a break of trust since if you faked that what else have you faked type deal.

Sharing links, asking family and friends to join will help a ton, word of mouth happens to be the best. I say that because you will get a nice solid user base from good solid users since the odds are your friends, friends will mostly be good people. Just my two cents to each there own and I can understand the feel to want to do a trick like that to get your board kicking but I don't really see it proper for the health of the community in the long run compared to having a good starting base of more trusted friends and family you can set the tone of the community right the first time.

If anyone missed it and is gone to flame me. I didn't say don't do this I just don't agree to it as a good method.

[PowerJunkie²]

Sounds to me Wingman that you're trying to talk people in to this (yeah old) idea of yours being ok. If it's cool with YOU then just do it. Personally I think it's weak sauce, but that's just an opinion and I really don't care what you do with your board

But having said that, I understand the frustration of having a board that is like a ghost town. Mine isn't, but I understand just the same. I'd rather join a populated forum than lie and have conversations with myself to draw people in. Has that ever even worked? If so, where?

I run a motorcycle themed forum and I had a member who was a local mechanic and he would create accounts and talk to himself on the board telling himself how awesome he was to try and gain popularity. I started to become suspicious so I checked IP addresses and sure enough... I sent him a message saying that his actions would no longer be tolerated and he messaged back saying he understood. Out of embarrassment he ended up not coming back.
So in the end, with the possibility of others finding out what you've done talking to yourself and that being really weird, are YOU willing to take that kind of embarrassment? I'd crawl under a rock and die.

[Im#NuMBeR1]

Personally, I don't get why someone would want to fake a few members/guests on their new forums? Not very constructive imo.