What's your attitude toward your (new) members?

[charlly007]

Am just starting my forum, i think sending a message to new members letting them know the community is happy to have them on board and make them know they are really important is a good strategy by forum admins.

That is exactly what am gonna do. Am starting mine from scratch. Still no post.

Letting them know a bit of the topics they can engaged in is also good.

 

[zappaDPJ]

I've seen so many site owners agonise over SEO and at the same time completely ignore new members. I find that quite puzzling.

 

[Bikenut]

Our new members get an automated message thanking them for joining. After they register, they are taken directly to the "New Members Intro board, and so far the majority of them do introduce themselves.
I also started a "Post your production number" thread. This is where everyone posts the last four of their bike's Vin number and location. It's fun to see where ea bike ends up after being built in Japan, shipped out and sold.

New members are gold. But, I do run their IP address against stopforumspam. Proboards makes this a one click operation so it's pretty easy.

 

[richardgaspa]

I email a welcome message and open a conversation with each new member letting them know who we are and what we are trying to accomplish on Veterans Briefing.com. I check out their profile and asked them to fill out any information they might have omitted and try to get them to upload an avatar that represents them. I always asked them a question or two that they can answer me back via conversation on our site hoping that would be the beginning of a very ACTIVE member.

 

[dieKetzer]

I have met admins with the same mindset, which is an attitude that also attracts like-minded and trolls. Some forum owners can't wait to show new members who is in charge (and they do that in many ways, not just by being arrogant). I think the term "administrator" should always be replaced with "staff" or "team" in order to create a more welcoming and relaxed environment.

I believe that while there are general strategies that forum managers can use to keep new members engaged and interested, it all comes down to the forum's main focus. Different niches may require different approaches. The trick is knowing or learning what makes that niche tick, and act accordingly.

i have been a member at a particular board for 10 years now. the owner makes very questionable decisions and has limited technical ability. he has had 2 major hacks in that time, and each time the board has vanished for 4-5 months while he fixes it. the first hack actually cost the community a years worth of posts and new member registration. despite that, i have never told him (or anyone else on the board) the degree of my experience with forum admining. i know him well enough to know that it would be seen as an insulting appeal to authority.

as far as the 'admin' rank goes, i prefer to not even log in as an admin. the admin account is something i use to post to my read-inly .plan thread and make technical announcements and the like. i have never used it to interact with the membership. i instead use a normal account with a few extra perms as my 'daily driver'. a new member would have no idea i were the admin, and it usually takes quite a while before a member sees others defer to me in an admin way. if i had it my way nobody would have ever known i was the admin full stop.

 

[John128]

I always at least post "Welcome" in their intro thread, especially if I'm staff on the website. I want them to know that the community is welcoming and inviting, not a bunch of friends who'll "gang up" on you quickly because you're the new guy/girl.

 

[Jura]

End almost every post with a question, especially in the introduction forum.

 

[EzYRiDaH]

I run a niche forum in Dutch on the cat breed Maine Coon. Most of the members are women. It is compulsory to introduce themselves before getting access to other nodes.

New members share the love for Maine Coons. Any new member is stalked for pictures of their cats biggest ice breaker

My advice is if your forum runs on some subject where you can show pictures of, ask for pictures

 

[Tiernan]

I message every member that signs up and say hi. It pays off.