SanDiego1K

From a member. TalkBoard evaluates proposals to create new discussion forums. What should the Flyertalk community do to make new forums successful?

jackal

Use them! If you have a topic that fits the forum, post it! If you don't, invent a tip or a question and post it!

It sounds simple, but jump-starting the conversation like that is really the key to getting discussion going.

As well, we have a great resource in form of the Information Desk to help point people to places they can get information on FlyerTalk. We need a small army of people to help us organize the content on FlyerTalk to help make FlyerTalk as user-friendly and accessible to everyone as possible. Helping to index the discussion on FlyerTalk and point people to new forums there will help direct conversation to those forums, ensuring their success. Please feel free to stop on by and ask how you can help!

Last, I have come to understand that sometimes the best thing that can be done for the FlyerTalk community is to concentrate discussion in a place where people will actually see that discussion. Conversation is greatly enhanced by visibility. So while sometimes it makes sense to segregate information out, other times, a broader audience, even if it is less focused, makes better sense. To that end, merging a quiet forum into a more active forum is sometimes more beneficial both to the community and to those who ask and answer questions on a particular topic. Where a clear case can be made for this, I will support such actions.

rwoman

Participation is important. Sometimes it might be a seemingly mundane question that motivates all sorts of engagement.

That said, when looking at forums' success, I don't think it is merely about number of threads or post counts. Looking at how many views there are on a forum also tells a story - even if people are not posting, they may very well be reading and using available information.

bdschobel

I was tied up for a couple of days and unable to devote any time to these questions. But now I'm free.

Artificially generated usage serves no one's interests. If people post useful information and others read it, then a forum is, by definition, successful. If not, then it's unsuccessful. We cannot always predict correctly whether a new forum will succeed, but no real harm is done if we are wrong, and it's easily corrected.

Bruce

hhoope01

Personally, "successful" can be defined in different ways. A few years ago I petitioned TB for a new forum. The TB at that time agreed and that forum was created. Unfortunately, there was very little traffic seen in that forum. About a year or so later, the TB then voted to remove that forum due to the lack of traffic/posts.

So was that forum a success? As a separate forum it wasn't. But even though I would have liked to see that forum thrive, I thought it was very much a success in the TB process.

I've always been of the opinion it is better to have tried and failed than to have never tried at all. So I tend to "err" on the side of lets try it out and see where the chips fall. Even if we decide that a forum or change isn't quite as popular or used as we thought it might, we hopefully still will have learned some things along the way and can use that to make FT an even better place.

bdschobel

I totally agree. And post count is not the sole measure of success. Views may be even more important.

Bruce

SkiAdcock

The biggest thing the Flyertalk community can do to make any forum successful, whether new or old, is participate. It's FTers knowledge & willingness to share information that makes FT a success.

Re: new forums. Obviously if one was created, then hopefully those who petitioned for it will participate to make it a success/meet the needs they outlined when they requested it.

Re: potentially closing or merging new forums. TB doesn't start forums w/ the intention of them being a failure/close something down after 3 months. Each forum should be given an ample amount of time to prove itself before potentially being closed or merged into another forum. Also, some forums by their nature might not get as many new threads but by their nature provide good information or a place to find it, such as traveling w/ disabilities or gambling forum or region such as Antarctica. And there will be some forums where views tell a better picture of a forum's success than mere thread count.

Cheers. Sharon

jason8612

I agree with others that the new forums need to be used - by posts and by views. And like hhoope01 mentioned, it is better to try and failed than never had tried at all.

RichMSN

I think there are multiple ways to view success.

(1) Number of posts

(2) Number of views

(3) How a new forum potentially unclutters other forums

(4) User/member satisfaction, which is hard to quantify


My track record over my one previous term is pretty clear. I don't do much hand-wringing over new forums. I think that too many hurdles are thrown up at FT members to try to justify new forums....which really is the job of TB members.

Fragmentation at FlyerTalk is unlikely even with dozens of new forums.

That said, a better job needs to be done to retire old forums and the ones that are simply not used. Further, the historical forums (from airlines that no longer exist) should be hidden/removed from the FT home page. You want to eliminate clutter? Let's start there.

Finally, to answer the question: We need to publicize the new forums better. Possibly better use of redirects, possibly more publicity, etc.

CMK10

I cannot improve on the answers above so I will, like any good politician, agree with them.