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Post by Avalikia on Oct 9, 2013 15:34:56 GMT -5
Intro/Why You Should Listen To Me
Every once in a while someone asks me for advice on how to make a forum RPG such as this one. Far more frequently someone tells me that they've made one without asking me for advice, it completely flops, and I sit here silently listing off in my head all the many things that they could have done differently that would have significantly increased their odds of success. Mind you, I'm not saying that I have all the answers or that I'm some forum-making genius, but over the past 12 years or so I've made something on the order of 15 different forums. Some of them did well, most of them flopped, and I learned from those experience. I didn't make this one, as it was Nat who created this forum and saw it through its critical early months, but I've done that myself before.
The Process
Step 1 - Reconsider
And yes, I'm being serious. Making a forum is a lot of work, takes a lot of time, and even if you do all the things I say you have a very high chance of failure. And even if you succeed, running an active forum is a hard, often thankless job. Really the only reason why I do it is because I seem to have some management skills, and by running a forum myself I can guarantee myself a forum to play on that I know is run well. So if you're sitting there thinking to yourself that it must be really cool to be a head admin of a site - no, it's not, go find another hobby.
Step 2 - Evaluate Your Head Admin Fitness
If Step 1 didn't stop you, how about this: If you're the one building the forum, I can only assume that you intend to be the head admin of it. But while actually signing up at the ProBoards Homepage or somewhere else (there's a few different options actually, but I'm obviously a fan of ProBoards) is so easy that a caveman can do it now that they give you a bajillion easy design options, running a forum - especially through the early stages - takes a certain set of skills and such that not everyone has. And while you can make up for some of that by bringing in other people to help you (I go into that a little bit later), there are a few that you absolutely must have.
A head admin must be able to make difficult decisions. They must know how to be nice to the most difficult person while being uncompromisingly firm against the most persuasive. They must know how to put their foot down and know when they shouldn't. They must be able to recognize when they need to get off the computer and go cool down before they do something they'll regret later. They must be able to say no to their best friend. They must have a steady supply of free time and know how to manage it. They must be able to make decisions based on what's best for their forum rather than going with what they personally prefer.
If you know the above totally isn't you, then you're not head admin material - you're better off trying to find someone who is head admin material, convincing them that your forum idea is the best idea ever, and then shoving them at this guide. If you're not sure whether or not you are up to doing the above, I actually suggest giving it a try - I didn't know that I could be that kind of a person myself until I built my first forum. If you're completely sure that you could do all of the above with no problems and haven't run a successful forum before, I suspect that you're being a bit generous in your assessment of yourself and are about to have a bit of a humbling experience...
Step 3 - Come Up With A Fantastic Theme
If you already think you have a good idea, proceed to Step 4 - if you're wrong about your idea being good, you'll probably never be able to get through Step 4 so that's a good proving ground.
If you don't have any ideas at all, ponder upon what you'd like to write about for ideas. A large percentage of forums are based around a book, movie, or other media and if your theme is based upon one that's popular then it will help attract attention to your site. But that is hardly everything - plenty of successful forums have an original theme or are based on something more obscure. In those cases, you simply need to make sure that your site makes it as quick and easy as possible to bring new people who have no idea what's going on up to speed. What's really important about your chosen theme is two things: Whether or not it's fun to write about, and whether or not it establishes a unique site identity.
Mind you, that doesn't mean you can't make a forum on a theme that's very popular. Take this one, for example: there are forums based around DC Comics, Batman, etc. springing up all the time. What's unique about this site is that it's not based around Batman specifically, but is not based more specifically on the recent movies like most Batman-focused sites - instead it's based on the animated series/comics. If comics based Batman sites were more popular, we could emphasize our animated-loving roots and still be unique. The point is that you should be just enough different that you don't get totally lost in a sea of sites who are practically clones.
Pro Tip: It's best to choose a name for your site that tells people the theme of your site - our name tells you that we're a Batman forum. If our name was something more poetic like 'Midnight On The Rooftop', it would mostly serve to make people scratch their heads and not bother trying to figure out what we're about.
Step 4 - Find a Core Group
This step is often skipped and that's probably a key reason why so many new sites fail. If you don't start with a core group of players, then what you're basically doing is hoping that one spontaneously appears when you build the forum. This sometimes actually happens, but the odds are spotty enough that you're significantly better off if you do. What you need is 4-5 players (including yourself) who agree that your forum idea is so awesome that they're willing to commit to being active with at least 1 character for at least 3 months when you build the forum. These can be friends, friends of friends, etc. but you should know them well enough to be reasonably sure that they'll actually do it.
If you can't find that many players, there could be several reasons and most of them mean that building your forum is probably not a good idea, at least at that time. It may be that your forum idea is not as fantastic as you think it is - sometimes you'll find your opinion of what would be fun to play just isn't shared by a lot of people. Though it may also be your timing is bad - if all the people you're hoping to convince say they can't do it because they're busy with school or something, the odds are high that a large chunk of the people you're hoping will join your forum have the same problem.
Among these 4-5 players, at least one of you must have the following skills:
- A basic understanding of html and css - you don't need to be an expert, but you should at least be familiar with the fundamentals of editing those codes.
- The ability to edit graphics without making them look terrible.
- Design skills, meaning the ability to pick a color scheme, fonts, etc. that don't look terrible.
Ideally, it's you, the prospective head admin, who has these skills so that you don't need to rely on someone else. But if you don't then that's not a deal-breaker since you just need them to make the site look fantastic and after that you only need them if you want to change something later - and if the person who made the site isn't available, if you have more than a few members then there's actually good odds that at least one of them has enough skill to make small changes.
You should also pick at least a couple of your core group to be staff to help you with what will hopefully be a flood of new members. If you have admin experience and loads of free time, you may be safe to be a solo admin with a few moderators assisting until the site really gets going. Otherwise you'll want to choose at least one co-admin to help you, preferably someone with admin experience themselves if you're lacking in that area yourself.
Step 5 - Setup Your Forum
Now is when you should finally go sign up with ProBoards or another forum service and actually start building your forum. What you need is pretty standard: at minimum, you need to have rules, something explaining your fantastic theme, a place to sign up for a character, a place to talk OOC, a place for other sites to advertise so that they don't complain at you for advertising on their boards without one, and of course a few RP boards. Other useful things include a way for guests to communicate with you - a chatbox is great for this, but a board that guests can post on also works - and an archive. Exactly how you do things beyond that is more up to you.
Tips:
A good way to decide what to have on your board is to go look at other boards and steal any ideas they have that seem to fit your board's needs. But be sure to look at many boards because each board has it's own unique set of needs - for example, some sites don't need a Season indicator in their sidebar, while others do.
Also, especially to start with, resist the temptation to start with too many RP boards. While your site is just getting started, a smaller number of RP boards encourages all the characters to gather together in one spot, and that's useful when there's not very many people. Once you have more members you can add in more boards.
How you set up your character approval process is critical - you need to decide how high to set the bar when it comes to how well your members need to be able to write and such. The higher you set the bar, the fewer people who happen by your site will be able to join. On the flip-side, the lower you set the bar, the more really good writers will skip over your forum because people like to write with people at about the same skill level. Sometimes your theme makes the decision for you - if your site's theme mostly appeals to teenagers then you're going to have to set the bar low because most teenagers aren't the best writers. There's nothing wrong with setting the bar low, mind you - people who can't write well need a place to practice if they're going to get any better - but you need to know where it's at when you design your application.
The best way to design your application is to make a profile for your own first character - figure out what information other members need to know about your character, and format it nicely. Then look over your profile for areas you did better on than you needed to in order to meet what you consider to be your minimum standard - perhaps you wrote a five paragraph background when you figure that three is probably sufficient? Once you've noted that, prepare a copy of that profile with the information on your particular character replaced by instructions for that section of the app, so that you have a template for new members to copy.
Do not declare yourself done with setup until your forum looks fantastic, all the boards are made, all the rules and other info are posted, most if not all of your core group have their applications finished and approved, and your core group has started at least two RP threads.
Step 6 - Advertise
Only then are you ready to advertise. Advertising too early is a terrible idea, since people are more likely to check out a forum they've never heard of before and you want the place to look like it's not so new that it's nothing is happening - a lot of people will give you a pass just because they know how hard it is to be the first one. This is where your core group helps you - they get some plots started and people checking out your new forum will see that it's fully up and running and won't be so timid about giving your site a chance.
When it comes to your actual advertisement, pictures are better than words, and simple is best. The idea is not to convince the person looking at it that your site is the best ever then and there, it's simply to get them to come and take a look so that the site itself can convince them to join. A pic that gives them some sense of the site, perhaps a short statement that seems to promise that you're awesome, links to more info, and you're done. Also, keep in mind that other forums often include codes and coding that will change how your advertisement looks and it's best not to fight that - whatever their default fonts, text colors, etc. are, they're living with it themselves and therefore you can assume that your ad will at least be readable. The simpler your coding is, the less likely it is that the forums you post it to will chew it into an unrecognizable mess.
When you start advertising, remember that the more sites you get your ad on, the better. You should aim to post on literally over a thousand places within the first week. And yes, you can find that many - each site should have an ad board where you can find ads to places you probably haven't posted yet. Just keep clicking your way through and you'll find a lot.
Step 7 - Be Lucky
Even if you have the best forum setup ever, there's always the possibility for disaster. Sometimes people just don't come. Sometimes what you thought was a solid core group all quit on you. But generally speaking, if your site is still going - as in there are at least a few RP posts per week - then there's still hope even if the number of members is small. If it's less than that, odds are that the RP will slow to a trickle, and then nothing. At that point it's best to start a new site from scratch - as reluctant as people are to join sites, they're even less likely to entertain the idea trying to bring one back from the dead.
Step 8 - Maintenance
If your site is doing well, you'll find yourself falling into a pattern of approving characters, advertising, and doing other admin chores instead of site building. Be sure to add in things like clearing out inactive members and stuff like that - just like everything else, if you don't keep your forum clean it will start to get cluttered and unpleasant. Other than that, you simply need to keep an eye out for any looming problems - if you pay enough attention to see problems before they get serious, then you can usually fix them before they ruin everything.
Every once in a while someone asks me for advice on how to make a forum RPG such as this one. Far more frequently someone tells me that they've made one without asking me for advice, it completely flops, and I sit here silently listing off in my head all the many things that they could have done differently that would have significantly increased their odds of success. Mind you, I'm not saying that I have all the answers or that I'm some forum-making genius, but over the past 12 years or so I've made something on the order of 15 different forums. Some of them did well, most of them flopped, and I learned from those experience. I didn't make this one, as it was Nat who created this forum and saw it through its critical early months, but I've done that myself before.
The Process
Step 1 - Reconsider
And yes, I'm being serious. Making a forum is a lot of work, takes a lot of time, and even if you do all the things I say you have a very high chance of failure. And even if you succeed, running an active forum is a hard, often thankless job. Really the only reason why I do it is because I seem to have some management skills, and by running a forum myself I can guarantee myself a forum to play on that I know is run well. So if you're sitting there thinking to yourself that it must be really cool to be a head admin of a site - no, it's not, go find another hobby.
Step 2 - Evaluate Your Head Admin Fitness
If Step 1 didn't stop you, how about this: If you're the one building the forum, I can only assume that you intend to be the head admin of it. But while actually signing up at the ProBoards Homepage or somewhere else (there's a few different options actually, but I'm obviously a fan of ProBoards) is so easy that a caveman can do it now that they give you a bajillion easy design options, running a forum - especially through the early stages - takes a certain set of skills and such that not everyone has. And while you can make up for some of that by bringing in other people to help you (I go into that a little bit later), there are a few that you absolutely must have.
A head admin must be able to make difficult decisions. They must know how to be nice to the most difficult person while being uncompromisingly firm against the most persuasive. They must know how to put their foot down and know when they shouldn't. They must be able to recognize when they need to get off the computer and go cool down before they do something they'll regret later. They must be able to say no to their best friend. They must have a steady supply of free time and know how to manage it. They must be able to make decisions based on what's best for their forum rather than going with what they personally prefer.
If you know the above totally isn't you, then you're not head admin material - you're better off trying to find someone who is head admin material, convincing them that your forum idea is the best idea ever, and then shoving them at this guide. If you're not sure whether or not you are up to doing the above, I actually suggest giving it a try - I didn't know that I could be that kind of a person myself until I built my first forum. If you're completely sure that you could do all of the above with no problems and haven't run a successful forum before, I suspect that you're being a bit generous in your assessment of yourself and are about to have a bit of a humbling experience...
Step 3 - Come Up With A Fantastic Theme
If you already think you have a good idea, proceed to Step 4 - if you're wrong about your idea being good, you'll probably never be able to get through Step 4 so that's a good proving ground.
If you don't have any ideas at all, ponder upon what you'd like to write about for ideas. A large percentage of forums are based around a book, movie, or other media and if your theme is based upon one that's popular then it will help attract attention to your site. But that is hardly everything - plenty of successful forums have an original theme or are based on something more obscure. In those cases, you simply need to make sure that your site makes it as quick and easy as possible to bring new people who have no idea what's going on up to speed. What's really important about your chosen theme is two things: Whether or not it's fun to write about, and whether or not it establishes a unique site identity.
Mind you, that doesn't mean you can't make a forum on a theme that's very popular. Take this one, for example: there are forums based around DC Comics, Batman, etc. springing up all the time. What's unique about this site is that it's not based around Batman specifically, but is not based more specifically on the recent movies like most Batman-focused sites - instead it's based on the animated series/comics. If comics based Batman sites were more popular, we could emphasize our animated-loving roots and still be unique. The point is that you should be just enough different that you don't get totally lost in a sea of sites who are practically clones.
Pro Tip: It's best to choose a name for your site that tells people the theme of your site - our name tells you that we're a Batman forum. If our name was something more poetic like 'Midnight On The Rooftop', it would mostly serve to make people scratch their heads and not bother trying to figure out what we're about.
Step 4 - Find a Core Group
This step is often skipped and that's probably a key reason why so many new sites fail. If you don't start with a core group of players, then what you're basically doing is hoping that one spontaneously appears when you build the forum. This sometimes actually happens, but the odds are spotty enough that you're significantly better off if you do. What you need is 4-5 players (including yourself) who agree that your forum idea is so awesome that they're willing to commit to being active with at least 1 character for at least 3 months when you build the forum. These can be friends, friends of friends, etc. but you should know them well enough to be reasonably sure that they'll actually do it.
If you can't find that many players, there could be several reasons and most of them mean that building your forum is probably not a good idea, at least at that time. It may be that your forum idea is not as fantastic as you think it is - sometimes you'll find your opinion of what would be fun to play just isn't shared by a lot of people. Though it may also be your timing is bad - if all the people you're hoping to convince say they can't do it because they're busy with school or something, the odds are high that a large chunk of the people you're hoping will join your forum have the same problem.
Among these 4-5 players, at least one of you must have the following skills:
- A basic understanding of html and css - you don't need to be an expert, but you should at least be familiar with the fundamentals of editing those codes.
- The ability to edit graphics without making them look terrible.
- Design skills, meaning the ability to pick a color scheme, fonts, etc. that don't look terrible.
Ideally, it's you, the prospective head admin, who has these skills so that you don't need to rely on someone else. But if you don't then that's not a deal-breaker since you just need them to make the site look fantastic and after that you only need them if you want to change something later - and if the person who made the site isn't available, if you have more than a few members then there's actually good odds that at least one of them has enough skill to make small changes.
You should also pick at least a couple of your core group to be staff to help you with what will hopefully be a flood of new members. If you have admin experience and loads of free time, you may be safe to be a solo admin with a few moderators assisting until the site really gets going. Otherwise you'll want to choose at least one co-admin to help you, preferably someone with admin experience themselves if you're lacking in that area yourself.
Step 5 - Setup Your Forum
Now is when you should finally go sign up with ProBoards or another forum service and actually start building your forum. What you need is pretty standard: at minimum, you need to have rules, something explaining your fantastic theme, a place to sign up for a character, a place to talk OOC, a place for other sites to advertise so that they don't complain at you for advertising on their boards without one, and of course a few RP boards. Other useful things include a way for guests to communicate with you - a chatbox is great for this, but a board that guests can post on also works - and an archive. Exactly how you do things beyond that is more up to you.
Tips:
A good way to decide what to have on your board is to go look at other boards and steal any ideas they have that seem to fit your board's needs. But be sure to look at many boards because each board has it's own unique set of needs - for example, some sites don't need a Season indicator in their sidebar, while others do.
Also, especially to start with, resist the temptation to start with too many RP boards. While your site is just getting started, a smaller number of RP boards encourages all the characters to gather together in one spot, and that's useful when there's not very many people. Once you have more members you can add in more boards.
How you set up your character approval process is critical - you need to decide how high to set the bar when it comes to how well your members need to be able to write and such. The higher you set the bar, the fewer people who happen by your site will be able to join. On the flip-side, the lower you set the bar, the more really good writers will skip over your forum because people like to write with people at about the same skill level. Sometimes your theme makes the decision for you - if your site's theme mostly appeals to teenagers then you're going to have to set the bar low because most teenagers aren't the best writers. There's nothing wrong with setting the bar low, mind you - people who can't write well need a place to practice if they're going to get any better - but you need to know where it's at when you design your application.
The best way to design your application is to make a profile for your own first character - figure out what information other members need to know about your character, and format it nicely. Then look over your profile for areas you did better on than you needed to in order to meet what you consider to be your minimum standard - perhaps you wrote a five paragraph background when you figure that three is probably sufficient? Once you've noted that, prepare a copy of that profile with the information on your particular character replaced by instructions for that section of the app, so that you have a template for new members to copy.
Do not declare yourself done with setup until your forum looks fantastic, all the boards are made, all the rules and other info are posted, most if not all of your core group have their applications finished and approved, and your core group has started at least two RP threads.
Step 6 - Advertise
Only then are you ready to advertise. Advertising too early is a terrible idea, since people are more likely to check out a forum they've never heard of before and you want the place to look like it's not so new that it's nothing is happening - a lot of people will give you a pass just because they know how hard it is to be the first one. This is where your core group helps you - they get some plots started and people checking out your new forum will see that it's fully up and running and won't be so timid about giving your site a chance.
When it comes to your actual advertisement, pictures are better than words, and simple is best. The idea is not to convince the person looking at it that your site is the best ever then and there, it's simply to get them to come and take a look so that the site itself can convince them to join. A pic that gives them some sense of the site, perhaps a short statement that seems to promise that you're awesome, links to more info, and you're done. Also, keep in mind that other forums often include codes and coding that will change how your advertisement looks and it's best not to fight that - whatever their default fonts, text colors, etc. are, they're living with it themselves and therefore you can assume that your ad will at least be readable. The simpler your coding is, the less likely it is that the forums you post it to will chew it into an unrecognizable mess.
When you start advertising, remember that the more sites you get your ad on, the better. You should aim to post on literally over a thousand places within the first week. And yes, you can find that many - each site should have an ad board where you can find ads to places you probably haven't posted yet. Just keep clicking your way through and you'll find a lot.
Step 7 - Be Lucky
Even if you have the best forum setup ever, there's always the possibility for disaster. Sometimes people just don't come. Sometimes what you thought was a solid core group all quit on you. But generally speaking, if your site is still going - as in there are at least a few RP posts per week - then there's still hope even if the number of members is small. If it's less than that, odds are that the RP will slow to a trickle, and then nothing. At that point it's best to start a new site from scratch - as reluctant as people are to join sites, they're even less likely to entertain the idea trying to bring one back from the dead.
Step 8 - Maintenance
If your site is doing well, you'll find yourself falling into a pattern of approving characters, advertising, and doing other admin chores instead of site building. Be sure to add in things like clearing out inactive members and stuff like that - just like everything else, if you don't keep your forum clean it will start to get cluttered and unpleasant. Other than that, you simply need to keep an eye out for any looming problems - if you pay enough attention to see problems before they get serious, then you can usually fix them before they ruin everything.
