Member Exchanges

[Yappi]

This is a new idea that I don't think I've seen posted on here before.

I've seen people using the referral system that vBulletin affords us but never to the extent that we probably should. We all have members that frequently visit other boards because no board will have all the information that will satisfy every single person's needs. I think it's time we took advantage of this and start a "member exchange".

Basically, the way that it will work is that we join together and start promoting other sites in the group. For every member that you refer, you are then "owed" a member from someone else in the group.

I want to start this with about 20 people to test it out and get a set way of handling it. After that, we would open it up for others to join.

So if you are interested in trying this out, please email me here:
[email protected]

The requirements that I have so far are:

• Have an active vBulletin forum.
• The ability to advertise the other sites.
• Be responsible and don't try to cheat by signing up with aliases

Any constructive feedback on this idea is welcome also.

[t()mbst()ne]

Nah

Myself, i dont think many would bother doing that as people would join your/others forums just for the sake of joining and never post because they like sticking to one maybe two good forums they like.

Also, i wouldnt advertise anyone elses forum/site/network on my site/forums, that is defeating the whole point to making a forum in the first place, as most people use there forum to build a community for there site.

Just my humble opinion

[Yappi]

I understand your point, but I have to disagree. I think that is the hurdle that I will have to get over. So to start, I'll use your forum as an example.

I checked out your site and found that you have gaming site with forums with a few other sections for other stuff. In particular, the one that grabbed my attention was the sports board (that's what my site is all about). I looked in and saw the most recent post was made in March. So it looks like you have a few people interested in sports, just not enough topics to keep them occupied. My site will occasionally have topics about video games but not very often and definitely not enough to support a seperate forum.

So the way that I look at it is if I sent 1-2 people to register for your site and you sent 1-2 people to register for my site, I will probably still maintain those 2 posters on my site and you will have 2 new posters (and vice versa). Now if you made this type of trade with 20 other sites, you would have an additional 20-40 posters.

So the question really is - is how many of these members will ONLY come to one site and how many will actively seek out other forums that fill their needs in addtion to that one site? I believe the answer is quite a few surf multiple sites and if I can get a few new ones by recommending others to them, then it's worth it to me.

[filburt1]

Members aren't stats or just objects you can trade...they're individual people. Just make your site a nice and productive place for everybody and you won't have problems.

[Yappi]

filburt1, not sure that your post adds much to the discussion, but I'll take a stab at answering it.

Of course posters are individuals. That is why we have forums like this to help build communities. Many posters surf more than one forum and if I can help my site by referring them to another quality site, why wouldn't I do that? For a site to grow, you need more than just a nice site that you take care of. You need to get people to visit your site and this is just a new way of getting people to do just that.

Curious thing about your signature: "now 1000+ members". Kind of contradicts what you just wrote...

[Andrew-ningc]

i totally agree with t()mbst()ne, the idea of my forum is to cater as much as possible for my users. And if i didn't aim for that, why have a forum in the first place?

I visit 2 boards, my own and vbulletin, my own for obvious reasons, but vbulletin because it is a total different forum, it caters mainly for webmasters.

The example you gave is a clash, both boards cater for both types of topics, but both types of topics are acceptable in both forums.

I think what you wrote about filburt1 comment, and his sig is a bit out of order, anyone who achieves 1000 members, 10000 topics etc... feels its a great acomplishment. I nearly have 3000 members, i don't judge my forum on how well it is doing by the amount of members, but the idea of having 3000 members is very nice.

I am sure you will also celebrate when you get to 100,000 posts, but dosen't mean post count is all.

People feel this type of thing will cause a threat to their forum rather than help, and i agree, i don't want to lose active members, even if i get the same amount in return. Someone has to lose out somewhere along the line, and i would perfer to play safe.

[Yappi]

First, about the comment to filburt1, I thought his comments were totally out of line. To assume that because of this idea that I consider my members as objects is insulting. I have 6,163 members on one of my sites and I do everything that I can to keep them happy. I surpassed 100,000 posts a long time ago and really didn't pay much attention to it because stats like that are meaningless. The only thing I really want is more members that can enjoy the communities that I am building.

Second, both forums do not cater to the same topics. My site has a general forum where anything off-topic goes into. That is the place where discussions about online gaming take place. The posts are very few and really don't have much appeal to most of the members of my site. Those that do enjoy the gaming stuff have other forums that they visit to talk about it with other like-minded individuals.

Most successful forums that I've seen deal with narrow subjects and then open up related sections if there is enough interest in other items. My site is a good example, we deal in Ohio HS sports and have opened up a few college and professional sections. I've opened up a totally different forum that deals with movies. I've sent people to the new forum and populated it with a few new members from my original site. I haven't lost any of those members on the original site but have been able to build the second site to a decent number. What I'm looking to do now is do this again with other sites so I can grow this second site alot quicker.

The way that I look at this is it really isn't much different than having a link trade with a number of other sites, but this way, it is easier to track which sites are actually being productive.