Foreword:
Actually, I have a deep affection for the community. I started making websites in 2003 and first came into contact with community websites in 2004. It has been seven years now and I have also come into contact with many forum programs. One of them was in the early days. Duxiu Dongwang dvbbs, and later leadbbs 6KBBS Discuz phpWIND, etc. I have basically used and explored all of them, but in fact these community software are all similar in performance, but the only change is the continuous improvement in functionality!
Characteristics of forum BBS
The forum is a relatively old product. Whether it is in terms of user habits or product maturity, the forum has inherent advantages that are unmatched by other products. To this day, the forum product is still loved by the majority of webmasters. !So we can find that websites that are successful with forums always live longer than other types of websites. Forum bbs can meet the needs of sharing knowledge and enable communication between people. Moreover, the forum is a product that many people have come into contact with, so users can use it easily!
About operations
First of all, I would also like to make it clear that I only talk about my own experience regarding operations. There may be mistakes in them, and they are only for your reference and learning. Experience is gained in practice. At best, other people’s experience can only help you avoid some detours!
Nowadays, there are many choices for community software, but most people basically choose PHPWIND and DISCUZ. The first thing you need to judge is what type of community you want to build. My personal suggestion is that if you are building a local website or For communities that do not require too many functions, I recommend choosing PHPWIND, because PHPWIND strongly supports local websites. The very famous local websites such as Hualong Lane and 19th Floor all use PHPWIND programs. In other industries, I recommend using DZ, because I personally feel that DZ is better than PHPWIND in terms of functionality and maturity. And in terms of the number of users, DZ is far larger than PHPWIND!
Now I will mainly talk about the operation of the community from 6 aspects.
1: Section settings
Anyone who builds a forum website knows that before setting up a forum, you first need to plan and position it, and then build sections based on the positioning. Different fields must have different sections. Today I will mainly talk about some things you need to know and pay attention to when setting up sections!
The first thing you must pay attention to when building a community website is that it should be rough in the early stage and detailed in the later stage. I found that there is a problem in many community websites, that is, the forum has just been online. When the popularity is not enough and there are not many posts, there are many sections. Some forums even have hundreds of sections as soon as they are online. In fact, this This is a very wrong approach. First of all, the forum has just been launched and is definitely not popular in terms of popularity. Assume that our forum has 10 members online, but we have 100 sections, so on average there are only 0.1 members in each section. Think about it, who wants to be in a forum? How about browsing a website that has no popularity? Suppose we have 10 members, but we only have one section. In this case, all 10 members are in one section, so that the forum will appear popular, at least it will not feel deserted! Another One is that there are certain differences between Chinese netizens and foreign netizens. Chinese netizens are very lazy. They always like to look at and play with the ready-made and do not like to use their brains. Therefore, if you set up too many sections, it will make netizens unhappy. I know how to play, but I don’t know where to play anymore!
The focus of the second forum must be highlighted. The reason why many forums have many sections is that they feel that everything is useful and no section will be the same if it is missing. There is a weird idea of being big and comprehensive. In fact, I also had this idea in 2004. At that time, I did It's not a forum, but an entertainment website. At that time, my main focus should be to watch MTV online, but because I had a big and comprehensive idea, I created many columns myself, such as what classmates were admitted to, literature, making friends, etc. , but later I discovered that the more columns there were, the greater my workload was. Over time, I was too lazy to update and manage. Users were only interested in MTV, and everything else was just a cloud! The same goes for community forums. You must do it. To get out of the big and comprehensive weird thinking, a forum must clearly define the key sections and core sections. Based on these main sections, to accumulate popularity, other sections can be used as auxiliary! In addition, it should be noted that the sections must be clearly prioritized. The main section must be placed in the front, and the rest of the sections should be placed in the back. Don't make a forum that is just a forum and put it first. This will not work!
The third is to have a section for communication and learning, as well as a section for entertainment and leisure. A forum full of water posts has no meaning at all, and users will not last long. But a forum full of learning is not good. Most people go online to have fun. If there is no fun to find, your forum It will also become lifeless, so no matter what type of forum it is, it must have entertainment projects, otherwise it will be difficult to retain popularity!
2: Content strategy
Many people think that original content is good content, especially those who do SEO. In fact, there is a big misunderstanding here. A good content should be liked by users, whether it is original or reposted, as long as it is liked by users. , the popularity is high, then he is a good type. There is one thing you must pay attention to about the content of the forum, because the forum is quite special. Unlike information stations, it cannot be reprinted blindly. No matter how good the author of the content is, no matter how good the article is, it cannot be considered a good piece of content. Good forum content must be based on the real experiences of real people. For example, "I was late for work again today." As long as it is posted by a real member, it is also good content. At least it is real. A sentence or a complaint is all. Good content. When building a forum, it is very important to guide user interaction, and this should be paid great attention to. The other is illegal posts. Let me briefly mention them here. As we all know, the country has increasingly strict requirements on personal websites, so some illegal posts must be dealt with as soon as possible.
Three: User group settings
User groups are a function of the forum itself, but I found that many webmasters have ignored this function. Many people use the default settings, and some even use them directly without changing the user group name. In fact, this function is quite useful. Yes, if used well, it can also bring some activity to the forum. The first is that the user group name should be combined with the forum theme, so that it feels more intimate. The second is that the user group must be set up to be interesting. If the forum wants to be popular, it must be fun. The third is to satisfy the vanity of most people. I think most people can understand this. Everyone has vanity. Why do some people hang up every day for the QQ level, and some people just want to get the yellow diamond to level 7? Paying an annual fee, even if it is of no use to you, why are online games so popular? In fact, these are spiritual opiates. Many people are not as good as they want in reality, so they go to the Internet to find sustenance. Some people want to be the big brother in online games, so Level up every day, spend money to buy equipment every day! This is human vanity, and the same goes for forums. Although it is not as in-depth as online games, it still satisfies some vanity. The settings of user groups, such as supervisor, general manager, director, CEO, users will like these possibilities that cannot be realized in reality, especially when members in the forum call him "general", which greatly satisfies his vanity. Secondly, the levels must be easy first and then difficult. Why this is done? You will understand if you look at online games.
Four: Points setting
If a forum wants to be successful, operation is the key, and the key to operation is guidance. Many people understand this, but many people don’t understand how to guide it. In fact, there are several necessary factors for guidance, among which the most important and core It is the forum points system, or the economic system of the forum!
This is the same as in reality. If a country's economy is good, healthy, and complete, and can form a virtuous cycle, then the country must develop well, and the society must be united and stable. If there is a problem with the economic system of a country, then various problems in the entire society will also appear! The same is true for forums. The points of a forum are healthy development, and the enthusiasm and activity of members will also be mobilized. !
Be sure not to set too many types of first points. Each type of point has its own role and is unique and irreplaceable. Each additional point will increase the point balance of the forum, and users themselves can easily get confused!
The name of the second point must be personalized. The default point name of many forum programs is money. We should not make it so tacky. If we change it, it may be more meaningful and interesting.
The most important point of the third point is to give it a role. Simply put, points need to have a role to have value. The greater the role, the higher the value, the greater the user's desire to get, and the enthusiasm can be well mobilized. Look up, just like Tencent Q Coin, the reason why Q Coin affects real currencies is that it plays a very important role!
The fourth is not to make it too easy to get points, and set them up in a reasonable and standardized way, otherwise it will be easy for currency inflation, and the entire economic system of the forum will collapse. For example, in my current forum, it is because the points were not well planned in the early days that the points are now inflated. , it also loses its value. Set the points reasonably to make the points more valuable.
Regarding points, I will write a special article to introduce it in detail in the future. I will only write so much here for now.
Five: Forum activities
For forums, activities are a must and can enhance the stickiness of the forum.
1: There must be fixed activities and temporary activities. For fixed activities, you can do some activities such as exchanging points for advertising spaces, giving away points on the T floor, etc., and for temporary activities, you can do some irregular points auctions, exchanging points for items, writing essays, etc.
2: Activities need to be combined with points and medals, such as giving points and medals through activities. Activities do not necessarily have to give points, points can also be spent, and there must be gains and losses, such as auctions.
3: Activities must bring benefits to users, otherwise it will be in vain. It is better not to do it. The benefits can be spiritual or material. In general, users should be happy!
4: As a local forum, it also needs to carry out some offline activities, because I still need more learning about offline activities, so I will only say a few points. The activities can be simpler, such as eating, singing, mountain climbing, and traveling. , when the forum is not very popular, try to do some small activities to increase the familiarity between users. After everyone knows each other, it will be more affordable and open to talk on the forum. When you can organize hundreds of people to participate During the event, you can organize some large-scale activities at this time, such as cooperating with merchants to organize essay writing activities, singing competitions and other types of activities.
Six: The last and most important one, team building!
In fact, I have had some failures in team building, especially in the local stations I started last year. I obviously felt that the team could not keep up with the development of the forum, and the personnel were difficult to manage and were unorganized. However, after a long period of exploration, I also gained some experience.
1: There must be a clear mechanism for joining the team. Some people are serious, careful, and meticulous before applying to be a moderator. Before applying, they can write a 3,000-word article to express themselves to you. If you have a clear mechanism, they will still follow you. Your theory is that you should be eclectic and you should join if you can, but after becoming a moderator, you will most likely disappear within a month. Such people are extremely unreliable and there are many, so the mechanism for entering the team must be clear and strict. Even if you can't find anyone temporarily, don't look for such people. Another thing is to find some famous people. These are unreliable. No matter what others say, the team's mechanism must be strict. If you are really capable and really want to be a moderator, you definitely don't care if you apply a few months later. And there are Celebrities, although celebrities are well-known, they are very busy. Although celebrities can play a leading role to a certain extent, they may not actually do this and will appear lazy. If there are too many such people, there will definitely be problems within the team. The problem is that this is the same as in the company. If the team does not work a lot, other people will also not work.
2: You must agree with the values of the forum. If you have different values, there will definitely be conflicts.
3: Find people who are gregarious and similar. People of the same type can work together with you to move in the same direction, and gregarious people can create a very good atmosphere.
4: Establish a warm atmosphere. There should be no hierarchy among everyone in the forum. Everyone should live in peace like brothers and sisters. If there is a distinction, it is a distinction of responsibilities.
5: Improve the assessment mechanism. Forum moderators and management are all done in their spare time. Don’t expect them to maintain a positive attitude for a long time. As time goes by, everyone will become indifferent, even in companies that pay salaries. No one can achieve the attitude of working hard all the time, so the assessment mechanism must be perfect. If it is inappropriate or should quit, persuade them to quit. The words must be tactful. For those who have managed for a long time, there must be a kind of attitude. A very good reward that makes him feel that the forum has not forgotten him and that he will not leave the forum just because he quits.
6: There must be core management. This is the same as starting a company. When the company is big, there will be sensible people!
Okay, that’s all I have to say about community operations. I hope everyone will pay more attention to my blog. I also hope you can criticize and correct the shortcomings. Here, I wish you all great traffic and popularity! I hope everyone will patronize my blog. Xiaobo: www.luoxu.org
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