It is hard to believe another year has passed here at FreeForums.org! Whether or not you visit the Support Forum for FreeForums.org we are hard at work helping our valued customers day after day. For nearly three years I have been a Support Staff for FreeForums.org and it has been a pleasure working with thousands of customers. As always, if you’re struggling with something on your forum, think you’ve found a bug, or just want to stop by and join the support forum, we are happy to see you!

In the past, the Support Forum was a hub of communication for FreeForums.org users to discuss and interact with the common interest of forums. Unfortunately, in recent years, the community aspect of the Support Forum has been greatly diminished. This is something we would like to change in 2013. The Support Forum has much more to offer than just support. We have a huge Forum Promotion section where forum owners are free to promote their forums to other users. In addition, we have a Feedback and Suggestions forum where you can provide us with valuable feedback concerning our service and of course suggest changes for future features and services. Finally, the Off Topic board is a place where you can discuss basically anything with other FreeForums.org forumers. Whether it is suggestions for your site or insightful discussion, almost everything can be discussed in this forum. As an added bonus, both Administrators and Support Staff frequently join in on these conversations, so you have ample opportunity to find out about new features and get to know the people who help run FreeForums.org day-to-day. If any of this interests you, please stop by and check out the Support Forum! Feel free to introduce yourself and get to know fellow FreeForums.org forumers!

Along with restoring the Support Forum community in 2013, we are also looking for new volunteer Support Staff to help our customers troubleshoot and effectively use their forums. While these positions are unpaid, there are some perks to volunteering at the Support Forum. Generally, the administrators look for motivated forumers who are familiar with phpBB3 and specifically the FreeForums.org platform. Further criteria were discussed in one of our past blog posts: Support Staff: What we look for.  If this sounds like you, just join the Support Forum and start helping out in the support section. You can find out more about applying in the Hiring Volunteer Support Staff topic at the Support Forum. The job is pretty simple but quite fun so if you have a passion to help others, feel free to apply!

In closing, I would like to thank all of our customers on behalf of FreeForums.org and Crowdgather for a fantastic year! We honestly appreciate your choosing FreeForums.org and will continue to strive to make your forum experience memorable. For 2013, I hope your forums continue to grow and flourish and that you continue to enjoy our services. As always, if you have any questions or concerns you can stop by the Support Forum and let us know.

Happy New Year,

Sabre

Support Team Member

You have an idea for a great forum, now all you need is a catchy domain name that not only describes your forum, but is easy to remember. Remember that there is nothing wrong with stepping outside the box to give your forum a truly unique URL, but don’t get too carried away, as there are literally millions of domains being used. I can assure you that there are many that are almost exactly alike.

Basic guidelines to follow.
You don’t want your URL to be too long. Remembering a long URL to type in and search can be a real pain, and can furthermore make it hard to advertise. Seeing as though no one can remember it. Along those same lines, it is also a much better idea to always find an available “.com”. You could have the most catchy domain name ever, but because it ends with “.org” or “.net”, many will forget that and type in “.com” instead. This can not only cause people to not find your forum, but can also cause them to run across the wrong forum, and you definitely don’t want that.

Things to avoid.
There are a couple of small mistakes that a lot of people make when choosing a domain name. These problems, if not avoided, can make your forum hard to find, or can simply trash up the look of your domain name. Here we go:

1) Don’t use digits in your domain name. This can easily confuse internet surfers, and will result in them many times not finding your forum.

2) Don’t use foul language. The best way to give people a bad first impression of your forum is to use an inappropriate term in your URL. Avoid this at all cost.

3) Avoid using dashes, periods, and other such punctuation marks as well. Most people will simply forget it, and instead run it all together, giving them a “Cannot connect to server” page, or someone else’s forum

A proper domain name is crucial, don’t take its selection lightly. Take your time, ask for suggestions and other’s opinions, and give it lots of thought before finally making a decision.

Our biggest question from customers is by far “how can I get more members on my forum?” While we have some great articles in our knowledgebase, I want to go over a new concept today: making things public.

A lot of forums make it so you have to register and login to view content. This is counterproductive in many ways, and will hurt your membership significantly. Here’s two big reasons you may want to rethink making your forum private:

• Search Traffic
  If your forum isn’t viewable to guests, search engine bots are unable to crawl and index content. What does this mean? Your forum won’t be listed in Google, Yahoo, Bing, or any other search engines. This puts you at a huge disadvantage to other forums because less members will join your forum.
• Give them a reason to join
  If all your content is hidden, most visitors to your forum will simply leave. They want to see what the forum is like. They want to be shown a reason why they should stick around. If you hide everything and make people register, you will get less members. Would you buy something in a store without seeing it? Probably not, and the same is true with forums.

As you can see unless your goal is to have as few members as possible, you need to have a public forum. Our research has shown that public forums get up to 30% more members than private ones! To make your forum public just make sure Guests have access to view forums and read topics. If you want help making your forum public just post on our support forum @ http://support.freeforums.org.

One ticket for One Issue
Keep tickets as targeted to one specific issue as possible. We actually prefer you opening 5 tickets than one long never-ending ticket. The longer the ticket gets, the more the next tech has to read in order to get caught up and can be frustrating to both the customer and the techs working on it.

Forum url
We installed a custom mod requiring you to enter your forum’s url when you post a ticket for a reason: We need it! Over 95% of problems are forum specific and we can’t fix it without knowing the url to your forum.

Come clean and admit it
If you messed with the cookie settings and can’t login, banned yourself, deactivated the admin account, or just have no idea what button you pressed, don’t worry about it. We’re not going to engrave your name on the forum hall of shame. We all make mistakes and admitting yours will get your problem resolved much faster.

Research
There is a goldmine of information out there that can help solve your problem. Half of forum questions can be solved by a simple Google search. As they say, GIYF! (Google is your friend).

Close the issue
When your problem is resolved, update it and say “thanks, that fixed it” so we know to close the issue. Not doing so will lead to stale tickets floating around and slowing down the support process.

The “Thank you”
After 6 years of tech support I’ve come to the conclusion that a support tech is one of the most thankless jobs in the world. Lets face it, when was the last time someone opened a ticket just wanting to say “thanks for all the hard work.” Never. Every email or ticket includes a problem that needs to be resolved and usually an agitated or frustrated user on the other end. When your ticket is resolved ending with a simple “thank you” can do wonders.

How do they do it? How is it, that every time they post people will agree with them no matter what they say? Sometimes their pos will be quoted for the rest of the topic, and then replied to with much praise. When these people speak, others listen. An interesting fact, and you can’t help but wonder why.

What are Forum Celebrities?
Forum Celebrities are people who have made such a strong reputation for themselves, that when they have something to say, other members quiet down and listen up, and only the other Forum Celebs can possibly withstand their “by all and end all” voice. The little guys have nothing on them. Taking one down in debate is nearly impossible, even if they’re wrong, and if you are able to somehow take one down, your name will forever be etched in other members’ minds.

How did they become such celebrities?
Most of the time, Forum Celebrities are the ones who have been on the forum for pretty much as long as it has existed. They will normally have thousands more posts than anyone else, and will have join dates far older than the rest. Forum Celebrities can also come about, by simply being known for making highly intelligent and usually long posts. Celebs can also become popular by being the absolute opposite, a playful, harmless troll. Someone who’s posts are never long, but generally a smart-alec, quick-witted response to someone else, that can make readers belly laugh for several minutes, and sometimes the rest of the night (definitely speaking from experience here). Whatever they may have done, Forum Celebrities are those people who have simply made a name for themselves, by standing out from the others.

The good, and the bad.
Which do you want to start with, good or bad? Oh right, this is my article. We’ll go with the bad first.

Cons
The biggest problem with Forum Celebrities, is also the most obvious. If they have so much influence over the other members, then they are bound to win or come out on top of whatever discussion they may be in, even if what they are saying is false. This can be very frustrating to the members who are going against them, and are actually making sense. Sometimes if a member goes against a Celeb, other members will not support the one, even if they know they are right. They simply will not post at all. They would rather not take sides, considering the one side is wrong, but would also make them look bad in the eyes of the Celeb, because,everyone wants to be the Celeb’s friend. This can cause much frustration for certain members, and because the Celeb has such a strong presence there, it can leave a bad taste in the mouth of the annoyed member(s) for the entire forum.

Pros
Thankfully, the pros generally outweigh the cons, or at least equal them. While Forum Celebrities can make things irritating for certain members, if what they are saying is generally correct, or goes along with the popular opinion, Forum Celebrities can be the main draw of the forum. Their continuous activity and posting will bring back members every day to see what their latest response was to a major debate they are in. It can also absolutely make the day of a newbie, when a Celeb quotes them, and agrees with them. This can pump up the self-esteem and confidence of the newbie so much, that their desire to be on the forum will increase ten fold. Forum Celebrities can be an annoyance to some, but they can also be a key structural pillar.

If your forum is popular, you are bound to have a few of these Forum Celebrities. Appreciate them, at least for the fact that they have stuck around. Just make sure that you don’t favor them, as this would quickly lead to a bad situation, and probably a disgruntled member somewhere. Oh and, definitely don’t make a Paparazzi group. That would be overkill.

To those of you out there who are considering creating a forum, though have not, a very common and important question that may be going through your head right about now, is just what should the subject matter be about, and how big should the forum be?

Subject matter.
Too many people I feel will make a forum that they think will do well, even if it’s on a subject matter that they don’t care about. This is rarely ever a good idea. The reason why is very easy to figure out. Starting a successful forum requires hard work from the founding Admin. This in 95% of cases means that the Admin needs to have a passion for the subject(s) the forum covers. If you don’t, you’ll burn out quicker than the fire in my wood burning stove that I’m not tending to like I should be. This being said, pick something that you enjoy. Something that will keep you coming back to your forum to work and to better improve.

Specific or broad?
This will greatly depend on what subject you choose to make your forum about. If it’s gaming, then you’ll have a definite subject. This can be narrowed down even more, by making a more detailed forum regarding just one subject of the gaming industry. Take for example, instead of a forum on all consoles ever made, you have a Wii based forum. This kind of forum will generally be much smaller, but more detailed. If you decide however, to be a bit more general about it, you’ll end up with a larger forum that covers all the consoles. Whatever subject you may choose, you can expand on it however you like. Whether it’s everything about that subject, or specific points, your choice.

Everything I just covered though, still falls under specific. Some forums are massive, and cover everything you could possibly imagine without being too ridiculous. At the top of the forum, you could be talking about puppies, and at the bottom, you could be talking about how to stoke fires (which is something I need to be doing right about now if I haven’t already mentioned that). These forums are, contrary to popular belief, the hardest ones to get off the ground. Why? They require two to three times more Staff, and because they are so broad, some people can’t ever feel like they are enjoying any one specific subject to the fullest. Chances are, they will go off somewhere else, and join two or three forums that cover their interests in more detail. Not to say that these forums can’t work, but you better be prepared for a larger workload. If a large and broad forum of course is what you want, go for it.

How many forums is too many forums?
Ever been to a forum where you feel like it takes you 15 minutes just to reach the bottom of the Index Page? Man I have, and believe me, I hate it. Large and broad forums require this in most situations, so it can be understandable. For some forums however, half of the forums on the page aren’t even being used, or have at most 2 topics in them. This is not good for your forum’s appearance. It’s sloppy and gives off a very cluttered feel. Either use subforums to keep closely related subjects together, or eliminate them entirely. Having a forum for every little specific side of a certain subject is simply not necessary. Again, this is where subforums come in real handy. In short, be smart and efficient in the structural building of your forum. Also, if your forum becomes super active, and you feel it needs things to be sectioned off, then don’t be afraid to. As communities grow, forums change.

Getting started can be difficult, but it can also be incredibly fun. Forum construction is something I greatly enjoy, and I think you will too. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a nearly out fire to check on. >_>

Something pretty much every forum has, are members who for some reason other than simply wanting to tick you off, constantly break the rules. This can be a very irritating thing and can cause uneasiness for Administrators, especially for forums that are just getting started, and that don’t have a solid member base to support them. Who would want to ban one of the five most active members on your forum? No one, obviously, but you know it has to be done, and so you need to know where to draw the line, and how.

Using a simple process.
Most Staff will simply use their discretion, and in most cases this is probably the best way to handle it. Certain infractions may be greater than others, and there’s also the member’s attitude to consider. Though it can be hard to tell sometimes, a new member may say or do something that is not allowed, but because of the fact that they are new, they simply didn’t know. Jumping to the extreme and banning them right away is rarely the best solution. The infraction would need to be major, and obviously deliberate. The way I always generally handled it, was to give each user three strikes. If they broke the rules, I would warn them, and after about 60 days I would lift the warning. Anyone who breaks the rules three times in 60 days is probably not a member you’re going to want to contend with right on out. This of course still allows however for a more serious punishment if indeed the infraction was serious. Members who reached the third strike would get a two week ban. If they received three strikes in 60 days again, I would up to a month. After that, ban hammer time.

Trolololololo!
Oh yes, there are PLENTY of these guys around. Members who come on for the sole purpose of making you wish you hadn’t got out of bed that morning. Don’t let them get to you! You getting all mad and flustered is exactly what they want, so don’t play their game. Some trolls are obvious, which makes them easy. You can quickly identify them as a troll, and ban their pathetic selves immediately. Others however, tend to rely more on finesse. They’ll push the envelope constantly, but because they’re never actually breaking the rules, you can’t get on to them, or so that’s what they think. Truth is, you are the Administrator, you get to decide. If you notice a member who is consistently pushing the envelope, just because they aren’t technically breaking a rule, don’t hesitate to confront them about it. Such members are simply a disturbance to the rest of your community, and one rotten apple can ruin a bushel full of good ones.

Being strict doesn’t mean being rude or overly harsh. It means you firmly stand by your rules and principles for whatever the reason. Members who are turned off by this aren’t worth having, so for you young forums, don’t be afraid to get rid of them. You’ll be way better off in the long run.

Being a Support Staff at FreeForums.org has been a great experience so far and I can only expect it to be better as time goes on. After being on the Support Team for ten months, I have worked with and met many users from around the world. It is my goal to try to assist everyone to the best of my abilities. At the Support Forum we do our very best every day to help everyone we can in a timely manner.

For a little background about me, I am a sixteen year old from Alberta, Canada. I enjoy reading, writing, foruming, shopping with friends, playing board games with family, and going to the occasional party. I’ve been using FreeForums.org since e November 2008 and have always enjoyed the features that they’ve had. Finally, after building up a bit of courage in February 2010 I applied to the Support Team. Since then I’ve learned so much about FreeForums.org and phpBB in general.

On the average day I answer the various support questions from the oldest to newest in the Support Forums. Afterward, I look through and moderate the other sections of the Support Forum. As Support Staff we look out for possible bugs and other concerns that may be affecting FreeForums.org. Being the newest Support Staff here I have learned a lot from the people around me. Wickett (Paul) was a great help in getting me started at the Support Forum and his input and advice has always been appreciated and valued. Jackal and Division have also been a great help, they are highly dedicated to FreeForums.org and have been extremely good at keeping the Support Team up-to-date with the goings on at FreeForums.org. There are quite a few perks to being a support staff. If you think you ever want to become a support staff, feel free to come and help out at the Support Forum. For more information about applications you can read here: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=52930

I hope to continue helping everyone out at the Support Forum in the New Year. If you ever have an issue or a problem that you need help with never hesitate to ask about it at the Support Forum. We are there every day to help out with various questions or concerns that you might have. If you every want to say “Hi” Feel free to send me a Private Message at the Support Forum, however, please post any support related questions in the appropriate support forum. If you’re at the support forum, you can also post in the Off Topic section to discuss anything from FreeForums.org to your favorite color. As well, posting in the Feedback and Service Suggestions forum will allow you to suggest future MODs/features that you may want installed. You never know, your MOD might just get installed!

I wish everyone a happy and healthy new year. With 2011 right around the corner there will be plenty of new features at FreeForums.org and as always the Support Team will be there to help you out with them. Stay tuned for future information about FreeForums.org updates at the Support Forum or in the Monthly FreeForums.org Newsletter which is sent to the founding e-mail address for your forum.

Happy New year,

Sabre
Support Team Member

At FreeForums.org we are always improving our service and support. We invite all users to take our customer survey and tell us what you would like to see improved.  Our promise to you is a FreeForums.org staff member will review every single entry! Your two minutes will help make FreeForums.org better for everyone.

-The FreeForums.org Team