Forum Design
What is the secret to getting quality groups going?
You may have various reasons for starting a group.
It may be just a general chat group in which you tolerate whatever people say or talk about and it may just be a distraction or a way to kill time. At the other end of the spectrum it may be a very serious group devoted to specific, serious issues in which case you are going to want to have a very high level, top quality group with the best possible participants. How can you possibly get a quality group going?
My suggestions, based on my experience with running a very large number of groups, are as follows:
This will undoubtedly make you quite unhappy because you know why you want to start the group.
The beauty is this: the system is that there's no problem with it. The Internet has many more groups than you would every be able to imagine. There's no problem whatsoever having a niche group which discusses what you want. The best part of this method is that there's no down side.
Although you do have to wait longer to start up the group - until you have assembled the right people - then you will be able to control the quality, direction, and philosophy and you can fine tune it to whatever you like.
Perhaps you will alienate some people who are inappropriate for the group. So what? If they're inappropriate then that should not bother you.
You will, in the long run, have a great deal more much more satisfaction by running the group in this manner and your group will be far more successful.
Furthermore, as time goes on you can control the level of the people who join the group. Try to find out about each new subscriber. If a subscriber should not join the group then tell him or her so, tell them so right up front so that they will not be misled. Again, you want to have the right people that will make you happy and make the group happy and will meet your needs.
This concept of delaying the initiation or the start of the group until you have it going the way you want it with the right people becomes easier as you have other groups. You will be frustrated waiting.
Of course you can speed up the initiation of the group by publicizing it in the right circles.
But you knew that already, right?
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