What's the secret?

deirdre121 · 06-04-2003 7:59pm #1

What's the secret to getting Irish discussion forums like

http://www.boards.ie, or
http://www.irishbuyersunite.com

off the ground. How are they able to grow their subscribers?

This is something that has always puzzled me, me being a marketng consultant and all!

Deirdre

imp · 06-04-2003 8:12pm

Now now you couldn't expect the good folk at boards.ie to give away their trade secrets, could you?

}:>

deirdre121 · 06-04-2003 8:16pm

They deserve a clap on the back, almost 13,000 members is a super performance.

imp · 06-04-2003 8:23pm

No argument there

But I'm afraid I can't see Cloud or Dev giving away anything that would allow someone to compete with boards.ie

Maybe I'm wrong...

}:>

CuLT · 06-04-2003 8:32pm

Those admin, they won our hearts an stole many hours of hour lives... "demi-gods" I hear you chant?

"You are a fsking suck up CuLT" another chants...

The big secret is... who else would have tried to pull this off 5-6 years ago?

Not a chance anyone could set up another popular irish boards.ie clone at this stage, its just too big!

It's just like Microsoft, right place right time

.

Gordon · 06-04-2003 8:46pm

Originally posted by deirdre121

This is something that has always puzzled me, me being a marketng consultant and all!

Deirdre, being a marketing consultant would mean that you would find this concept difficult to grasp - it's about giving to a community as opposed to taking from a community. Isn't marketing all about taking from the people but making them feel good about it?

Pimp Ninja · 06-04-2003 8:55pm

Looking at the http://www.irishbuyersunite.com/ forums there is a moderator there called Deirdre..

Also looking at the amount of posts/threads there it does not seem to be that successful really, at least to be able to compare it to boards.

Smells a bit like a subtle attempt to get some hits on their site..

hell theres even other more "specialised" (read gaming) irish sites that get more hits than that.

anyway to quote from their FAQ

Otherwise, under no circumstance is it permitted to advertise your services, directly or indirectly, in posted messages within the IrishBuyersUnite forum without the consent of the administrator. Members violating this rule should be reported and they will then be banned from the forum.

If its the wrong Deirdre, and I'm wrong, then boy is my face red.. But sceptism is leading me down the road of the unsolicated advertisements on boards to generate hits on the new site road...

deirdre121 · 06-04-2003 9:04pm

I see there is a Sherlock Holmes out there!! It must be a different Deirdre, I'm a member of ivenus which is also successful. I saw that the irishbuyers was recently set up and it happened to cross my mind when I saw how successful boards.ie was. No harm in that I hope. Also, please give me a bit of credit on choosing a username if I had a hidden agenda.

Pimp Ninja · 06-04-2003 9:09pm

<red>My face</red>

My sincere apologies.

[added]
If giving other examples of other successful Irish boards, p45.net would be the closest competition to boards, and has far more members than IBU.

As you are a marketing consultant, I would have thought that you might have done some research and seen that there are other far more successful sites than IBU

Gordon · 06-04-2003 9:13pm

I'll tell you why irishbuyers is so quiet - people can't get on it, when I try I get "Connection refused!" popping up. Maybe they have been given a blacklist with my name on it!

deirdre121 · 06-04-2003 9:20pm

Has anyone been to ivenus? If so, how does it compare to here? Like the Irishbuyers, it has a very niche focus.

Gordon · 06-04-2003 9:24pm

Originally posted by deirdre121
Has anyone been to ivenus?

... no.

sunbeam · 06-04-2003 10:35pm

Originally posted by deirdre121
Has anyone been to ivenus? If so, how does it compare to here? Like the Irishbuyers, it has a very niche focus.

I find it ok for an occasional browse, but far too 'woman's magaziney' to bother go back there every day. I suppose I'm just not all that interested in diets and weddings etc. Their tech forums could do with an overhaul -I mean they still have one on WAP!:rolleyes:

daveirl · 07-04-2003 12:26am

This post has been deleted.

elexes · 07-04-2003 1:15am

well take into account that boards has been around since 1996 ?? wasnt it ign boards r somthn back then ?

and that some accounts are dubbles
and that about 1k of the accounts belong to ******* . but boards has been spoken word of mouth by ppl through the ages . its been in various mags and papers .

ya know its been around

TomTom · 07-04-2003 12:54pm

I suppose boards and p45 and the like had enough members at the start that stayed with them long enough for it to take off.

ecksor · 07-04-2003 4:38pm

Step 1: Amass a very large mailing list, you can buy these quite cheaply in bulk nowadays.

Step 2: Send regular mailshots telling people who great your site is. Once a week at least, once daily is better.

Step 3: Include some neat javascript tricks so that when people try to leave your site a new window pointing to some niche part of the site that they haven't seen is opened. This ensure that they won't have left before they found the forum that suits them best. When they realise how much you care about their traffic, you'll inspire subscriber loyalty.

Step 4: Get some venture capitalists on board who will focus your mind clearly on the art of profitability and make "return on investment" your mantra.

Step 5: Once you somehow manage to get a significant amount of users, start to charge for access.

Hang on, what was the question again?

You can't compete with boards. Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated. Prepare to be boarded

leeroybrown · 07-04-2003 4:49pm

Boards is a place where people actually care what goes on ... a real community.

Something like that develops organically over time and is not possible to build with venture capital and inbox filling.

I've yet to pay anything other than a cursory glance to something that trys too hard to grab my attention.

DeVore · 07-04-2003 5:01pm

Hi deirdre,

I see you got the usual welcome to boards

Gordon, while blunt, is bang on the money. I could write a thesis on this topic now. The important thing (I think) is that I COULDNT have written that thesis at the start. We really really didnt know what we were doing and we werent afraid to tell people that.
We made it up as we went along and we asked advice as we went. I think people also appreciated the refreshing honesty about that. We clearly didnt really know what we were doing and we also were clearly not doing it for the money. A culture grew and we find ourselves here.

We always talked to the people here, sure they are our mates mostly!
We all kinda collectively decide what we want tweaked and stuff and the admins are respected because imho, sparing the odd ban-rampage I go on, we respect the people that come here.

Popups, popunders, mailinglist sales, heavyhanded censorship, hardnose selling ... all of these things speak of a lack of respect of the people who are the most important thing... the community.

I've absolutely no fear about explaining how we built boards because:
Firstly, we dont fear or hate competition... there will always be a Boards.ie and there will always be other websites for communities. For us to win, its not necessary that everyone else lose.

Secondly, you cant do what we do. Honestly, you cant. Its taken us (and I mean "us as a group of internet users") 5 years to build this level of trust and friendship and a track record that people believe the admins are genuine in wanting to create a community like no other. 200 moderators... unpaid. A site where some of the pages havent been updated since the first year! And its more successful then any of the commercial community sites (Local Ireland, Online.ie etc etc). It defies business logic.

No offence but I've found its a rare mind in business that can understand the concept of community, I mean really understand the dynamics. You create the space and then you sit back and watch in awe as people do things with it you NEVER thought about. Thats the cool bit.

Q: Why do they want to create a successful community?
A: So they can use it as a channel to market.

That is why commercial "communities" fail.

Thirdly, you're corporate masters would have an absolutely conniption if they understood anything about the libel laws. Can you imagine them allowing Ireland Offline to operate? Would they be happy with the "tone" of a site that has threads like the "Ninjas" one here? I doubt it. Boards can (and does) refresh the parts that other sites cant...

Boards isnt about corporate anything. Its full of icky smelly silly *REAL* people....what most corporates treat as "userbase" at best and "undesirable proles" at worst.

Good luck with your community. iVenus is a good site for what it does. I'm not sure my advice would work there because it has a different feel but there you go!

DeVore.

DeVore · 07-04-2003 5:09pm

I wish I had ecksor's wit or Leeroy's brevity.

DeV.

ecksor · 07-04-2003 5:13pm

I wish I had your hair.

DeVore · 07-04-2003 5:21pm

no you fnckin' dont!

DeV.

DeVore · 07-04-2003 6:41pm

Moved to Feedback because its a more appropriate location for this discussion then Afterhours imho.

DeV.

Mr.Applepie · 07-04-2003 10:39pm

Originally posted by DeVore
I wish I had ecksor's wit or Leeroy's brevity.

DeV.

Yeah but you have length! and in the end of the day isnt that what counted;)

amp · 08-04-2003 12:35pm

Boards.ie is hugely successful because I'm so damned cool and everybody wants to be near me, even if it is just online.

Dev's hair may well be a factor though as well as the game "Quake" by iD games where it all began or something. But mostly it's because of me.

The whole way it's fairly strictly moderated and the fact that it's roots don't come from the desire for the aquisition of vast wealth is possibly another factor, leading to it gaining critical mass at about 5000 members. Despite it's growth, order is mantained, forums generally stay on-topic and even develop their own mini-culture.

All of these are, of course, minor things compared to the sheer gravitational pull of my ego.

Soz ApplePie but I'm back on the smokes. I tried man. Really I did. mmmm lovely cancerous sticks of non-pain....

Beruthiel · 08-04-2003 1:02pm

sheer gravitational pull of my ego

yup, I concur
I'm am here solely for this reason...

Victor · 08-04-2003 3:40pm

deirdre121 (if that is your real name

), why don't you add your board to boards.ie and you can immediatly have a huge userbase?

GuanYin · 08-04-2003 4:25pm

Originally posted by leeroybrown
Boards is a place where people actually care what goes on ... a real community.

Something like that develops organically over time and is not possible to build with venture capital and inbox filling.

*sniff* man, I'm welling up!

yossarin · 08-04-2003 4:56pm

Boards can (and does) refresh the parts that other sites cant...

caption competition anyone ?

Gordon · 08-04-2003 5:59pm

Well if Carlsberg made communities...

CuLT · 09-04-2003 3:17pm

Originally posted by Victor
deirdre121 (if that is your real name ), why don't you add your board to boards.ie and you can immediatly have a huge userbase?

Fwahaha, I smell the reek of Bill Gates off you Victor

.

What's the secret?

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