Managing Online Forums: Everything You Need to Know to Create and Run Successful Community Discussion Boards

Managing Online Forums: Everything You Need to Know to Create and Run Successful Community Discussion Boards

by Patrick O'Keefe
Released April 2008
Publisher(s): AMACOM
ISBN: 9780814412930

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Book description

Forums add a powerful component to any website. This is the only guide that shows how to run a fun, informative, and harmonious online forum.

Table of contents

  1. Contents (1/2)
  2. Contents (2/2)
  3. Acknowledgments
  4. Foreword
  5. Introduction: Is This Book for You?
    1. How This Book Is Organized
    2. Communities, Forums, and Boards
    3. Book Website
    4. After You’ve Read the Book
  6. Chapter 1. Laying the Groundwork
    1. Fundamental Decisions
      1. What Will Your Community Cover?
      2. Whom Do You Want to Attract?
      3. What Will the Benefits of Your Community Be?
      4. How Will You Support the Community Financially?
    2. What Is Your Situation?
      1. Create a Brand-New Stand-Alone Community
      2. Launch a Brand-New Community and Content Site at the Same Time
      3. Launch a Brand-New Community as an Addition to an Existing Content Site
      4. Purchase or Take Over an Existing Community
    3. What Skills and Characteristics Do You Need to Have?
    4. Conclusion
  7. Chapter 2. Developing Your Community
    1. Choosing a Name and a Domain Name
      1. Communities for New or Existing Content Sites
      2. Naming a Stand-Alone Community
      3. Domain Name Registrars
      4. Web Hosting
    2. Choosing Your Community Software
      1. vBulletin
      2. phpBB
    3. Basic Options
      1. Software Options
      2. User Options
      3. Setup Options (1/3)
      4. Setup Options (2/3)
      5. Setup Options (3/3)
      6. Starting with Staff
    4. Design, Layout, and Customization
      1. Don’t Just Install a Ready-Made Template
      2. Designing for a Community
      3. Stick to One Look
      4. Customizing Your Community
    5. Be Smart, Be Safe
      1. Follow the Instructions and Recommendations
      2. Check Your File and Folder Permissions
      3. Protect Your Admin Areas with .htaccess
      4. Have Separate Passwords for Everything
      5. Create a Separate Database Account for Each Database
      6. Backup Your Database—Constantly!
      7. Keep Your Community Software Updated
    6. Conclusion
  8. Chapter 3. Developing Guidelines
    1. Guideline Ideas
      1. What Do They Apply To?
      2. Cross-Posting, Duplicate Threads, Etc.
      3. Post-Count Boosting and Bumping
      4. Styles of Communication (No CAPS!)
      5. Advertising
      6. Affiliate Links
      7. Copyright
      8. Illegal Activities
      9. Hotlinking and Bandwidth Theft
      10. Legal Advice, Medical Advice, Suicide Threats, Etc.
      11. Personal, Real-Life Information and Privacy
      12. English Only, Please
      13. Respect
      14. Obstructing the Flow of Discussion
      15. Vulgar Language and Offensive Material
      16. Freedom of Speech
      17. Multiple Accounts
      18. Automated Account Creation, Participation, and Scraping
      19. Signatures
      20. Avatars
      21. Privilege Restrictions
      22. Deleting Accounts and/or Posts in the Future (Leaving Your Community)
      23. Who’s the Boss?
      24. If You Break the Guidelines, There Are Consequences
      25. The Guidelines Are Not All-Inclusive
      26. We Can’t Watch It All!
      27. Have Fun! And, If You Need Help, Let Us Know!
    2. Real-Life Examples
    3. The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (C.O.P.P.A.)
    4. Privacy Policy
    5. Get Them Out There!
    6. Conclusion
  9. Chapter 4. Promoting Your Community
    1. You
    2. What Is Not Considered Promotional Can Be Promotional
    3. Preparing Your Community for Search Engines
      1. Make Your Community Spiderable
      2. Descriptive Page Titles
      3. Welcome Messages
    4. Before You Launch
    5. Directories
    6. Partnerships
      1. What Can You Offer a Partner?
      2. What Can a Partner Offer You?
    7. Buying Advertising
    8. Link Exchanges
    9. Contests and Giveaways
    10. Post Exchanges and Paying People to Post
    11. OffIine Promotion
    12. Let Your Users Promote You!
    13. What Not to Do
    14. Conclusion
  10. Chapter 5. Managing Your Staff
    1. How Should You Lead?
    2. Communicating with Your Staff
      1. Staff Forums
      2. Talking Things to Death
      3. Staff Leaks
    3. The Chain of Command
      1. Regular Users Who Think They Are Staff
      2. Moderators Policing Moderators
      3. Only One True Admin, Please
    4. Moderation: The Process
      1. Step #1: Recognizing Violations
      2. Step #2: Removing Violations
      3. Step #3: Documenting Violations and the Action Taken
      4. Step #4: Contacting Users (1/2)
      5. Step #4: Contacting Users (2/2)
      6. Responses to Guideline Violation Warnings
      7. Process Summary
      8. Old Violations
    5. Staff Guidelines
      1. Staff Guideline Ideas
      2. Example Staff Guidelines (1/3)
      3. Example Staff Guidelines (2/3)
      4. Example Staff Guidelines (3/3)
      5. Situations Guide (1/2)
      6. Situations Guide (2/2)
    6. Make Your Staff Stand Out
    7. Staff Member Benefits
    8. Choosing Your Staff
    9. When Is It Time for a Staff Member to Move On?
      1. Inactive Staff Members
      2. Resignation in Good Standing
      3. Resignation After Disagreement
      4. Wow, I Let This Person onto My Staff?
    10. Conclusion
  11. Chapter 6. Banning Users and Dealing with Chaos
    1. Real People, Real Cases
      1. The Bad
      2. . . . And the Worst
      3. Persistent Idiots
    2. Solutions
      1. Post Reporting System
      2. Turning Negatives into Positives
      3. Helpful Notices
      4. Innovative Tools
    3. Banning
      1. Give Every User a Chance
      2. Public Humiliation
      3. When Should You Ban?
      4. Banning Methods
      5. Banning URLs
      6. Contacting a User’s ISP
    4. Conclusion
  12. Chapter 7. Creating a Good Environment
    1. Respect Is Everything
    2. Welcoming New Users
    3. Be Human, Be Fun, Be Involved
    4. Answering Questions
      1. Don’t Have an Attitude of Expected Knowledge
      2. Don’t Link Users to General, Unhelpful Sites
      3. Don’t Tell Users to Search
      4. If a Question Has Been Asked Before
    5. Make Your Users Feel Involved
      1. Ask Users for Input
      2. Announce Changes
      3. Share Your Successes
    6. Customer Service
      1. When a Problem Occurs, Apologize and Explain
      2. Responding to Bad or Rude Suggestions
      3. How to Handle Private Contact with Users
      4. Don’t Take It Personally
    7. Allow All Wrath to Be Directed at You, Not Your Staff
    8. Politics, Religion, and Other Very Controversial Discussions
    9. Conclusion
  13. Chapter 8. Keeping It Interesting
    1. New Features
    2. Newsletters and Mailing Lists
    3. RSS Feeds and Syndication
    4. Bots
    5. Posting Games
    6. Arcade Games
    7. Contests and Giveaways
    8. Member of the Month
    9. Articles and Content
    10. Chat Rooms
    11. Awards Programs
    12. Conclusion
  14. Chapter 9. Making Money
    1. Advertising
      1. Displaying (Some) Ads to Guests Only
      2. Start with Ads
      3. Advertising Networks
      4. Selling Advertising
      5. Other Ads
    2. Merchandise (1/2)
    3. Merchandise (2/2)
    4. Paid Memberships
    5. Donations
    6. Conclusion
  15. End Note
  16. Appendix A. Online Resources
  17. Appendix B. Blank General Templates
    1. User Guidelines
    2. Staff Member Guidelines
    3. Contact Templates (1/2)
    4. Contact Templates (2/2)
  18. Appendix C. Glossary
    1. A
    2. B
    3. C
    4. D
    5. F
    6. H
    7. I
    8. M
    9. P
    10. R
    11. S
    12. T
    13. U
    14. W
  19. Index
    1. A
    2. B
    3. C
    4. D
    5. E
    6. F
    7. G
    8. H
    9. I
    10. J
    11. L
    12. M
    13. N
    14. O
    15. P
    16. Q
    17. R
    18. S
    19. T
    20. U
    21. V
    22. W
    23. Y
    24. Z
  20. About the Author

Product information

  • Title: Managing Online Forums: Everything You Need to Know to Create and Run Successful Community Discussion Boards
  • Author(s): Patrick O'Keefe
  • Release date: April 2008
  • Publisher(s): AMACOM
  • ISBN: 9780814412930