Growing Forum Participation

A funny thing happened to one of my forums a couple months ago. My top forum member accepted a job that kept him away from the computer and limited his ability to post on my forum. Essentially, our top forum member who expertly answered so many questions was gone. Now here's the funny part: The average count of daily posts began to rise shortly after he left.

Could it be that his expert answers were inhibiting or even intimidating others from posting? Or were his expert answers keeping the lurkers firmly in lurk-mode? I strongly believe so. This experience made me think about the nature of forum participation and the difference between answers and discussions.

I noticed that some members express hesitance in offering their opinions. I'm certain some folks are shy to offer advice. A typical reason is fear of being ridiculed or strongly contradicted. Forums have a reputation for allowing trolls to display negative behavior. So part of that reticence may stem from that. The other thing holding back the lurkers is the fear of being wrong.

So we have our work cut out on two fronts. We have to:

1: Make it clear that opinions are not only welcomed, but encouraged.

2: Ensure that any member who expresses a mistaken opinion is treated gently.

Forums should not offer answers
At first that statement may seem contradictory to the whole point about forums. After all, don't we all visit forums at some point, just for answers? Yes, of course. What I am trying to say is, don't limit your forum by encouraging people to think of it as an ATM Machine for answers. It's important to not frame all responses as answers, but to frame them as part of a dialogue. The important thing here is to create the distinction between an ATM Machine and a Trusted Individual/Mentor/Colleague you can discuss issues with.

In my opinion it's important to keep your mods and community members aware that we are not offering answers, but engaging in a dialogue, and to encourage that with your posting style. With that in mind, we can phrase our posts as part of an ongoing discussion, and avoid any note of finality or encouraging the idea that a response is an answer. Common statements that encourage such impressions are: "Here you go!" or "I hope that helps!," because they have a way of putting an end to a discussion.

Answers can be discussion killers. They can also encourages lurkers to keep lurking if they see no reason to offer an opinion, and answers do not promote community. On the other hand, discussions promote many points of views, encourages people to add their opinions to the jambalaya of ideas, and promotes the bonds known as community.

Encouraging more discussions
Perhaps something we can do is end our posts with a solicitation for more opinions such as, "What do you think?" or "Does anyone else have an opinion on this?" or "That's one way of looking at it, does anyone else know of another way of doing it?" Those kinds of phrases help draw out the lurkers. I have found that asking questions is an excellent way of drawing people out of lurk-mode, and encouraging a discussion.

It's not uncommon that members who discovered your forum through search are there not to ask a question, but to receive an answer. They are not concerned with the question, they are concerned with answers. Forum members who discover your forum through search should be cultivated as soon as possible to engage in a discussion. Remember, you and your mods are not ATMs.

Putting limits on free speech
On the second point, about making sure no one is mistreated for offering an opinion, that's all about wearing your moderator's hat. I think it's important to set standards for community interaction. Some of that may include prohibiting touchy subjects such as religion and politics. Under this scenario a forum member can have whacked-out political beliefs but still be a member of a thriving forum community. Don't ask, don't tell is my policy on religion and politics. Letting members engage in political or religious discourse is a sure way to encourage animosities and negative feelings.

Free for all or put on your troll whacker hat?
I think this is self-evident and doesn't need a lot of explanation. I have seen a couple posts where someone offered really bad advice, where my mods stepped in and gently educated the OP (original poster) on why that solution may not be optimal. This is the way a deficient post should be handled.

Every member must be treated with respect, even those who offer blatantly bad responses. It's the moderator's responsibility to set the tone, especially in cases where a forum member is offering bad advice, or advice that isn't consistent with your forum. Gentle treatment is likely to not scare away the lurkers, and hopefully will encourage lurkers to come out and participate.

It's not enough to have high rankings
In my opinion, it's not enough to have top rankings and lots of posts. While high search rankings will bring in fresh visitors, it's not a lot of fun if you reach the point where the ratio of Askers to "Answerers" grows overwhelmingly. I think it's important to examine how your community communicates, and focus on growing a culture of discussion, in order to help that forum meet the demands of becoming exponentially larger.