Post by Ashmadai on Nov 5, 2005 23:03:54 GMT -5
On other systems I have seen a thing called a Board Hop ... I don't like them and do not promote them, but I do like to mention them as a way to get more members and say their pitfalls.
How these Board Hops worked was a person took responsibility for the board hop and when you applied to it, he or she went to your forum and put in a thread called Board Hop.
In that message there is an intro message for the board hop and instructions on what the member should do, which basically said "Click on the link to the next board and leave a message".
The Idea is fundamentally sound except for one major thing.. many people would do the board hop numerous times and leave one message on most of the boards they visit in the board hop thread on each board.. then never come back to be a real member of your board.
In the end what this causes is inflated stats for your board for the messages per day plus inflated membership list stats. Many Board Owners were happy with this because they only saw the numbers and failed to see that those numbers didn't really help their boards out.
I don't like false stats, when I look at the membership roster for my boards and when I look at the number of posts for the day, I like to think that the numbers I see truly reflect how well my board is doing.. the Board Hop often doesn't show that.
What I prefer is a thing I call the Message Board Ring, it's like a web ring. What you do on that is apply to join and then when accepted the Ring Manger gives you a code to put in the header of your board. This code, when clicked on, will take you to the next board in the ring. What the Board Ring allows is for your to have people come to your board but it's up to them to join and there is no requirement to post a message like "Just hopping through" or "Hop, Hop, Hop" or other cutesy messages. A Board Ring tends to get more real members.
If you have a closed board or a board that requires people to be logged in or registered with your board to view, make sure your preview page describes your board and has the access methods working. People don't like to go to a board where it says "You must apply to enter" and then have no way to apply.
(Don't feel bad if your board does this, I've done it myself on occassion. lol)
There are other ideas out there, some are good and some bad.
How these Board Hops worked was a person took responsibility for the board hop and when you applied to it, he or she went to your forum and put in a thread called Board Hop.
In that message there is an intro message for the board hop and instructions on what the member should do, which basically said "Click on the link to the next board and leave a message".
The Idea is fundamentally sound except for one major thing.. many people would do the board hop numerous times and leave one message on most of the boards they visit in the board hop thread on each board.. then never come back to be a real member of your board.
In the end what this causes is inflated stats for your board for the messages per day plus inflated membership list stats. Many Board Owners were happy with this because they only saw the numbers and failed to see that those numbers didn't really help their boards out.
I don't like false stats, when I look at the membership roster for my boards and when I look at the number of posts for the day, I like to think that the numbers I see truly reflect how well my board is doing.. the Board Hop often doesn't show that.
What I prefer is a thing I call the Message Board Ring, it's like a web ring. What you do on that is apply to join and then when accepted the Ring Manger gives you a code to put in the header of your board. This code, when clicked on, will take you to the next board in the ring. What the Board Ring allows is for your to have people come to your board but it's up to them to join and there is no requirement to post a message like "Just hopping through" or "Hop, Hop, Hop" or other cutesy messages. A Board Ring tends to get more real members.
If you have a closed board or a board that requires people to be logged in or registered with your board to view, make sure your preview page describes your board and has the access methods working. People don't like to go to a board where it says "You must apply to enter" and then have no way to apply.
(Don't feel bad if your board does this, I've done it myself on occassion. lol)There are other ideas out there, some are good and some bad.
