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Great Forum Software Is Like Reddit And Imgur Combined

Posted on November 14, 2013 by Mike W.

What if reddit and imgur had a baby? Well, that might be a little weird. imgur was more or less or borne by reddit because existing photo sharing services like Photobucket and ImageShack were difficult to use.

But let’s just say that reddit inspired imgur (so technically, they’re not related) and the two parties decided to shack up. We like to think their offspring would be something like Ninja Post: great for collaborating with both text and images.

reddit-imgu

Here’s some background on reddit and imgur, and how they came to coexist:

reddit is an extremely popular discussion platform. Users submit content in the form of hyperlinks to interesting content (news items, photos, etc.) posted on external sites or text-only posts, such as a questions or comments.

reddit does not support images directly. Instead, users must create hyperlinks that link to images hosted outside of reddit. When a user wants to discuss a picture on reddit, the image is often uploaded to and hosted on imgur. When imgur founder Alan Schaaf launched his service, he actually posted an announcement to reddit:

I got fed up with all the other image hosts out there so I made my own. It doesn’t force you to compress your images, and it has neat things like crop, resize, rotate, and compression from 10-100. It’s my gift to you. Let’s not see anymore imageshack/photobucket around here 😉

While still closely linked with reddit, imgur has evolved as a destination for humorous and interesting content in its own right. Users can comment and vote on images posted to the service. However, on imgur, an interesting image is a requirement to start a discussion.

With reddit, there is an obvious desire demonstrated by users to post pictures in conjunction with their discussions. With imgur, there is an obvious desire to create and upload interesting visual content. The two services are complementary but distinct entities. Wouldn’t it be cool if there was a product that supported all types of discussions and could quickly serve rich media such as photos and videos?

Great forum software achieves this aim. With Ninja Post we are determined to provide the best of both worlds: discussions that are easy and rewarding to join and super fast support for all types of rich media.

Posted in Forum Architecture & Design | Tagged | Leave a comment

I Hope This Is Not Your Forum! Three Reasons Why This Forum Might Embarrass You

Posted on November 7, 2013 by Mike W.

From time to time, we stumble across forums on prominent sites that are, shall we say, underachieving. When neutral observers are asked to comment on the design and usability of these boards we hear things like “painfully embarrassing,” “not professional,” and “wow… that’s really bad”. These are not my words; they are comments from impartial observers. But we admit: we tend to agree with such assessments and these examples serve as motivation for us to do better!

Let’s take a look at one such example and see if we can explain why it might be embarrassing to some people. The purpose of this analysis is not to insult anyone but to examine ways to improve performance of your forum community. For this reason, the name of this particular company has been obscured to prevent any undue embarrassment.

ugly_forum1

Here are three reasons why this forum platform might embarrass you:

  1. The participation rate is disastrously low. At the time of this screen shot there are 13 members and 604 guests. Yikes.
    • What we do: We strive for a minimum of 10% of visitors to be registered.
  2. The design leaves something to be desired. The words “aesthetically pleasing” do not exactly spring to mind. This design is a poor reflection on the company’s brand.
    • What we do: Your brand is sacrosanct to us and we will make your forum look awesome.
  3. There is limited support for mobile devices and rich media. In this day and age, allowing users to quickly share photos from their phones is an absolute must.
    • What we do: Rich media support and mobile access are among our specialties.

It drives us bonkers when we see forum communities that accept mediocrity (or even less). We will never claim to be perfect. However, we are committed to achieving excellence and we will never quit in this pursuit.

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Instill Confidence In Visitors To Lower The Bounce Rate

Posted on November 6, 2013 by Mike W.

Earlier this week, we asked ‘Why’ five times in a row to understand why the bounce rate is high on a forum. We concluded that highly personalized and accurate advice is hard to come by because people with the expertise necessary to answer certain questions are rare. Furthermore, users with questions often require an answer customized to their unique circumstances. This makes sense. If the knowledge needed was readily available or widely understood, it is unlikely the user would have a question about the topic in the first place.

So how does this insight help us solve the high bounce rate problem? Well, it could be that users find what they’re looking for and bounce right away. Or, more likely, they don’t find what they need but they don’t have enough confidence that posting a new thread or follow up question will garner a better response.

We need to do more to instill confidence in the user their question will be answered accurately and in a timely fashion. Specifically, we think that by (1) showing related threads; (2) encouraging users to “ask our experts” and (3) showing the average response time for getting a reply, we can lower the bounce rate and instigate more activity on the forum. These steps should help us overcome shyness and/or lack of confidence and, in turn, lower the bounce rate.

Posted in Misc. Forum Discussion | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Apply The “5 Whys” To Lower The Bounce Rate On Your Forum

Posted on November 2, 2013 by Mike W.

The Five Whys is a technique for understanding the root cause of a problem. The premise is to ask ‘Why?’ five times in a row to discover the real problem. Let’s apply the 5 Whys to a problem faced by many forum owners, a high bounce rate.

1. Why is the bounce rate high?

2. Why are users “in search mode, not browse mode”?

  • Because they’re looking for an answer to a specific question.

3. Why are they looking for an answer to a specific question?

  • Because they have a problem and the solution is not readily available elsewhere.

4. Why is the solution not readily available elsewhere?

  • Because sound, trustworthy advice is hard to come by.

5. Why is sound, trustworthy advice hard to come by?

  • Experts in any field are rare and answers are often need to be personalized based on unique circumstances.

The answer to the 5th Why in this series is where forums excel: connecting users who seek knowledge with those who have it. Understanding this lesson helps us devise ways to lower the bounce rate. If we can convey to visitors that we can provide sound, trustworthy advice personalized based on individual circumstances, we should be able to lower the bounce rate on our forums.

Posted in Misc. Forum Discussion | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

5 Key Takeaways From ForumCon 2013

Posted on October 25, 2013 by Mike W.

We had a great time at ForumCon back in June and were proud to be among the sponsors. We compiled our Top 5 Takeaways from the conference in the infographic below.

We’re looking forward to next year!

Posted in Misc. Forum Discussion | Tagged | 1 Comment

5 Strategies For Forums With Paid Memberships

Posted on October 18, 2013 by Mike W.

Regardless if your forum is public or private, you might decide to generate revenue through membership fees. Five strategies are generally available:

  • Supporter Badge. Allow members to join and participate in your forum for free. Encourage users to show off their community pride and donate money to the site in exchange for a “Forum Supporter” badge next to their user name.
  • Exclusive Content For VIPs. Encourage users to to upgrade to paid, VIP memberships in exchange for access to exclusive content, areas of the forum or site, and other benefits.
  • One-Time Fee. Charge a one-time admission fee for forum access, creating a lifetime membership group.
  • Recurring Fee. Charge a monthly or yearly subscription fee for access to the forum.
  • Lurkers Pay. Regular participants (e.g., those who make at least 10 posts per month) are exempt from paying a monthly fee but lurkers are not.

Allowing basic memberships for free is advantageous because it helps grow your user base, and growing participation in your forum may encourage users to upgrade by increasing their involvement in the community. However, not all users will upgrade, so your subscription fees must support the cost of non-paying users.

One-time application fees may limit initial participation in your forum, but will create a group of committed members who are strongly disposed to participate in the forum by virtue of their investment. Renewable subscription fees provide a happy medium, but renewals should be automatically recurring to encourage continued membership.

Many options exist for forums with paid memberships. The biggest strategic question is whether to make your forum’s content public or private. In turn, this decision dictates the optimal solution for your community.

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How A Forum Can Make Your Organization More Like The Knights Of The Round Table

Posted on October 17, 2013 by Mike W.

Legend has it that King Arthur created the Round Table to prevent infighting between his Knights at company meetings. Since the table was round instead of rectangular, everyone at the table held equal status. This allowed King Arthur and the Knights to focus on pressing matters like slaying dragons, drinking mead at Yuletide feasts, and rescuing damsels in distress.

Even though the “Round Table” concept dates back to medieval times, only recently have business organizations begun to realize the benefits of a flat community structure. Starbucks, for example, is famous for its efforts to empower employees with the knowledge to make smart decisions and reduce organizational bottlenecks. By contrast, top-down military-style hierarchies are ineffective because such rigidity makes cross-organization communication difficult, and sometimes impossible.

In addition to changing an organization’s hierarchy like Starbucks and others have done, a private, employee-only forum is one way to improve communication throughout a company and flatten its organizational structure. For example, research has shown that the same communication patterns that result from a flat organizational structure lead to:

  • Faster decisions
  • More accurate decisions
  • Greater employee satisfaction
  • Rapid on-the-job learning
  • Superior performance

Buy-in from employees at all levels of the organization is paramount to make a forum successful but the benefits are enormous. Better decision making and greater job satisfaction are crucial drivers of company morale. Plus, a private forum lays the foundation for an environment that nurtures employees and values their input.

Posted in Misc. Forum Discussion | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

The 2 Second Drill – How Fast Is Your Forum?

Posted on October 12, 2013 by Mike W.

One of our core values is that to provide forum software with the best user experience. Part of providing a fantastic user experience is to make sure forum pages load instantaneously. Nearly half of all web users believe web pages should load in 2 seconds or less. We strive to beat this benchmark and routinely test our forums. We use tools like Page Speed Online by Google, YSlow from Yahoo!, and Pingdom.com’s Website Speed Test, among others.

Below is a screen cap from a recent test using Pingdom, for one of our most popular sites, the SimplyShredded.com forum. We display seven images from the photo gallery, the 50 most recent threads, and preview snippets for each thread, all in less than a second. 738 milliseconds to be exact.


forum speed test results

Posted in Forum Architecture & Design | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Private Forums With Paid Memberships: 3 Examples

Posted on October 5, 2013 by Mike W.

When discussing the 5 Types Of Private Forums, we noted that private forums with paid memberships require users to pay a monthly or annual fee to access some or all parts of the forum. However, there are several variations on this theme that create a spectrum of options for anyone wishing to launch a private forum with paid memberships. We offer three examples below.

The Walled Garden. First, we have sites where the main site requires a paid subscription, but the forum is one of several exclusive benefits that members can enjoy.

For example, Endurance Nation offers its subscribers access to training plans, resource libraries, equipment reviews, and robust online forums for input and feedback from other members. In essence, the forum is one of several benefits for paying subscribers.



Forum For Paying Members Only. In this scenario, the forum is not one of several perks; it is the perk. All content (or nearly all content) is restricted to paid subscribers. The forum is the main draw.

One example of this is RedIssue, a site for soccer fans (although they’d prefer I call it ‘football’). The forum provides a ‘teaser’ of 85 threads for public viewing, but the rest of its 30,000 threads are accessible to members only. This particular site provides a direct link to PayPal to facilitate sales of private memberships.



The Night Club. Finally, there are sites in which the forum is freely accessible to registered users and guests, but certain sections of the forum are for paying subscribers only. Very similar to the VIP section of a night club.

One example of this can be found on Simply Discus, in the sub-forum for hobbyists titled “Homesteader (It’s Your World Within Our World)”. In this particular case, content is visible to all users, but participation in discussions is limited to members paying a yearly subscription fee.



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5 Types Of Private Forums

Posted on October 4, 2013 by Mike W.

The most common scenario for a private forum is to admit all members of a given organization using a pre-approved whitelist. However, private forums come in several different flavors, described in the table below.

Type of Private Forum Description
Registration Required Anyone can register but content is only visible to members who are logged in.
Apply Anyone can apply to join. Site owner approves users before they gain access.
Whitelist The site owner determines who has access. Approved accounts are added to a whitelist.
Paid Memberships Members pay a monthly or annual fee to access the forum or parts of the forum.
Hybrid Users must either (1) pay a monthly fee; or (2) actively contribute to the site (e.g. submit at least one review per month) to access the forum.

With regards to Paid Membership communities, sometimes it makes sense to make your entire site members-only and offer the forum as a bonus. Other times, it makes sense to keep your main site open to the public and launch a subscription-based members-only forum. Ninja Post supports these scenarios, and most others you can dream up.

Posted in Forum Architecture & Design | Tagged , | 1 Comment