My new danish forum
Jun 6, 2011 20:56:08 GMT
Post by PinkFloyd on Jun 6, 2011 20:56:08 GMT
It's VERY hard work Claus! When I started this forum it had only ONE member...... me.... I didn't recruit people from other forums to come here, they visited my main website and slowly but surely drifted in... all of them, also, got a VERY personal welcome from me.
The first EVER post on here... December 2004... rockgrotto.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1 I was the only member!!
A few weeks later Merton, Rick, Duncan and a few others came over (probably out of pity more than anything else!) and we started a few threads.... the numbers steadily grew at about 1 new member per day and quite soon he had the magic "100" members!! That was a true landmark for me, I thought that was FANTASTIC
There were many times I felt like hitting the "are you sure you want to delete this forum" button but I just gritted my teeth and continued optimising the place for the Google search engine.... I was OVER THE MOON the first time Googlebot crawled the forum... the hard work was finally starting to pay off
None of this is easy..... you can easily "make" a forum but that forum has to have "content" that people want to READ.... you can also "easily" contact all your friends and ask them to join the forum but if all they post is rubbish about what they ate for dinner it is unlikely that anyone, who may happen across the joint, would find it interesting enough to join.
In the early days, Rick and I wrote many articles of interest JUST to make the "content" interesting.... no point just sitting there looking at a blank screen waiting for people to turn up and start posting.... you have to do the work, you have to do something different from the rest and you have to STICK at it.
From day one I promoted this forum as a "free speech" forum and I hope that it still is today.... I didn't want it to become a "profit driven" forum run my sponsors touting their wares and I wanted it to be a place where people could learn to DIY their own gear at a fraction of the cost of ready made equipment... a place where we would tell people what "bang for the buck" bargains were out there and a place that was free for all to join and contribute to.... A place free from megalomaniac "moderators" controlling and censoring your freedom to speak your mind..... I would like to think this joint STILL practices what it preached on day one back in 2004.
I remember Graham Slee (after he, LITERALLY, recruited most of his member base from HERE) openly saying on his "forum" (about me)..... "It's OK for that guy preaching from his free forum, he hasn't had to pay for it like me, everything handed to him on a plate" I will NEVER forget that!!!
Handed to me "on a plate"?!! I put every spare minute I had into building this place up and NONE of it was handed to me on a plate by anyone... it was hard work at the beginning!
Nowadays I don't see it as "my" forum because it isn't... if it was "my" forum only I would be doing all the talking and you would all abide by "my" rules (Much like Graham's joint).... I would be "top banana" and if you didn't agree with what "I" said you would be banned....
No No NO!.... this is OUR forum, it belongs to every one of you who post here and I hope you consider it as YOUR forum... we ALL play our parts in making this forum what it is today and it is "we" who have, collectively, made this one of the best headphone related forums on planet Earth (if not THE best).
I thank all of you for you input and without you this place would still "exist" but it would be nothing more than a blank screen in cyberspace... you have all made this place what it is and it has been a privilege to have such a nice bunch of people camp out here... thank you.
Claus, I wish you every success with your Danish forum and am really happy that this place has been an inspiration for you.... always remember this.... it's not the "appearance", it's the "content" that counts A solid gold frame without a work of art inside it is as much use as a polished turd.... a tapestry without any cotton is a blank canvas.....
I think you have the energy to make your forum a "living" place and you also have a great personality so good luck
All the best,
Mike.
The first EVER post on here... December 2004... rockgrotto.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1 I was the only member!!
A few weeks later Merton, Rick, Duncan and a few others came over (probably out of pity more than anything else!) and we started a few threads.... the numbers steadily grew at about 1 new member per day and quite soon he had the magic "100" members!! That was a true landmark for me, I thought that was FANTASTIC
There were many times I felt like hitting the "are you sure you want to delete this forum" button but I just gritted my teeth and continued optimising the place for the Google search engine.... I was OVER THE MOON the first time Googlebot crawled the forum... the hard work was finally starting to pay off
None of this is easy..... you can easily "make" a forum but that forum has to have "content" that people want to READ.... you can also "easily" contact all your friends and ask them to join the forum but if all they post is rubbish about what they ate for dinner it is unlikely that anyone, who may happen across the joint, would find it interesting enough to join.
In the early days, Rick and I wrote many articles of interest JUST to make the "content" interesting.... no point just sitting there looking at a blank screen waiting for people to turn up and start posting.... you have to do the work, you have to do something different from the rest and you have to STICK at it.
From day one I promoted this forum as a "free speech" forum and I hope that it still is today.... I didn't want it to become a "profit driven" forum run my sponsors touting their wares and I wanted it to be a place where people could learn to DIY their own gear at a fraction of the cost of ready made equipment... a place where we would tell people what "bang for the buck" bargains were out there and a place that was free for all to join and contribute to.... A place free from megalomaniac "moderators" controlling and censoring your freedom to speak your mind..... I would like to think this joint STILL practices what it preached on day one back in 2004.
I remember Graham Slee (after he, LITERALLY, recruited most of his member base from HERE) openly saying on his "forum" (about me)..... "It's OK for that guy preaching from his free forum, he hasn't had to pay for it like me, everything handed to him on a plate" I will NEVER forget that!!!
Handed to me "on a plate"?!! I put every spare minute I had into building this place up and NONE of it was handed to me on a plate by anyone... it was hard work at the beginning!
Nowadays I don't see it as "my" forum because it isn't... if it was "my" forum only I would be doing all the talking and you would all abide by "my" rules (Much like Graham's joint).... I would be "top banana" and if you didn't agree with what "I" said you would be banned....
No No NO!.... this is OUR forum, it belongs to every one of you who post here and I hope you consider it as YOUR forum... we ALL play our parts in making this forum what it is today and it is "we" who have, collectively, made this one of the best headphone related forums on planet Earth (if not THE best).
I thank all of you for you input and without you this place would still "exist" but it would be nothing more than a blank screen in cyberspace... you have all made this place what it is and it has been a privilege to have such a nice bunch of people camp out here... thank you.
Claus, I wish you every success with your Danish forum and am really happy that this place has been an inspiration for you.... always remember this.... it's not the "appearance", it's the "content" that counts A solid gold frame without a work of art inside it is as much use as a polished turd.... a tapestry without any cotton is a blank canvas.....
I think you have the energy to make your forum a "living" place and you also have a great personality so good luck
All the best,
Mike.