A Forum that Jumped the Shark?
December 29th, 2007
Perhaps you visited a forum and became a member to gain some information about a subject. Maybe you joined to find other like-minded people to talk about the things that are interesting to you. Well, it’s been several months or even years since the forum got started, and now it’s not as active as it used to be. Or maybe not even active at all. How do you know if the forum has already seen its best days and is in its last legs? Can it be revitalized? Is it worth your time to spend on the forum anymore? Let’s look at the signs that a forum has “Jumped the Shark”.
1. The admin have left. If the admins have not logged in for a long time, the shark has definitely been jumped. If the admins gave up, who is running the forum? The inmates have taken over the asylum. With some forum packages such as vBulletin, you can check the log in dates of the admin on their profile if the forum is set up to allow the profile to be viewed by the public. If the last log-in date is not viewable, just see when the last post of the admins and moderators was posted. If it’s been a while, the shark has been jumped.
2. It’s a spamfest. Check out the forum’s memberlist. Does it have 8,000 users and most of them have a link to a site selling pharmaceuticals or other spam websites? If that’s the case, the forum has been largely taken over by spam bots. Check out the posts. Are they mostly links to some spam site in Russia? This forum has not only jumped the shark but it’s being circled to be their next meal.
3. Only the admins post. It’s been months since the forum got started and the vast majority of the posts are from the admins and moderators. This simply means people aren’t participating. The forum has turned into a blog. Might as well convert to Wordpress or get a Blogspot account, because the forum has either jumped the shark or it’s preparing for a nice big jump.
4. The forum software is outdated. If the software is several versions behind the latest release, it may have jumped the shark. Sometimes forums are behind because there are many modifications on it that make it difficult to upgrade. But sometimes it’s because of an inattentive or non-caring admin. Not all forum packages display the version, but if it does and it’s way behind, the forum might have jumped the shark. More importantly, it’s probably very prone to being hacked, and losing all the content, including your posts. If the forum has already been hacked, not only has it been jumped, but it might actually look more interesting. Hacker’s messages are nothing if not funny.
5. Interesting topics are getting 10 views in 20 days. Someone, likely the admin, posted something interesting, but it got all of 10 views. That means no on is looking at the forum. And 8 of those ten views are probably from search bots. That’s a sign that the forum is either preparing a jump or is jumping. It may not be dead yet, but it’s on life support.
6. It’s a hosted forum. If the url of the forum is myforum.hostedsite.com, it may have jumped the shark right immediately. Getting a domain name is relatively cheap and getting hosting can be inexpensive for a smaller forum. If the admin isn’t willing to pay a few dollars to get these, the forum may have jumped before it started.
So if the forum has jumped the shark, what type of things can be done to revitalize it? If it’s your forum, you can do something about it. If it’s a forum you visit, let the admin know about the things that can be done. First, clean the forum up. If it’s got spammers, delete those posts and remove the spam members. Then update the forum to the latest version. The admin has to show he or she actually cares about the forum. With the house in order, it’s time to find some posters. First, get people you know to post. Friends, family members, people who owe you a favor. Then find other small forums and ask to do a post exchange. This is where the forum admins post to each others’ forums to get activity going. Third, advertise. Go to other forums and put your website on your signature. Submit the forum to social bookmarking sites. All of this takes time and effort, but if the forum is in danger of being shark-bait, it will take some work to rescue it.
