How to advertise your forums!

I realise that PA isn't as active as it was last year. I am disappointed with this as the forum is highly beneficial.

I have been on the forum 'scene' since the age of 9 and I have learned a lot about running them and promoting them. I set up a blog to put my 2,000 word article on.

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This is mainly for Shelagh and for you all to rate my guide. I will also be willing to help you advertise PA Shelagh, but please read my guide - I know that it will bring A LOT more members and activity to PA.

Thanks,
Liam

Thanks Liam! I really appreciate your help but I think I should explain where I stand with the forum.

I set up the Published Authors Network in August 2007 and this forum is part of the network. The network has over 1300 members and about a third of those members signed up on the forum but only about 35 members post on a regular basis.

I also run Published Authors groups on LinkedIn (over 1,100) members and Goodreads (over 900 members) and I set up the Children's Fiction group on LibraryThing (over 1,000 members). This means I have to deal with over four thousand members.

One of the members of this forum agreed to the deletion of her account provided that I delete all her posts on the forum (over 2,300 posts). I changed her username so that her posts would not show up on search engines while I deleted the posts and she accused me of stealing her copyrighted material that she had posted on the forum (most of which she had already deleted). She then threatened to sue me and said that she is taking screen shots of the forum to prove that I am trying to steal her work.

I have spent three days removing over a thousand of her posts and I'm sick of it. The easiest thing for me to do would be to close this forum down completely. There really is very little in it for me and it takes up far too much of my time. Members argue with me, fall out with me, talk about me behind my back in private messages and complain openly about me on Facebook. This kind of thanks I can do without.

Now, what was it you were saying about promoting the forum?

I am really sorry to hear that this is the way you're being treated.
If you read my guide, you will see how easy it is to get new members and members who are young and old as the members here are usually older. I am probably one of the youngest members.

I am going to London in the morning for a few days but when I return I will post back with information on how I will help and other ways that this forum can better itself. I know that with a little work - this forum can be overflowing with activity.

I must say to you, thank you for setting up this forum. I have learned a lot of useful information here - so don't feel annoyed that this forum has done nothing for you as you have made a great place for people to talk about writing and be advised. Without this forum I would be worse off.

You have done a lot with this forum, almost 60,000 posts is a great achievement. The forum can improve and the guide tells you a lot. If you advertise the forum like what I say on my blog and I chip in - with help from a few other dedicated members this forum could really fly high.

I'll get back to you when I return from London.

No good deed goes unpunished.

Could be worse, Shelagh. They tried to kill me over my forum in Mazatlan.

Which I thought was excessive

When you delete an account on Forumotion, all the posts attached to that account are deleted as well. It should only take one click (and possibly a confirmation that you really do want to delete that individual's account).

Another option would be to allow members to delete their own accounts. The same is true regarding all their posts being deleted with their membership.

I still don't get it. A post someone makes on a public forum has been made "public".

merrihiatt wrote:

When you delete an account on Forumotion, all the posts attached to that account are deleted as well. It should only take one click (and possibly a confirmation that you really do want to delete that individual's account).

Another option would be to allow members to delete their own accounts. The same is true regarding all their posts being deleted with their membership.

Thanks Merri,

I would have done this if it were possible. I deleted an old inactive account to see if it would delete the posts. It didn't. The username was replaced by "Guest" and the posts remained as written.

You run a forum; please set up an account and make a post on a private board then delete that account to see what happens. Let me know if the posts disappear. That would be very useful to me if you could confirm that if I deleted an account, no trace of that member was left on the forum.

Thanks again Merri! I really appreciate it.

Shelagh, I did a test and received similar results. I had to ban the member (I did not find a delete button). The member's post remained with their screen name and they were still listed as a member of the site.

I tried again by registering under another name and then deleting the account (this site allows members to delete their own accounts). The name on the post was changed to Guest and the account was deleted from the member list.

I apologize for stating that you could delete the account and the posts would also be deleted. As I have discovered, that is not true. I have posted this information in one other location and I will post the same message there.

No need to apologise, Merri. We all make mistakes. It's putting those mistakes behind us and learning from them that makes us stronger.

Take care,
Shelagh