Are incentives on online forums a good idea?

Are incentives on online forums a good idea? (Full Version)

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ystoredesign -> Are incentives on online forums a good idea? (5/26/2005 11:17:27)
Some months ago we asked the members of this forum to review our new project www.coffeefun.com and we also were looking for promotion ideas, because it was very difficult to promote a new forum. Now, we can say with certainty that the forum is very successful and all your help and advice were very helpful! We changed the general idea of this forum. Now it sounds like “Coffee for talking”. It means you can earn coffee cents while talking in the forum and exchange these cents for any coffee related products from our store http://www.1-800-espresso.com This is why we created new design for forum. We would like to know your opinion about this idea with coffee cents and about our new design. Btw, CoffeeFun was only our first step. Some weeks ago we started another forum www.vitatalk.com, based on the same idea – earning vita cents while talking about health. We hope it will be successful as well, but any your comments and criticism as to our projects will be greatly appreciated.

Thomas Brunt -> RE: Are incentives on online forums a good idea? (5/27/2005 9:50:18)
I think this is brilliant. I wish I had thought of it. t

Reflect -> RE: Are incentives on online forums a good idea? (5/27/2005 10:46:10)
It looks like a great model. I would be curious if it might in cure spammy type posts just to hit the goal placed on them? Site looks very nicely laid out by the way. Take care, Brian

Thomas Brunt -> RE: Are incentives on online forums a good idea? (5/27/2005 13:45:33)
I'm sure there would be some spammy stuff, but I would think the mods could police it. t

Mojo -> RE: Are incentives on online forums a good idea? (5/27/2005 17:51:34)
DNForum.com - the leading forum for domain names, has been using incentives for well over a year. We earn DNF dollars for each post (I think they have bonuses). The DNF dollars can be spent on a few non forum items such as logo and web design. I think most people spend their DNF dollars on things to dress up their account. When you first start posting you don't have an avatar. Want one? Use DNF dollars to purchase an avatar. Want to change your avatar? DNF dollars again. Changing your title, adding color to your nick, adding a country flag to indicate your location - these are all done with DNF dollars. It really adds an amount of interaction lacking in most forums.

ystoredesign -> RE: Are incentives on online forums a good idea? (5/28/2005 6:47:14)
quote: ORIGINAL: Thomas Brunt I think this is brilliant. I wish I had thought of it. You can always try this idea at your own forum. You are welcome also to our forums - an easy way to get your favorite coffee or vitamins almost for nothing, just talking :)

ystoredesign -> RE: Are incentives on online forums a good idea? (5/28/2005 6:52:09)
quote: ORIGINAL: Thomas Brunt I'm sure there would be some spammy stuff, but I would think the mods could police it. Yes, we regularly delete spam messages from the forums, and we do not calculate uninformative messages like "Good" or "Interesting!" etc. Actually 10 or 25 cents is a good sum to get a small gift from our stores, but this is not enough to make one's living. This is why spammers don't come too often.

Spooky -> RE: Are incentives on online forums a good idea? (5/28/2005 14:22:03)
How is it actually calculated? You say you dont calculate "noise" posts - its done manually?

ystoredesign -> RE: Are incentives on online forums a good idea? (5/29/2005 1:55:38)
quote: ORIGINAL: Spooky How is it actually calculated? You say you dont calculate "noise" posts - its done manually? It is calulated automatically, but we check new messages every day and try to delete "noise" posts. Also when our member wants to get a discount using coffee or vita cents, we look through his messages to eliminate uninformative ones.

sljsh -> RE: Are incentives on online forums a good idea? (6/1/2005 19:47:27)
I think this a cool idea to hand out coupons. Are there any other advantages to the 'cents' program other than revenue generation? Why do you want people to post on your message board to get the discounts?

Thomas Brunt -> RE: Are incentives on online forums a good idea? (6/2/2005 12:17:18)
The more often they come back, the more likely they are to become and remain regular customers. You want to build a relationship with your existing and potential customers. t

sjt -> RE: Are incentives on online forums a good idea? (6/6/2005 20:35:04)
I shared this idea with the VP of marketing at my "regular" job. He loved it [:)] !! What are the steps involved? [8\|]

Taz -> RE: Are incentives on online forums a good idea? (6/7/2005 8:57:07)
quote: ORIGINAL: sjt I shared this idea with the VP of marketing at my "regular" job. He loved it [:)] !! What are the steps involved? [8\|] phpBB forum installed and then a hack for the cash points config system. I believe the MOD required can be installed through Easymod which will save you a lot of time and effort. I've had the cash Mod running on my forum for over a year now, it adds a great element of fun. I just use it as a way of stopping people cribbing at me for silly changes, they want an avatar change (Which I prefer them to stick with just one so people know who is who allt he time) I tell them it will cost them all their spam points (One of the named currencies on my forum set up) they soon lose interest as people account cash values and Post count the same in one sense, as a mark or status symbol. A rather useful ploy to lessen my average community workload.[;)] Just make sure you note, come phpBB forum update time (Several this year already I might add!) you have changed the code, so adding new updates/installing them can be a pain as the codes change because of Mods. You need to watch what you do very carefully or it all goes Pete Tong very very fast.

ystoredesign -> RE: Are incentives on online forums a good idea? (6/16/2005 0:32:06)
quote: ORIGINAL: Thomas Brunt I'm sure there would be some spammy stuff, but I would think the mods could police it. To avoid spam messages we recently set up a new rule – only registered users can post in www.CoffeeFun.com. We have no spam for a week or two and our members approved of this idea. I would like to know the opinions of other forum owners. Do you find it useful?

Spooky -> RE: Are incentives on online forums a good idea? (6/16/2005 1:36:13)
Do we find registration useful? Yes and no - we still get drive by spamming from those who take the time to go through the registration process. However, if it was open to immediate posting, then it would be a huge problem to try and moderate. I also say no, as it does reduce the number of people signing up for legitimate purposes too. Ultimately though - I have more satisfaction replying or discussing issues with people who have an identity and contact details than I do with persons unknown that may never revisit the site again [8\|]

ystoredesign -> RE: Are incentives on online forums a good idea? (6/16/2005 7:34:15)
quote: ORIGINAL: sljsh Are there any other advantages to the 'cents' program other than revenue generation? Why do you want people to post on your message board to get the discounts? That’s easy :) Forum with gifts makes our store more popular. People like to get discounts and gifts and they usually tell to their friends or relatives about them. This is a kind of advertising without much efforts and money.

ystoredesign -> RE: Are incentives on online forums a good idea? (6/16/2005 7:37:08)
Registration also makes people come back and talk more, and people remember about this forum. Acutally it helps to obtain repeated visitors.

Taz -> RE: Are incentives on online forums a good idea? (6/16/2005 8:45:52)
quote: ORIGINAL: ystoredesign I would like to know the opinions of other forum owners. Do you find it useful? My main forum is set up so unregistered visitors can gain access and post as a Guest if they wish in the forum dedicated to my site and for that exact thing (Guestbook type stuff or queries about stuff on my site etc). Unless you register you can only see one forum, the rest are hidden till you register and I activate the account after doing an initial check on registration details and validating the E-Mail they registered with. It's a bit more effort but because I run a tight community I like to vet my new members a little bit before allowing them into the inner sanctum of the community before they can spam, cause trouble or anything else. I find that works best for me with that forum, though for other types of sites and set ups I would still prefer people to register for the same reason as mentioned above, better to have some identity than be some shadow or ghost.

ystoredesign -> RE: Are incentives on online forums a good idea? (6/16/2005 9:49:38)
quote: ORIGINAL: Taz I like to vet my new members a little bit before allowing them into the inner sanctum of the community before they can spam, cause trouble or anything else. I like the way you do it. This is more flexible method (so to speak), because people can post messages and stick around for some time till they decide if they really like the community and stay or go away. Can you give the link to your forum?

Taz -> RE: Are incentives on online forums a good idea? (6/16/2005 10:00:33)
http://ganjataz.com/Forum_Webmaster-Edition/index.php I have it set up like that as my community members prefer a bit more security from internet trolls and alt nicks and the usual congregation of idiots that like to stalk people or track them for the purposes of annoying them when they are trying to relax.

ystoredesign -> RE: Are incentives on online forums a good idea? (6/17/2005 2:08:51)
The forum looks unusual to me. I didn't quite get its main idea, a small description or a kind of slogan on the main page could help. Wish you good luck with it!

Taz -> RE: Are incentives on online forums a good idea? (6/17/2005 4:25:29)
It's just my little online community for my friends and their friends to hang out on at home and work, hence it's subtle. As I said, the place is like an iceberg, all the action is below the surface and locked down nice and secure so Boss man or whoever can't just nosey in and see what the members are upto. [:D] The idea of the place is so people can come hang out and relax away from the usual board drama Llamas they usually run into on their usual forums and BB's. They also learn stuff if they want to from the other members, we have some pretty clued up geeks in our crowd who look out for those not so much in the know. So part of it is similer to this place, the rest, ummmm, very, very, very much not. [;)] Thanks for the good luck wishes. (:

ystoredesign -> RE: Are incentives on online forums a good idea? (7/21/2005 2:51:56)
Just a few words to sum up the discussion. It’s been about a month or two since we started this strategy and the results are very good. We saw many forums using incentives which could be redeemed for goods or small gifts. Most people say these 10 or 15 cents will not make them richer, but they feel richer and they like friendly chat and try to post more. We were glad to receive any your comments and opinions and will be happy to know more from your in future :) You are welcome to our forums www.CoffeeFun.com and www.VitaTalk.com !

womble -> RE: Are incentives on online forums a good idea? (7/21/2005 8:33:30)
One of the forums I admin/mod on recently had a thread on people's favourite books/what they were reading, and the board's founder has just set up a book/reading forum where people can talk about books and buy, sell or swap books, after it sparked a lot of debate. She's just launched a monthly competition for the most number of posts with the prize being a book (presumably one she's wanting to get rid of). That, and this thread has set me thinking. My forum currently has 4 members (and that includes me, and one of those I had to register on her behalf because she's a complete technophobe!) - though admittedly I haven't yet got round to doing any kind of marketing/publicity (one of my jobs that I'm 'going to do tomorrow' [;)]). I think I may try out some sort of competition/points system. As usual OF's the place to come for inspiration! [:)]

ystoredesign -> RE: Are incentives on online forums a good idea? (7/21/2005 10:18:40)
Wish you good luck with your forum!

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