Building the DGF Community?

[Kerim]

Hey folks. I’d love to hear any ideas you’ve got about how to attract a few more good, active members to the forum. We’ve got a great core group going, but I think it would be fun and valuable to have a few more voices, with a broader base of ideas and perspectives.

I’ve been pretty reserved in actively marketing the site, mostly because I think slow and natural growth is probably the best way to keep the quality high. I’ve avoided (and will continue to avoid) putting links on places like the yhoo finance forums. It might drive some traffic here, but I would be worried about the quality and nature of that traffic. So far, I’ve limited myself to links back here in comments on SA and occasionally a couple of other DG-oriented sites.

What else should I / we be doing to build the community here?

Thanks!

[EricL]

I've only been a member for a few months and I can definitely see an uptick in activity of late. I don't know that I'd do too much differently as I agree that a slow and steady progression of activity is probably the best way to go.

Also agree that you should stay as far away as possible from the yahoo forums.

[Ok Red]

Well, I joined the forum just a few weeks ago and was member 80something, and now it's up to 160something. I think it will grow naturally just from searches, which is a somewhat holistic approach. My positive forum experiences have been with sites that let growth come to them naturally. Just my humble opinion, but trying to force growth is dangerous. I've been on a few 'ad heavy' forums that were distinctly unpleasant (flaming newbs, etc) and would prefer to avoid that approach.

The good news is that membership has doubled in two months or so, so the membership is already growing at a healthy pace . It won't take long before you'll have advertisers groveling to get page space!

[fiveoh]

I found this forum thru a link on SA in the comment section. Keep doing what you are doing, it seems to be working well.

[hendi_alex]

It is quite a challenge to establish a board with a broad based harmonious group of posters. It is relatively easy to get many to join, but to get them to contribute is a different matter. Just look at the number of current members, and how few have contributed even a single post. My Income Investing and Beyond board at Investor Village is similar and was set up in 2010. One hundred fifty nine members have been added, yet 90% of the posting is made up by a dozen or less regulars. For the past month we have averaged about 10 posts per day usually coming from 6-8 different posters on a given day.

[ronn38]

Boards function different ways for different people--stating the obvious I know.

I want to be on a board where people know more than me, thus I grow. If however, people know more than me--it limits the input I want to give until I get up to speed. After a time, when I have reached a certain "mean average," I can begin offer advice/sights/etc. to those who join a year or so from now who are like me... wanting to join a board with people more knowledgeable than I.

And on the cycle go's--at least for people who join boards for the same reason I do.

And, as stated, there are a myriad of reason that would have people join and not contribute as much, or in the same way as others might (and indeed, in some cases perhaps best they didn't ;-)

Ronn

[hendi_alex]

Everyone one learns from everyone else who posts questions, cites successes and mistakes, posts holdings, tosses out ideas for DD, etc. I'm here to learn from you and anyone else who posts at the site. Everyone has something to offer, regardless of experience.

[TomK]

I'm pretty happy in a smaller group, so long as the quality of discussion remains high. So I'd say don't worry about beating the bushes for more people. When the right people find us in the right way, they'll stick around and add to the experience far more than recruiting numbers of people.

[Kerim]

Ok, thanks very much for the feedback guys. I’ll stay the course and try not to worry about it too much. I guess sometimes it gets a bit too quiet for too long and I fear that we’ll lose the nice momentum we’ve had lately. But if folks are generally content, I certainly don’t want to push it.

Also, sorry that I am generally not around during the daytime myself. I am usually pretty focused and busy at work, so my posting is limited to evenings and weekends. I often think it would be fun to be posting while the market is actually open!

[hendi_alex]

Working? Don't have time for that anymore, at least not working for pay. Too busy with daily activities including a never ending honey do list.