UBB.Developers Forums Community Development Promoting Your Community Forum Showcase Lots of members but lacking in posts

I've got a problem. My forum is only a week old and it's already starting to take off quite well with close to 200 members. The problem is that only about 30 of my members are posting regularly. What can I do to try and get everyone to participate?

you can start a few topics that might encourage people to reply.

Also, if you have any moderators/admins ask them to pitch in and generate some activity.

A lot of times people will 'lurk' for a while before feeling comfortable and starting to post. If you make them feel welcome they are more likely to come out of the woodwork.

Sometimes asking questions or opinions of your community can help. This can allow others to share their selves without having to start their own topic.

Get some good topics for members to reply too, make the forum look alot more appealing.

Do what LD, Stilgar, and tacks said. Also, you might want to read around in this forum to get some ideas.

~Jon

what kind of forum is it? whats the theme?

in a general sense, here are some good ways to 'force' conversations:

• start an 'introduce yourself' kinda thread, asking name, location, whatever. they typically end up being conversations
• as noted here look for something controversial, or opinionated to discuss. post the question, then reply with your own opinion -- never fails!
• start LOTS of posts yourself (instead of just replying to existing ones). it forces variety to the board.
• ask a public opinion question (i.e; "what would you like to see on these boards?" or "whats missing from here?" something like that can both start conversations AND benefit the community)

without knowing, specifically, what your board is about or the community of it, etc, i cant get much more specific, but... the above should work on most all forums.