Human Factors International's latest white paper, written by Staples.com's Director of Usability.

http://www.humanfactors.com/training/webcasts.asp

*Highly* bent towards e-commerce related sites but the overall paper is still valuable. You have to request the paper and it will be emailed in .pdf format as an attachment.

Perhaps to turn this inward a bit - What are some of the things *You* do that keep your members happy, and returning to your site in addition to your community? Share your thoughts here - please!

At Infopop, information and progress are two things we enjoy sharing with this community as soon as possible. Our member's [YOU] are a constant stream of input, discussion and fun!

Candy keeps 'em coming back!

As a user rather than a board operator I try to remind myself what keeps me on a site or a board. First and formost is "usable and interesting information". E-commerce has changed a lot of how I go about things. For example I rarely make an online purchase without reading user opinions first. User opinions weigh very heavily for me. When I was researching food processors (sad yes I know)... I ended up buying a product that wasn't on my mind due to the recommendations by other users. The product I was going to buy got really low marks. The one I did buy makes me giggle when I use it (yes, I am this sad). I think I am much more likely to get involved in an area where there is information compiled...

That's all I have for now.

Attitude and treatment of members can play a big role in recruiting new ones.

UBBDesign.com

Definitely agree. To April's point about seeking out what other users say about an online product:

I usually lurk a while in various communities to see how people are treated before diving in. Sort of the community equivalent I suppose.

The most sincere idea I've seen in our boards over in this forum. Sending new member's email directly welcoming them:Keepin em comin back

Successful message boards are a community of their own. Diversity of opinion must be encouraged, or your members will soon tire of seeing their own thoughts repeatedly echoed back to them by like-minded posters.

On my board, we have a number of posters that, though not overtly encouraged by me, seem to enjoy taking the minority opinion on all controversial issues, then turn around and make sport of those that disagree.

If everything works correctly, it's a soap opera of its own, but people will keep coming back, not only for the factual info your site might provide, but also just to see what "so-and-so" had to say today.

With everything, there is a catch. Your antagonists must be intelligent, witty and well-informed. Also, you must, as a board admin, hold them to a fine line - allowing them enough room to poke fun at the general population, but not so much latitude that they run off "too many" posters. Finding (or creating) such personnas is not easy (out of 5,000 members I have only two that are really good at it), but moderating the occasional skirmish will take up some of your time.

You now know my deep dark secret method for keeping your community healthy. If you are a college basketball fan, you know that during the summer there is little action to keep the interest of fans peaked. However, encouraging a diversity of opinions has worked well for Phog.net. At one point this afternoon, we had over 200 fans enjoying the show. I can't wait for the season to get underway.

I've also got some other ideas for those that are wanting to start, or grow their sites - again based on the school of hard knocks. Put them in the FWIW bin.

My bus is nearly at the station, so...

Tom

Phog.net: Where the Jayhawks Hold Court!

Content is king!

Thanks, Amanda!

I requested the PDF document, read it, and to my surprise (I was expecting something more "normal"), learned something new.
Very nice article, and I'd suggest that anyone interested in running a web site/bulletin board should read it.

Which reminds me... recently, it was pointed to me that the registration process on UBB.classic forums could be a little confusing.
Not everyone seems to spot the "Join" or "Register" link at a first glance.
Oh, and I'm not talking about visually impaired people.

--------------
Iceware - Programming Solutions | Iceware Community Forums

We have a very busy message board (ubb.x), as well as a tremendous library of interesting articles.

I like to respond to member posts with links to related articles. I have not yet exploited the feature on ubb.x where I can send people to related topics on the message board directly from an article (content islands, I think). Also, I reference related articles at the end of each article...

This keeps people moving around on the website from the message board to the articles, and hopefully back again.

Rich O'Boyle, Publisher
ElderCare Online
http://www.ec-online.net

ElderCare Online: The Internet Community of Elder Caregivers http://www.ec-online.net