Intro -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication Page -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Foreword -- Introduction: Is this Book for You? -- How this Book is Organized -- Communities, Forums, and Boards -- Book Website -- After you've Read the Book -- Chapter 1. Laying the Groundwork -- Fundamental Decisions -- What will your Community Cover? -- Whom do you want to Attract? -- What will the Benefits of your Community Be? -- How will you Support the Community Financially? -- What is your Situation? -- Create a Brand-New Stand-Alone Community -- Launch a Brand-New Community and Content Site at the Same Time -- Launch a Brand-New Community as an Addition to an Existing Content Site -- Purchase or Take over an Existing Community -- What Skills and Characteristics do you Need to Have? -- Conclusion -- Chapter 2. Developing your Community -- Choosing a Name and a Domain Name -- Communities for New or Existing Content Sites -- Naming a Stand-Alone Community -- Extensions -- Dashes and Numbers -- Spell it Correctly! -- Length -- Prefixes -- Don't Curse! -- Domain Name Registrars -- Web Hosting -- Choosing your Community Software -- vBulletin -- phpBB -- Basic Options -- Software Options -- Requiring Registration to Participate -- Smilies -- Flood Controls -- Word Censors -- Post Counts -- Old Posts -- Purging Accounts -- User Options -- Signatures and Avatars -- Username Changing -- User Titles and Ranks -- Ignore List -- Private Messaging -- Allowing Users to be "Invisible" -- Setup Options -- What Guests See -- How many Forums should I Have? -- Advertising Forums -- Private Forums -- Other Forums -- Why you don't want a Feedback-and-Suggestions Forum -- Starting with Staff -- Design, Layout, and Customization -- Don't Just Install a Ready-Made Template -- Designing for a Community -- Stick to One Look -- Customizing your Community.

Improve the Usability -- Add an Important Feature -- Add a Requested Feature -- Make your Job Easier -- Be Smart, Be Safe -- Follow the Instructions and Recommendations -- Check your File and Folder Permissions -- Protect your Admin Areas with .htaccess -- Have Separate Passwords for Everything -- Create a Separate Database Account for Each Database -- Backup your Database-Constantly! -- Keep your Community Software Updated -- Conclusion -- Chapter 3. Developing Guidelines -- Guideline Ideas -- What do they Apply To? -- Cross-Posting, Duplicate Threads, Etc. -- Post-Count Boosting and Bumping -- Styles of Communication (No CAPS!) -- Advertising -- Affiliate Links -- Copyright -- Illegal Activities -- Hotlinking and Bandwidth Theft -- Legal Advice, Medical Advice, Suicide Threats, Etc. -- Personal, Real-Life Information and Privacy -- English Only, Please -- Respect -- Obstructing the Flow of Discussion -- Vulgar Language and Offensive Material -- Freedom of Speech -- Multiple Accounts -- Automated Account Creation, Participation, and Scraping -- Signatures -- Avatars -- Privilege Restrictions -- Deleting Accounts and/or Posts in the Future (Leaving your Community) -- Who's the Boss? -- If you Break the Guidelines, there are Consequences -- The Guidelines are not All-Inclusive -- We can't Watch it All! -- Have Fun! and, if you Need Help, Let us Know! -- Real-Life Examples -- The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (C.O.P.P.A.) -- Privacy Policy -- Get them Out There! -- Conclusion -- Chapter 4. Promoting your Community -- You -- What is not Considered Promotional can be Promotional -- Preparing your Community for Search Engines -- Make your Community Spiderable -- Descriptive Page Titles -- Welcome Messages -- Before you Launch -- Directories -- Partnerships -- What can you Offer a Partner? -- What can a Partner Offer You?.

Buying Advertising -- Link Exchanges -- Contests and Giveaways -- Post Exchanges and Paying People to Post -- Offline Promotion -- Let your Users Promote You! -- What not to Do -- Conclusion -- Chapter 5. Managing your Staff -- How should you Lead? -- Communicating with your Staff -- Staff Forums -- Talking Things to Death -- Staff Leaks -- The Chain of Command -- Regular Users who Think they are Staff -- Moderators Policing Moderators -- Only One True Admin, Please -- Moderation: The Process -- Step #1: Recognizing Violations -- Step #2: Removing Violations -- Step #3: Documenting Violations and the Action Taken -- Step #4: Contacting Users -- Responses to Guideline Violation Warnings -- Process Summary -- Old Violations -- Staff Guidelines -- Staff Guideline Ideas -- Job Duties -- Behavior -- Use of "Powers" -- Documenting Violations and Related Issues and Notifying Members -- Discussing Site-Related Issues with Members -- Avoiding Controversial Discussions -- Staff Forums -- Interacting with Other Levels of Staff -- Choosing New Staff Members -- Saying Thanks and Being Available -- Example Staff Guidelines -- Situations Guide -- Make your Staff Stand Out -- Staff Member Benefits -- Choosing your Staff -- When is it Time for a Staff Member to Move On? -- Inactive Staff Members -- Resignation in Good Standing -- Resignation after Disagreement -- Wow, I Let this Person onto My Staff? -- Conclusion -- Chapter 6. Banning Users and Dealing with Chaos -- Real People, Real Cases -- The Bad -- Forum Spam Bots -- That doesn't Look Like Spam… -- Introtisements and Adverquestions -- Violations in Private Messages -- I'm Locked out of My Account! -- Why use of "Microoft/M" is Bad -- Content Thieves and Scrapers -- The Reply-to-Every-Post Guy -- "Freedom of Speech" -- Me vs. You -- "You are so Biased" -- "I'm Creating My Own YourSite.com________!".

When Users Say Good-Bye -- Threats (…Or I'm Leaving!) -- …And the Worst -- "Remove All of My Posts and Delete My Account!" -- "Hate him, My Minions! Hate Him!" -- Admin to Users: "Attack!" -- The Grand Delusion -- Personal Crusades: What it All Comes Down To -- Persistent Idiots -- Solutions -- Post Reporting System -- Turning Negatives into Positives -- Helpful Notices -- Innovative Tools -- Banning -- Give Every User a Chance -- Public Humiliation -- When should you Ban? -- Responding to Banned Users -- Lifting a Ban -- Banning Methods -- Banning Usernames -- Temporary Bans -- Banning IPs -- Users who use the Same IP -- Doesn't that Look Like…? -- Get Creative -- The System is Down -- Make it so that Only they can See their Posts (Global Ignore) -- Simulated Downtime -- Automated Banning and Point-Based Systems -- Banning URLs -- Contacting a User's ISP -- Conclusion -- Chapter 7. Creating a Good Environment -- Respect is Everything -- Welcoming New Users -- Be Human, Be Fun, Be Involved -- Answering Questions -- Don't have an Attitude of Expected Knowledge -- Don't Link Users to General, Unhelpful Sites -- Don't Tell Users to Search -- If a Question has been Asked Before -- Make your Users Feel Involved -- Ask Users for Input -- Announce Changes -- Share your Successes -- Customer Service -- When a Problem Occurs, Apologize and Explain -- Responding to Bad or Rude Suggestions -- How to Handle Private Contact with Users -- Don't Take it Personally -- Allow All Wrath to be Directed at you, not your Staff -- Politics, Religion, and Other Very Controversial Discussions -- Conclusion -- Chapter 8. Keeping it Interesting -- New Features -- Newsletters and Mailing Lists -- RSS Feeds and Syndication -- Bots -- Posting Games -- Arcade Games -- Contests and Giveaways -- Member of the Month -- Articles and Content -- Chat Rooms -- Awards Programs.

Conclusion -- Chapter 9. Making Money -- Advertising -- Displaying (Some) Ads to Guests Only -- Start with Ads -- Advertising Networks -- CPM and CPC Networks -- CPA Networks and Affiliate Programs -- Selling Advertising -- Other Ads -- Ad Threads -- Classifieds -- Sponsorships -- What Else…? -- Merchandise -- Paid Memberships -- Donations -- Conclusion -- End Note -- Appendix A. Online Resources -- Appendix B. Blank General Templates -- User Guidelines -- Staff Member Guidelines -- Contact Templates -- Appendix C. Glossary -- Index -- About the Author.

Forums add a powerful component to any website. This is the only guide that shows how to run a fun, informative, and harmonious online forum.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2018. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.