I've been a memeber of many mom boards since my son was 6 weeks old. What I find is the more a community becomes a group of moms who check in regularly and talk about day to day routines, the more active a board becomes. Trust is built between members and sharing becomes more personal and friendships develop.
I think having a "daily check in" section or a "good morning" section would be a good start in building that type of community.
Other things we've done in the past that have been fun and gets the boards moving is a post-a-thon where either over a set number of days or during a specific time frame people are encouraged to come post with top posters getting prizes or something like that.
We also had a games section where we would create an dplay little get to know you games. It was also fun.
Oh, one more thing. An introduction area would be good too. For new members to introduce themselves and their families to the forum members and read a bit about other forum members. This also helps build a sense of community
I think that there might be a lot more activity interest forums if people could post under their usernames (not sure why you pick one if it's not used) rather than actual names. People I'm sure are more apt to share personal thoughts if there is an element of anonymity. I hqvenever participated ina forum that uses a person's real name over a username (unless of course the poster chooses their name as their username)
I've been a memeber of many mom boards since my son was 6 weeks old. What I find is the more a community becomes a group of moms who check in regularly and talk about day to day routines, the more active a board becomes. Trust is built between members and sharing becomes more personal and friendships develop.
I think having a "daily check in" section or a "good morning" section would be a good start in building that type of community.
Other things we've done in the past that have been fun and gets the boards moving is a post-a-thon where either over a set number of days or during a specific time frame people are encouraged to come post with top posters getting prizes or something like that.
We also had a games section where we would create an dplay little get to know you games. It was also fun.
Oh, one more thing. An introduction area would be good too. For new members to introduce themselves and their families to the forum members and read a bit about other forum members. This also helps build a sense of community
I think that there might be a lot more activity interest forums if people could post under their usernames (not sure why you pick one if it's not used) rather than actual names. People I'm sure are more apt to share personal thoughts if there is an element of anonymity. I hqvenever participated ina forum that uses a person's real name over a username (unless of course the poster chooses their name as their username)