Your Menu Of Discussions

Let’s introduce a simple concept, your menu of discussions.

Take a look at the latest discussions taking place in your
community right now.

Do the latest discussions, the ones that display prominently
on the landing page of the community, reflect the community image you want to
present? 

Are these honestly the first discussions you want ALL your
members to see today?

Based largely upon these discussions, members will decide
whether or not to participate in the community today. If they don’t see
something interesting to them they’re gone until tomorrow. If they don’t see
anything tomorrow, they might be gone for the rest of the week.

You need to carefully
balance your menu of discussions.

In most communities, you need to balance the discussions
that convey information with status-jockeying and bonding-related discussions
(the latter are better than the former)

If you visit RockAndRollTribe
above, you get this menu of discussions. All have a good level of response and
are excellent bonding/status-jockeying discussions.

To get a balance menu of discussions you need the following:

1) Mix the new discussions with the older popular
ones. Keep the new with the fresh. Lock/unlock/bump/make sticky to get this right.

2) Mix the popular, fun, discussions with the
conveying information discussions. If someone participates in one discussion,
they’re likely to participate in more that day.

3) Mix the advanced material with the entry-level
questions.

4) Focus on the topic of the community itself – do
some of these discussions showcase the best of the community?

5) Ensure the discussions are within the right
topic and not repetitive.

This is a daily act of moderation. It doesn’t take long to
do, but it’s important to get it right.

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