A forum providing free webspace.

shabda · Posted: 3/11/2006, 1:33 am Post subject: A forum providing free webspace.

We have started a free webspace service at www.grinhost.com, extremely good if you ask me(cpanel, mysql, php), in leau of people coming to our forums and posting.
We have made good pregress in recruiting people, however they donot post as much I would like them to.
So, would you guys take a look and tell me what I am doing wrong?
BTW, if any of you guys plan on hosting a community come on over. Our hosting is fully phpbb compliant.

Nick · Posted: 3/11/2006, 11:04 pm Post subject:

Your logo is sketchy - the edges have excess white on them. Other than that, the look is ok. I just get a negative feeling when I look around; I guess your "grin" system is just not something I'd like to be a part of. Objectively speaking, I don't think you're doing anything "wrong" as you put it. You have quite a few members, although not a ton of activity I guess. I wonder if your grin system maybe turns people away? Maybe you should set it at 30 posts or so for a certain level of hosting, and move up from there without requiring continual posting.

EDIT: Your forums seem to be very specific - Mandarin and Hindi discussion are not common place things. You should focus your board up on being a tech solutions kind of place, or broaden it out into a general discussion board.
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[The Smash Syndicate] Ek Pyros - Out of Fire

shabda · Posted: 3/12/2006, 4:49 pm Post subject:

Since we provide free hosting, which costs us money, I need to find a way that people are active on forum.
Grin was one such system. Can you recommend any other for continous posting?

shabda · Posted: 3/12/2006, 4:51 pm Post subject:

A large number of people on our forum are from india, so I added a hindi forum. ANd making languages for one language seemed a stupid idea, so mandarin.

Nick · Posted: 3/13/2006, 2:41 pm Post subject:

You may have some sort of trade off if you set the post count at certain levels for certain hosting levels; people will post just enough to reach that level, no doubt, but then you may have more people signing up in the long run.
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[The Smash Syndicate] Ek Pyros - Out of Fire

Ex0dus · Posted: 3/13/2006, 7:28 pm Post subject:

Theres 2 ways to go about keeping people posting (i too offer free hosting)

1. As was said before, make a post requirement to get certain hosting features, you can also make a monthly quota of posts needed to retain hosting, and other things. The forum post limit hack and auto group hacks (both found on phpbbhacks.com) can be helpful in helping you.

2. Require an introduction post and a hosting request post. Most people wont mind just introducing themsevles and making a hosting request (since both seem very logical for getting hosting). Past that, youll have to give them an environment in which they will feel welcome to post and talk about the sites they are working on (in this sense a site review forum with friendly people would work well).

I dont know if you want my opinion on which to choose, but i personally use option 2. While it doesnt guarantee me many posts, it does not force people to do anything past the initial 2 posts needed to get the original hosting. I have looked at other sites that use option 1, and although they are active, i get the feeling that alot of the posting there is insincere and is little more than spam. I have had others who were hosted on places that used option 1 leave their hosting and join mine just because they were resentful of being basically forced to post to keep their hosting.

Everyone is different though, and both options have their downfalls and their strengths. My off-topic suggestion to you is to not offer more than you can reasonably maintain for a few years. Too many free hosters go all out and try to give too much too quickly and quickly go down because of the ever increasing costs. Keep things reasonable and dont expect to be an overnight success.

-Ex0dus