ForumCon 2014

1. Data Driven Insights
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TO BUILD A SUCCESSFUL FORUM
© 2014 ProBoards, Inc.

2. Overview
 Looked at forum trends across hundreds of thousands of forums
 Data came from forums hosted by ProBoards (www.proboards.com)
 Identified differences between top tier forums and small to medium sized
forums
 Key areas we analyzed:
 Desktop vs. Mobile
 Forum Moderators
 Requiring Guests to Login
 Themes

3. Worldwide Desktop vs. Mobile Traffic
73.7%
91.5%
8.5%
26.3%
Source: http://gs.statcounter.com/

4. Forums: Desktop vs. Mobile

5. Desktop vs. Mobile
Desktop
79%
Mobile
21%
Pageviews
Data based on over 100 million pageviews
from ProBoards during April & May 2014
Desktop
80%
Mobile
20%
Posts
Data based on over 2,500,000 posts made
during April & May 2014

6. Mobile Browser vs. Native App
Native App
26%
Mobile Browser
74%
Pageviews
Data based on over 100 million pageviews
from ProBoards during April & May 2014
Native App
31%
Mobile Browser
69%
Posts
Data based on over 2,500,000 posts made
during April & May 2014

7. Posting Frequency
Native App
56%
Mobile Browser
44%
Native app users post
12% more often than
visitors using a mobile
browser

8. Mobile Takeaways
 The majority of mobile forum traffic comes from mobile browsers
 Native app users are more likely to participate in discussions
 Provide your visitors with both a mobile optimized browser experience as
well as support for a native app such as Tapatalk or Forum Runner for
maximum engagement

9. Forum Moderators
 Data came from April & May 2014 from thousands of the largest ProBoards
forums with active moderators
 Eliminated moderators that were not online in the last 30 days
 Top Forums were based on total pageviews
 Looked at both Local and Global Moderators
 Local Moderators only have powers in certain areas of the forum
 Global Moderators have powers in all areas of the forum

10. Local : Global Moderator Ratio
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
1-50 51-250 251-500 501-750 751-1000 1001-1250 1251-1500 1501-1750 1751-2000
Forum Rank
Ratio

11. Why use Local Moderators?
 It’s hard for a Global Moderator to be everywhere at once
 More eyes looking throughout the forum, even in areas with less activity
 You can get the benefits of a strong moderator team while still limiting
what powers they have across the forum
 You can build trust by starting someone as a moderator with limited
powers before moving them up to the more important role of Global
Moderator

12. Who Moderates the Most?
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
Top 50 Forums Top 51-250 Top 251-500 Top 501-750 Top 751-1000 Top 1001-2000
Total Number of Moderator Actions
Local Mod Team Global Mod Team Forum Owner

13. Who Moderates the Most?
0.0
10.0
20.0
30.0
40.0
50.0
60.0
70.0
80.0
90.0
Top 50 Forums Top 51-250 Top 251-500 Top 501-750 Top 751-1000 Top 1001-2000
Average Actions per Individual Moderator
Local Mods Global Mods Forum Owner

14. Moderator Takeaways
 The most successful forums take advantage of using as many Local Moderators
as Global Moderators to keep a better eye on every section of their forum
 Having a strong Global Moderation team is essential for a successful forum
 As your forum grows, more and more responsibility should shift from the owner to the
Global Moderation team
 The forum owner tends to do more moderation than any individual member of
the moderation team
 In smaller forums, on average the forum owner does 170 - 366% more moderation
than individual Global Moderators
 In larger forums, the forum owner only does 13% more work than individual Global
Moderators

15. Guests Must Login
 Some forums have the option to require guests to login to the forum in
order to view the content
 How do the largest forums use this feature?
 What impact does it have on the number of users that register on your
forum?

16. Guests Must Login
0.00%
10.00%
20.00%
30.00%
40.00%
50.00%
60.00%
70.00%
80.00%
90.00%
100.00%
Top 1-50 Top 51-250 Top 251-500 Top 501-750 Top 751-1000 Top 1001-2000
Open Forums vs. Guests Must Login Forums
Open Forums Guests Must Login

17. Disabling Guests Must Login
0.00%
10.00%
20.00%
30.00%
40.00%
50.00%
60.00%
70.00%
80.00%
Top 1-250 Forums Top 251-500 Top 501-750 Top 751-1000 Top 1001-2000
How Many More Users Could Your Forum Gain?
Registration Boost

18. Guests Must Login Takeaways
 98% of the top 50 ProBoards forums don’t require guests to login
 Forums will see 37 - 71% more registered users by not requiring guests to
login to view forum content
 Don’t require guests to login to view your content if you want to grow your
forum
 Many people will simply leave when being forced to register on your forum
 Visitors won't have the opportunity to be hooked by your forum's great content

19. Themes
 What do the largest forums do in terms of theme customization?
 Looked at over 1.4 million forum registrations on our top 500 forums
 Broke down these forums into three categories:
 Minor to no customization (simple color changes, logo change)
 Medium customization (customized images or slight layout changes)
 High customization (customized layout, images, etc.)

20. Customization: None / Minor

21. Customization: Medium

22. Customization: High

23. Level of Theme Customization
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
Top 50 51-100 101-150 151-200 201-250 251-300 301-350 351-400 401-450 451-500
Theme Customization on Top 500 Forums
Minor to None Medium High

24. Level of Theme Customization
 50% of the top 500 forums kept the default theme or made only minor
changes
 40% of the forums did a medium amount of customization
 10% of the forums created a highly customized theme
 Only one out the top 100 forums had a highly customized theme

25. Theme Customization vs. Registration
High
Medium
Minor to None
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
Registered Users per Day

26. You Are Probably Not a UX Designer

27. You Are Probably Not a UX Designer
 Most people aren’t designers and can make poor design choices
 Bad font and color choices are common and make the forum hard to read
 Poor placement of links on the page can make the forum harder to use
 A fully customized theme is not necessary for a popular forum
 Sticking with a professionally designed theme is generally better
 UX Designers work hard to ensure your theme is both functional and
aesthetically pleasing
 The more you customize your theme, the more you could decrease how
many users register on your forum

28. Overall Takeaways
 Make sure you have both a mobile theme and support for native mobile
apps for maximum engagement
 The top forums have active forum owners. Stay active!
 Build a strong moderator team that includes both Local and Global
Moderators to set your forum up for success
 Keep Guests Must Login turned off unless your community requires it
 Your time is better spent worrying about your forum’s content than your
forum’s layout
 Focus on building a great community with great content and the rest fall
into place

29. Thank You!
Patrick Clinger
pclinger@proboards.com
@proboards
Facebook.com/ProBoardsFreeForums