Would you fake some users/posts at a beggining?

[antarsis]

So you are about to start a new forum. You have no users. And it's hard to get users without making it look like an engaging site.

Would you fake some members? Posts? Or maybe just close the forum for guests making it look like a super secret forum?

What would you do?

[Kaneko Sayami]

1 hour ago, antarsis said:

So you are about to start a new forum. You have no users. And it's hard to get users without making it look like an engaging site.

Would you fake some members? Posts? Or maybe just close the forum for guests making it look like a super secret forum?

What would you do?

There's nothing wrong with faking a few members if your whole site is empty. If you have staff you can also tell them to create additional accounts and post as them. using an app like this also helps a lot too. Sadly I don't have it or I would have uploaded it. https://invisioncommunity.com/files/file/7708-linked-accounts-post-as/

Closing the Forum from guests is a good idea too but can also drive people away like it can get them curious. 

 

[gooboy]

Lol no. Faking genuine interest in a site is lame.

[Jeffrey]

4 hours ago, gooboy said:

Lol no. Faking genuine interest in a site is lame.

I'd have to agree. If your site isn't engaging the user or giving the user to join, then you should work on that. Use methods of advertising such as Google Ads, word of mouth, etc. to build up your community. Of course, you won't have the biggest community and will take a lot of work to get there. Faking users/posts is generally dumb and will only make you lose genuine users.

[Humaniac]

Also with me it took some time, until I came from quasi zero to over hundred members with my side. I started when IPS version 4 was currently available for download on webflake and invisionvirus. About a month ago I had about 120 members. The community was mainly concerned with Android, Windows and related devices, as well as helping with problems with these.

For me it would have been unthinkable at that time to even try to fake any content or rather members. Not just because I was active in the bilingual area. German and English. Unfortunately I had rented a .eu domain, which expired a few weeks ago and would have had to be renewed.

Since I didn't want to spend a three-digit amount for a reactivation of the domain and also noticed that most members only registered once for an order and the purchase of a voucher code for Debriditalia, I lost the ambition to continue the whole thing.

Now I have my domain isacologne with .de ending (by the way for the price of 1,- €/month) used years ago again in use. So far with the same content: Android and Windows, as well as a blog with IT news. The problem: today you fall over all those pages which deal with these topics and the offer of help.

Since a few days I have outsourced the shop area with the help of another software (shopware), because I specialize more in Dropshipping.

A bounce rate of the visitors, which is currently 26 percent, speaks for itself. And this even though I haven't yet connected Google, Amazon, Facebook and Instagram. I will simply wait and see and offer more interesting products whose prices speak for themselves.

Edited September 7, 2018 by Humaniac

[Divine Paradox]

It's not a good idea as people would later found out. It's hard to keep up a fake community, even if you have people to help you. All communities I was part of were usually gaming communities so it's easier to get members if you have a wide variety of games. I don't feel the need to, though. I think I'd do it if it's something else, like Instagram Followers/Comments/Likes, Facebook Likes/Comments, YouTube Views/Likes/Comments/Subscribers etc, but not active members in a community.

[mr-pimpen]

Fake a few members on new boards its not so bad if you dont have money to pay for traffic or adds it!

 

Your Answer Is Hear

[elmiratelegram]

I tried my hand at it when I first started but quickly found it was a lot of extra work and hard to change writing styles so no one would know it was me. I gave it up really quick. 

If you have quality content, and market the hell out of it to your target audience, you should have people chiming in pretty quick. 

[nick47274]

Back a couple years ago and I imagine you could still find some forums that still do it, but you can go to these sites and get 'packages' of users who simply go to your forum, get a generalized understanding of the topic from what you provide and the forum in question and give you x amount of posts for x amount of time. It can be a paid or free service, and at one point, I was a packager myself. It's not exactly fake users, but it's definitely temporary.

I know the thread is old, but I thought to revive it and giving this little piece of feedback, might spark a new discussion on it. Does anyone even remember those sites at all, if you've had any experience with them, of course.

Edited November 16, 2018 by ZeusLight
Explantion for 'bumping' a old topic.

[PlanetMaster]

On 8/2/2018 at 9:11 AM, antarsis said:

So you are about to start a new forum. You have no users. And it's hard to get users without making it look like an engaging site.

Would you fake some members? Posts? Or maybe just close the forum for guests making it look like a super secret forum?

What would you do?

Absolutely not! Off the bat you are setting a bad example for new members, dishonesty. Instead do the smart thing and post yourself as an Admin. post topics on your sites theme and what you want to do with it in the future. Post an inviting message so users can see this and may want to join cause they like your message. Post tutorials about how to use the site. Most importantly post about your site! Be genuine and the members that join will be those that are there for you and not for a user that doesn't exist. Be the sites owner and admin that's who users want hear from and will join because of.