How did OtakuBoards get to what it is today?

[Guest Taylor Hewitt]

This interests me to a great extent. Being a forum administrator for several years of many different forums I've never had thousands of members. The most I've been close to is 100. I've had many successful websites and forums but not as succesful as OB abd theotaku.com I'm not so interested in websites but forums. How did the admins of this forum get it so great. Was it the website? Was it? I'm guessing it was. But ask yourself this. Would OB be what it is today without the website. I don't know. I would hope you can get a popular forum without a website. I'm a great forum admin isn't that enough? I think not. I would have hundreds of members now if I didn't keep changing forums and having them get hacked. But you know how it is.

All The Best

Taylor Hewitt

[DeathBug]

I think Otakuboards.com owes all of its sucess entirely to me. I am the single person keeping this entire thing afloat.

.....Well, not really. I think having a prominant, high-quality website was what really helped. (It's how I found the place.)

Also, the people here are great, especially me. When I was a newbie, it was easy to feel welcomed.

[Zephyr]

Wow. I just realized how big this board is. One of the other forums I visit often has 6,200+ members after nearly two years, and at this rate OB might catch up with it eventually.

If not for a member at that other forum I would never have seen this site, so I think everyone there should applaud him for bringing me here. :beer:

[James]

[color=#707875]Had we not experienced problems during v2, we would definitely be up around 8,000 - 9,000 members today. Although, I think that we have better quality control now than we did previously.

But yeah, OtakuBoards did begin as an attachment to absolutegb.com (which eventually became theOtaku.com). The first iteration of OtakuBoards launched during 1999.

However, we didn't establish the name "OtakuBoards" until April of 2001. At that point, we also became a seperate entity -- [url]www.otakuboards.com[/url] as opposed to [url]www.theotaku.com/forums[/url]

Today, OtakuBoards is very much an independent site. However, we are still owned by theOtaku.com and we still maintain very strong links with that site, no questions there.

Basically, we've never advertised. OtakuBoards has never invested in advertising, because it was simply never necessary. We have been able to draw on theOtaku.com's sizeable visitor numbers (averaging more than 30,000 unique visitors per day) and in the last year, word of mouth has been more than enough to sustain growth. OtakuBoards' userbase is now large enough that we can grow at an acceptable rate without actually reaching out and promoting ourselves.

And that works for us, because I like to maintain control over our growth. I wouldn't want to receive 1,000 members in a single month or something, because the influx would be too great to handle in a short period of time. At least, it'd be too great to handle without double the staff or something.

Part of the reason we're successful is because we aren't [i]just[/i] a forum. Yes, we provide basic discussion. But we also provide some very unique elements -- Otaku Arena is a prime example of that. And more recently, the Greeting Card Workshop is an example of how we can link theOtaku.com and OtakuBoards in innovative and interesting ways.

With Adam running theOtaku and me running OtakuBoards, we've been able to coordinate things very well. I talk to Adam every single day -- it's rare that I miss a day without speaking to him. And as such, our communication is very open and frequent. So we always understand what the other person is doing, and we're aware of how each person works. So we work well together and that's a big plus.

One thing that both of us believe in, is encouraging member participation as much as possible. Rather than making theOtaku.com a static anime news site or something, we've worked hard to include interactive sections where visitors can display their talents. We want to give kids constructive things to do when they're online. And we believe we can do it [i]without[/i] resorting to porn banners, pop-ups and foul language, basically.

People have said that OtakuBoards is strict, yet this place continues to grow. And for every five or six members that we lose based on our rules, we keep one or two really high quality members. In other words, we keep people who stick around for the long haul...and who support the site in many areas all at once. That's what we're looking for.

And...having a great staff lineup also helps too. I'm very satisfied with our staff a whole, and I feel that the current mix is pretty darn good. Dedicated staff and responsible members help to make OB inviting.

I could go a lot further and get into more detail, but I won't. I hope I've basically answered your question. ^_^[/color]

[Guest Taylor Hewitt]

Thanx alot. There's just one more thing. What would you suggest another new forum administrator to do to get things cookin'. I mean i started mine on tuesday and i already haev almost 20 members - those are just all people who are friends. Do top sites work? Thanx alot..

All The Best

Taylor Hewitt

[James]

[color=#707875]It's really hard to say, because I haven't been in that position myself.

It depends. If your friends have their own sites, you can think about a banner exchange program (whereby you agree to host someone's banner, and they host yours). That way, you don't pay to advertise...you just enter into an equal ad partnership. I've done that before on other sites of mine (non-Otaku related) and it's been quite successful.

Also, do your best to avoid annoyances. Pop-ups are one of the worst things on the Internet -- if you can avoid them, do so. I would almost say that it's not worth launching a site if you're going to have pop-ups. A big commercial site can get away with it, because of their large userbase. But a smaller start-up really can't -- it can make the difference between someone staying and someone leaving.

[/color]

[Guest Taylor Hewitt]

Yeah luckily no pop ups on my site. James you are a big forum admin what do you think of my forum not advertising. its in my profile and my sig

[James]

[color=#707875]It looks fine to me. You'll want to design your own skin to help attract visitors. And, if possible, you'll want to get a .com address. They're dirt cheap these days, and really helpful when it comes to promoting a forum.[/color]

[Genkai]

I think it's that it started out already well managed, with the forums staked out and members with good posting quality, which means it was quite easy to find on google etc. when searching for things. I remember a few months ago I started a thread about how you found OtakuBoards( which I think was reborn as another thread), and it was either (a) you found the forums through a search engine or (b) you found theOtaku through a search and went to the forums from there.

[Syk3]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Genkai [/i]
[B]I think it's that it started out already well managed, with the forums staked out and members with good posting quality, which means it was quite easy to find on google etc. when searching for things. I remember a few months ago I started a thread about how you found OtakuBoards( which I think was reborn as another thread), and it was either (a) you found the forums through a search engine or (b) you found theOtaku through a search and went to the forums from there. [/B][/QUOTE]
No, if I remember correctly, older versions of OtakuBoards had members with absolutely horrible posting quality and no one would do anything about it. For example, I was looking through an archive a little while back, and I noticed that someone accidently made a thread about Dragonball in the Test Forum, and over and above a few friendly suggestions about how it should be somewhere else, no one did anything about it and simply continued the conversation there. What you have to keep in mind is that all of this did not simply happen overnight; it took years of hardwork and a good deal of money before members started coming in by the dozens every day. That's what you really need to have a good forum -- pacients, hardwork, indivuality, and some money to get it started. I remember trying to make tons of forums as well, and I had most of those qualities, but I dropped out eventually because I really was reluctant to put forth any money. That's just the way I see it.

[Kazuko]

...

Edited October 13, 2017 by Kazuko

[jblessing]

I've helped out theOtaku over the past few years as well as its forums, and I have to say, without James, OtakuBoards wouldn't be where they are today. He's made all the right decisions pretty much everytime, and his ideas are what keeps these forums floating. :).

Taylow Hewitt: You should register yourself a domain name at [URL=http://www.godaddy.com]GoDaddy.com[/URL] , it is only 9 bucks. Then afterwards, you should check into Velegant Hosting, extremly cheap and a good way to help out theOtaku :), should be launching soon enough.

Sky3: Yeh, I remember the old forums. They used the Infopop software. Spamming was a HUGE problem, and I can remember certain names that come to mind [surpisingly enough]. I think that since Adam went to vBulletin, its improved quite a bit. As well as with James in control :).

There is a lot of things that most users here don't know about in what goes behind the scenes, how much work everyone puts into this place, as well as money. In the end, its all worth it :D

[AzureWolf]

[QUOTE]And that works for us, because I like to maintain control over our growth. I wouldn't want to receive 1,000 members in a single month or something, because the influx would be too great to handle in a short period of time. At least, it'd be too great to handle without double the staff or something.[/QUOTE] That is so true. I've only ever been a member at one other forum, and that was YuGiOhRealms. In a little over one year of existence, they have made 60,000+ members (no typo on that), and, because of that, the Realms is too slow and problematic to visit anymore. Before it's flood of members, it was fine, but now, the server problems made me leave. Well, that was a secondary reason. The primary reason was that I wanted a forum that spanned more than just one of my interests, and that's how I came upon the OtakuBoards.

[Guest Taylor Hewitt]

The domain name isn't a problem - hosting. Hosting is far more expensive. I'll probably get a domain name soon because I here it helps. Heh it's true. Thanx again guys for your help :)


All The Best

Taylor Hewitt

[James]

[color=#707875]Chou Long Kai, you could very well be right about that. I'd check with Adam, but he's probably forgotten about it himself! lol.

Anyway, you're hosted now anyway aren't you, Taylor? You're being hosted for free...so for now, that's probably enough. It'll be enough until you establish more users and then you will really need to look at other hosting solutions. The domain is a minor thing, but it can be so helpful.[/color]

[vegeta rocker]

Thats an easy question. They come for the barbeque and miso.

well that and the fact it is pretty well enforced and moderated. If you have a big hook to a forum it will most likely succeed. Some forums are just message boards for plain conversation. People figure why stick around. But with the OB the main hook is anime and you can come here with questions and answers.

of course it doesn't hurt i am here.............

[Baron Samedi]

I had another membership here in. well i suppose it would be 2001. but i didnt have a home computer- so over the school holidays i drifted off it. i think that OtakuBoards is a great site. they have obviously worked real hard to get it going good. and BTW im feeling sorry for Syk3. yes SYK3 not SKY3. nearly everyone types it as SKY3. SYK probably pronounced SEEK. SYK3. of course i have occasionally not read names properly *thinks of em-em-porg (actually MMORPG) :blush:* but i just thought that i should mention it.

[Syk3]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Baron Samedi [/i]
[B]and BTW im feeling sorry for Syk3. yes SYK3 not SKY3. nearly everyone types it as SKY3. SYK probably pronounced SEEK. SYK3. of course i have occasionally not read names properly *thinks of em-em-porg (actually MMORPG) :blush:* but i just thought that i should mention it. [/B][/QUOTE]
><;;; Tehee! Yes, I understand that my name kind of looks like Sky, lol. But it's actually pronounced "Psyche," sort of like when you are joking about something, and say "Syke! Just kidding.." Anyway...yes...we're getting kind of off topic here. oO;