To my surprise…many people don’t quite understand what forums are and how to use them.
I really want the appeal of my discourse site to be far and wide.
So I am just wondering, what do you guys do as an onboarding process to a) make your site more “sticky” for visitors, but b) sell in the CONCEPT of a forum and get people to start contributing and feeling confident to do so.
Grateful for any advice, examples of forums that do this well, or generally any ideas to throw into the mix.
I think it depends on the topics and the community you’re working with. For instance, I work on a knowledge base and I made some virtual meetings with the people to show and get them to know the platform, make them feel confident to use it, teach them what to publish and what would not be allowed, but also make them know that I’m here to help them with any issue.
Maybe yours it’s not for work, but hope my experience gives you some ideas!
Interesting discussion topic. I’m wondering how you’d reflect on this question now that two years has passed since you asked.
I think the most important thing is to always emphasize the importance of community and community members helping each other rather than simply waiting for some dedicated helpdesk.
One way to do that is watch out for flags such as “DEAR SUPPORT” that should be modified with a note to “Dear Community,” and of course any related wordings…
Another important way is to highlight the active and helpful members contributions. We have a monthly post where we encourage positive community contributions.
Looking forward to hearing from you and others around here.
Question Im thinking about os, how do you get the ones that have no idea about the app here. I’m new here
and I’m i Stumble on things like this because i get distracted online and just search and read. But how would one find this discourse is this s word of mouth find for most people?
I think making your site discoverable to prospective members is certainly important, though I think it’s a slightly different subject than the one this topic is about.
If you have a search you may find a more suitable topic for that discussion.
Great questions, this can be a major challenge how to do onboarding for the normies.
The primary concept for Discourse seems to be “Community,” so for someone to join means they have opportunity to contribute + participate in the community.
One strategy I’m considering going with is to use discourse as a requirement for potential clients to create an account with for screening process to evaluate if it will be possible to work together or not. Policy would be: if people aren’t willing to create account, then I can’t work with them.
Not sure if anyone else has tried that strategy or would recommend other strategies.
I did have one (older, but intelligent) person say that they didn’t understand my forum or how to use it. I should perhaps ask them to see if they can remember their first impressions.
For me, there’s a hierarchical organisation which is obvious, but of course it isn’t obvious to everyone
there are categories, which contain topics
each topic introduces an idea and prompts a conversation
the conversation happens in replies to the topic
At any one time, there are several active topics, and you won’t see the latest comments until you click on the topics of interest to you.
Also visible are older topics which are not presently active.
There’s no way to see the latest comments without visiting their respective topics.
That is helpful general description of the structure, which seems fairly clear but not necessarily always obvious.
For new people who see a discourse site if there is active conversation happening, it is simple to be able to create an account and write a comment to reply. The act of having to create a new account may be the most significant hurdle for many people with discourse being a new platform with independent sites, as opposed to a major social media platform where it’s possible to join a new group without needing to create a new account.
For me the most important benefit of communication through discourse is the opportunity to talk in the public realm, as opposed to private. Talking over e-mail or the phone can be heavily limited if trying to communicate with someone who has a completely different perspective than oneself. It can be necessary to have more outside perspective to a conversation to be able to understand what someone is talking about.
Hi @Francisco_Blackburn
Interesting question. I think this is actually part of the onboarding plan which is to know where your users are coming from. We make sure that the community is mentioned every where including the main websites and social sites as well as the newsletter.
To answer your question and find a solution, you will need to get the complete “user journey”. When you have an understanding of the user journey from the point they notice the existence of your forum till the moment they become active community members, you will have an understanding of how to attract users, help them join and participate. The details depend on the specific use cases and type of community.
Surely a positive experience and word of mouth could be your best and most loyal ally sometimes.
Hi @Architect
Curious to know more about the screening process in your onboarding plan. What strategies/questions do you use? What if they don’t answer the questions or complete their profile? Do you have people who sign up but remain in active or is it a “paid” site so eventually they must either choose to work together or not?
There might be people who are interested but are reluctant to creating an account. We sometimes use Discourse invitation links in this case.
Hi @Ed_S
Good points, and it’s good to have a simplified perspective of the core idea. First impressions are everything and I think these insights are important for all who use Discourse.
There are tools to help with the challenges you mentioned such as ‘pinned topics’, category ordering and descriptions, and banners. All those I have used, but I’m currently working on investigating other parts of the onboarding plan such as the first messages they receive, email layouts, tutorial…etc
I don’t have a requirement for new user accounts to answer specific questions or complete all the profile information fields. That may be wise to have some screening/interview questions to ask new people for introduction if they make an account.
Also don’t have paywall setup for site, those can be good but also good to have free membership option.
For work projects of designing and constructing buildings there is a lot to talk about for those so can be necessary for folks to be able to communicate through a platform like discourse for official communications.
I’ve noticed that a strong onboarding process can really make a difference in how engaged users become. One approach that seems effective is to create a guided introduction for new members—kind of like a ‘forum tour’—that highlights the benefits of participation, explains the forum’s structure, and showcases examples of valuable discussions. Also, sending out a welcome message or starter kit with tips on how to post and engage can help demystify the process for those unfamiliar with forums
