What went well
The forum launched on April 4. The strategy to invite people we knew from Ravishment University and The Black Van worked to get the forum started. We immediately had a good number of stories online, something for people finding the forum to sink their teeth into.
After the first two days, which saw 5 and 6 registrations respectively, the forum slowed down considerably. It probably reached its low point on April 8, with only 10 new posts created that day. For comparison, the first three days had 52, 54, and 57 new posts. Since April 12, the forum seems to have climbed out of that ditch and now gets between 30 and 50 posts a day.
When it comes to new stories, the forum seems to be doing fine for now. With @HistBuff and @Vile8r joining our ranks of authors, we’ve been able to somewhat compensate for the lower frequency of new stories compared to launch. By now, we have more than 40 stories on the forum, which means that the Public Stories board has a full first page and some spillover onto the second. So in terms of content, we’re doing well for such a young forum. I was genuinely worried what would happen once I ran out of stories I could publish myself, and I’m really glad that others stepped up to provide more reading material. If you’re one of the authors who have posted a story here: thank you, sincerely.
When it comes to other boards, I think the Book Club and Dining Hall are doing reasonably well so far. The only boards that worry me are the roleplay ones. Despite quite a few people being interested in RP, little to nothing has happened there. If these boards are still this empty after three months, I’ll close them and integrate roleplay partner searches into the Book Club. In their current state, these boards send a signal of inactivity to new users - which isn’t good.
The biggest success so far is the RavishU Memorial Contest. I talk more about it here, but the TL;DR is: it’s the most viewed thread on the forum and is almost singlehandedly responsible for the forum being findable via Google (and Bing).
As people started finding the forum through Google, registrations have seen a notable increase. After the launch weekend, daily registrations settled in the 0–2 range. But since April 15, 2 per day seems to have become the new baseline, with individual days reaching up to 5. If we can keep that going for a while, we’re doing fine for a new forum.
What might break the forum’s neck
Most new forums - regardless of niche - die shortly after launch. “Die” meaning they’re either shut down or slip into extreme inactivity. RavishU was in such a state, but showed signs of getting out of it when @Vela Nanashi and I started to make some changes. The Black Van was even worse. On TBV, the most-commented story had 50 replies (1,100 views), and the most-viewed had 2,000 views (with 33 replies). These are atrocious numbers for a forum that was online for years.
So it should come as no surprise that Lois, the owner of RavishU, saw little reason to keep shouldering the cost or effort to find a new host more tolerant of noncon writing. Trust me—finding such a host isn't the fun part of running a forum, I know because I just did that not long ago. And it should be even less surprising that The Black Van shut down even without any outside interference. The thread announcing its closure has more views (2,600) than any content on the site. The reason given was:
Does anyone really believe they would have shut down a well-running forum where 50 replies was average, not a record, and popular stories had deep discussion threads and thousands of views?ZipTiesThatBind wrote:It has been our pleasure to provide you all with a space to indulge in our particular kink for these past few years. Unfortunately, both of us admins have gone through quite a few major life changes during this time, and we’ve come to the sad realization that neither of us can give the forum the time and proper attention it takes to run the place anymore. (Source: The Black Van - Forum Closure)
The truth is simple: when real life intervenes, no one keeps running a forum that doesn’t feel worth the effort. And that’s what kills forums in the noncon writing niche, again and again. A consumer mentality learned from porn: passive consumption without engagement.
You can argue that authors should “just write for themselves.” That’s a romantic idea. But you’ll never build a community on it. Communities depend on interaction.
Right now, two damaging patterns are visible in our niche and they’ve started to show here, too:
- Readers not commenting on stories.
- (To a lesser degree) Authors not responding to the comments they do receive.
Many users who registered on day 1 or 2 have not commented on a single story, even if they’ve been online almost daily. Currently, only three users regularly give feedback on stories: @Shocker, @LaLia, and myself. Then there are a few who comment occasionally: @Mister X, @Vela Nanashi, @Blue, and @Nickamano.
That’s it, seven people. And if two of the first three stopped commenting, this forum would be dead in less than a week. We can’t keep commenting at this pace forever. We will burn out. We need some of the inactive users to step up to become occasional commenters so the regulars can take breaks without risking the collapse of the forum.
You might think your voice doesn’t matter. But with a forum this young, the difference between you writing five comments per week and none at all is massive. If we ever reach hundreds of active users, your comments will be one of many. But right now, you can literally tip the balance between survival and failure.
This forum is carried by seven people, and especially by three. If you want a place like this to exist long-term, be the eighth.
