I don't have a problem with the rules. However, this forum will always be 2nd to any forum that is not owned by a business. It's the same with any hobby. When I'm not tinkering with tanks I'm tinkering with cars and those forums are the same way. The #1 forum for the VW / Audi scene is vwvortex.com. It is not owned by a business selling cars or parts, it is moderated and created by people who have passion for the subject. That forum has lots of newbies, lots of transients, lots of TRAFFIC because of the sheer size of the community and google searches.
I just googled Sapphiretech support, and on their main web page is a link for Support at the top of the page. Under "Customers", there's a menu for support tickets, contact numbers, and... you guessed it... the
support forum. With an international team of volunteer moderators (Wales, Spain, France, Germany, and USA), we were able to reach a
very large audience. As you mentioned about the site you moderated, Sapphire does not own the support team. We troubleshot problems, and if it were an equipment issue, we directed the clients to the appropriate site(s). Those that were knowledgeable were asked to moderate. And moderate we did. Any reported posts were quickly evaluated, and the posters were given the opportunity to participate peacefully, or get banned (temporarily or permanently) depending on our discretion. It was simply an environment where people could offer help to those in need of support. It's been a few years since I participated, but the forum is still going strong. I can't give the credit for the forum's success to those who moderate(d), but rather those that contributed. Large quantities of information can be overwhelming, but it also allows people to narrow issues down by noticing patterns. The answers that matched the most were typically the correct answers. As moderators, it was our job to sift through the mountains of information and to post the results in the "Stickies" section. Clients were initially directed to do a search in the Stickies section to see if the answer to their question(s) was already posted. When people opened the support site, the first line in the first section was in bold letters telling clients to "
Read the Stickies before posting"! This way, the same question(s) didn't flood the board. Instead of having many individual posts on the same subject, all information was consolidated into one post. That post could have links to other problem areas, but it was a really good starting place. If the answer couldn't be found through searching, then the client was encouraged to post his/her/it's question, or in many cases, solutions to different issues.
The easiest and best way to get more community involvement is, as seems the general consensus, it higher visibility. If SWF wants people to support their business by providing information via a support forum, then they need to share a little of the spotlight. Instead of "Contact Us", why not "Support"? Click Support, and
then choose Contact Us,
or Support Forum. Put a prominent link at the top of the page, and people will notice. The forum isn't even mentioned on the Contact Us page. It makes a big difference if the company supports and promotes the forum by making it highly visible, or placing a forum link at the bottom of the page. Just saying...
