Guild forum problem
First off al, having member visit your forum is really hard. You can’t force them and you have to make it attractive. I host a game I have called ‘Find the mad Queen’
On of my characters (Queen Ranique) goes to a place in Tyria and makes a screenshot of herself in that spot (using ctrl+shift+h to hide the UI). I post it on the forum with an explaination of the rules. Wich is very simple. The first guildmember posting a picture of his character at exact the same place wins a price (e.g. a 15 slot bag). I then advertise the game in the guildchat.
Arise, ye farmers of all nations
Arise, opressed of Tyria!
Arise, opressed of Tyria!
A few ideas from a former guild leader and officer in several online games…
Start requiring new members to post a short (and I emphasize SHORT) application on your forum before they’re accepted. Keep it simple: why they want to join your guild, what they like most about GW2, any other interesting facts about themselves, etc. First, that will at least make sure they’re registered on your forum, and second you and the other members will get to know a little about your new members. Also, if someone can’t even be bothered to make a single post on your guild forum to introduce themselves, that might say something about their level of dedication.
Require your officers to reply to all new apps, welcoming the new members. That will start getting at least some activity going on your forums. Then when you catch your new members in-game you can ask them whether they saw all the responses to their app on your forum, welcoming them. That will probably draw them back for a second visit, and at least some of those people will think “Hey, that’s kinda cool that people welcomed me. I’ll start watching for new apps and welcome them too.”
Ultimately, you’ve got to give people a reason to visit your forums. An event calendar is a must, and you’ve got to let every member (regardless of rank) post events there. Even better if you’ve got a calendar where people can sign up for the events. Then when people ask in guild chat “Hey guys, anything cool going on tonight?”, you can tell them “Actually, we’ve got several cool events planned all week! Check the calendar on our forums to sign up!”
A screenshot gallery is another nice addition. When you do guild events, encourage people to take screenshots and post them on the forums. You can also do games/contests like screenshot of the week, come up with a funny caption for a goofy screenshot, etc.
Forum games are a good way to draw people in too: games like “three word story”, where you take turns writing a story but each person can only post three words at a time; or “the music game” (I name a song, the next person names another song that has at least one word in its title that’s the same as the previous, etc).
But as Mercury Ranique said, getting people to go to your forums is hard. Forums are becoming an archaic concept now that Web 2.0 and social media have become so popular. Perhaps a guild Facebook group might actually be more successful?
i think if members feel that attached to the guild, they will be free to do as they please. my guild has a forum (which sits empty besides a few admin posts), but we also have a facebook page, where i can only assume very interested or vested members are going (i do not have FB myself). options are always good, though.
i currently admin my guild’s enjin site, and it recently bunmped down to FREE status, disabling some of our big hitting items (gallery, website chat for users), so i have had to remove extra pages that weren’t working.
yeah i agree about making it interesting to visit. humorous words and mems only get a site so far. my guild asked me top setup some events, but untimately nobody followed them. when i logged in and asked around, they had already started doing their own thing.