Anyone got any good techniques to keep forums active.... mine have been up and down in activity over the last month, ranging from 80 posts in one day to 600 (average is about 250) and over the last few days i've been struggling to get people to post at all. Any tips?

The forum I am an admin on has been quiet for a while now too, but we found with the launch of a redesign activity peaked a little. Maybe that would help? Perhaps some new features as well, to provoke interactivity. :)

redesigns happen too much, i think my members would all leave if i did that again :P i've been trying to think of some new features... haven't got newhere useful yet.

I remember we introduced the vB Arcade to our forum which drew in a lot of users, unfortunately the arcade was (in the majority) the only reason some of the users visited. We removed it, and that's when the period of inactivity started.. it's always hard to invoke excitement back into a quiet board.

I use a cron script that selects random posts I inserted into the db (dose'nt use the same one twice). This vBcron posts a thread under a bot account (everyone thinks its a real user) when there has not been a new thread or post within the last day.

If you haven't sent an e-mail to your users for a while, perhaps it's time to send them one and give them a nudge? It's actually a pretty good time to do this with most UK students having this week and next off for Easter..

Also, you have to be prepared to do some posting yourself. If your members don't see you actively posting, then it's likely that they won't either.. Gamers Euphoria's most inactive times are when I'm busy coding or away for a break.

If your considering doing a bulk e-mai you may want to consider the Comm Bull (http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=66334&highlight=comm+bull) hack by grandeur_69 at vBulletin.org. I use it as a weekly news letter that keeps members informed of what's happening on the board. I have a small membership base and very little activity to begin with, the day after I send it out, I sure do get more people logging in. Thought you might find it worth while.

Another thought.

I came across this hack yesterday and installed it today. I'm using it to add several listserv's to my site. I have found some specific listserv's that I'm sure will be of interest to my users. This hack pulls messages marked with a "trigger" in the Subject/Title from a specified POP3 e-mail address and posts them in your forum. It also pulls replies from your forum (again marked with the "trigger") and submits them to the listserv.

I'm not explaining it very well, but I've installed it and it works well.

Check out the hack by lierduh (http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/member.php?u=28088) at vbulletin.org
NNTP Gateway for Usenet ( Newsgroups ), Mailing Lists (http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=65152)

I think it is going to increase posts in the forum and also the responses from my members.

Good Luck!!

25-600 posts in a day?! Can we trade member lists Disjunto?

If you haven't sent an e-mail to your users for a while, perhaps it's time to send them one and give them a nudge? It's actually a pretty good time to do this with most UK students having this week and next off for Easter..

Also, you have to be prepared to do some posting yourself. If your members don't see you actively posting, then it's likely that they won't either.. Gamers Euphoria's most inactive times are when I'm busy coding or away for a break.
I like the first idea. Let them know that you're still there ;).