Super Piston Slap: Fixing an Automotive…Forum?

Sajeev asks: I started my professional (so to speak) automotive writing career as a moderator of an automotive message forum.  Perhaps you, dear reader, are like me: actually giving a crap about the Internet once you realized there were forums to learn more about your car. If so, I need your advice when it comes time to help the place that helps so many. Piston Slap owes its existence to my 13-year tenure on a forum that's fading off the map.  I'm not interested in astroturfing TTAC for fake interest in this forum, so I'm not naming names…between my corporate gig, my blathering rants here and my idiotic brilliant automotive projects, I am still the Super Moderator (thanks for that, vBulletin) of this forum.  I'm saddened by what I see, 13 years deep in the game. How do you make a forum vibrant again? Here are the problems, in no particular order: Declining number of active members, new posts Declining activity of forum moderators, including yours truly. Several seemingly superfluous, zombie grade sub-forums of modest utility (Audio, Appearance and Cruise-in Forums) No future in sight for newer vehicles of this brand bringing in new fans (personal opinion) FWIW, this is a "family owned" forum, there is very little advertising…far less than you see here.  It shall be that way in the foreseeable future.  So money aside, when you get vested in something, you hate to see it in trouble.  But here I am. Help!   from The Truth About Cars http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com

Put the internet to work for you. via Personal Recipe 680102