Interview with Azhria

I recently had the chance to catch up with the owner of the new admin forum http://www.adminextra.com. Here is what we discussed:

Caleb: Hello Azhria, As I understand it you recently started AdminExtra. Can you tell me a little bit about your background online and how you got the idea for your new forum?

Azhria: I’ve been actively on the internet since around 1998 and have been involved with forums since 2001, when I discovered one covering a topic I enjoyed on the ezboard network. After a short while, I built my own forum on there which was active for around 2 years, until it got to the point where we needed to move to a self-hosted option. I surfed around, tried a few of the other freebies (IPB as well – which was also free at the time) and then came across vBulletin which was in the vB2 phase. I fell in love with the software, purchased a copy, some hosting and we started afresh. The site in question ran for another 18 months or so before I called it a day and closed the doors. In the meantime I was teaching myself about the backend of vB and other forum software, and found it was something I really enjoyed. Jump forward a year or two and I came across The Admin Zone (this was is Feb 2004) It had only been open a short while and I was amazed to find a community dedicated to people who ran forums. So I joined up and became a regular member, then a staff member and finally part of the Administration. I stayed with TAZ for approximately 6 years and slowly found myself becoming more and more disillusioned by certain aspects. I eventually resigned my post there with the intention of stepping away from community administration for a while. One thing led to another and I was approached by quite a few people saying I should start a Community Administration Resource site of my own. At first I declined, but after long talks with some good friends, we got together a small team and discussed what it was about this niche that made us all so jaded. We felt that there was call for a site that was more focused on offering resources and help than on generating revenue for itself, and also that most admin-related forums were missing a vital piece of the puzzle which makes forums such a popular hobby – a community feel – and so Admin Extra was born.

Caleb: I noticed as a member of TAZ, they enforced strict rules on their users and gave major infractions for almost minor things. How have you handled your users at AdminExtra and have you ever had to ban users? Or give major infractions. Would you consider your forum stricter than others? I only ask because many forum owners are wondering how much control you should exert on your users.

Azhria: So far we haven’t had to ban anyone other than the usual spambots, which I’m pleased about. I wouldn’t say we’re strict, we’ve a pretty laid back team. On Admin Extra, the infraction system is there as a last resort. We prefer to deal with things in a friendly fashion by pm’ing a person when they cross the line with our TOS. But at the same time, we’re definitely not pushovers – there is a limit to how many times we’ll have a “quiet word” before bringing the warning/infraction system into play. Thankfully, so far we’ve not had to take things further than a friendly chat.

How much control you give to the users depends greatly on the niche of your forum, I think. Within the Community Administration niche, our members should know when something is out of line or not but, of course, that’s not always the case. People administrate their forums in different ways and occasionally will act on other sites in a manner they’d never dream of doing on their own.

Caleb: That’s a good system. I know your site uses the Forum Software vBulletin, there are many views on which forum software is the best. Some would even say that certain free ones are the best. Which forum software do you think is the best for a new forum?

Azhria: Everyone has their favourites. For me, for the most part it’s vB, although I’m developing a liking for IPB too with the 3 series changes the guys at Invision have been making. I’m passionately devoted to the vB 3.8 series – the addons/modifications available cover pretty much everything most people could ever want to add. I’m not as big a fan of the 4 series as yet, I’m going to wait quietly to see what happens when they get to 4.1.

As for what is best for a new forum, it all depends on what you want from the software and whether you can afford the initial costs for hosting and the software itself. As I mentioned, I initially started out many years ago on Ezboard (which is now Yuku) and it did the job I wanted it to. It was only later that I felt I needed more control over the forum and moved to a self-hosted solution.

Caleb: Interesting, Do you run more forums then just AdminExtra and can you tell me a little bit about your job. Do you do this as your job or do you have other jobs?

Azhria: Currently I’m just running Admin Extra, although I am in the process of setting up a Book-related forum and I’ve just become a partner in a Pagan discussion site. I don’t see running forums as a job, it’s more a hobby.

Caleb: One final question, Can you give any tips to those people out there who want to start a forum, how are you advertising AdminExtra to become successful?

Azhria: A lot of our initial advertising was done through word of mouth. One of the up sides, I suppose, of being involved in the forum world for such a long time is getting to know a lot of people. Because it wasn’t just one person developing the site, we had a good headstart since I wasn’t relying just on myself for content, designing, and development. Aside from the word being passed around verbally, we’ve used Twitter and Facebook to share links whenever resources have been added and to advertise threads that may be of interest to people.

I think the best tip I can give to anyone wanting to start a forum is to be prepared to work hard to get anywhere. It’s really not a case of “build it and they will come” – a forum won’t be successful overnight and, even if it does become popular, it doesn’t become any easier. You also have to keep things fresh and moving all the time.