Keeping your BBS exciting for users

When you first start, you should offer as many services and options as possible for your BBS users. This will get you a good user-base, because it will attract more users to your BBS. If you can get 10 people at first who like the system, then they will get to know the system, and you might consider making them co-sysops. This will allow them more access, and they will be able to answer questions for your users as well. They will be online more, and they will help you reach people. If you start out with 10 people, and they tell 10 more people about your BBS, you could then possibly have 100 people. If each of those people tell 5 people about the BBS, and they join, then you already have 500 people. And it just keeps adding up.

Be considerate, especially to those who don’t know the system very well. If they ask what is called a “dumb” question, answer it; it is probably the same type of question you asked at one point in time. Just remember, there are no dumb questions when you are learning something new.

You should be in touch with your users as much as possible. This will make you BBS more inviting and it will encourage people to become frequent users. You should quickly reply to mail and messages that you receive, and you should join conferences and talk to the people in them. You might consider sending a message to all users asking them how they like the system, and if they have any questions that you might answer for them.

You might want to have people who have obtained a high level of access get together at the local pizza joint or park and have a get-together. To keep your BBS exciting, you might want to have a menu listing all of the new items on your BBS. You should always be finding new things to place on the BBS.

You should try to find things to offer on your BBS that other BBS websites don’t offer. If you have a service or file that someone can’t find on another BBS, you will have an endless number of calls. Check out another BBS and see what they don’t offer, and then try to get those files. You should be careful, though. If they don’t have a certain file, program or feature, it may be because the public doesn’t need those things. You can ask users what they would like to see you have on the BBS in the near future.

Lastly, you need to remember that your success is not measured by how many people DON’T use your BBS, but by how many people DO use your BBS and continue to us your BBS.