[Chris Gwynne]

Okay so we've all probably run a community/forum at some point in our time so I'd like to get your opinion on something.

What do you think of a closed off, private community? Where membership is by invitation only or by application. This way it helps weed out the trolls you see on so many of todays forums.

What do you see as the positives and negatives of taking this approach to running a community?

The way I see it is as follows...

Positives

1. Weeds out the unwanted trolls.
2. Member base is likely to be a close-knit community because they've been invited or application has been approved. They'll all know each other rather than starting out as strangers.
3. Content is likely to be more positive because they'd be less "omg new here" type of threads and such.

Negatives

1. The whole community could fall flat on its face with an inactive member base because nobody applies or gets invited.
2. The community is bashed and ridiculed on the internet thus putting people off.
3. May not be continually active enough.

On the whole I'd rather have a small member base of loyal intelligent people posting every day, than a larger member base where people are leaving due to immature threads and members.

I'd like to know everybody's opinions please.

[Avix]

It sounds like an interesting idea actually. I think to make such a community successful it would need a "celebrity" in the industry to join or found it to motivate people to join and see it as a group of experts.

[Scott]

I think it would be an interesting idea and I know there's at least one vBulletin forum that has an invite only community for forum administators who have forums over 100,000 posts. I think the only problem is that if it's too small there might not be enough action going on. This may be better acheived through a news group.

[iTechSmart]

It may work however the growth might be slow. It is also an extra hurdle for people to get across to get to your forum.

You will need very high quality content to get people willing to go there and sign up. I personally think that tactic might work much better if it's in a section of a forum and not the whole forum itself.

Another method you can do is have a public forum open like netbusinesstalk.com, gain all the members including the trolls unfortunately and when you think your memberbase is large enough and content of good quality then change it to a private, invite only forum. That way you will have a starting base to build on.

Shane

[kris]

This type of community may not become very large. But overall I think it is a good idea. It would most likely be a close group of people who truly wanted to be active participants of the community.

[Super Mod]

I agree with Scott above that this might be better as a news group than as a forum community. News groups can be run in basically the same way, but are often better for smaller group sizes. Invite only is always good, but it can get stagnant unless you invite new people.

[Mike C]

Originally Posted by Spencer

Invite only is always good, but it can get stagnant unless you invite new people.

Too true. You can't leave it up to the members to do all the inviting; they might "slack off" since they aren't motivated to keep the community active. On the other hand, that would be your main priority.

[darren]

it would be difficult to start something like this unless you new alot of people that would "qualify".

I think that if you can get a good base to start with it could prove to be succesful.

[Chris Gwynne]

Originally Posted by Spencer

I agree with Scott above that this might be better as a news group than as a forum community. News groups can be run in basically the same way, but are often better for smaller group sizes. Invite only is always good, but it can get stagnant unless you invite new people.

I've never used newsgroup, I don't like them or see the appeal. IMO they differ quite a lot from the functionality of a forum...

Thanks for the comments thus far, the general consensus seems to be it's a good idea as long as it's done right and that motivation to invite people is kept at a steady pace, which I totally agree with. Note they'll also be an application process for potential members. So I don't seeing it as being too inactive.

Keep the opinions coming...

[anne]

I think running a closed community is a risky business - unless it is a very specific subject matter that perhaps needs a certain level of experience or maturity to discuss (for instance if you wanted to set up a forum about adoption, but wanted it to be a 'safe' place for people going through the trauma of giving away a child / finding out they are adopted, without insensitive people taking the mick).

For most other subjects, I would say keep it open - have a strict moderation policy if needed, but keep it open IMO.