Forum admin: create threads that make people respond to

Good article. Me and the owner of the admin forums we own create unique topics and it does help get members interested and active.

Perfect advice. I see many admins who just post something there and it's not engaging anyone to give replies and feedback.

I think that news can be of value but that if you want to have news, you really need to hand screen any content you put into the forums. Otherwise, you are also diluting the content of the forums in terms of what Google thinks your site is all about. This then limits the search results that will potentially bring more people to your site to contribute to the discussions. I think that why so many people fail with forums is simply because they are not willing to put in the effort, just as is the case for many different activities.

good and helpful.

I always have in mind what people might be interested in, what they might want to reply to.

however, it is not always without a problem because of the specific niche my forum belongs to.

learned a few things I didn't know in this thread, thank you.

Talk about up-to-date stuff, like new social networks, new seo techniques and so on...

Great advice, the purpose of a forum is to have a "community" and without people responding to posts no matter how informative or great it is, you are basically blogging on a forum platform. The information might be great and people might come in from the search engines but if there isnt anything for them to respond to (in other words register) then the community aspect is dead from the start.

I like the part about the question. I see it as the best idea to make a thread engaging!
Asking opinions is good as everyone has their opinions and suggestions. The only thing you have to keep in mind is, don't ask anything like how do you think it is, or like dojo said, whats wrong with this/that.

I have noticed this aspect, and it really puzzles me. Why do you think that happens? Why do people tend to comment on blog articles, which are most of the time just monologues (sometimes ending with an invitation for the readers to share their view, sometimes just being a "nice theory" and nothing more), but are reticent about replying to forum topics that are not short and to the point ?

Bacon. Big pictures of bacon. Guaranteed crowd pleaser!

Sometimes, in the proper forum, controversy can be a fire-starter. I usually try to post in a neutral manner to allow the members to discuss the topic and do what they will with it, but sometimes you need to get things going by taking a position. Which position you take isn't as important as getting things going. You can always gracefully fade out of the picture once the other members pick up on the thread and breathe life into it.

Dojo can probably attest to this tidbit: on most martial arts forums there's always one guy that comes in and, in all caps, proclaims "CHOW-FON-DO IS THE BEST MARTIAL ART OF ALL TIME!" This usually creates a flurry of responses and, once in a long while, can actually lead to a serious examination of the claim. It's a cheap trick, a Barnum & Bailey ruse, but it DOES get some of the members going.