Dual Accounts

[Darthmaul]

So, I've personally been an advocate of this kind of thing for as long as I can remember, but I don't know the majority of everyone else's opinions. What do you think of a forum owner making a dual account for themselves and then replying to their topics with that account to help increase activity? As I've said, I'm a huge advocate of this, and I have even see some huge forums doing this

 

[Austin]

It's fine to a point. I can see the reasoning to this for smaller forums as it does generate conversation and discussion, however once you have a steady stream of users posing the account should cease being used.

 

[isuit21]

I think it is a great thing for smaller forums to let the people know, that it is an active forum and all the questions may get answered quickly. I may try it soon again, but at the moment I am busy with other things sadly.

 

[Shole]

If he doesnt get caught its good for the forum if he does its bad and that's it I consider it a bit of a no go but well people have different ways trying to promote their forum this might be one of the bad once

 

[NeoGills]

How can you see that fact, it seems impossible....
i don't believe you.

 

[afh]

I built up a reasonably big forum that way, but it's a lot of work and it's a thin line to walk. If you get caught then your members will immediately lose faith in the forum and all will be lost.
Good luck.

 

[Jessi]

It's fine to do that to build up topics in the beginning.

I don't think that once a site is built up and active, that the owner should continue running multiple accounts, though. At that point, it becomes more deceitful than helpful.

 

[memento_mori]

It's fine to do that to build up topics in the beginning.

I don't think that once a site is built up and active, that the owner should continue running multiple accounts, though. At that point, it becomes more deceitful than helpful.

I have seen may forum owners that use 2 accounts on their forum. One simply acting as the admin and posting updates or answering suggestions/questions, while the other was more like a member of the community. I don't think there's anything wrong if its done that way.

 

[Jessi]

If it's known that both accounts are the admin, sure, there's nothing wrong with that.

If they're pretending to be someone else, though, like many people do to help populate a forum, I don't think that's quite right later on.

 

[BigBigFan]

I think it's part of building a forum honestly, early on it will be empty and you need to feed the forum new and interesting discussions to get visitors interested.

I, personally, don't like to have multiple accounts interacting with each other by replying back and forth since this is like someone talking to themselves in my mind. I much prefer to use multiple accounts to add new topics to the forum.

 

[Zerth]

That does sound like a 'free' idea to get forum activity up, but then again some of the posts you reply to won't be as realistic and could be boring replying/talking to yourself.

 

[OhioTom76]

I would think it would take more than just two accounts to kick start a forum. I would be kind of weirded out if I was one of only three member on a forum, and the other two members were chatting each other up morning noon and night.

I don't see anything terribly wrong with it as long as you can keep track of the multiple accounts, and not make it obvious what is going on. Further down the road if the other fake accounts of yours die off, it will just look like those users moved on.