[JennyorAlice]

To you, what is the hardest part about running a forum?  Why do you find that part hard?  What do you look for to make that easier?

[Sir Twisted]

I would say promoting and gaining new members that will remain active.

[kingcool52]

Advertising and gaining new users that stay active and loyal to your site is definitely the most difficult part about managing and owning a forum.

[JennyorAlice]

The hardest part for me is trying to gain members and keeping the member coming back.

[zoldos]

To you, what is the hardest part about running a forum?  Why do you find that part hard?  What do you look for to make that easier?

For me, it's keeping up with new posts and making sure I participate early on to keep things going.  Also, advertising as stated.

[MaxBill]

Gaining active members. These days running a forum is very difficult, everybody is moved to social media. Nobody wants to join a small forum.

[Tagobs]

I second many of the previous posters. Getting new users to sign up and actually be active, especially when active members already are scarce in the community, is a real difficulty.

[Juneberry]

I find the hardest part is keeping activity with the members of the site, as well as advertising. I'm not very good at marketing myself as an editor, let alone as a forum owner. I resorted to asking dad to join mine someday this week. Mouth to mouth advertisements are handy.

[Darth-Apple]

Keeping forum drama low, personally. If you're the head admin, you pretty much have to play bad cop from time to time. If there is a situation that requires someone to be the "tought guy," that person, by default, has to be you. 

Forum drama comes up at some point or another on any forum. We've been lucky and haven't had a lot of it, but we nip it in the bud quickly if it pops up. People fly off the handle quickly if they learn they can get away with it, and it can kill a forum fast.

[TopSilver]

Keeping forum drama low, personally. If you're the head admin, you pretty much have to play bad cop from time to time. If there is a situation that requires someone to be the "tought guy," that person, by default, has to be you. 

Forum drama comes up at some point or another on any forum. We've been lucky and haven't had a lot of it, but we nip it in the bud quickly if it pops up. People fly off the handle quickly if they learn they can get away with it, and it can kill a forum fast.

Yeah we had a guy go off the hook and spam the forums like crazy recently. Most of his posts were at least 5 words so I didn't consider the majority spam, however he started with 2 word posts and went into several threads saying random stuff. I gave him a warning and he requested his account to be deleted. No skin off my back. Deleted his account without a problem. We don't do that for banned members but since he wasn't banned I let it happen. I am a nice guy and I try to get along with everyone. But there's always going to be certain people who just doesn't act right and is a bit shady per say. It's not a big deal at all. With the software I use the posts don't get deleted the account just deactivates. Most people who frequently visit forums don't act this way but you'll find your occasional guy who is just a bit awkward.