Be Excellent To Each Other

First of all, I don't want to seem like I'm banging on and on about this crap, so please tell me to stop if that's what the majority of you want. I want this community to grow, and I'm assuming most of you feel the same way? Again, let me know if I should just let it go, and I will.

Moving on from everything that has happened over the last couple of days - we seem to be doing well now – the forum is busier than it has been for a long time. Now, how are we going to gain new members and grow this community even further?

We have the site, but it’s pretty much dormant at the moment. I propose we “shit or get off the pot”. Either we up the activity of the site and start getting some content on there, or we put it properly on the back burner. I’m not suggesting we get rid of it, but I am suggesting that if we’re not going to update it, we take action to attract new users in other ways.

Right now, if someone lands here they get a forum with a “Rules and Info” thread tucked away in the stickies section which isn’t exactly prominent, or if they land on UpToJump, they get a blog that hasn’t been updated in a long time.

I suggest that we create a clear, simple landing page at the site root:



Source: http://www.communityspark.com/a-quick-w ... m-members/

The landing page could be a paragraph of text (in a large, easy-to-read juicy font) briefly explaining who we are and what we’re all about, with a simple link to the board. Right now, someone stumbling upon us will see a forum, and as explained in the quote above – you only have a few seconds with your average visitor to reel them in. Every now and then you’ll get a curious person who’ll delve deeper without any guidance and you might get a new member, but that’s not really working for us at the moment.

Making it clear to new visitors what we’re all about and encouraging them to sign up should increase our chances of gaining members, but I reckon we also need to attract more new visitors.

This is pretty difficult, and where my ideas run out a bit. Short of posting a thread on reddit or other forums advertising the place, or paying for Google ads, I’m not sure what we can do. Has anyone got any suggestions?

That being said, I genuinely think with a clearer explanation of what we're all about, combined with plenty of activity in the form of interesting threads being created on the forum, we should start gaining new members at a greater rate than before even without any form of external "advertising".

I would suggest that 90% of people that find the place do so by Googling for something, and thus would see the forum content before they saw any landing page. And if you made it cookie-based to ensure that every new visitor saw it, you'd just piss people off by stopping them getting to what they're looking for.

I think the sentiment is right, but I'm not convinced it's workable.

This is definitely a valid point, but it's also totally workable. Cookies aren't the way to go - maybe we could shot a bit of explanatory text/a prominent link to a the "explanation page" up at the top of the board where the MafiaScum sub-forum sits. I've seen that space used on other forums in the past, and I don't think it gets in the way too much. Any suggestions are welcome, of course.

Just a note: I'm all about the usability - I hate pop-ups and stuff getting the way of the function of the forum, so I'm definitely not suggesting we sacrifice the current ease-of-use just so we can explain to potential new members what we're all about a little bit more effectively.

was my thought when reading WTBs post too.

Malc

you could always have some speil at the top of the page if you are not logged in?

Malc

Duh, why didn't I think of that? This would definitely avoid annoying current users.

You know what else would avoid annoying current users?

Mr WINKY FACE

Keep your Mr WINKY away from my face!

Stop ruining threads with off topic banter, jon.

Anyway, to the OP - I made a point along these lines about two years ago, when suggesting a Beex glossary. It was a shit idea, but the driver for it was quite correct. I agree something at the top of the page may be a good idea.

i'm still confuzzled as to why we need new people joining the forum, though. I thought this place was the internet equivalent of Cornwall, and that's how Mali ended up here.

Is my post tagging idea an go-er? No one seems to be that interested, aside from lovely Decca

I'm a little bit with Mr. Chris on this one.

About ten years ago or so, I was an active member of the Inside Mac Games forum. It was, being a forum dedicated to gaming on the Apple Mac, a bit niche and very much like this place in terms of it's community: a relatively small core of regular posters, a number of less regulars and an occasional trickle of new users. It was pretty cool.

The forum admin and overall head honcho of the site started pushing the whole endeavour much more as a business, which was fine, because everyone knew that, ultimately, that's what the site was. The publicity and extra activities of the site meant an influx of new visitors to the site. This massively changed the whole dynamic of the place and a rather unpleasant amount of trolling soon ensued. What eventually happened was that the regulars all did a WoS-style schism, upped sticks and left.

I'm not suggesting the same thing would happen here, neither am I suggesting that new blood here would be a bad thing - I'm all for new people signing up, the more the merrier. But what I definitely am saying is this: what's so bad with what we've got?

I actually really like it, but I think people wouldn't bother after more than a week or so.

I understand and agree with what you're saying more or less - and when the forum started up I would've been more or less happy if it continued indefinitely with just those members and a trickle of newbies. However, we've had a few big falling outs and quite a few of those core members have left/don't post anymore, and that seems to be happening at a rate that is greater than we're bringing in new users, which is concerning (to me, at least), because it looks (or, was looking) as though the place would eventually dwindle and die.

But as I said in the OP, if people genuinely aren't arsed about attracting new blood, I'll let it go and we can carry on as normal. This is a pretty damn good place we've got here, but surely it can't hurt to talk about improving it every now and then - assuming my idea of "improvement" isn't at odds with what the majority defines as "improvement".

I also think that its a nice idea but not one that would work well in every situation.

An example where it breaks is stuff that its multi platform and games which branch out onto others platforms afterwards (e.g. Plants Vs Zombies would start as one thing and then go onto virtually everything else , and like Mass Effect 2 would begin PC/Xbox and then move to PS3 and may expand further).

As for a thread for each item it does work in some places , but where the current 'multi' threads work well is when someone talks about one show and then people bring in stuff about others

As an example I like the way the 'US TV shows thread' often has a mix of people talking about a current show , pointing out new shows just coming out , and linking back to older shows that people may have missed , if you had a single thread for each show it wouldnt get the crossover.

I'm not averse to attracting new blood, but I can't see what FAQs, landing pages etc would do to assist with that.

Despite the free-form "too much noise not enough signal" unintellectual nature of the place, we've attracted a fairly steady stream (streamlet, maybe) of people over the last few years, and have, without wishing to sound callous, replaced the casualties.

The real issue is people leaving in the first place. What we need is not so much to do with intros for newbies and more to do with less cuntishness and flouncing. And laxer work IT policies.

Well, as I said in the OP - a clearer explanation of what we're all about would greatly help people who stumble upon the place to understand what we're all about and potentially increase the likelihood of them signing up.



I really have to disagree here. We get the occasional sign up, but very few of them stick - compared to the number of people we've lost - especially considering the contributions/number of posts that were coming from the people we've lost.



Definitely agree with this, but I still think we could do with a steadier stream of new members. Taking steps to make the place a little more newbie-friendly is a pretty straight-forward "set it and leave it" job. Doing that and working harder to keep hold of the people we already have by being less cunty are not mutually exclusive!

Maybe we should get a stats plugin so we can see in graph form number of posts per day etc.

Get stats! I fucking love stats.

There's no problem that can't be solved with beer stats.

Maybe we should learn to shit mars bars as a lure. It would incentivise our 'get more humans' strategisations.

Or a Readers' WivesMums section?

I can make a neat thing that 'appears' at the top of the page.
What would it say?

'your mum is a neat thing'

So - what will it say? Anyone got any ideas? We want a brief synopsis of what the place is about, and also a bit of "encouragement" to get people signing up and joining in. Free Zardoz BJs?

WTB is a fucking cock.

Also! How about spamming a one-off email to all registered users reminding them we exist? Or is that a step too far?

WTB has changed his name more times than Puff Daddy. And if he ever has kids, that's what he'll be. But he's a jaffa.

I changed my name twice! Once to avoid stalker-stalky types who knew my old username, and once again because Wogan'sTrouserBulge was too annoying to type into the login screen on my phone.

Hang on, you changed your name to stop people finding you and joining???!!!???

FUCKING LOLZ

But you admit you're a jaffa, though?

LLOL

That's not even funny you belmers.

Yes, it is.

Should we run a poll?

I thought it was hilarious.



What are we talking about?

Anyway, what are we going to do about the "newbie text"?

If your here to stalk one of our current members press 1
If your here to stalk an ex member then press 2
If your here because your pregnant press 3 to be directed to Zio's inbox
If your here to drool over Stupid Sexy ThrustSilver press 4

I actually quite like some of the text on uptojump for this and it probably gives you a nice starting point

Are you suggesting WTB change his avatar?*



*Somebody make it blue! I'm shit at this sort of thing!

First rule of working in large groups: Do what needs to be done first. Talking about it later is optional.

Marlene, blue me!

A quick test of google shows this to have been somewhat less than successful.

It's better than it was!

5th result (And a thread about you, so easy to tell who you are, even before they find the huge amount of Jonarob in your profile) and the first one that isn't dead.

I'd say that even a rubbish stalker could manage some serious stalking there.

*Phones Johnnie and breathews heavily down phone*

(I miss not having to call you a celebrity groin)