How about every week we message a slow poster and tell them they'll be banned if they don't post 50 times per day for a week.
Also, for fun let's do this to Inner Stickler for an entire month.
How about every week we message a slow poster and tell them they'll be banned if they don't post 50 times per day for a week.
Also, for fun let's do this to Inner Stickler for an entire month.
This is not something that I think will make a great strategic difference or create much extra activity, but while we are discussing changes and additions I might as well post it here.
It has come up and been dismissed before but I still like the idea of a foreign language forum. We could have a subforum for discussion about or in other languages.
Of course I am aware that there are concerns about the moderation. Sure, people might try to slip in hidden insults or other objectionable content. If it is in a commonly spoken language then it isn't hard to discover. If it's in an obscure language then the effect is also diminished.
It could be understood that on one hand moderation isn't 24/7 but on the other hand moderators are given great latitude to delete/edit/lock material based on complaints or rough Google translations, with no unnecessary hard feelings on either side. If you are worried about offending people who might not understand the nature of the forum then make it members-only.
Anyway one would hope that such problems would be rare. Currently there isn't much insulting going on.
This is something I'd been wanting since the early days of Domebo, actually, Feirefiz. I'd absolutely be game for that.
Perhaps we could make it a sub-forum of the Lounge, for general, non-English language discussion?
Yes, that's what I would do. I don't know what exactly you have in mind, but I think language learning questions and the like should go there, too.Originally posted by Zuul
See if I ever bake you muffins.
I don't think so, therefore I'm probably not.
I know. I'm disappointed, too.
It's awfully quiet around here. Perhaps it would be a good time for a new toy.
Would you be willing to be a forum leader of it? New Forums should probably only exist if someone is also willing to take ownership.
Setting it up is simple enough. I think Zuul already approved the creation of it. I'll check.
It is done. The Non-English Lounge has been opened and Feirefiz is the Forum Leader.
Just for the record: Yes, I am.
Thank you!
I hope you don't mind my execrable German Feirefiz!
Would there be a way to include a rating system of some sort? That way, others who read the posts could rate it for quality, perhaps say on a 0 to 3 scale. Then make it a combination of posts plus rating points, something like 100 posts and 200 points.
That way, someone who posts schlock would continually get zeros or unrated, while someone who posts infrequent but good content would continually get 2s or 3s and would reach the point count required.
Just a suggestion....
There are ways to do this, reputation could be used to also promote members through the various levels. Finding a method of using the reputation system that was fairly clean seems tougher. But it is probably doable.
Tired of coming up with a great thread idea only to see it sink? Frustrated that every time you check there isn't anything new to read? Well, do I have the solution for you! In only five easy steps you can help boost activity all over the board!
Step One.
Click on one of these fine links below:
Questions and Answers
The Crucible
Arts and Entertainment
Games and Sports
The Lounge
The Pit of Rage
Step Two.
Find a thread that you personally find interesting that is no longer active. Don't worry about how old it is. It can have fallen inactive a day ago, a week ago, a month ago, whatever. It's not like anyone has an attention span on the Internet anyway.
Step Three
Respond to it. Not a *bump*, not fluff, not post padding. An actual, thoughtful response along the lines of how you wish people would respond to your threads.
Step Four
Click on new posts and respond to the other thoughtful responses out there.
Step Five
Repeat this once a day.
I will start a thread whereby everytime we add a 1,000 posts to our total, I will remove an item of clothing.
And another one where everytime we add a 1,000 posts, I'll put on an item of clothing.
ps. Starting from when we reach 107,000 posts.
Last edited by ivan astikov; 14 Oct 2009 at 05:28 AM.
To sleep, perchance to experience amygdalocortical activation and prefrontal deactivation.
Okay!
Will pictures be involved?
How else would it work?Will pictures be involved?
To sleep, perchance to experience amygdalocortical activation and prefrontal deactivation.
That's it, I'm stopping posting.
This discussion has slowed down a bit, but it seems to me that there is still one big question left that hasn't really been answered explicitely.
As I see it all possible measures fall into two or perhaps three very broad categories.
Organic growth
Or, let's be honest, for the time being organic stabilization. Basically we continue to do what we are doing now, but we make an effort to improve both quality and quantity. This will make the experience more enjoyable for regular users, motivate occasional users and perhaps win back former users. As far as new users are concerned the front page and Ask the Expert are explicitly aimed at 'outsiders'. The plan for the board is that potential new users find it via one of these venues or in some other way and we make a good impression.
(Partly) new mission
We could try to find something that isn't a refinement of what we are already doing but breaks the current mold. Of course the big problem is to find something that has some support from the members, doesn't alienate those who aren't interested, is within our means and yet has some potential. Ideally such an activity would appeal to both current and new members.
Promotion
I think this is the least important category. Spreading the word and linking to the site have a positive effect but at the end of the day what counts is what we have to offer here.
I think nobody denies the importance of the first category and we have seen concrete measures.
The third is nice to have but ultimately ancillary.
Now my question is whether there is anything in the second category that could be worth pursuing.
I've been using Google Analytics to track traffic on the front page and it's given me a better idea as to how we can utilize the front page for getting more visitors.
The grand majority of our traffic to the front page comes from direct traffic. People from here or others who go to mellophant.com directly. Then, there are referring sites. Facebook, Twitter, Digg, people's blogs, etc. Referring sites are really helpful right now while we're starting out. The least popular source of traffic is search engines, which give us about 7% of our readers. Unfortunately, increasing traffic from search engines is our best bet, so this is something that needs to be worked on.
Each time we update the front page, there is a surge in guests, unsurprisingly. The day after it's been updated is the busiest day of the week, with the day of the update being the second busiest.
Unfortunately, we're updating at the end of the week, which is the slowest time for the board. If we could shift things to get the front page update to be the day before our busiest board activity day, we'd be increasing our chances of capturing people's interest and getting them to stick around.
More comments on the articles would help as well, because if people see comments they want to respond to, when they hit the respond button they're taken to the front page forum. Commenting on the articles is one of the most helpful things that can be done by an individual to get this place to grow, since it's an aspect of the message board which is right there on the front page.
The board itself is always going to be a general interests board and there really isn't anything to be done about that. It's what the community that's already here wants. What I'd like to do, and what I'm going to be trying to do in the coming weeks, is shifting focus from simply "random stuff" to "human ingenuity." Art, crafts, fiction, essays, the breakthroughs of science, etc. All of this is stuff we already have here. By putting a greater emphasis on it, though, we'll have a focus and when trying to share the message board with others you can actually give a summary of the majority of discussion here instead of just saying, "We talk about, you know, stuff."
Based off of the hits we're receiving and where they're being referred from, I don't entirely agree. I don't think people should go nuts pimping the place or anything, but posting, "Hey, this is a great discussion," or, "I really liked this article, check it out," other places has an effect. Our main focus should be on increasing our content here and having that content be high quality. But, digging articles and threads on the board and sharing links does a lot to increase traffic and will do more over time.
Again, increasing content with things that people are interested in and are likely to be out there looking for is the main thing we need right now. The more search phrases we pop up under on Google and its ilk, the better. Second to that is commenting on the articles, since that's the first taste of the message board many people get.
Yeah, I think this is a great idea and mirrors the kinds of things we seem to be already interested in.
everything in nature is sort of gross when you look at it too closely. what is an apple? basically the uterus of a tree - terrifel
I like that the idea and I hope that it is successful.
The problem is, as much as I hate playing Cassandra here, something hasn't been working so far. We are still losing members and the post volume is not just low - in the long run it is falling.
Of course there is a core of dedicated members but I am not sure that two or three dozen people will be enough to keep the board afloat.
The front page is huge asset but it will only benefit the board in any measurable way if the board is attractive enough on its own merits.
So far the chat seems to do fine and it surpasses the board not only in the number of messages but by now probably also in the number of words per day. God help us all if the membership ever drops so much that chat dries up.
I really like this place and I would hate to lose it but I'm afarid I'm not sure whether we can continue the same way indefinitely.
Feirefiz, I've refrained from publicly discussing what I think is "wrong" and why we have so few members because I don't want to dwell on negativity. But since that just comes off like ignoring the issue, I'll answer it here.
Basically, our problems started the moment Domebo began. Rightly or wrongly, the invitations alienated anyone who didn't get one. Then, there was unnecessary antagonism like that thread about posters people didn't want at Domebo and weird little "rivalries" between Domebo and GB. The fact that the board was set up to be "democratic" meant that more energy was put into sitting around talking about the board (much like this thread) rather than posting (much like the board at the moment). Since it was based on an egalitarian vision, that meant anybody who logged in could have their voice be heard and actually influence board policy. Anyone.
Many new message boards start out small and grow. They're begun to serve a specific community and over time more people who are interested in that community come to it. This one took a bunch of members from a much larger community, so it started out with a good-sized population. It didn't have its own community to begin with. Things could have been handled better--as evidenced by GB which started similarly--but they weren't. People were alienated through various dramas and fumblings. On more organic boards, when that happens one or two people might leave in a huff. Since this one had a borrowed population, people could just drift back to the other communities in droves.
So. We're hemorrhaging. Part of why I volunteered to take the board from Jim was because I hoped that if someone really took a leadership role so people didn't have to spend all their time thinking about the board itself, people would then turn that energy towards posting. Obviously, that hasn't happened yet.
Now, we don't have drama. We just don't have any reason for people to be here. If someone comes to Mellophant and there hasn't been a new post in two hours, why shouldn't they just go the Dope or Giraffe Boards? Why should they be here at all? We have plenty of people logging in and lurking all day long. They're just not posting.
I'm focusing my efforts on trying to build up this community with its own identity. I can't wipe away the stains that Domebo has left on people's minds elsewhere, but I can make Mellophant into its own place. The thing I need from everyone else, more than anything else, is for them to post. There is no magic wand that can be waved to bring hoards of people back, but if you want people to stop leaving give them a reason to stay.
I am sorry to hear that this discussion is so unwelcome.
I didn't mean to ask you to rehash everything that went wrong in the past. I think it is safe to assume that for the most part the general outlines are known.
What I meant to ask about is the future outlook. I can't help the feeling that we are in a hole and just digging on might not get us out of there, even if you hand us shiny new spades.
Of course we need more content and better content. There are people who could post but don't. The problem is, everybody knows that. Without genuine new impulse you can squeeze a few extra posts out of people, but that has its limits. Unfortunately right now people post about as much as they want to. Obviously to a large extent this is a vicious circle. If people had more interesting threads to work with they would post more.
Yes, giving the board its own identity might do the trick. It depends on what exactly that entails.
I am aware that I don't post as much or as well as you would like me to do. Still recently I posted about ten times as much as I did on the SDMB. Considering that there is a lot less to work with that seems like a step in the right direction.
Whoa, whoa, whoa. That's not what I meant and I sincerely apologize if that's how it came across. I'm not blaming anybody or pointing fingers at specific posters, saying they need to post more. It's simply that, in general, there isn't enough posting here. If 20% of our population is providing 80% of our content, it hurts when our population is around 100 posters. That is not a slam towards that 20% for not posting enough, but abject begging towards everyone else. I'm posting just about as much as I can, but when I look at a forum and see five threads in a row dead in the water with my name as the last poster it's pretty discouraging.
The reason I hashed out the history is because we are where we are because of that history. We're not a board that had two thousand active members and then suddenly died. We're a board that borrowed a few hundred members from another community and then failed to keep them.
Had pepperlandgirl and I started up the front page and this forum at the beginning of the month from scratch and had the amount of traffic we're getting, we'd be bouncing around in absolute glee. It may not look like it's having much of an impact on the board right now, but every new article is another bunch of potential hits on search engines. Every comment on those articles pulls readers straight into the board.
Short of going to the Dope and poaching members, we're not going to get a sudden influx of people. It'll take time. Short of sending out the Steak and Blowjob Squad, we're not going to keep people active here without content.
Perhaps not everyone is aware of it, but Pepper has talked several popular authors and professional artists into contributing to the front page. The front page is a draw and it's going to become more of one.
For right now, until we grow, we need to accept that we aren't a big board, nor are we a fast moving one. Those who feel a tie to the community here will stay and rough out this slow patch until we grow. Those who don't feel that much of a tie are always welcome to come back.
I believe content is the still best way to get traffic. I found a link to Damn Interesting and was hooked. There also one site (which I have forgotten the name or URL) where they have Top Ten Lists, but it is in kind of a crass way; perhaps Mellophant can have a more refined list. Given the combined knowledge and interests of the people here, I am sure we can come up with something. A "Ask the..." thread can be great material for a frontpage article. The other important thing is to find a combined blog feed and subscribe to it. I have a blog on RPG, and my blog's RSS is posted on their site. There bound to be a blog feed site for interesting content, in the same vein like Damn Interesting or Cockeyed (the pranks there are priceless)
I bet the crude website with top ten lists that you're thinking of is Cracked.com.
I don't think so, therefore I'm probably not.
Yep, it's cracked.com. Thanks for refreshing my memory. Getting the site onto a feed aggregate would be great. Another thing is to link front page's articles to a forum thread. Not sure if Drupal can do that
How do you mean? ALL of the front page articles have corresponding forum threads (in the Front Page News forum).
I'm still swimming in harmony. I'm still dreaming of flight. I'm still lost in the waves night after night...
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