::Effort:: and Ideas to Jumpstart Forum Activity

[atreyuavenged]

Some good ideas.

I don't mind talking about Sports and what not. Such as the Juniors if anyone at all is interested. Hockey is big up here.

Regarding previous threads, I'll read through some posts and majority of the time, what I have to say is usually already said.

[DrumRoll]

I've actually been thinking the same thing. Though rather than delete them and dissallow such threads I've thought about creating a Favorites & Versus board where all such threads could go and postcount be disabled for that section or at least not be able to be posted in by those looking to post boost for downloads until they hit the 15 post requirement. Haven't really decided on how to handle that so any ideas or preferences would be nice if stated.

perhaps you could turn the forum games section into a forum games, polls and quizs section. seeing as forum games are basically of the same 'one answer' breed.

[lemmingllama]

perhaps you could turn the forum games section into a forum games, polls and quizs section. seeing as forum games are basically of the same 'one answer' breed.

Would be a bad idea personally. Fantasy fights could fit in there, but really anything that requires a bit of thought doesnt belong in forum games. Though I do agree with getting rid of the spam threads into a non-post count board.

[DrumRoll]

perhaps forum games could be a sub-forum?

[Pinkie Pie]

Would be a bad idea personally. Fantasy fights could fit in there, but really anything that requires a bit of thought doesnt belong in forum games. Though I do agree with getting rid of the spam threads into a non-post count board.

All of the above is still of a spammy nature though. And I don't see the "thought" in taking a one worded poll.

[† Emotional Outlet]

Ooh, ooh, I want to clean things.

It seems to me the issue isn't necessarily with the "what is your favourite X" type of thread in itself so much as the fact that people who are looking to raise post count are just dumping in their opinions and then running away, never adding any other commentary. These kinds of threads can generate conversation--"Why you think that X is the best rather than Y? I like Y because this and this. I thought X was very that."

What I see instead are just a bunch of posts that say "I like X. X RULES FOREVA", as if they never read the thread before posting. No small wonder, considering the previous thousand posts are just as lacking in content.

The idea of moving these topics to a separate, non-post count generating subforum appeals to me. An alternative would be increased oversight in these kinds of threads, culling any posts that just say "X RULZ KTHXBAI", but that's creeping into Big Brother territory, I'd say.

ETA:

I just wanted to add that after some diving through my old posts here, the sentiments I express in this thread still hold true. The lack of real discussions and simple "I like this"/"I like that" threads really highlights the feeling of lack of community I'm feeling. I know I write long-winded posts, but that's always been my style and it hasn't been until I've come back this time around that I feel like I'm just pissing in the wind. I could be remarkable unlikeable, but I'm certain were that the case, I never would have felt any sense of community in the days of yore, but I did.

Maybe this just isn't the community for me anymore since I bear no strong interest in anime, but my god, when I can't even find decent responses in the debate subforum beyond "I hate God/Facebook/North Korea" or threads in the general subforum beyond "boxers versus briefs"...

[hayted]

I have had a quick look at the site and there is not too much oyu really need to stir up an interest. One idea I do have though which would boost your numbers as well is...... When somebody signs up they can add a list of their friends / referrals who would receive a mail then from you saying that (whoever) thought you would enjoy the site and list what you provide.... which is not only anime, poetry, art, tech and a great community. How does that sound?

[† Emotional Outlet]

I don't find the idea of unsolicited email from a forum you aren't a member of to be very attractive. No one likes to receive spam in any way, shape, or form, and a feature like that is so easily manipulated.

If you think your friends would like the forum, you should just tell them yourself. Coming from the forum, it doesn't feel personal and it makes it look like it's just trying to bolster its numbers instead of create a close-knit community. Activity and community aren't based on how many new members you can bring in, but how many members you can keep. New people doesn't mean squat unless you can keep them there and keep them active.

A forum should be like a home, a place to hang out with people you can recognise after a bit of time and enjoy the company of. If you've got a constant flow of people coming in and out, with no one staying past that fifteen post threshold to get to the downloads, you don't have a community, you have a store.

I don't know what can be done to keep those people who only come for the anime to remain active, because I don't want people who don't want to participate to be forced to do something they don't want to do. We already have a problem with too many posts that are free of content, too many "I like X" and "I hate Y" posts.

ETA: Dear god, the Farplane needs to be cleaned out. I like the idea of an archive, but some of those things can stand to be erased off the face of this board.

[Koby]

I've been feeling the same way for quite some time EO, but despite my efforts not much has really changed. We went from being a great discussion board to being nearly dead, to reviving, and now we've got activity but it's not the same.. who really cares how active the forum is if it's only ignorant spammish type posts only for downloads. The only thing I think would stop this would be to completely change our setup, but at the same time it'd be cutting the forums own throat taking away the very thing from the users that they found this place for or kept coming back for in the first place. So it's a lose-lose kind of situation and a big part of the problem is the people who might post meaningfully have stopped, most of our staff actually rarely seem to post anymore themselves either, a big portion of all they do these days is answer reports filed but even then many go unanswered. Anyhow I seem to be rambling on and straying from the topic.

I've been wanting to do away with or separate such topics that serve little point other than to state they like it or prefer x to y (though it doesn't help when topics of value go un-noticed either), but haven't really decided the best way about doing as such. It doesn't help that I've been sick and not felt up to doing much, although this has been an on-going problem that has only progressed further downhill for quite some time so that's not really an excuse. I guess when it comes down to it, we're never really happy with the outcome of the forum, it's either too dead or too active but with a lack of quality. Truth of the matter is, without the leechers this forum might have died quite a while ago, even if they serve little purpose.

Even our current 'core' doesn't really seem much like a community anyhow, or maybe I've simply fallen out of the loop that once was. Unlike a year ago where we all got together and had wacky discussions and shit on msn and everything.. I can't recall how long it's been since I talked to anyone aside from 3-4 members outside of the forum and even then I've not really chatted with anyone much on the forum itself either... probably because I stopped using the Chatbox as much to try and focus on the forum, while our core members seem to worship the Chatbox over the forum itself. I tried to encourage healthy posting but anything I tried always had blacklashes. The last time I ended up having to ban 4 regulars because they became so enraged about some changes I made and decided to take crap into their own hands and pull some crap behind our backs.

[† Emotional Outlet]

Yeah, I was talking to my husband (Jªvª on here) about it. There's really no easy way of changing things here without affecting activity significantly. Part of the appeal is the free downloads. I get that and I understand they brought the forum back from the brink--personally, I wouldn't have it any other way, because I wouldn't have this place to come back to. Adding further restrictions just boosts spam or the workload on the staff. Higher post threshold, requiring moderator approval for every member before being given access to downloads, requiring moderator approval for all new posts by new members, requiring a one-time fee, deleting members if they don't reach a certain number of posts in a certain amount of time... It really is lose-lose. Unless someone gets struck with some brilliant flash of creativity, I don't think the way the downloads are set up should be changed.

I think we just need to keep looking forward. God knows I would love for things to be the way it was, haha. I did notice that a lot of people prefer to be in the chatbox as opposed to the forum, which is dreadfully unfortunate because I would love to see some of their discussions expanded on the forum in threads. I sincerely believe that more input from the chatbox regulars would be a boon for the forum.

If you do make any executive decisions regarding the more or less useless threads with no discussion, I'm more than willing to help out where I can--plus you'd be getting two for the price of one, since I usually talk to my husband about the forum anyway, haha. Even if it means moving those threads to a separate subforum that still gains posts, I think it'd give legitimate discussions more attention when it's not covered up by a dozen "What's your favourite Y". I'd rather the people who are just trying to gain their posts get it in a consolidated place, and it seems that they all flock to those "I like X" threads more than anything.

And hell, I've already skimmed through a lot of those threads anyway. If your decision is to salvage posts from threads and split off the chaff, I'm willing to do that as well. It would generate some duplication, but I think with the way things are now, we can't afford to alienate the leechers an excessive amount. If you think the "core" group here isn't stable enough, then we do need the leechers to help prop us up until a stronger community is generated.

I do hope you get around to feeling better. Don't let this stuff get you down, haha. It should be fun and enjoyable, not stressful and depressing. It is going to take some doing, but I think this forum is in a position to gain more momentum--we just have to keep at it and be patient.

[Koby]

Any good name and description for a board that could encompass all the favorites, versus, etc.. styled threads?

[† Emotional Outlet]

Java suggests creating a subforum under each section for those kinds of threads--I like the idea of just one giant subforum for them to go to, but whatever, haha.

I guess you could name it... FABULOUS FAVOURITES! LUSTROUS LISTS! I can't think of anything that isn't sarcastic. Maybe... Common Threads? All Your Favourites? Simply Lists?

"Think Naruto is better than Bleach? Do you want to see if anyone says Turok is also a terrible game? Want people to know what you think the best twentieth century novel is? Tell us here."

Maybe someone will have a better idea than I, haha.

[lemmingllama]

Any good name and description for a board that could encompass all the favorites, versus, etc.. styled threads?

Call it a Fanboy/girl board, where you can argue as much as you please about little gimmicky things that really dont matter at all. Though you could call it a Tailored Board too

As for EO, really the best conversations that you find are either in the forum games or the Chatbox since thats where the regulars hang out. Its just that most have already looked over main threads and so unless new threads are created, then nothing will happen with it. Thus the point of this thread, so we can try to get the old time members posting more with new fancy things.

And I do agree that the farplane should be cleaned a bit, my report posts are cluttering it up just a bit

Edit: We could add some more boards and hope that users fill in the void, hopefully making some more traffic. Like a political board, weapons board, nature board, sports board, food board(bacon thread made in seconds ), fashion board, heath and fitness board, or a paranormal board. Just some random ideas. And if you need any help, I have a decent amount of free time

[Pinkie Pie]

As for EO, really the best conversations that you find are either in the forum games or the Chatbox since thats where the regulars hang out. Its just that most have already looked over main threads and so unless new threads are created, then nothing will happen with it. Thus the point of this thread, so we can try to get the old time members posting more with new fancy things.

Wait a second, hold the phone. What regulars only lurk the spam games section :Va? And by the way, after a while all of the valuable, well thought out threads get drowned out by your WHAT'S YOUR X threads that are little more than one to two sentence posts. That's the kind of thing that doesn't help the boards at all. All it does is congest it and make the appearance rate of the threads that have more meaning than oh i like cheetoes! to vanish.

Putting more threads is not the same as stimulating activity. The way to stimulate activity is to put more focus on the threads that mean something and ignoring and reporting something like a thread where you put lines of periods and spam in parentheses. If the memberbase just lets that nonsense slide, the board will never become the community that everyone wants it to be.

And I do agree that the farplane should be cleaned a bit, my report posts are cluttering it up just a bit

Honestly, I think that system was put in place as a message :Va

Edit: We could add some more boards and hope that users fill in the void, hopefully making some more traffic. Like a political board, weapons board, nature board, sports board, food board(bacon thread made in seconds ), fashion board, heath and fitness board, or a paranormal board. Just some random ideas.

How would adding more boards stimulate productive activity at all? All that would do would glorify more of those do you like x or y or what brand of x do you use threads, which would be counterproductive in a hilariously terrible way.

And if you need any help, I have a decent amount of free time

Honestly, I can't really believe that you're contributing to the problem and then asking to be staff. I literally don't understand how someone can be that arrogant.

[† Emotional Outlet]

I think more subfora would just clutter things up. If the need arises to create a new section, sure. Then it makes sense. But I doubt that there is enough interest in sports or fashion to warrant an entire section devoted to it. I even think that some of the subsections for the anime and video game sections are a bit much. This isn't Reddit--there just isn't enough activity to warrant so many subsections. I don't think creating them in anticipation of activity flocking to them is the best way to go. Also, I hate long index pages.

Besides having a place for these silly "I like X" threads, the way the forum is set up currently is fine with me. A while ago, someone suggested reorganising the forum, but given how people react to Facebook changes, who knows what the reaction to a change that large on this forum would pan out, haha.

The state of the debate forum lately tells me that a political subforum would be ill-advised. In theory, it sounds like a good idea, but I think in practise, it would fail--hopefully spectacularly.

ETA: Although I would not be against splitting up the Art and Lit section in the same way the Graphical Division is set up--Contests and Showcase subsections, and then general discussion. That way people with art and stories can have their stuff in the showcase, but people who just want to TALK about art and literature aren't pushing down people's work.

(I also don't care for the joke threads in there... maybe just put those in a separate section entirely. I think they overshadow the stories and art people post.)

[DrumRoll]

Whats that saying you americans have...'my two cents' or something like that. Perhaps that would be an adequate name for a new subforum. OR we could just call it the 'DROSS BOX'.

another idea; maybe you should have to buy chatbox time with gil? Or some other scheme which means people have to post in the forum before 'huggling' everyone in the chatbox....

[† Emotional Outlet]

That is... brilliant. Both of those things. I love the name "My Two Cents" (it's so simple and appropriate) and the idea of having to "buy" chatbox time either with gil or a daily minimum number of posts. I think once we clean up the dumb "I like X" threads so the good threads aren't buried any longer, it might be even further encouragement for people to post in the forum.

There really isn't any reason why people can't enjoy posting in the forum the way they enjoy posting in the chatbox. They're already here, haha.

Yuri mentioned in another thread she missed the Khronicle--I'm willing to offer what I can, and I've goaded Java into also considering volunteering for it (he could write something like, "A Cup of Java" and he could do all his tech tips and whatever computer wizardry). If you bring it back up, that is.

[Dan Den]

the idea of having to "buy" chatbox time either with gil or a daily minimum number of posts.

I don't think this will be a good idea, considering what happened the last time a saction was placed on the chat box. Sure activity went sky rocketing but so did the tension or what ever you want to call it. People were complaining back and fourth and the funny part was the Koby said this was only temporally meaning it would return but that's not how they took it. So putting restrictions will bring more drama/problems than the results you are expecting.

[† Emotional Outlet]

Interesting. I didn't know it was previously restricted with bad results. Then I rescind my vote for it. I didn't realise it would create so much turmoil.

[Dan Den]

Interesting. I didn't know it was previously restricted with bad results. Then I rescind my vote for it. I didn't realise it would create so much turmoil.

You can read up on how it went down here if you haven't already, http://forums.kametsu.com/showthread.php?t=27145

But there is no need to rescind your comment, it is a good suggestion from the point of view of those who don't always use the chat box but to those who see it, well lets just say will be having ourselves another episode of Kametsu drama.