Is this Site Declining and losing Members?
In just the past week I have read probably 10 comments among different threads all claiming that this site is going downhill, is losing members (or chasing them away)and generally ailing by reason of ...
Forum Discussion
Having been an owner of a vibrant forum for a number of years, I can tell you for a fact that ebbs and flows of membership is a given, and is actually a sign of a successful forum. People will always come and go, what you want is a steady flow of new members and a significant portion of long term members. It should go without saying that treating each other with respect is important.
In terms of moderating/heavy handedness, discussion of politics or spinoffs from that almost 100 percent of the time, end up in personal attacks. So, it is actually a fact that adults typically cannot participate in discussions of such emotional nature without turning into children. All one has to do is look at what is going on around us today. The forum is simply a microcosm of society at large, so the problems/issues/discourse/discussion that occurs in society at large, and the resultant emotions will always play out, to a lesser (albeit acute) degree on forums. So, on my forum (which I sold for a healthy profit), we totally banned political discussions. My forum was (and still is) a Varmint Hunting forum, so you can imagine how passionate folks are regarding gun rights etc... I actually tried having a separate political area, but it is just simply impossible to moderate fairly... someone will always take exception to their post being deleted. And this was with folks who are generally like minded.
I'll say I have not met fulltimedaniel. I had wondered at one point if he was actually a CW/GS employee, since a fair amount of his posts are marketing type related (TT floorplans for new audience, ideas on moderating the forum, asking about membership etc).... Not saying he is, but it crossed my mind. Nevertheless, these are good questions.
I will say though, certainly room for making new members feel more welcome. But, I will also say, that I grow tired of the endless threads about will my truck tow this or that. Isn't there a sticky about how to determine proper towing capacity? If not, there should be . If new forum members would just execute some reasonable search queries, they would get most of what they need. I believe most new visitors are forum savvy, and now how a search engine works, although this one could certainly use some improvement. Fulltimedaniel, if you are a GS/CW employee, get tech to make the search engine more usable (grin).
Mike
In terms of moderating/heavy handedness, discussion of politics or spinoffs from that almost 100 percent of the time, end up in personal attacks. So, it is actually a fact that adults typically cannot participate in discussions of such emotional nature without turning into children. All one has to do is look at what is going on around us today. The forum is simply a microcosm of society at large, so the problems/issues/discourse/discussion that occurs in society at large, and the resultant emotions will always play out, to a lesser (albeit acute) degree on forums. So, on my forum (which I sold for a healthy profit), we totally banned political discussions. My forum was (and still is) a Varmint Hunting forum, so you can imagine how passionate folks are regarding gun rights etc... I actually tried having a separate political area, but it is just simply impossible to moderate fairly... someone will always take exception to their post being deleted. And this was with folks who are generally like minded.
I'll say I have not met fulltimedaniel. I had wondered at one point if he was actually a CW/GS employee, since a fair amount of his posts are marketing type related (TT floorplans for new audience, ideas on moderating the forum, asking about membership etc).... Not saying he is, but it crossed my mind. Nevertheless, these are good questions.
I will say though, certainly room for making new members feel more welcome. But, I will also say, that I grow tired of the endless threads about will my truck tow this or that. Isn't there a sticky about how to determine proper towing capacity? If not, there should be . If new forum members would just execute some reasonable search queries, they would get most of what they need. I believe most new visitors are forum savvy, and now how a search engine works, although this one could certainly use some improvement. Fulltimedaniel, if you are a GS/CW employee, get tech to make the search engine more usable (grin).
Mike
