Jump to content

Welcome to Emo Forums
Register now to gain access to all of our features. Once registered and logged in, you will be able to create topics, post replies to existing threads, give reputation to your fellow members, get your own private messenger, post status updates, manage your profile and so much more. If you already have an account, login here - otherwise create an account for free today!
Photo

A Rough Idea.


  • This topic is locked This topic is locked
18 replies to this topic

#1
Kane.

Kane.

    Nigrescent Black Hole

  • Full Members
  • PipPipPipPipPip
  • 437 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:London, UK
  • Country
  • Fav Band Red Hot Chili Peppers
Hello hello. As i'm sure most of you are aware we're currently experiencing the problem of low forum activity - whilst however maintaining a good level of traffic through the site. This is in part due to a large amount of new members joining EC and only ever posting once or twice, whilst however PMing/commenting hundreds of peoples and actually being probably the most active people on this site. We need to break up these cliques and get these members posting, if they out half the amount of effort that they put into commenting each other as posting then the Forums would be buzzing.

Not saying this is the only issue that needs to be ironed out, but it's one that i'm increasingly noticing. The newbies I've spoken too who are like this are saying there's nothing on the forum they want to talk about on the forums and so I've got an idea or two to encourage these little guys to poke out of their cave.

The main one for me, whilst it is probably the most extreme, is that of disabling the ability to send PMs and Comments to other normal members, until a post threshold has been passed - Much in the same way that you can't change your title until 500 posts. Please note this is only to normal members, they would still be able to comment and PM to mods, so that if they need to ask questions etc this wouldn't be restricted. This would just stop new members being sucked into this cliques that consist of 10 posts, 10000 profile views and 1000 friends and forcing them to post in the forums and get to know everyone the way we all did! Posting in the forum is about momentum, the more you post, the more you get to know everyone, the easier it becomes to post.

Of course this option would take the effort of the active regular members and the Mods alike, due to the fact that we'd have to keep these new feisty newblets entertained and not being estranged from our low post count friends.

Other methods could just be more incentives to get people posting, different topics, competitions and just generally carrying on with what we have been doing, but more concentrated on the newbs coming through.

It's not the perfect idea and it's up for being tweaked and changed, It just seems to be the most obvious and easiest to implement method of getting these guys posting. I mean I've tried to speak to newbies who are like this and they get so sucked up in their little friend circles that they just have superiority complexes and are pretty rude. - I fear this is the fallout of the shoutout box.
  • 0

#2
Shattered Hopes

Shattered Hopes

    Tortured Rose

  • Full Members
  • PipPip
  • 34 posts
It did strike me as odd that I couldn't make my own topic until I had so many posts but I could PM with people, I figured if your going to prevent me to start new topics then wouldn't it make sense to do the same with PMing for the same reasons. On that note though, this place isn't that dead if you ask me. It has quite a few posts going through it. Perhaps it's not as lively as before, but it still pumps out a lot compared many forums. I personally don't post much neither because a lot of the topics don't strike me as interesting, but when I see one that is interesting to me, I'll comment or post.
  • 0

#3
Kane.

Kane.

    Nigrescent Black Hole

  • Full Members
  • PipPipPipPipPip
  • 437 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:London, UK
  • Country
  • Fav Band Red Hot Chili Peppers

It did strike me as odd that I couldn't make my own topic until I had so many posts but I could PM with people, I figured if your going to prevent me to start new topics then wouldn't it make sense to do the same with PMing for the same reasons. On that note though, this place isn't that dead if you ask me. It has quite a few posts going through it. Perhaps it's not as lively as before, but it still pumps out a lot compared many forums. I personally don't post much neither because a lot of the topics don't strike me as interesting, but when I see one that is interesting to me, I'll comment or post.



The forum is massively inactive compared to say, 2 years ago, by a long stretch. Well the impetus is on you to post topics that you DO find interesting. It shouldn't be out job to entertain you, contribute as well. You seem like a literate fellow and that gives you a head start on 80% (i'm being generous.) of the others here. The new topics barrier is to stop spammers/trolls coming on to the forum, creating loads of accounts and just posting loads of porn, hence why a mod has to approve your first few posts. - It's a delicate balance.
  • 0

#4
Shattered Hopes

Shattered Hopes

    Tortured Rose

  • Full Members
  • PipPip
  • 34 posts
You have a separate group for new members right? One thing you can do to allow them to message mods/admin in case of a problem etc is limit their amount of PMs to like 1 every 24 hours within the new member group. You just go to the group, hit edit, then press the tab that says Global, scroll down to the personal messaging section and presto :) At least that's how it works on the IP board that I'm admin on.
  • 0

#5
Shattered Hopes

Shattered Hopes

    Tortured Rose

  • Full Members
  • PipPip
  • 34 posts
I was just talking to the main admin and he said that if you block them from PMing they can still reply to the ones that they recieve, they just can't start new PMs. So if you have a welcome message to the new members then technically they should still be able to reply to the admin that sent that welcome message at any time.
  • 0

#6
PatchIsaNarwhal

PatchIsaNarwhal

    Spiraling Tempest

  • Full Members
  • PipPipPipPip
  • 235 posts
Not to be annoying.

But if you stop the Newbies from PMing each other and the mods then the site is going to die.... Just think about it use your brains for gods sakes.
PMing is the effective way that newbs can talk to older members to get help and no i dont mean just mods obviously.

Effectively taking away the PM privileges we have now would more then probably kill the site.
  • 0

#7
Kane.

Kane.

    Nigrescent Black Hole

  • Full Members
  • PipPipPipPipPip
  • 437 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:London, UK
  • Country
  • Fav Band Red Hot Chili Peppers
I agree there are problems with the idea and it would of course have teething problems, but I'd like to point out it's mainly the people who are EXACTLY the type of people i'm talking about who have a big problem here. Lets be totally fair, 100 posts is not a lot of posts, it doesn't even necessarily need to be 100.

You face an equal problem in that if the forum carries on being so inactive then the regular members who do post there will eventually become bored and just leave and the forum would become stagnant. #
  • 0

#8
PatchIsaNarwhal

PatchIsaNarwhal

    Spiraling Tempest

  • Full Members
  • PipPipPipPip
  • 235 posts
There is a few problems I could pick at but im not going to.

The main problem that i see is that if you take away PM rights then you take away their reason to still be here.
They use PMing as an effective way of getting help building friendships, ect.
And taking that away from them would be a death wish per say for this site.

Just think about it.
  • 0

#9
Kane.

Kane.

    Nigrescent Black Hole

  • Full Members
  • PipPipPipPipPip
  • 437 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:London, UK
  • Country
  • Fav Band Red Hot Chili Peppers

There is a few problems I could pick at but im not going to.

The main problem that i see is that if you take away PM rights then you take away their reason to still be here.
They use PMing as an effective way of getting help building friendships, ect.
And taking that away from them would be a death wish per say for this site.

Just think about it.



Shockingly, this site survived perfectly well before you and i'm sure it'll cope after.

I'm going to be blunt on this, this is a forum. If that's your reason for being here, then post. If that isn't your reason, leave. I don't understand how people just don't get the point being made here.
  • 0

#10
PatchIsaNarwhal

PatchIsaNarwhal

    Spiraling Tempest

  • Full Members
  • PipPipPipPip
  • 235 posts
Incase your ego has blinded you!

Look around the bloody forums!
People Post Make New topics their doing what they have always done before you came back and made a big deal about how the forum is effectively Dead.
Shut up and Open your eyes for once!
For gods sakes.

PMing is how we ask for help and get to know one another
Take that away people dont get help and make a mess of things.

The forum will pick up it needs to be given time.

Make new topics if your really that worried about it.
Make them about things people are interested in.
  • 0

#11
Steve 

Steve 

    King of Modesty

  • Moderators
  • PipPipPipPipPip
  • 2,680 posts
Restricting the Private Messaging system can only have negative effects. The people who use said system will probably move onto another site where they do have the system in place immediately. Not to mention it's a fairly complex process setting up permissions for who can PM and when, as Jess has mentioned somewhat. I think it's a bad idea really, and as far as cliques go I know we, as a forum, are really bad for it but if a newbie makes a fairly interesting post it will be recognised and start discussion with said newbie. The best solution is as a whole to recognise the newbies (which is what I believe the newbies section is all about) and get them comfortable with the forums by chatting with them, even if it's just you who does it, Kane..
  • 0

#12
PatchIsaNarwhal

PatchIsaNarwhal

    Spiraling Tempest

  • Full Members
  • PipPipPipPip
  • 235 posts
Kane dosent chat with them... My wall is a perfect example of that.

I agree with steve
  • 0

#13
Kane.

Kane.

    Nigrescent Black Hole

  • Full Members
  • PipPipPipPipPip
  • 437 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:London, UK
  • Country
  • Fav Band Red Hot Chili Peppers

Patch and kane, can you stop with the petty arguments :P it's a suggestion not a personal spat between the two of you.

Steve, you raise a good point. I think the only real solution might be to try to work on newbie integration. I wish there was a better way to encourage the newbies to post in the first place, though, many of them NEVER post. We do have a ridiculous amount of registered members.



I'm not arguing, she's just a 13 year old prima donna.
  • 0

#14
PatchIsaNarwhal

PatchIsaNarwhal

    Spiraling Tempest

  • Full Members
  • PipPipPipPip
  • 235 posts
Thank you.

I think logically unlike allot of people.

And if that makes me a prima dona then so be it.
  • 0

#15
Kane.

Kane.

    Nigrescent Black Hole

  • Full Members
  • PipPipPipPipPip
  • 437 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:London, UK
  • Country
  • Fav Band Red Hot Chili Peppers

Thank you.

I think logically unlike allot of people.

And if that makes me a prima dona then so be it.



I'm just going to stop replying, Jess you know my thoughts on it. Take from it what you will.
  • 0

#16
Shattered Hopes

Shattered Hopes

    Tortured Rose

  • Full Members
  • PipPip
  • 34 posts
She does have a valid point and effectively it would have some repercussions, as does having no limit as Kane pointed out. I think if you were going to have a limit then keep it below 100, a lot of people would most likely get discouraged especially to those that aren't too outspoken. But extending the newbie status to something like 10 or 15 posts would be a good limit because it gets them comfortable talking on the forums that perhaps they would be more active and its an easy number to get to. It adds up as well because if a hundred new members need that many post it already would contribute 100 or 150 posts/topics.
And they can still talk to mods even if you add a subforum in this section for newbie problems etc.
But either way if you look at it, Patch has a point and so does Kane, but each has their repercussion.
  • 0

#17
Insane Pie

Insane Pie

    Four String Samurai

  • Sub Moderators
  • PipPipPipPipPip
  • 4,807 posts
Even if this was all possible, it wouldn't be an instant fix. It would take a good amount of time and members would leave. I know a few members who don't even read the board at all because they get "bored", but that's their issue. The newbs that are interested will stay and post eventually and the others will leave and eventually come back. I know with myself, I left for a good amount of time just because I wasn't all that into it, but I did come back and became a lot more interested.
  • 0

#18
Crispin

Crispin

    ...

  • Full Members
  • PipPipPipPipPip
  • 11,282 posts
  • Gender:Not Telling
  • Country
  • Fav Band _
I'm not going to lie, if I were a newb and this was implemented, I wouldn't stick around. Heck, one of the reasons I still come here is to stay in touch with and PM some members. It's also forcing members to post, which I don't agree with. You don't have a choice. It screans desperate, in my eyes. I think the best way to increase activity is to obviously be more of an interesting board, somehow grab the newbs' attention as soon as they sign up and just wait for the change.

I think the reason why it's so low is because we're still, in all appearances, an emo site. And when kids join up, they're lost as to how to fit in, seeing as the member base is so obviously non emo. I think that's a main issue and factor as to why the site is so low in activity, imo.

Shockingly, this site survived perfectly well before you and i'm sure it'll cope after.

I'm going to be blunt on this, this is a forum. If that's your reason for being here, then post. If that isn't your reason, leave. I don't understand how people just don't get the point being made here.

The cheek on you coming up with this 'integrate the newbs, revive the site' malarkey and responding as such when a member offers their opinion (even though it was slightly laced with typical teen attitude) differing to yours, you treat them less than kind. They only pointed a fault with your new system idea, which is no reason to demean them.

This site also survived perfectly well before you came along, and will do the same without.

edit: excuse the shit spelling, it's four am and i cba with typing coherently. Also, Shattered Hopes, I love your sig.
  • 0

#19
DarkParadise

DarkParadise

    Come on baby show me what that loaded gun is for?

  • Full Members
  • PipPipPipPipPip
  • 2,448 posts
I think giving more abilities then taking it away would be more effective. I remember this one site where you actually had to have to be approved to join and if no one was on for weeks at a time no one posted and it eventually went to 1000 members to 70 and so forth. The point of a forum is to chat via PM or forums, I think taking away the PMS won't make the forum more popular it will only start to die the thing with the chat boxes and PMS its instant and unfortunately everyone wants this nowadays. Taking away the ability to PM from newbies would not help.
  • 0




0 user(s) are reading this topic

0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users