Advertising isn't everything: My philosophy on an overload of inactive members and staff's solution.

I just read the new topic in news, and was displeased. It seems like goob's response to the lack of activity is to have everyone go on a huge advertising spree. I see several problems with that, and will address them all in this topic.

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So, if the site is inactive, that means that there are very few posts, and not many people get on a day. Most of those people are the same people, and that means that there are only like 6-10 active users. That would mean that only those users would see the news. That would result in an advertising revolution carried out by 6-10 users. Some of those users may have nowhere else to advertise. That would take off a few, so an advertising spree led by about 7 users.

Next is the fact that we have 62 Registered users! If each user made an average of 5+ posts a day, this place would have a server crash. So, why do we need more users? Why not just get the ones we have active? We have 24 users with 5 or less total posts. we have 37 with 10 or less. We only have 20 users that made the effort to get 25+ posts, and 15 with 50+. There are 12 users that have 100+ posts, and 3 with 200+.

I guess my point is that we don't need to advertise right now. We need to get the other users active! I don't know how we would do that, but thats what needs to happen.

Best of luck with this staff,
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^^True, flubby.^^

But how? This place is, well, the perfect forum. Nice users, great staff, awesome banner and theme. There's tons of threads to post in. There's even the factor of the vip motivation. What can we do get our current users to post more? That's what we need to think about. And not just staff, as you mentioned, Tenkai. Everyone needs to brainstorm.

Here's my plan: As a first we should e-mail/ PM everyone with a message stating "Be active. We need more activity. Yada yada." Also, there could maybe be the possibility of prizes for posts. Not huge prizes, just enough to motivate people to post more. Every 50 posts maybe a prize of some sort? Think about it.

Flubby wrote:

Zish||Skivenski wrote:

^^True, flubby.^^

But how? This place is, well, the perfect forum. Nice users, great staff, awesome banner and theme. There's tons of threads to post in. There's even the factor of the vip motivation. What can we do get our current users to post more? That's what we need to think about. And not just staff, as you mentioned, Tenkai. Everyone needs to brainstorm.

Here's my plan: As a first we should e-mail/ PM everyone with a message stating "Be active. We need more activity. Yada yada." Also, there could maybe be the possibility of prizes for posts. Not huge prizes, just enough to motivate people to post more. Every 50 posts maybe a prize of some sort? Think about it.

Well we could make special rooms for certain ranks, I just don't think we should go overboard with the prizes. It would be hard to think of more then just several prizes, people would get bored of them.

True, but hey, just an idea.

I have an idea.

On my forum, we are working on a 'puffle points' system. These are points you get for achieving things, like becoming staff or getting 10 referrals.

what you could do is offer say, 100 points for every 100 posts you get. zthen make a new subforum where people can make shops and such. Maybe make it cost 50 points to get a name change, 100 for a custom smiley, and 200 for a custom rank, etc.

Oh please no. I hate point systems, just because somebody has 300 posts doesn't mean that they're any better than the guy with 20. I don't have referrals because the only other forum I'm on (dragon play) doesn't have a single member who would be mildly interested in joining this forum. Is the person with 5 referals any better than me? No, am I better than them? No.

It just annoys me because it seems unfair, I'm not much of a poster, I never have been, Skiv is a big poster, but we're both equal, and I don't think either of us should get more benefits than the person who has 30 posts.

I could kinda agree with the namechange policy of 50 points or so, but having members open signature shops and such for points annoys me.

Points are fun. Maybe there could be ways for the people who don't post much to get points, like a donation system.

Plus, you have to overlook the possibility (regarding a point system) of users just posting a bunch of spam to get points. I mean, I post a lot, but I'm not like "Cool" to a post I haven't even read. You know what I'm talking about. So maybe a point system where you gather points from posting guides, selling signatures, winning contests, etc., and NOT posts. Hmm?

Skivenski wrote:

Plus, you have to overlook the possibility (regarding a point system) of users just posting a bunch of spam to get points. I mean, I post a lot, but I'm not like "Cool" to a post I haven't even read. You know what I'm talking about. So maybe a point system where you gather points from posting guides, selling signatures, winning contests, etc., and NOT posts. Hmm?

maybe just a small contest to get activity. Other than that, posts won't affect points.

Every forum, anywhere you go, has some members who don't get on often. That is just normal. Advertising is, in my opinion, better than trying to get old members on.

Libbeh wrote:

I'm on (dragon play)

Ha ha ha Dragon Play. The game that will never come to be.

really, points are a bad idea, some people will only go on to get acheive more points, so it looks like there the best member of the forum, then they'll show off, ect.