Forums → The Tavern → Operation: Increase Forum Interest
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I probably could have come up with a more clever name had I put more effort into thinking about it, but this one seems to get the point across just fine.
The purpose of this operation, as its name suggests, is to increase forum interest throughout the entire site. Site activity is not a problem with this newer generation of users, forum interest is. Only a handful of users who joined in 2012 have over 300 forum posts; which, if you're active enough, really should not take more than a month or so to achieve. The problem here is, these users are active, but the 2012 generation of users in general is far more interested in messaging others than they are posting in the forums.
Well, that can be changed. Most of you are somehow in contact with users who are active on the rest of the site but have no interest in the forums. What I want you all to do is, when you're having a nice little conversation with them, tell those users about how great the community is and somehow make them interested in wanting to post here. Don't go to random people's pages and start preaching to them about forum greatness, but if you happen to be talking to a user who is active here but seems intimidated by the community somehow, let them know what they're missing.
Now, what I really don't want to see is a plethora of pessimistic comments like "Oh, this won't work" or "Don't waste your time", because frankly that bores the hell out of all of us and it doesn't help anybody. This idea of mine may not work, but I ask that everyone who can at least try it for the betterment of the community.
- 91 Replies
Perhaps a more relevant idea that I've pushing before is that instead of getting the existing community to post more, it's also to get more users down here, but not just via word of mouth. We're primarily in a game site; it comes as no surprise that people will rarely post in the Forums because they're here for Thr Flash games.
We had more activity in the past because we had better game threads and even the Sonny Forum. If we can get people or the devs to post guides and official discussion threads whilst linking them from the homepage to the Game Forums we can perhaps increase activity overall. Of course there are already YouTube guides (Tassel?) but if we can embed the videos and direct traffic to the forums instead it might might work.
i agree with nichodemus.most of the people are here to play games (an exemple is me!i first had an account only to play some games but from this year i started to be active in the forums too),so the problem isn't only that the threads aren't interesting,the bigger problem is that nobody "is clicking on the comunity link".
-Alexandrica the archer-
Only a handful of users who joined in 2012 have over 300 forum post
been there,done that.Doubled it acually...
How will the people who said that once AG3 comes out know that it came out?If they left the site just to wait for AG3 then nobody can tell them that it came out!Right?
Forums were the reason i actually made my account. When i made it, it was useful for other stuff like rating games, AP, commenting on games, making usernames on the online games, premium editions, stuff like that. In my opinion, people care about AP more then forums and they know that they gain less AP for posting on forums so they think its useless. Ok fine i care about my AP either, but i love forums. And by the way, lets stop debating and start doing what Ernies first post in the first page is saying ok?
-Jeff
You know, what I don't think we realise is that the multiplayer games indirectly increase forum interest.
However, I just don't think the flash game community is really one to stay in the forums. There might be 160 posts about the last stand dead zone but maybe only ten of them even stepped in game walkthroughs and didn't even get close to the tavern.
Same thing would happen if it was just a friend saying to go to the community. 10 posts in the flash games and then they'll forget. Obviously 1 or 2 people would come to the community (That would be great) but on the larger scale of things it doesn't seem (To me, at least) to weigh evenly.
A key point you said, is you mentioned 300 posts. I think you're aiming too high. I think if someone even reached 100 posts I'd say that he has been active enough. I think that the age group of the people that write quality posts is around (16-17) and most of them don't have free time for flash games.
I personally came because the flash game quality dropped off a bit and I decided to enter the forums. The quality increased so I went away, and then dropped off.
I think the way we are going to solve this problem (Which I don't really think is there, but that's another story) is by asking yourself why you're here for armorgames.
I'm personally here for the cookies.
Two years of no visible progress. Sure we've seen the closed beta with a messaging feature and open beta with site design, but that's it. They refuse to go into detail about AG3 and there's nothing proving that they are still working on it.
Maybe they are wanting to surprise the users? (Probably a stupid statement...) Look at it this way: Once AG3 is released, what will be left to blame the glitches and errors on?
You know, what I don't think we realise is that the multiplayer games indirectly increase forum interest.
Considering all the errors and problems that they generate, more people start searching for help and discover the forums. The MMOs having errors are kind of a mixed blessing.
However, I just don't think the flash game community is really one to stay in the forums. There might be 160 posts about the last stand dead zone but maybe only ten of them even stepped in game walkthroughs and didn't even get close to the tavern.
Same thing would happen if it was just a friend saying to go to the community. 10 posts in the flash games and then they'll forget. Obviously 1 or 2 people would come to the community (That would be great) but on the larger scale of things it doesn't seem (To me, at least) to weigh evenly.
That wouldn't matter. The vast majority of users in 2008-2009 weren't posters who had a dew thousand to their name; most were accounts who posted a dozen to a few hundred times. What made up for it was the volume. And occasionally some users do come through and converted to Forumers. Personal experience, I started as a Gemcraft maniac, before posting in guides then writing a Guide, then branching out to the AMW.
i have to agree with the first few posts. I barely ever get on the forums. Not enough threads interest me. I prefer other forums because all I see in these forums are the same old rehashed threads.
Considering I've been here since the 1st version, I should have more posts than I do now.
I myself have never actually posted a comment in the forums before. Perhaps this will be the point in which I change this. :P
However it is not always due to lack on interest, because I have read many of the older posts and found many things that I have found quite interesting, but I find the forums a bit intimidating. I know this may not be the case for some users, and the solution is for people like me to just suck it up and figure out nothing horrible will happen if we do make posts in the forum.
but I find the forums a bit intimidating
I used to be the exact same way...but I decided (for some reason I can't remember) to just venture out and see what it is like. Now the forums are where I spend most of my time on in AG.
but I find the forums a bit intimidating.
A similar thing happened to me. I used to spend some time reading forum threads, but I never posted anything. One of the reasons is I don't have a lot of free time and I used to prefer playing games to posting in the forums. The other one may be the language. I have problems translating my thoughts into English words, which leads me to an extreme frustration and sometimes I think the effort I make is not worth it.
But as pangtongshu said, one day I decided to venture out. And here I am. It's not that I'm going to post a lot from now on, but I'm more open to do it.
First of all... great initiative Ernie! This deserves a truck load of praises as it shows how some AG users still care for the Community! Well thought of! =)
As for the intimidation part that's being discussed right now... I don't think that many users are intimidated by the forums that much. It's merely the fact that a lot of them don't even know about the Forum World behind the scenes, simply because it is hidden behind a backdoor and is only used once they have seen it completely!
My suggestion is one (more than) often opted: make a larger thumbnail for the community and actively show the new users where it can be found and -better yet- persuade them into taking part in it with a sufficient mentioning of it in the welcoming email when signing up! Easy as pie! =D
My suggestion is one (more than) often opted: make a larger thumbnail for the community and actively show the new users where it can be found and -better yet- persuade them into taking part in it with a sufficient mentioning of it in the welcoming email when signing up! Easy as pie! =D
I agree with the first part, but the admins should also rename the button to "Forums" instead of "Community".
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