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
Hmmm, it would have to be a very attractive link like the old AG3 Beta site link in order to get attention but that is still a good idea!
It wouldn't have to necessarily be attractive, it would just have to be... there! It would have to catch the eye, but that would be a cinch considering that most people are used to just a plain black bar with a shield on it.
If it truly is a matter of users not being able to find the community, this would definitely help solve that problem!
Remove the bolded characters and I would agree with you (7% is still low, but it's a more reasonable estimate than .7%).
Oh wow, Im batting a thousand today. I meant 7%. *sigh* Im so fired..
It wouldn't have to necessarily be attractive, it would just have to be... there! It would have to catch the eye, but that would be a cinch considering that most people are used to just a plain black bar with a shield on it.
Sounds good so far, maybe it would work! I mean it is just dead, unattractive space. We can make good use of it! And I think that my Merit idea could work to! People would want to make longer messages, people wont break the 7 word rule (not that this issue is common in the forums), and it is like a prize! People will want the AP prize. People like prizes, and money! (Ok I am not suggesting we should pay em, just sayin... XD)
I'm thinking that making said video would be the hardest part
It shouldn't be too difficult...a bit time consuming but nothing I wouldn't be able to handle
how could we increase forum awareness and interest within the confines of this site using said video?
Alas, this might be a downfall of the video. Though it could be a good way to get new people to the site, getting people already on AG into our community would be very very difficult with the video (unless they saw it outside of AG) , for like you said it would require administrative participation.
That sounds like it could work if you can get all those people to promote the video.
I'm sure I could get a good number of them to help out...all I need is a video for them to promote haha which needs your approval and so forth, of course
Oh wow, it is a complicated ordeal over hear! Well, instead of higher AP from a forum post, how about Merits? Just like regular merits, make long and detailed sentences and you could get a merit. Leaves some excitement! Well, for me that is...
If merits were added to the forums, complications would definitely arise. For one, there would have to be certain criteria to follow in order to receive a merit; in game comments, that's easy to do because the subject matter is relatively the same, but in the forums, a post can be about just about anything, so merit criteria would have to be very loose and open-ended.
The worst part would be the people trying to "earn" merits in the forums. Pretty soon you'll have everyone and their e-uncle posting giant walls of text in the hopes that they'll receive an extra 25 AP for it, which will cause people to get bored of reading most posts and, in the long run, decrease forum activity and intimidate even more newcomers.
So, it's probably best to leave merits out of the forums; outside of contests, of course. *hint hint*
all I need is a video for them to promote haha which needs your approval and so forth, of course
You have my approval, if you really feel that you need it, to make said video.
So, it's probably best to leave merits out of the forums; outside of contests, of course. *hint hint*
What if there were more contests that awarded merits? Would that increase forum interest? More specifically, would it inspire more people outside of the forums to use the forums or would it only increase interest within the community of regular forum users?
f merits were added to the forums, complications would definitely arise. For one, there would have to be certain criteria to follow in order to receive a merit; in game comments, that's easy to do because the subject matter is relatively the same, but in the forums, a post can be about just about anything, so merit criteria would have to be very loose and open-ended.
Hmmm, this is true. But we need something to grip people, obviously the forums aren't interesting enough so we need to put some umph in the forums, make them exciting! And it will work, it would even get my attention. =)
News: There has been an increase in the use of foreign languages, which indicates an increasing international interest in the forums. I would consider this a negative boost (only English is allowed), but there's still plenty of work to do.
[quote]So, it's probably best to leave merits out of the forums; outside of contests, of course. *hint hint*
What if there were more contests that awarded merits? Would that increase forum interest? More specifically, would it inspire more people outside of the forums to use the forums or would it only increase interest within the community of regular forum users?[/quote]
I think the addition of contests would only increase the activity of the contests enough to be meritable. I don't think the rest of the forums will gain activity. I still think the best way to improve the forum activity overall is to improve the "Community" button by renaming it "Forums" as well as making it more visible.
But we need something to grip people, obviously the forums aren't interesting enough so we need to put some umph in the forums, make them exciting!
They shouldn't have to reward people so more of them use the forums. Look at Kongregate for example: no points system in the forums, no "merits". But you know what they do have? Better forum software and some other things - no glitches, edit post button, admins and mods actually active, stable community that can create interesting threads, etc.
The admins here don't care about the forums. You might say "well, boppins posts occasionally in the s&s and fixes some issues". It's his job to fix bugs and other backend things on the site, but overall they don't care about this part of ArmorGames. Remember when the forum was offline? It took them 24+ hours to realise it, and only because we told them.
I think the addition of contests would only increase the activity of the contests enough to be meritable.
But if the contests become more widespread throughout the site, eventually couldn't that lead to more people being introduced and exposed to the forums and therefore increase forum activity as a whole? Or is even that a long-shot of a hypothesis?
But if the contests become more widespread throughout the site, eventually couldn't that lead to more people being introduced and exposed to the forums and therefore increase forum activity as a whole? Or is even that a long-shot of a hypothesis?
I thought the AMW was the only place contests could go. Even if other forums gain contests, any activity increases will mainly be in the contests, so I would call it long-shot to increase forum activity overall simply by adding contests.
The admins here don't care about the forums. You might say "well, boppins posts occasionally in the s&s and fixes some issues". It's his job to fix bugs and other backend things on the site, but overall they don't care about this part of ArmorGames. Remember when the forum was offline? It took them 24+ hours to realise it, and only because we told them.
Why would the admins not care about the forums?
News: The activity dot on your profile may soon be reactivated.
Even if other forums gain contests, any activity increases will mainly be in the contests, so I would call it long-shot to increase forum activity overall simply by adding contests.
But what I'm saying is, if more "outside" users get exposed to in-forum contests, they will also be exposed to the forum as a whole, which they wouldn't have necessarily known much about before someone gave them a link to a contest.
But what I'm saying is, if more "outside" users get exposed to in-forum contests, they will also be exposed to the forum as a whole, which they wouldn't have necessarily known much about before someone gave them a link to a contest.
I don't think contests would create outside forum interest, but it should add more interest from the inside.
What if enough forum-users got their non-forum-using friends to participate in contests? Is it likely that some of those users, after being exposed to forum contests, would start to show interest in other parts of the forums?
Why would the admins not care about the forums?
Look around you, Patrick.
News: There has been an increase in the use of foreign languages, which indicates an increasing international interest in the forums. I would consider this a negative boost (only English is allowed), but there's still plenty of work to do.
Yes there have been a lot more forum posts being posted in French, at least, I think its French. This is a slight boost but non the less, we are getting more and more people posting the forums so yes this is a negative boost in a way. But at times like these we cant be picky.
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