Almaz von Almadine Adamant

Jan 16 2012, 05:34 PM

I honestly see no problems regarding activity on the board as of right now. And as they say, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Trying to force certain kinds of activity will never get anywhere. And if only certain people try to increase activity in certain places on the board, it will seem awkward and forced as well. People are going to post in topics that are interesting to them, and not all topics are going to be interesting to everybody. Besides that, it's fairly obvious that the "spam" sections of the board will get more posts than the "real discussion" sections: real discussion posts tend to be longer and fewer, and spam posts tend to be shorter and much, much more abundant. Spam posts, by definition (by that I mean, based on what you're calling "spam" posts), are posts that have little meaning and are posted very frequently and in vast numbers. IE, everything in Casino Park, and the pinned "What are you ____ now" topics in the Entertainment Cafe.

tl;dr, there ain't nothin' broke, so don't fix it. This is just the way it is.

BlizShadow

Jan 16 2012, 05:43 PM

I personally don't think overall forum activity is down but rather concentrated in one area. If you want to spread the activity more evenly, you first have to address the spam forum. I've noted this time and time again, but when given the opportunity to spam freely, communities will do so to the point that they strangle more meaningful discussion because more meaningful discussion is less fun. This is compounded by the fact that this is a Sonic based forum, and generally speaking, any topic that's more thoughtful than "What's your favorite/least favorite game/level/character/etc.?" will almost inevitably have someone or two claiming the subject isn't worth discussing in any great or heated detail simply because, "Dude, it's a blue hedgehog; stop taking it so seriously."

But assuming you did hide or, Heaven forbid, delete the Casino Park, the questions become where do your Casino people go? Will this inevitably spur discussion? I think it will push some people to other areas, perhaps as you mentioned the roleplay forum since, again, the big thing here is that people want to have fun above all else. On the other hand, others who feel particularly entitled to a spam forum will rage and leave outright. A drop in activity is most likely a cost you'll have to bite the bullet on if you're dedicated enough to spurring better conversation. And remember, while people will leave, others will come in to take their places and fill the new mold you've made. I know this- I was in the thick of the deletion of SSMB's spam forum, and they're pretty much better off for it.

Another problem, I think, is just the lack of attractiveness of your main feature- the Sonic forums. To me, without any new games on the horizon (although even then, the hype for Generations here after the City Escape reveals was disappointing), they feel full of the same regurgitated favorites topics over and over again coupled with a few obviously-untrue rumors that make my head spin. No one wants to keep discussing that all the time, but at the same time, you potentially have on your hands the culture I mentioned in the beginning. Combating this will take work- both in being more selective about what kinds of topics people can make whilst making an effort to make and actually respond to interesting topics.

tl;dr-- Your main problem's the Casino. Hide it for awhile and see what happens.

Quote:

 

Maybe the staff and more experienced members could collaborate on posting a huge series of discussion topics, fan character bios, artwork, creative advice, roleplays, etc.? Not too much work, but just some stuff that's friendly and flashy. The activity would surely draw attention...

Neo Metallix

Jan 16 2012, 05:57 PM

Almaz von Almadine Adamant

Jan 16 2012, 05:34 PM

I honestly see no problems regarding activity on the board as of right now. And as they say, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Trying to force certain kinds of activity will never get anywhere. And if only certain people try to increase activity in certain places on the board, it will seem awkward and forced as well. People are going to post in topics that are interesting to them, and not all topics are going to be interesting to everybody. Besides that, it's fairly obvious that the "spam" sections of the board will get more posts than the "real discussion" sections: real discussion posts tend to be longer and fewer, and spam posts tend to be shorter and much, much more abundant. Spam posts, by definition (by that I mean, based on what you're calling "spam" posts), are posts that have little meaning and are posted very frequently and in vast numbers. IE, everything in Casino Park, and the pinned "What are you ____ now" topics in the Entertainment Cafe.

tl;dr, there ain't nothin' broke, so don't fix it. This is just the way it is.

1) Perhaps you think it's fine because you don't frequent the sections that need a little boosting?

2) There are plenty of ways to encourage growth on a forum without it feeling forced. You do realize small forums have to encourage discussion on their forums, right? I don't see why you are against it, how could it possibly hurt to have more diverse activity in this forum? 1a) I personally think it's all of those topics like "what are you doing now" and "the shack" that are taking away discussion. People talk about things in there that they could make topics for.

3) How are we ever going to attract new people who are interested in what this board has to offer if the activity is limited in those sections? I've had several people complain that no one responded to their topics(ironically those complaints went unnoticed as well lol). That's not healthy at all for a forum and I think it's time to start advertising.

4) I just feel like people will look at this site and not want going to join because the majority of activity is in spam. Other Sonic forums have more discussion than we do I feel as well.

Neo Metallix

 

BlizShadow

Jan 16 2012, 05:43 PM

I personally don't think overall forum activity is down but rather concentrated in one area. If you want to spread the activity more evenly, you first have to address the spam forum. I've noted this time and time again, but when given the opportunity to spam freely, communities will do so to the point that they strangle more meaningful discussion because more meaningful discussion is less fun. This is compounded by the fact that this is a Sonic based forum, and generally speaking, any topic that's more thoughtful than "What's your favorite/least favorite game/level/character/etc.?" will almost inevitably have someone or two claiming the subject isn't worth discussing in any great or heated detail simply because, "Dude, it's a blue hedgehog; stop taking it so seriously."

But assuming you did hide or, Heaven forbid, delete the Casino Park, the questions become where do your Casino people go? Will this inevitably spur discussion? I think it will push some people to other areas, perhaps as you mentioned the roleplay forum since, again, the big thing here is that people want to have fun above all else. On the other hand, others who feel particularly entitled to a spam forum will rage and leave outright. A drop in activity is most likely a cost you'll have to bite the bullet on if you're dedicated enough to spurring better conversation. And remember, while people will leave, others will come in to take their places and fill the new mold you've made. I know this- I was in the thick of the deletion of SSMB's spam forum, and they're pretty much better off for it.

Another problem, I think, is just the lack of attractiveness of your main feature- the Sonic forums. To me, without any new games on the horizon (although even then, the hype for Generations here after the City Escape reveals was disappointing), they feel full of the same regurgitated favorites topics over and over again coupled with a few obviously-untrue rumors that make my head spin. No one wants to keep discussing that all the time, but at the same time, you potentially have on your hands the culture I mentioned in the beginning. Combating this will take work- both in being more selective about what kinds of topics people can make whilst making an effort to make and actually respond to interesting topics.

tl;dr-- Your main problem's the Casino. Hide it for awhile and see what happens.

Well that is a big problem! I agree. Deleting the spam forum would pretty much have half of our members quit with a good 20% more enraged.

If that is the only option, I'd say we need to view this forum like it was in 2007. Not a big forum, not a tiny forum, but a relatively small forum and we need to go advertise and spur as much activity as we can. When I first started this forum I made a bunch of topics and, so they didn't look dead, I'd post in them with various other fake accounts.

Quote:

 

When I first started this forum I made a bunch of topics and, so they didn't look dead, I'd post in them with various other fake accounts.

BlizShadow

Jan 16 2012, 06:19 PM

We're not trying to increase activity. We're trying to move it to other areas. One must wonder what the point of a forum being Sonic-themed is if the most interesting activity in said forum is spam games, the overwhelming majority of which have absolutely nothing to do with the franchise in question in the first place.

BlizShadow

Jan 16 2012, 06:19 PM

We're not trying to increase activity. We're trying to move it to other areas. One must wonder what the point of a forum being Sonic-themed is if the most interesting activity in said forum is spam games, the overwhelming majority of which have absolutely nothing to do with the franchise in question in the first place.

Almaz von Almadine Adamant

 

That's precisely what I'm saying, though. Removing the most used sections of the forum isn't going to encourage spreading it around to other places. It'll just result in a massive drop in overall activity.

Maelic

 

But... Why not increase activity while you're at it?
I don't think you're going to successfully redistribute a population of people who are here almost solely for the purpose of spamming a single topic.
I think the strategy would be to lure who you can away and simultaneously increase advertising or whatever to try to balance potential member loss and inactivity, and hopefully more than just make up for what might be lost.

BlizShadow

Jan 16 2012, 06:35 PM

I never minced words about the possibility of removing the Casino. I admitted you will not get every single person on board with this idea. But, we nonetheless agree that the Casino, or more specifically the Shack, is basically an activity magnet and it generally always has been. You can incease membership and lure a few current members to other areas, but there's no guarantee your new members won't get into the Shack itself if it's still there ready and waiting for spammy-spam-spam time.

Remember: We've attempted cross-forum roleplay tournaments and even the work involved in that wasn't enough to change the conversational dynamic of this forum. I really do like your prior idea about having more notable members go all out and post awesome topics, but at the same time, I don't believe you can really begin to solve this problem (if you believe the Casino's a problem) if you're unwilling to limit Casino access considerably.

Almaz von Almadine Adamant

Jan 16 2012, 06:21 PM

BlizShadow

Jan 16 2012, 06:19 PM

We're not trying to increase activity. We're trying to move it to other areas. One must wonder what the point of a forum being Sonic-themed is if the most interesting activity in said forum is spam games, the overwhelming majority of which have absolutely nothing to do with the franchise in question in the first place.

That's precisely what I'm saying, though. Removing the most used sections of the forum isn't going to encourage spreading it around to other places. It'll just result in a massive drop in overall activity.