Quote:
Originally Posted by FuriousAvatar
One of the things I sometimes notice is that TFP is like one big family, and while that's a great feeling for the current members, it's hard to be accepted into a community that's already pretty close-knit. I've been coming to TFP off and on for a while now, and I honestly don't see many new faces, which is awesome when looking at the "dedicated member-base" viewpoint, but it should be no wonder we're not growing when all the newcomers feel like they're watching a family sitcom. My only suggestion (and I've seen this implemented in forums that I've moderated before) in this regard is to spend more time welcoming people in the "New users" sub forum, get them to talk about themselves a little.
The other thing I see constantly is because TFP is a lot like a family, it's also a lot like a family that has been stuck listening to each other during a long car ride. Obviously we're all going to know a lot more about each other-but that also leads to knowing things we don't like about each other. Having more users contributing will help alleviate that some, but another thing to consider is taking time to respond to threads you usually wouldn't. Another would be to simply take some time away from the 'site.
When we talk about becoming staff of a sub forum, what does that mean exactly? Is the idea to moderate said sub forum, to start discussions, or facilitate threads?
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That is an accurate observation and one that I've been trying to break from personally. It takes effort to evolve or change. When we think we've changed have we really? I liken it to not liking some sort of food as a child. It's a knee jerk reaction to just say you don't like something since you've not liked it for so long. Yet if you know physiology, you know that a child's taste buds change over time as do adult taste buds. Things you did not like as a child, you may find you like now, and things you loved as a child, you find not good now. The only way you find it out is to change how one reacts to the stimuli.
I'm talking about someone who posts a new thread in a subforum every day to every few days to generate and stimulate more conversations and discussions.
Now if the people won't change, then the space has to change in order to make a change happen.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ourcrazymodern?
Cynthetic, you remind me of the jet who disappeared. Was that you? I only heard the noise. The last time you complained about virtual silliness, I tried to tell you how I felt about it. I tried to tell you that a lot of good ideas & information get bandied about through the sharing of them, including the images, causing evolution in the minds as much as the sharing of opinions does through discussion.
I don't think you've thought through your angst sufficiently; of course, I haven't either, but I have evolved here, as has everyone else who enjoys this "place". What is your aim in threatening to destroy it?
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Actually OCM, I acquiesced to you and several others. I let you have your way so that I could track just how much or little it added to the whole mix. It is about 6+ months later and the result of that tracking is what I posted in the OP. The images threads have a lot of traffic for a handful of threads. In comparison the discussions have a handful of threads and a lot more traffic by ratio.
Words are what are searchable, images are not searchable in the same way. People find us because they search for key words and find a discussion that pertains to what they are seeking. These image games do not.
I'll say that the collected images put forth in a reasonable manner that stimulates a curated experience does. Examples of that are the Cosplay thread and the Ziegfield girls. While the Cosplay thread seems like it's just like the post a circle thread it isn't.
So OCM, if you'd like to collect a bunch of them and post them as a gallery and launch point for a discussion, I'm all for it. If it's just come here and post and animal, sorry that's like saying you support a cause by putting a magnetic ribbon on your car. It's worse than phoning it in, it's like snail mailing it in.
What do I hope to gain by pulling the plug on this space? Well, see we have a large number of staff, and I don't want to "fire" a single one of them. Yet we don't really have the traffic to justify the total amount of staff. If we all agree that this is as best as we can do and this is what TFP has evolved to, and it's not really going to be any different, then let's stop now. Why wait until there's no one left? We have about 200 regular members come by every day, not the same 200 but it's about 200. Each year that number continues to go down. I've been posting about this for over 2 years now. I've not hidden any of these metrics or numbers. I have been happy to share them because I want everyone to understand just what I'm seeing and interpreting. I'm not all doom and gloom about this. I've been very much happy to recover from the cross site scripting hack that halved our traffic in the early part of the year.
OCM, I don't doubt that images are a fun and simple way to communicate and collaborate, but I see it at the expense of the core parts of our discussion community. Why have a meaty or difficult discussion when I can just toss up some images or witty one liners and go about my day? See I contributed, I posted some pictures that somehow tangent off the previously posted pictures. I'm sorry but it really deviates from the vision of intelligent respectful discussion that Halx created in this space 8 years ago.
How about this challenge OCM, you make a discussion of images. not a here's a theme post a similar image, but an actual discussion with images and only images. Convince me that I'm really far off base with my opinion and observation with a working model. Now take that one off model and replicate it several times. Right now 50 threads are the basis of what I'm saying aren't discussions but have some other merit different but not within the scope and vision of what I see as discussion.
OCM, if I really was so against it, I'd just remove the ability for it to exist. Keep that in mind not as a threat but as a statement that I understand it has a place and space. I just don't want to encourage newly minted members to believe that it's where I want them to play first. That's why we don't count the post count there so that it encourages them to make a minimum of 15 posts. I can't tell you how many people whine about how that's too difficult to achieve and they want to contribute now to that thread about posting an animal. Really? 15 thoughtful comments within the framework of discussion is setting the bar too high.
If I don't set any standards, then people get to make up their own and I have to conform to theirs. I've given you your opportunity to prove me wrong in the past 6 months and I can't tell you how often I click on new posts and it's almost all Fun Zone posts.
It isn't the kind of discussion I want to encourage, plain and simple.
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