Originally Posted by Jinn

I had to stay away from this thread because I felt like I couldn't post maturely on it - I'm still not certain I can. The OP reads like a threat, like "if you don't post more content I'm taking away your toys" sort of threat. For whatever reason I respond really poorly to threats, and I usually egg on the person threatening me, to my own detriment.

With that said, I couldn't really see what the problem was from the numbers posted. Is it that there are not enough *different* voices, or just that there aren't enough voices in general? I think we attract a certain type of person and so I tend to think we mostly agree on everything except contentious topics like religion and politics. If that causes a sense of stagnation (not enough disagreement) than that is entirely a different problem of not having enough posts.

I'm not really sure what can be done in terms of more threads, more post, more new people because I really don't like the idea that people would start threads or posts just to appear more busy than it really is. That seems awfully artificial. If it's *only* a monetary concern, that's another matter entirely. I'd support a 'subscription' thing, so long as it didn't make it seem like an even more exclusive 'insider/outsider' thing than we've already got people arguing exists. TFP is as good of as any other charity to donate to, as far as I'm concerned. Some of the advice I've have received here (and continue to receive) is far cheaper than a psychologist would be. It'd be a high ROI for me, if I look at it entirely selfishly.

Originally Posted by Xazy

I can say I have seen the problem slowly creeping up for a while. I just think in some ways this thread is best used to make us aware of the fact that the new threads were declining. And if we do value this forum (which I do), we should post.

There are definitely a lot of people who just read the forum, without participating. That is their choice, but if we do not participate ever, the forum will continue to decline.

Since this post was started, just look at how many new topics threads were started. I just take this as a boost for the engine.

Originally Posted by Plan9

Guilt-powered?

Originally Posted by Craven Morehead

Essentially this is about activation. Getting members to participate more frequently and with greater depth. However looking at it only from a member perspective may leave larger gains untouched. As I type this, there are 326 users online of which only 25 are members! Last night I saw similar numbers. I assume its pretty much like this all the time. Why? Why won't the nonregistered viewers join and participate? About 8% of the viewers are members meaning no more than 8% of the viewers of TFP will ever participate. There is a much greater potential in getting the nonregistered activated and participating than trying to squeeze more out of the members.

And along these lines, what has caused so many active members to fade off and disappear? There are several members that I enjoyed reading that no longer are involved. Why did they leave? Is there any way of finding out? As important as gaining new active participants its even more important to maintain the group that is here. Membership churn will not accomplish anything.

I realize the points I bring up are more rhetorical than anything as active members can't answer for those who aren't members nor for those who are no longer active, but it does seem to me that those two groups should also be considered when searching for answers.