is this a dead forum?

[nafets7ro]

Is this a dead forum? 4 posts in a day in a forum with 1000+ registered users?  Let's bring it back to life!

- why guests can post on this forum? I think that only registered users may post and guests just read. If you are a registered member maybe you'll come back sooner or later but a guest, most of the times, is visiting just one time make a stupid post and leave.
- make a strong identity. This forum has no logo or a very inexpressive one ... we (users) can help to build a strong identity name and slogan ... just say if you want or make a contest without prizes and we'll help. We like to say we are a creative comunity but it is not looking like that.
- let's attract more users to join our clever discussions with constructive and interesting posts and not with "stupid" comments. There are many interesting threads on the bottom of this forum.

many more ... I'm not finding my words right now.

P.S. I hope you'll not take this like an offense.

[SensoVision]

P.S. I hope you'll not take this like an offense.

peronally I don't take it as offence, and I believe that most things you say is truth... and I also always like to hear constructive critics, so thanks a lot. wish we could have more feedback like this!

Is this a dead forum? 4 posts in a day in a forum with 1000+ registered users?  Let's bring it back to life!

tend to think that it's just slow life tempo, everyone have a work and family and appear here when they find time to do so, but I have to agree that there are not too much of active members around, most are dead... after we have some contest, I'll check database and kill all people who didn't appear for several months(plan to do this after contest to give chance to inactive members to participate).

- why guests can post on this forum? I think that only registered users may post and guests just read. If you are a registered member maybe you'll come back sooner or later but a guest, most of the times, is visiting just one time make a stupid post and leave.

tough question, it was raised several times on staff boards and other parts of the forum, some people believe that we should let guest do some posting and others don't. I tend to let guest do posting in some areas of our community , right now guest could only reply to posts and couldn't start own threads, but some time ago I start thinking about changing shcheme to some like you're proposing(posting for members only).

make a strong identity. This forum has no logo or a very inexpressive one ... we (users) can help to build a strong identity name and slogan ... just say if you want or make a contest without prizes and we'll help. We like to say we are a creative comunity but it is not looking like that.

contests were planned half year ago but due to force major they were delayed... BTW this logo was chosen from a lot of others, and it was chosen in the logo contest. and I guess it's really time to change some thing in order to bring back our community to life.

Now I have limit of time to start logo contest, but maybe we could start with something which I've planned from some tiem, e.g. Member of the month, where from several most active any helpful members we choose one, and he or his site would be featured at the bottom of forum's page. Or maybe contest about best site of the month? do you like any of these ideas?

[CoastPC]

Member of the month, where from several most active any helpful members we choose one, and he or his site would be featured at the bottom of forum's page.

Great idea!! People love to be recognised

I don't think this forum is dead. It is holiday time in most of the world and a lot of sites go quiet around this time

Chris

[SensoVision]

sure, there are holidays but it's really become more quiet place when it was in the past.
We need to choose best memeber somehow, anyone had any ideas/suggestions how it should be?

[nafets7ro]

i don't think member of the month is a very good idea ... that will make users post a lot of threads and posts without a sense to raise the number of their posts. It's not like that. Other method  to choose the member of the month except the number of the posts, could be very subjective. Donno ... maybe you can try ... but how?

[SensoVision]

we wouldn't choose members because of posting count, I thinking more about nomination of members by other members or something like that. anyway at the later point members would have to vote for their favourite so this would exclude problem with posting count IMHO

[Queen Bee]

I haven't been to this forum in a while, so I'm not sure if I would be able to decide if it were dead or not, but... I haven't been to this forum in months. And not just this forum, I haven't been to ANY forum in months. My share of bad luck has really kept me from my usual activities, one of which was posting on this forum (Nearly every day).

The contest might be a good idea, but it depends on what kind of contest it is. For instance, forum redesign would be a difficult one. The people who redesign the forum must realize that a lot of work goes into editing the CSS and making graphical modifications. If you could work it out to where someone made a new logo that matched the current colour scheme, that may work better.

I'm sorry I don't have any more input than this.

[susieq]

I dont think this place is dead, at all.  If it is THAT dead, why be here, I might say to some.....All it  may be asking for is a little shake-up, but that's all.  Someone somewhere, said, 4 posts for over 1000 members, what is wrong with that occasionally, I would say it makes  for damn good reading, wouldn't you? Check the stats and see how many hits and visitors sitting here reading.

http://forum.weblamp.net/index.php?action=stats

Some, maybe just don't realise the very hard work and dedication it takes to get a site up and running successfully and suddenly it bursts into growth and all you have is maybe a couple of helpers and you can't even donate all your entire time, becasue suddenly it is not enough.....Its the same in any store you visit that has absolutely everything (or a smattering of most things (subjects) which makes it hard to choose which to add to if you don't have much time. as a surfer....The other thing with such a complement of subjects that this Forum has, is that they are good interesting reading for some and they maybe the people who are simply 'readers' and not 'writers' unable to contribute something, or at most, not much.
Now, as for contests, first up, comes the reward (from where?) and then comes the inspiration.   Maybe should vote and see what a cross section of the general members would like to collect, were they to enter a comp here.....  For myself, if I could win an unusual graphic/photo of a life-like Snow Leopard...I would be entering for sure   If you get the gist......simply a suggestion And that is my two bobs worth!!!!!!!

[Andy]

I've been one of the most active contributors here since I like the it here and I'm not interested in spending any more time finding other places to discuss topics. I'm too busy to use many other forums.

I have to say that I was disappointed by the lack of response to some of my posts given the effort I put in and the knowledge I gave away for free. But I don't care, it is the nature of the internet. You throw your stuff at something and hope it sticks. I will continue to throw my stuff at this forum 

[Hope]

Just make sure you dont' thow your stuff at a fan Andy, that could get messy.

I agree there could be more people actively posting and we need to draw a crowd. It is just a matter of what kind of people we draw to the site.

I know from an SEO standpoint, we can draw a the crowd we are looking for just by having the information they want. We might want to keep that in mind when we (the active posters) reply or start a post.  make sure we make quality answers with the keywords in the post.

In other words "I agree" isn't really a good answer.

[Andy]

I agree that I shouldn't throw my stuff at a fan.

[Hope]

I am glad to hear that Andy. I would hate to see your stuff fly back at your, shred to a million pieces or brake your fan.

[SensoVision]

now it seems to be dying although maybe it's just because of Christmas vacations

[rosie]

I'm alive! Hi people! Hope everyone had a nice Christmas! Sorry I haven't been contributing. This forum will never be a dead forum tho! Too many good people who are members here! I have actually thought about the people here many times since I was here last, but life's little obstacles have been hurling at me and just was not into posting. I knew I wouldn't stay away too long though because I really do love this place!

[Queen Bee]

It appears that school, work, healthy, and family continue to dominate most of my time, and leave me with little or no spare time to relax and/or engage in friendly forum conversation like in the past... I understand this difficulty, and wish I could be more supportive...