Creating a better, closer knit, community
Suggestions?
Saturday, November 19, 2005 by Frogboy | Discussion: WinCustomize Talk
One thing that I think would be good for our community would be to encourage people to interact more together.
Right now, roughly 3,000 people visit this site more than 20 times a day. I would say that's the hub of our "hard-core" community.
I'm not looking to increase that #. What I want to do is find ways to encourage more of those 3,000 to interact on the site. To make comments on skins, forum posts, articles, and news items and interact on things like the map community we set up.
What do you think can be done to encourage that?
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Reply #22 Saturday, November 19, 2005 8:46 PM
| Out of that 3,000, how many are interactive? |
If you looked at just the forums I'd guess somewhere in the neighboorhood of 100. The thing is there are other "groups" like the screenshot section. The few times I've looked in there it seemed there were a lot of comments with the same nicks, but they were nicks I hadn't seen before. There's also a lot of people commenting on skins that rarely or never post here in the forum. On top of that you got the chat area which I'm not young enough to have figured out yet.
Reply #23 Saturday, November 19, 2005 8:49 PM
I won't be so bold as to tell the admins their business because I simply am not qualified to do so.. There are very good reasons why these people are not here. But if it's community comments you want, turn the bees loose.
Just a thought.
Reply #24 Saturday, November 19, 2005 8:50 PM
There was an 'example' of what's needed to be a 'close knit' community on IRC just earlier today. Bit of misunderstanding and wrong inference between two people who have 'known' each other for quite a while...yet it all went a bit 'silly' when it had no reason to.
One way we define 'friends' and 'mates', whatever is through familiarity...and time/shared experience.
That comes through getting to know people...not just via a 'nick' here...but also their lives outside Wincustomize.com [yes, I believe there IS an 'outside' though it's elusive].
Nicks should be permanent, for starters...so people can keep track of who is who [part of that IRC problem].
Personal profiles/pages could have much more 'info' opportunities for people to find out about others' likings, interests, etc....
Reply #25 Saturday, November 19, 2005 9:08 PM
| turn the bees loose. |
I believe one of those has returned. That or someone hijacked his nick.
Reply #26 Saturday, November 19, 2005 9:21 PM
| I know he is here, why not let him off his leash? |
Reply #27 Saturday, November 19, 2005 9:28 PM
Reply #28 Saturday, November 19, 2005 9:33 PM
There have been and still are those who rate something based soley on the screenshot and not on actual use. This may work for wallpapers but it's hardly fair for something as complicated as a Windowblind.
Reply #29 Saturday, November 19, 2005 9:38 PM
canmandeco, I suggest that you rate only after you download and try out the item. Then be sure to leave a comment to let the skinner know he did a good job or why you think it could have been better. |
This is so key. Well said, Lantec.
Reply #30 Saturday, November 19, 2005 9:41 PM
| Double Zero: As for the "Point system" I really dont know if I like this idea..It does seem as if it will just open the door to mostly nonsense just to get points, or "Spam" if you will... It will end up to be an all out "Popularity Contest" |
I agree. People do not need to be rewarded with "points " for commenting...I comment because I want to, not because I get "points"
I read most of the Forums pages but try to not say too much. A big percentage of the Forum posters rarely venture out of the forum.
| Jafo: Example....one unobscured screenshot wall?....3 uploads and a grand total of 8 emails to and fro. Total time expenditure? 'Lots'. Value in the real world pertaining to this site? 'Insignificant' |
Do you really believe that is insignificant ?
Reply #31 Saturday, November 19, 2005 9:42 PM
I am having display problems so I apologize if someone commented on this before (it's really hard to read much here right now).
I have often wondered if most people know that these forums are available for a lot of things and a lot of levels of user, from novice to geek. Perhaps you could find a way to let people know more about the forum when they register. Perhaps you could find a way to link people to interesting or technical or fun posts on the forums, maybe even in the magazines. I have found that it is easy for people not to go to a forum the first time, either because the don't know that the forum exists or that it is more than just a technical support type of thing.
Another thing that I have found that draws people in is if there is a section that they can deposit a link of their own, in case they have a blog or a site. That is a way to link people to the forum by advertising its availability, to get their interest to click the link to come on in and check it out, and to come back and maybe even show their friends. Once they are in and have posted once or twice they usually look around.
We had a link thread on the old site, but if there was another message board (and I know we maybe have too many boards already) where people could have one whole thread to themselves, that might really make them motivated to check in and to return for maintenance. It could be the beginning of getting involved.
Reply #32 Saturday, November 19, 2005 9:46 PM
Also, when authors follow up on the comments given to their work more people seem to comment as oppose to those that never/hardly reply to comments given to them.
I might be wrong but I think there is a comment point system in practice and If I recall there was an issue a while ago about some users that went crazy filling every skin on the galleries with one word comments (Nice, Cool, Great, Awesome, etc) in search of higher comment points. This might be a good method to get more people to comment, but try to be a bit more articulate when commenting.
The message boards are pretty much active but if there were more posts with interesting topics the present numbers will definitely increase.
More advertising about the IRC channel will help too. People seem to interact better in chat rooms and this can be a way to direct users back to the forums and posted work.
Just my 0.2¢
Reply #33 Saturday, November 19, 2005 9:48 PM
| The reason I have been hesitant to do so is because the very first thread that I participated in took a turn for the worse. There was a lot of animosity over ratings that were given and then what appeared to be a low rating given in return as retaliation. It didn't look like something I wanted to get involved in, especially since I plan to submit some work of my own in the future. |
You werent the only one that found that disturbing. I read it all. I did not comment.
I recently saw a new skin recieve the old " nice but not a skin i'd use" So how do you know its nice of you never downloaded it to begin with. I download , try it out and then comment. If its not something I'll use, I might delete it or save it on a disk. Guess you can't force people to download something before commenting, but would be the proper way.
Reply #34 Saturday, November 19, 2005 9:57 PM
| if there were more posts with interesting topics |
The problem here is that it's hard to know what's interesting. Timely news is a given but what else qualifies? I can think of 2 posts in the last month or so that were so completely ordinary but ended up being very active for strage reasons. The first was the post where someone was asking what people thought of his photo, which was missing from the post. That was a great "community" thread (shame much of it was lost in the crash) another is the Shutdown post still showing currently. Due to an odd choice of words, it has gotten a lot of attention. It's not that I disagree, it's just not something you can easily point to and say more of that would help.
Reply #35 Saturday, November 19, 2005 9:58 PM
Reply #36 Saturday, November 19, 2005 10:08 PM
Reply #37 Saturday, November 19, 2005 10:55 PM
| Do you really believe that is insignificant ? |
fairyy ....it's insignificant when considered within a site of this magnitude...and the numbers of works/screenies submitted daily.....it is, however 'significant' when considered on an individual basis...the fact an admin and a site contributor spent so much of each other's time on just one thing...but the result was/is that another member's wall image was not compromised.
A site moderator's role is primarily to nurture general goodwill and quell the odd flame of insurrection, and whilst doing, also protect the skinners'/artists' property rights....and treat everyone equally/fairly. Usually that results in the odd nose or two being put out of joint...but ultimately things work themselves out.
canmandeco's mention of that thread was/is noteworthy...as it was less than a stellar example of good behaviour...but not everything is controllable....it's a fine line between diplomacy and autocracy...
As for the 'New Subscriber Intro' thread....there's a cure to bouncing....
Reply #39 Saturday, November 19, 2005 11:58 PM
1. Why not build moderator ring for forum and/or skin approval. One senior mod along with two Junior mods, one from "Masters" group and One from "JourneyMen" group. For example, MikeB (Milksama) would be given two assitants who will help him. In the same other senior mods would be given assistants.
2. Almost 80% of the skin comments are like: Welldone, I like it, good work etc etc. For such comments, there should be THANK YOU button and a bot user can be associated with it, saying That much users have said Thank You.
3. A PM / Personal Note System would be blessing.
4. Like JAFO said; "Access Level Listing" should be there containing who are Mods, how many "Masters" are there, Who is a "JourneyMan", What "Master Apprentices" we have.
5. In forums, a new column "The last post by ...." would be nice addition.
And last but not least, this our home ... if don't care of it no-one would ever do. Have fun and keep skinning
Reply #40 Sunday, November 20, 2005 12:10 AM
THE LURKERS are the ones you want to draw in. They come here often read the posts and maybe occasionally post a reply and even more rarely start a thread. I hate to look down the list and see a thread with 0 replies. That's gonna keep someone from posting again if their not used to it. |
This is so true! I'm sure there are quite a few who would comment and post threads if there were a greater participation and acknowledgement....acceptance, if you will, from the wider community. During my time here, I've seen many 0 reply (minimal reply) threads with names/nicks I didn't recognise, so I presume relative newcomers, only to never see these people post or reply again.
Generally speaking, there's a couple of dozen or so people who participate regularly in a wide variety of threads and topics, but not all, due to varying interests, etc, so some threads receive little or no attention whatsoever, leaving some authors feeling like, "why did I bother?"
The forums are here to give us all a voice and to be heard, to learn from and respond to, but it's not a tool we all use too well at times. So if you have a fair comment, make it...if you have a news item, post it...and if you're interested in something, respond, reply, acknowledge it.
Also, IMHO, some threads die prematurely, coming to an abrupt end when it seems more could or should be said to more satisfactorily conclude them.
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Reply #21 Saturday, November 19, 2005 8:40 PM