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Old 11-25-11, 08:17 PM   #1
kennethdaysale
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Default 6300 members...100 posters?

I wonder what could be done to get more members involved in a more active way. As the title infers, only about 1.5% of the members here regularly post, also at any given moment you'll find 8-10 members logged on while there may be 50-80 guests. I understand that some percentage of those guests are actually members that are not logged in, but I'm sure lots of them are just people (like me before I registered) looking around to see what they can learn. What could be done to convert the casual voyeur into an active contributing member? I understand the "we're like a family" attitude but at 1.5 % participation its borderline incestuous. Thoughts? Input? Opinions?
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Old 11-25-11, 09:59 PM   #2
bamabassman
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well there are some members we have lost. i know of 3 since i've been here. and then there are those who came onboard, stayed a while, left and came back. i dunno how to get more involved ken. i DO know that there are some pros who visit, but don't join so they can get some insight on certain baits, lakes and so forth. and they probably won't join under their REAL name anyway. afraid of being bombarded by requests and so forth. which i understand completly. some "visit" for a while and then join. some jsut visit. others are really BOTS who are trying and sometimes sucede in hacking into a members email or whatever. and some are solictors who just wanna sell something.
i used to think aobut this alot and wonder why one wouldn't want to join in on the fun also. but hey......to each his own ya know.

personally i would like to hear more from the man hisself. oyu reading this kevin? lol.
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Old 11-26-11, 02:57 AM   #3
joedog
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Default Stolen Ideas

Found this. Maybe will help with idea building. These are not my ideas nor am I saying they are good ideas. They are someone else's ideas.

Launch contest and reward your active members. To make your forum more active, you can start some contests or giveaway. You needn't to give away money. Actually, some websites and companies provide free products to their partners for contest and giveaway. Here is one example: http://www.winxdvd.com/win-free-copy/. Of course, there're still dozens of such websites that free sponsor products. My point is, contest is an effective way to make your forum more active


9. Allow Dynamic Contents

What is a forum if you cannot share what the web allows you to express? Images, Videos, Slideshows, PDFs and Flash Animations and Games are a must have if you want to keep your users on board.
Do not hesitate to even propose useful tools to automatically post new images using image hosting services like ImageShack, because there is nothing more painful than uploading an image somewhere first before being able to display it on a new forum topic.
This was a top 10 list. As you can see only number nine is listed. Thats because this site already does the other nine. Oh one of them was having a post asking for frequent user suggestions. When I did this research, first there wasn't much info and what was there was either so basic or just plain worthless and second the obvious came to mind. Kevin not only has done his homework he has a fantastic forum and it's run extremly well (Thank You Kevin!) Oh I really didn't spend alot of time on this search because this S*** was boring as he..ck.
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Old 11-26-11, 03:27 AM   #4
joedog
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Default If you buy into first idea

a. reward posting plateaus like 100 posts or a thousand posts or most posts per month or year.
b. one prize per member per set time frame. Else newbies feal the veterans will get everything
c. these are sponsor funded, not host or member funded
theres more ideas but these issues can be resolved by whoever takes charge of this project
Oh another one of the top ten ideas was to have veteran members take resposibility of certain aspects of the forum. You know, like you guys already do.
Nother idea, have like the top, say ten, posters from previous month (or some criteria) choosen to come up with a weekly discussion topic. Promotes people to at least check in to see what question or topic is each week and maybe they will stay awhile during that visit and participate on other topics
Now some of the ideas in this post may......be mine. Ok, these are mine but they are just that ideas...not nessesarily good ideas, just a starting point for discussion.
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Old 11-26-11, 07:25 AM   #5
Top Tiger
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I like the ideas concerning more posts from members. One trouble that I've seen on other fishing boards, though, is that folks seem to post about everything except fishing. There'll be posts on everything from yard maintenance to bathroom fixtures. I realize that we have a place on here for non fishing posts and a lot of good info to be found there but I find it hard to believe that folks are interested in what type of commode the wife and I decided to purchase. I love this site, primarily for the aquatic info and to choot the chit about marine topics.
I realize that the non-fishing posts are important but to offer rewards for posting stuff about how many fleas you pulled off your new puppy is just an invitation for irrelevant posts to run up your total so that you can win a prize.
That said; I'm planning to paint the baseboards in the kitchen. Any ideas on what color I should use?
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Old 11-26-11, 09:13 AM   #6
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Ok, another idea for discussion. When new members join, on membership form ask the question, "What made you choose this forum to join?" At least you can track what is working or was working.
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Old 11-26-11, 09:38 AM   #7
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Ok, another idea along the contest line. I see a referal tally area on the stat section on the Homepage, but it looks like everyones is zero. So I don't know if it's even used. But you can have a recruiting contest. Something like after (x)amount of posts the recruit must make before qualifying as a true recruit. I'm not going to bogart this thread because I know there are alot of intelligent members just "DIEING TO SHARE THIER IDEAS". I will mention, statistics shows that once joining a forum, rarely, if ever, do people take the step to actually un-enroll. So the 6300 member count may be alittle decieving. But the challenge of increasing participation still exists and thanks Ken for starting this discussion.
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Old 11-26-11, 10:43 AM   #8
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As you could see in the the member list, that many many of those members are registered and have never posted or only posted once or a handful of time. This is because many people join, as a single question or post an item for sale then don't come back once they get their answer.

I'm sure you can look at any forum on any topic and find the same results.

BB
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Old 11-28-11, 11:26 PM   #9
keithdog
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For me, it's not the quanity of post thats important from a member, but the quality of their posts. I'd rather read 3 good posts than 10 poor ones, like Top Tiger pointed out. I only partake in one other forums besides this one, and thats rarely. At the other forum, there are a handfull of real contributers and mostly bystanders just wanting to read the posts without getting involved. People log on for some info, then they are gone. And while they might be members, they are not true members in spirit. We have a good group of guys in here, and many who contribute on a regular basis. A few of the older members don't log on as often as they used to. Thats normal also as people in time often tend to get caught up in other things and slip away. The important thing is that the core of the membership that is involved do what we can to reach out to others, offering advice, answering questions, and encouraging participation. I suggest to folks all the time to check out this site. I even have a jacket with BassFishin.Com across the back to generate interrest. The Secret Santa is another way of encouraging participation and keeping the core group closely tied and involved. We have our get togethers to spend a few days together and bond and grow friendships. The websites home page offers many usefull avenues one can go to for info. Many of us have each others phone numbers and have added members to our Facebook friends lists to stay in touch. We share personal moments of our lives, both good and bad, even asking for prayers when we are in need. And the response is overwhelming. I've often seen members send other members gifts with the sole purpose of helping one another or simply wanting to share something with another member. The list goes on and on. I certainly understand you wishing to get more members involved, and I would like to see that too. I just don't want to cheapen the site by pushing for numbers. For me it's the quality of contribution that counts more than anything. We are an open book here and involvment is always encouraged. Beyond that I really don't know what else we can do other than spread the word about what we have to offer here in BassFishin.com It's up to those who visit us here to decide how involved they feel comfortable with.
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Old 11-29-11, 12:08 AM   #10
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keithdog, great post. Thank you for sharing some great insight. Although I'm a newbie I really agree with your quality comments and the friendships that have formed probably couldn't be beat at any other site, period! (At least what I read here). Thanks again keithdog and all the other members who make this the BEST SITE in all of the fishing forums out there and there are alot of them.
PS: I visit alot of sites, some on a regular basis. This is the only site I'm a member of. I watched this one for at least a year before joining.
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