@Ontario Chick : A self amplifying effect: little happens, no one comes by and posts, fewer come by, ...
Sorry this post got too long.
Some people don't post because they don't like to speak up in front of others.
Another factor is convenience. People go to facebook a lot every day anyways, so why click on another bookmark or link especially if it's not linked on the facebook site?
I can add the following analytics result to this conversation. It shows the users at the bottom that return every day, every 14 days and every 28 days since the beginning of PTO.
There are two humps every year (May and October).
Both have to do with the poultry events (looking when a show/sale is near me, or what people bring), and seasonal effects (pests, disease, breeding advice, ..). People come here more often because they want to read information and/or get the answer to a problem they might also have.
Most of the 85 people are speaking up about every day.
The big question to me is: how do we get more of the 352 to speak up? They come by frequently, we have their ear, but how can we get participation? That will automatically increase the ~600 and ~1200 numbers, too. Things happen and more people come by more often. People also post more links to other sites, and that helps getting more people here.
There are two approaches to growing:
1) changing the ratio. In our case the ratio of 4. 85 daily visitors times 4 = ~350. Reducing this ratio (getting more of the 350 involved) makes this a more interesting forum and more people stop by.
2) changing the top number. i.e. increasing the 1200. One of every 16 we get to stop by every month will participate. So increasing this number will have more people participate.
Maybe I can suggest a few ideas and get feedback to see what people see what is worth trying?
- I could limit the number of visible forums to newbies (and guests?) to maybe a hand full. More experienced posters would then get to see more topics. This would make it easier to navigate
. I am aware of the drawbacks and have not done it yet, because of them.
- we can then also create a "beginners" section where there are no stupid questions!
- Maybe I should change the second line in the banner from "join the conversation" to "friendliest forum without trolls"
or do you have a better idea? I think that is the most significant difference of us to "them". "We encourage positive!" like our own "chicken math support group".
- I have donations sitting there waiting to be used. Should we advertise to increase the 1200 number?
- by current design standards this forum style is too busy, cluttered, and difficult to read. I have not given you the chance to choose, but maybe I should? Maybe I need to update to a more "facebook" look and feel?
- how do we get more informational content, while keeping it simple to read/find?
What ideas do you have? No worries about suggesting anything that you can't implement. There are at least 85 of us here that might know how.... And (if done right), some ideas will contradict each other as well. That is OK!
