so, wondering if a lot of people really are active with this group?

muffin · Post by **muffin** » Thu Jun 16, 2016 7:36 pm

Just wondering, because I have been looking for birds, and rarely get any response at all... seems to me the previous group was a lot more active. We live in northern Ont, and I am always looking for stock as we need to travel down the Bruce Penninsula periodically, and I remember in the past there was a lot of poultry interest down that way.

kenya · Post by **kenya** » Thu Jun 16, 2016 7:54 pm

Most of the frequent users on this site are very active, a lot of users this time of year are very active outside looking after their various interests and therefore not as active on this site. Chicken people come and go but this is a great site to get almost instant feedback, eg in the case of illness in your birds and what to do about it. Frequently sites do not answer questions promptly and sometimes that can mean life or death for your birds.

Post by **WLLady** » Thu Jun 16, 2016 8:15 pm

So we have over 500 members now...i would say about 1/5th are active on the site and many more lurk for a while before posting.
The classifieds are a bit different format than we have used on the past (on the old PSO board for example) because we feel folks should be free to contact members directly. Now one issue we have is hotmail addresses seem to be flagged to not get pto messages which is one reason we suggest using somethimg other than hotmail as your contact email-if you use hotmail it is possible people are trying to contact you and cant-but we havent heard of this happening with our classifieds yet-its mostly with notifications for registering, pms and new posts. And we have contacted the hotmail folks and had no resolution to this issue.

People here also are usually here for specific types of birds-many of the folks here are into specific breeding programs or specific types of chickens or colours of turkeys....so it may just be that someone looking for your birds just hasnt seen the ad or hasnt looked or like was mentioned before so busy doing other stuff they havent been on...

Many folks will also advertise elsewhere-kijiji (use at own risk lol, some of us have had awful experiences), facebook groups etc. So if you are having problems finding buyers here maybe posting there as well will help?

I know early spring is usually crazy for selling and things slow down a bit until late summer again. Lots of people planting gardens, haying, weeding, hatching, having baby livestock born and tagged etc..... oh and many of the serious breeders on this site are saturated with orders before they even start hatching every year....

But we are over 500 (almost 550) members now!!!

Post by **Home Grown Poultry** » Thu Jun 16, 2016 8:28 pm

YUP I was a member on PSO, lurking n learning for 2 years then eventually bought my first quail hatching eggs, had one hatch with a crossbeak and posted my first post. that thread is also where I posted my last post. but soon after that I was a regular poster, and then an administrator, and then we found ourselves scrambling to build a new forum... (thanks to all those involved) and then PTO was born and the rest is history. where was I going with this? LOL oh yeah... I lurked for 2 years before becoming an active member and if it wasnt for some of the great info I learned (ex. the dry method, Thanks OC!) I wouldnt be here today.

Post by **poultry_admin** » Thu Jun 16, 2016 9:34 pm

Yup over 500 members and over 1500 individual "lurkers" that frequent the forum.
This picture shows you the top 10 pages of last months site visits (62k total).

So, the ads are being seen. The others talked about the other reasons why you wouldn't get any responses.

But, hey, we are always willing to accept more members and having people cruise buy is certainly a good one, too. So feel free to mention this forum anywhere

kenya · Post by **kenya** » Thu Jun 16, 2016 10:09 pm

I am bad for not looking at the classifieds, sorry but I just look at recent posts, I used to look more at the classifieds but I find with the new system I'm just not looking or responding to the classifieds, I don't like the e-mail system as they go to my husband's business e-mail and often I don't see them or if I send an e-mail it goes to spam because it is a business e-mail. I prefer private pm's then I actually get them.

Post by **Syble** » Thu Jun 16, 2016 11:20 pm

ik im kind of terrible for not checking the classifeds i just tend to forget them when browsing the site, but also at this time of year (or rather up until this point) i know i've been super busy only now have i caught up and got an ounce of time

Maximus · Post by **Maximus** » Fri Jun 17, 2016 6:47 am

Umm, I'm active, perhaps too active some would say haha. (Except for my personal break I needed)

Heres my experience. There are regulars. The majority of the regulars are experienced keepers and if you need help, bam! They're on it. I have experienced a lot in my first year of flock management and without these active members I would of retired from stress. My success is the commitment to helping as much as possible from the regulars.

Heck, I even had forum members come and take on my coyote issue. That's serious 'family'

right there!
One time ai had a Racoon in my pen!! With chickens in the coop laying. Weaponless. I posted a picture and basically screamed help and I had so many people instantly on there helping me and offering solutions and basically stayed with the 'situation' to the end.

I don't venture into classifieds too often, admittedly. Although last week I did go and look for ducklings. nothing. I have extra birds I'm taking to the auction over the next few weeks (boys), but maybe if you are looking for a particular breed you can message that person individually? Most members list the breeds they have in their 'signature'

Poultry Admin. We used to have a breeder section on PSO. Is that a good option for us on PTO? That is how I got a few of my silkies etc last year.

Post by **poultry_admin** » Fri Jun 17, 2016 6:55 am

@Maximus

We have a breeder directory. You can find breeders, stores (ok, needs help), and clubs there.

http://www.poultrytalkontario.net/site/ ... directory/

I am seeing with the page view numbers and clearly reading here that there is a need to better integrate the classifieds into the forum.
Did I mention I like homework? I'll be looking around to see if there is a better integration method.

Homesteading.newb · Post by **Homesteading.newb** » Fri Jun 17, 2016 7:00 am

I am super new and have found that my posts have gotten up to 3 pages of replies within a day. I too lurked for a bit before setting myself up. I like this forum and as long as my time lets me will continue to be an active poster. May not be able to offer up any advice but I've got LOTS AND LOTS of questions.