Green Wellies and Baler Twine

[lefthandandy]

whats wrong  with here looks strange when everyones posting on OTG ,countryways ,jackshed andcalnet even the mods and makers of this site and wheres TOPDOG [/b]

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the only constant thing in life is change   Dream different dreams while on the same bed.

[pepperami]

die hard peps is still here  soon i will be posting to myself  and answering !!!
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i am the sum total of my own existance

[Issy]

Hi, I think people still visit from time to time (well I do   ) but there aren't that many posts to reply too any more.

[Quixote]

Suggestions welcome!!!

If there's anything you guys think would benefit from being changed, anything you'd like to see, etc, etc.............feel free to mention it?

We definately need some input as to where we're going wrong & not attractine new members, & posts from existing ones! We admin & mods have been racking our brains to try & come up with a solution, but obviously we're missing something. Perhaps you guys see a different angle?  

And bring a friend!
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A man should be moderately wise, never too wise. He who does not know his fate in advance is freest of care

[Guest]

[Quixote]

That's not true, nor fair, mate  

Graham & I in particular have put a lot of time & effort into coming up with ideas to keep this place active & interesting over the last few weeks/months, but if we see numerous posts complaining about how little activity there is, and very few worthwhile responses to others, then it becomes extremely demoralising.

The other point to consider is that if new members (not that we've had many of those recently!) see a large number of posts made by mods or admin, then they'll instantly get the impression that the place is a clique & will be reluctant to post (or even join!) in the first place.

We're at the 'use it or lose it' stage now, make no bones about it. The mods & admin put in a lot more work behind the scenes than a lot of members realise, but if that effort isn't reciprocated by members actively posting on topics then why the hell should we bother any longer?

There are plenty of other similar forums out there, so we're neither particularly unique or special in our general content. What makes a forum special is its members, and the interaction between them. If the members stop caring, then it follows that the place will cease to exist................

It's very rapidly coming to the stage where we'll just pull the plug, rather than drag this out any longer.

So the message is clear! People either need to start posting or we shut the forum! Simple as that, I'm afraid. It's up to you lot!
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A man should be moderately wise, never too wise. He who does not know his fate in advance is freest of care

[Cadfael]

here....calm down fella's...last thing we all want to see is a handbags at dawn between friends......

Look, I frequent a number of forums, some are a hive of the proverbial, others are visited as and when......but all of em are still going strong.....I have just joined CW's because i was prompted to....now not knocking it....but it looks exactly the same as this forum!!!!

Okay...try this if you want a suggestion....looking at the visitors each day, the majority do not appear to post...correct?....that doesn't help, granted you can't force people to join in, but no amount of suggestions and idea's will change that, people either watch...or join in.....(so a dogging friend of mine says.... ).....I for one have had problems recently with my PC and other issues where i didn't touch any PC, but I'm back now.....I have to say was a bit suprised to be pointed in the direction of CW's.....that dosen't help the cause....

So here's a suggestion.... let it pootle along for a set time, set yourselves has admin, a certain (minimum) amount of posts per week over that month...say up to 4 months, and if the figures are still too low / dropping, then make a decision....okay its KPI's....but they are a valuable tool......it may be a bit sterile perhaps, but if its just the time of the year / persent climate, which lets face it, is enough to irritate the most optimistic of us, or just coincidence that posts have dropped and the forums quiet....but by that time you should have something to work with and make a more measured decision...

course...I'm just a noob, and probably talking cr*p and perhaps i should go back to sipping my cup of "shut the **** up"......but you did ask...
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http://www.justgiving.com/ryanpayne

http://www.helpforheroes.org.uk/

People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf

George Orwell

[Quixote]

And very welcome advice it is too, mate

The problem is, we had some admin' issues a while back that resulted in in a member loss (including several mods, & our 'senior' admin ) The fallout from this was a lot more severe that we probably realised at the time, & we had all sorts of issues with Google links, etc................the problem we have now is that some former members possibly still associate this forum with the heavy-handed moderation & bickering that occurred in the past. We've never really recovered from that, I'm afraid.

As far as I'm is concerned, nothing would make me happier than to see Wellies return to its former glory. But unless something drastic happens & our number of posts increase (with a larger variation in posters) people just aren't going to be that interested in participating, regardless of how we try to continue managing it

We've tried mass e-mails, revamping the forums structure, changing the number of topics, etc.............so far that hasn't seemed to work, and the danger is that if we keep changing the forums character people are going to become even less interested, especially if they're fairly infrequent visitors.

With regular visitor numbers as low as they've been recently, Wellies is in danger of becoming almost an exclusive 'closed' forum, which is likely to put even more people off as it may appear intimidating, especially given the points I've made in my previous post.

I don't see there's anything to be gained from keeping this discussion behind closed doors (i.e: in the admin section) as it's our members that we're concerned for. Without you lot (and more like you), we're stuffed!
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A man should be moderately wise, never too wise. He who does not know his fate in advance is freest of care

[Cadfael]

Fella...I would hate to see this go.....I love the place....

What confuses me is th amount of members that have visited recently (I'm looking at the bottom of the page for that) yet only the usual suspects post......why is that?

Have you tried asking the members if they have any issues with the forum rather than waiting for em to post.....a good many forum users have been flamed at some time or another so are a bit wary of getting involved......I admit that flaming (in the true sense) is rare on here, its obvious that many who do"flame" are doing so good natured (try looking at the Fish & fly forum.....jesus... I rarely post for fear of getting into huge rows with some of the knobs that think they rule the roost on it...), however everyone is differnt.....if you have'nt asked.....perhaps you should consider that....they don't need to post their replies, get em to reply via PM, keep it confidential....but use those replies has a benchmark....

again...I may be stating the obvious, but I really do not want this place to go belly up.....
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http://www.justgiving.com/ryanpayne

http://www.helpforheroes.org.uk/

People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf

George Orwell

[Issy]

It is a real shame that this place may go to the wall.  It can be difficult and seem a little ''clicki''(ok I can't spell I know   ) when it is the same people posting over and over but if people don't enter into the conversation it makes it worse.  Don't know the answer really.  There was one particular person who drove a lot away and it seemed more of a closed club when it was safe to return    but I will try to make more posts.  May even start some if I can summon the imagination to think up a subject to start on   .

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