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How to make a healthy vibrant forum?

Started by Colin YNWA, 22 August, 2019, 07:41:27 AM

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sintec

Quote from: Colin YNWA on 22 August, 2019, 05:08:13 PM
Be good to hear from fresher eyes what they get, or don't get, about this place.

Not sure what's considered fresher; having looked back at my posting history I realise that my first post was 2 whole years ago so not sure if I still count as a newcomer or not.

I discovered this forum during the run up to the Ultimate Collection release.  Discussions about what was going to be included in the run were really helpful in deciding to whether to subscribe or not. Since signing up for the Collection I've rediscovered my teenage passion for comics (mostly manga like Akira and Appleseed back in the day rather than the prog I'm afraid) and have now been reading the prog and meg for about a year.

Personally I've always preferred this kind of "old school" bulletin board style forum over the newer social media style. Used to hang around quite a few similar music forums in the 2000s (most of which are now far more dead than here) so the format is familiar to me. No idea what the "youth" make of these kind of places, are they seen as an anachronism populated by middle aged codgers who don't want to adopt the new formats like reddit and FB?

As others have said upthread the social media format is great for announcements and "thread of the day" type discussions. It's utterly useless for the kind of long form discussions like the UltimateCollection thread, the various prog slogs, or Funt Solo's 2000AD in stages thread. And tbh it's those long form discussions that interest me more than "isn't this cover cool". As a relative newcomer to the prog lurking in threads like Colin YNWA's "The completely self absorbed 2000ad re-read thread" has really helped place stories I'm discovering for the first time in the Hachette colllections into their historical context.

I've found this to be one of the most polite and respectful little corners of the internet I've discovered in quite a while. Sure people disagree and sure sometimes that gets a little overheated but largely it is resolved sensibly and without the need for the kind of unpleasentness often encountered elsewhere (for example I will never forget watching a game designer who took the time to regularly communicate with his players on BoardGameGeek being hounded off the forum by some incredibly vocal SJW type because of a dumb off hand comment he made. Was the comment a bit off, yes, did it require a witch hunt, fuck no). This has been an incredibly welcoming place where I've quickly found myself at home, it'd be a great shame to lose it.

Personally I don't find "We've discussed this before here" to be a bad thing. Often there's some really interesting stuff in those old discussions. If it's done politely and not as a means of shutting down the conversation then I think it's a positive thing. Where this can be unpleasant is when it become a form of gatekeeping, "shut up noob your opinion isn't welcome, see the wisdom of the inner clique", but that's not what I've seen here. Part of the appeal of this kind of forum over FB or similar is that history of past discussion and the ability to come back to a thread of conversation at an indeterminate future point when you have something new to say.



Definitely Not Mister Pops

Quote from: Magnetica on 24 August, 2019, 07:35:14 AM
Quote from: DrJomster on 23 August, 2019, 10:33:45 PM
Perhaps the number of likes minus the number of dislikes would be an interesting thing to show!

On the BBC website they often have a comment section (called Have Your Say) after stories and you can rate comments by effectively liking or disliking them. Interestingly the highest rated comments (the ones with the most likes) and the lowest rated comments (the ones with the most dislikes) are often the same ones (at least in the sports / football sections).

BBC's Have Your Say is very silly and copying it in any way is a very silly idea.
You may quote me on that.

Trout

The goal of the comics' marketing team is to promote the comic, not this forum. The message board's relative success will always be secondary to attempts to reach new markets.

I know that's difficult to hear when we've been loyal for so long (it's irritating to see, for example, a phone company giving new customers a deal that isn't available to existing customers) but growing the customer base must always be part of healthy business planning if that business wants to continue to operate. It's not so long since 2000 AD had no marketing staff, and they still have a small team, so they have to put their resources where they consider they will be the most effective.

That said, this thread contains some good thoughts. I'd love to see readers on this board rewarded for their dedication with an exclusive now and then, and of course it can't hurt to remind Rebellion that we're here and we love what they create. Let's focus on the positives and accept that the comics' publishers are working hard to make it successful.

Also, bow down to me you land-dwelling scum, etc etc etc.

- Trout

Colin YNWA

But you abdicated your regal right quite sometime ago your exfishyness. I think its a little off coming here and trying to come all high and mighty now. Go try and change your name, go on, like to see you do so.

Ha! See.

In fact maybe the shift from a monarchy with a Major in a leadership role, to a republic was the start of our downfall? Mind it didn't do the Roman's any harm and its not as if we have any power mad Goths* around here...

... oh hold on...

*[Normalfontsize] And before Tordelback chirps up yes I know it was the Visigoths not the Goths but if I'd have stuck with historical honesty I'd not have been been able to be rude to two of our elder statefish/goths**

**In fact maybe being rude isn't such a good idea of a healthy board... oh sod it...[\normalfontsize]

Proudhuff

 How to make a healthy vibrant forum?

some sort of response to this thread?  :-X
DDT did a job on me

Dark Jimbo

Quote from: Colin YNWA on 24 August, 2019, 03:07:05 PM
But you abdicated your regal right quite sometime ago your exfishyness. I think its a little off coming here and trying to come all high and mighty now.

In fact maybe the shift from a monarchy with a Major in a leadership role, to a republic was the start of our downfall? Mind it didn't do the Roman's any harm and its not as if we have any power mad Goths* around here...

Oh, gosh! You know you're right?

An abdicated(?) monarch and a Mayor in exile - no wonder the forum's felt rudderless. What we need is the strong, guiding hand of an Emperor...
@jamesfeistdraws

The Legendary Shark


Facetube is the House of Commons, we are the House of Lords. Twitbook is Discworld, we are the Unseen University.

I love this place as it is. Niggles? Sure. I miss the writing comp. Plusses? Absolutely! To wit, the handful of GNs Rebellion gave me for winning the writing comp. Oh yeah, and the company. I love the company. Is that needy? It sounds needy.

Anyway, where was I?

Oh yeah.

Seven Links, damn you! It was Pat Mills what did it, guv!! Carlos, oh God - Carlos!!!

Seriously. Carlos. The way you're feeling now. That's why we're here. That's why we endure. Simple love.

As the Great Poet pointed out, it's all you need.

[move]~~~^~~~~~~~[/move]




Bolt-01

Quote from: Dark Jimbo on 29 August, 2019, 01:38:00 PM
Quote from: Colin YNWA on 24 August, 2019, 03:07:05 PM
But you abdicated your regal right quite sometime ago your exfishyness. I think its a little off coming here and trying to come all high and mighty now.

In fact maybe the shift from a monarchy with a Major in a leadership role, to a republic was the start of our downfall? Mind it didn't do the Roman's any harm and its not as if we have any power mad Goths* around here...

Oh, gosh! You know you're right?

An abdicated(?) monarch and a Mayor in exile - no wonder the forum's felt rudderless. What we need is the strong, guiding hand of an Emperor...

Ah Jimbo, the Emperor dissappeared years ago...

Maybe we need a Baron. Someone with a strong idea of the right way to do things that will further his (or her) personal agenda and social standing?

To the right honourable Huff - I'm not surprised that a representative of Rebellion hasn't spoken up here - this is not their discussion. It is ours.

sheridan

Quote from: Bolt-01 on 30 August, 2019, 08:39:31 AM
To the right honourable Huff - I'm not surprised that a representative of Rebellion hasn't spoken up here - this is not their discussion. It is ours.

Let's face it - if they said "we have no plans to close the forum" that would just make the nay-sayers make even more negative comments!

DrJomster

I take it somewhere we've mentioned directing people here from other parts of t'internet? I'd be interested to see the forum stats on new members per year...

But wait, I can use the members list.

Interestingly there have been about 114 new members this year, one of which has posted 70 odd times , which is excellent. The rest however are mostly non-posters with the next highest posts being 4. That's a pretty low new joiner to active poster hit rate.

2018 has nearly 200 new joiners, where one has posted nearly 900 times! The next highest posters are in decent numbers so a more active cohort than the year of 2019. Not sure why though.

More fun analysis may well follow at some point. I might go off and read the latest prog though instead for now if that's ok!

The hippo has wisdom, respect the hippo.

ZenArcade

Maybe create Topics for discussion centred around characters and the world's they live in. Just leave them open-ended . Z
Ed is dead, baby Ed is...Ed is dead

Woolly

I think the problem for most of us is that we've already had all the big discussions/arguements/space-maths-threads. We've already read thrillpower overload, and seen the future shock documentary.
And an art comp that leads to being printed and paid for it just doesnt appeal to me. It ends up being talent over concept in my eyes, whereas I used to love explaining just why I liked what I liked. (CFM is still a legend for his contributions though!)

Maybe go back to the Koom-Skree board style?

Colin YNWA

Quote from: Woolly on 31 August, 2019, 04:31:56 PM
...Koom-Skree...

Is that a war between two alien races in mainstream american comics?

NapalmKev

#43
Quote from: DrJomster on 30 August, 2019, 11:15:43 PM
Stats!

But wait, I can use the members list.


My memory may be faulty but I recall a significant period* when there were less than 160 visitors a day (Mostly Guests) but now we see upwards of 400 visitors a day. Again mostly guests but it at least shows a greater degree of interest, surely?

As for new members - If the Prog has attracted new, younger readers, maybe they're less inclined to post because their only experience of social media is the likes of Facebook and such. Grammar Nazi's and those who hold the truest of opinions rule the mainstream internet highway. Whereas this place, in my opinion, is a much more tolerant and dare I say it, Genial place!

Cheers

*More than two years ago as that's how long my phone has been broken. Good hunting!
"Where once you fought to stop the trap from closing...Now you lay the bait!"

Colin YNWA

Quote from: NapalmKev on 01 September, 2019, 07:42:25 PM
Grammar Nazi's and those who hold the truest of opinions rule the mainstream internet highway. Whereas this place, in my opinion, is a much more tolerant and dare I say it, Genial place!

I for one am very happy the grammar nazis don't hold sway here... or at least are more tolerant... do you get tolerant nazis?