Site Reference Forums

First, are you certain that the little 'visitor' counter isn't picking up SE bots? (Not that I would know how any of that works....)

Second, could it be that people are doing a search on any given SE, and the result is a SR thread.... which answers their question? (analytics, here we come)

At the time of this writing, I see 4 registered, and 17 guests. All the guest slots could be filled by the above scenarios.

Also, I see at DP there are 628 members logged in, and 1507 guests. So what you see just might be normal....

For me it was a posts in the newsletter.

For a few weeks i read with interest.

I had joined forums before, but could never remember the password, etc, no one ever answered my questions etc...

Then one day I saw a post that asked a question that I could answer. The existing replies weren't up to much so i offered my advice.

While I was there I started answering other people's questions, etc etc

Why did i stick around?

in the beginning I wanted to build a name for myself; I wanted the help and respect of other members and felt that to get that I should try and help others where I could.

It worked, as well!

After that it just become 'one of those communities' - sometimes I would learn new stuff, I would keep an active eye out for cross examination of my posts and answering more questions from threads i had helped out in. Then I'd see another new thread I could help with.....and the circle goes on

thanks for the answers back so far- appreciate that!

personally i work from home by myself...while i do work for a company and discuss with my coworkers during the day online- it's nice to be able to talk shop, get help (and even socialize to some extend) with people in the same industry apart from those i work with

Well my first visits basically consisted of reading. I had a commitment to myself and the desire to learn, but I really did not want to post until I felt that I could contribute something. Probably one of the motivators for actually signing up was the level of confidence (and maybe subtle arrogance) in some of the posts. I liked the fact that many of the posts not only contained viewpoints or criticisms, but they were also followed up with solutions that were doable with my skill sets at that time.

But after actually signing up things really were not what I thought they would be. At that time my initial impression that there were 2 trains of thought, “your going to fail if you use FrontPage” as well as “if that’s what you have to work with, why don’t you try this”.  Well I am still using FP so you can figure out the path I favored.

I think if a person sticks around any forum long enough they cant help but gain more knowledge. And frankly it’s a bit satisfying to know that you made a post that helped someone avoid some of the pitfalls that you may have encountered in the early days, so you just stick around.

IMO there are some very brutal forums on the web, but for the most part this is not one of them.

So if you are a visitor and you are reading this thread, please don’t hesitate to sign up with this particular forum. You just need the desire to learn, you don’t need anything like a certification in rocket science to participate.

TheGypsy wrote:

I want to hear from people with less than 100 posts or 3 months in....

Now Dave...I fit into one of those categories...so my memory is very fresh.

I signed up because I wanted a site review...period!

As it turns out I started making posts and found I had something valuable to contribute - I'm not here to sell anything, in fact most of the time I am reluctant to drop the links to my websites.

I enjoy  having the thank you's added next to my name - makes me feel useful/worthwhile/appreciated.

So the motive to join was much different to the motive to stay. Never-the-less I am grateful I did.

Elizabeth Richardson (Lizzy)

Dammit... i got suckered in with free stuff... worse than that its free stuff i already got for free

I guess i dont qualify anyway, perhaps the best way to get visitors would be to be very vague on some topics, thus forcing the little gypsy out of em to the point where they cannot stand not writing back in rage... thus they join... I like lurkers though, at least now i dont think im being watched... i know im being watched....

matte wrote:

Life's tough being a fish.

OOohhhh...just me trying to make you feel better. (and giving you all some more material to tease me about - hang on, maybe I can get my post count up too - nah, there aren't any prizes for that)

Elizabeth - You know whats even funnier about that pic?

I work for a fishing tackle company who also makes custom printed casting spoons for various business's. We also do a TON of work for people that want wedding spoons - And I actually used that pic for someone. hahahahahaha

Hey.... THEY gave ME the pic. To each his own, i guess.

http://www.hagensfish.com/custom.htm

Last edited by MrStitch (2007-09-27 15:21:53)

Thats not a mistake - That's 'Unique Content'

Yeah.... will get on that before the next catalog ships.

Woop woop... it's drinking time!! I cracked one just to reply M8


Conversions (getting a visitor to take the desired action) is a big thing to learn in this biz. Most websites I have managed/worked on have around a 33% bounce rate. That is folks that stay less than 10 seconds or so. I watch these on sites as one of my primary indicators.

This conversation is past that some (folks that lurk instead of hangin out). But it general I am always interested in why people do what they do.

In this case, participation. Forums in general seem on the decline, so I am interested in why, and further to that if there is something that forum owners can do to increase interaction.

In the end, maybe some of us are talkers and others are lurkers. Nothing really wrong with it, I am just a curious knd o guy....


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