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_James_ · Sep 25th, 2006, 4:07 PM

I hope this thread gets locked.

This forum looks like its falling to bits (no offence to the admins). There is a group of regulars. They probably visit at least once every two to three days. Lets say there is 25ish of them. Of that 25 maybe 10 have posts that are directly to do with programming 50%+ of the time. So they keep the forum going as their posts are generaly accurate and solve the OP's problem.

There are then the less regualars. These people visit once a week. Lets say there is 50 of these. Maybe 50% of those people bother to post anything. Of that group I would say 50%+ of their posts are to do with programming. This groups posts are usually accurate but sometimes I wonder it the member really cares enough to be detailed and sometimes have subtle errors.

Then there is the people who join and start a thread (usually a pointless one that google could solve), recieve some abuse for their ignorance about forum rules and are never seen again. They could potentially be valued members but are turned off the forum by the welcome they recieve. I know some people start a welcome thread, but I dont see the point as everyone says Hello/Welcome and someone always says read the rules even though the member is told this when they sign up. Why not have one thread where new members can introduce themselves (write a bit about themselves etc) and other members can read but would not feel the urgent need to say welcome. IMO everyone is welcome in any forum unless they break the rules so its pointless.

My point is that core members have lost sight to what this forum is and new members find it hard to fit in. This means that you might get 40+ new members a month but only 1 or 2 might return on a regular basis. Also members that do try to fit in tend to be alienated and so after a month give up. The question is do you want this to turn into a small social club or do you want new members to come back and contribute positivly. For its age the post rate on this forum is very low and the online members at any one time is also low and I think this is very telling.

My view is that a forum should have a balance. Each forum usually has a main topic (and here its programming). I would say in a successful forum 80%+ of all threads should be on that topic. If there is a lounge (or whatever) then I would say that it should be 100% free (within legal bounds) to what can be discussed. The lounge on this site is has tight rules (no politics etc) and is used by people to post hardware questions and other pointless threads that never really help anyone.

Here is my suggestion. Kill the lounge and create a general computing sub-forum. That way people with non-programming related problems can ask for advice or help and there will be no more pointless threads. Now maybe if there was derestrictions in the longe to talk about anything then it might have a useful purpose but as this forum seems to try to be programming only I fail to see the need for it.

You are probably now thinking of ways to counter my arguments and rightfully so. You may also be thinking my stats are not correct, but they are just educated estimantes. But I leave you with one final stat which at the time of writing (9:19PM GMT+1), 5 out of the 10 topics on the front page are for the lounge.

-RandomQ&A 2 (Pointless)
-Happy Birthday Indigno (why cant you PM him your B-day messages?)
-a1m (could uman not PM/email people who might have the document he wanted)
-Internet Regulation (nice topic to discuss - IMO borderline political)
-deadtrees on programming (could turn into a useful discussion about the validity of information on the net and the reliablity of printed sources)

So only 2 of the 5 are potentially a positive contribution and would fit nicely into a general computing sub-forum.

Sep 25th, 2006, 4:07 PM	#15
_James_ Newbie Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: UK Posts: 20 Rep Power: 0	I hope this thread gets locked. This forum looks like its falling to bits (no offence to the admins). There is a group of regulars. They probably visit at least once every two to three days. Lets say there is 25ish of them. Of that 25 maybe 10 have posts that are directly to do with programming 50%+ of the time. So they keep the forum going as their posts are generaly accurate and solve the OP's problem. There are then the less regualars. These people visit once a week. Lets say there is 50 of these. Maybe 50% of those people bother to post anything. Of that group I would say 50%+ of their posts are to do with programming. This groups posts are usually accurate but sometimes I wonder it the member really cares enough to be detailed and sometimes have subtle errors. Then there is the people who join and start a thread (usually a pointless one that google could solve), recieve some abuse for their ignorance about forum rules and are never seen again. They could potentially be valued members but are turned off the forum by the welcome they recieve. I know some people start a welcome thread, but I dont see the point as everyone says Hello/Welcome and someone always says read the rules even though the member is told this when they sign up. Why not have one thread where new members can introduce themselves (write a bit about themselves etc) and other members can read but would not feel the urgent need to say welcome. IMO everyone is welcome in any forum unless they break the rules so its pointless. My point is that core members have lost sight to what this forum is and new members find it hard to fit in. This means that you might get 40+ new members a month but only 1 or 2 might return on a regular basis. Also members that do try to fit in tend to be alienated and so after a month give up. The question is do you want this to turn into a small social club or do you want new members to come back and contribute positivly. For its age the post rate on this forum is very low and the online members at any one time is also low and I think this is very telling. My view is that a forum should have a balance. Each forum usually has a main topic (and here its programming). I would say in a successful forum 80%+ of all threads should be on that topic. If there is a lounge (or whatever) then I would say that it should be 100% free (within legal bounds) to what can be discussed. The lounge on this site is has tight rules (no politics etc) and is used by people to post hardware questions and other pointless threads that never really help anyone. Here is my suggestion. Kill the lounge and create a general computing sub-forum. That way people with non-programming related problems can ask for advice or help and there will be no more pointless threads. Now maybe if there was derestrictions in the longe to talk about anything then it might have a useful purpose but as this forum seems to try to be programming only I fail to see the need for it. You are probably now thinking of ways to counter my arguments and rightfully so. You may also be thinking my stats are not correct, but they are just educated estimantes. But I leave you with one final stat which at the time of writing (9:19PM GMT+1), 5 out of the 10 topics on the front page are for the lounge. -RandomQ&A 2 (Pointless) -Happy Birthday Indigno (why cant you PM him your B-day messages?) -a1m (could uman not PM/email people who might have the document he wanted) -Internet Regulation (nice topic to discuss - IMO borderline political) -deadtrees on programming (could turn into a useful discussion about the validity of information on the net and the reliablity of printed sources) So only 2 of the 5 are potentially a positive contribution and would fit nicely into a general computing sub-forum.