Too few active participants in this forum

[gary_hendricks]

Guys,

Don't mind my asking. It seems that most of the users browsing this forum are people who registered and want some quick tech support on their 'spyware' problems or 'MPIO300 music player' problems.

In fact, the few people who actively contribute are dang, Ioman, Neuroking, etc. (whom I believe are the creators of Designtechnica?)

I thought the intention of this forum was a place to exchange ideas and talk about gossip, or put up some helpful technology tips for the general public.

I feel we need to do something to 'liven' up the community spirit here, encourage people to share and exchange! Not just ask questions like 'Why is my video card not working?' or 'Why is my firmwire update not working?'

Don't mean to sound nasty or anything, it's just my two cents' worth.

[Ioman]

I agree. Any ideas on what we can do to liven things up? I have been trying to post comments on the news page too, but no one else is either! We get over 60K visitors a day and we can't get anyone to contribute!? Common guys!

[dang]

Gary,

I agree with you, we dont have enough regular posters IMHO. A lot of people just come and read. How would you suggest we get people to get more active?

In the new site layout, we also added the ability for people to comment directly on forum posts. Not many people have caught on yet. Not sure if we need to make it more prominent.

[gary_hendricks]

Well, here are some suggestions I can think of:
1) There are way too many forum categories - its confusing to the user. Get rid of the low volume ones (I mean, the Digital Imaging section has only 1 post for Christs' sake).

2) We need a much broader base of people interested in the technology you cover. If all the posts that go around are between the editors of the website (no offense), the forum isn't going to grow. Spread the word, get people you know who have deep knowledge to contribute.

3) Link to the forums from another area of your website which has high traffic.

4) Start putting up some Stickys that consolidate useful information for users of the forum.

For reference, you may want to check one of my favorite forums on the Net, found at:

http://www.dcresource.com/forums

I've only joined it for a couple of months, but I've already clocked like a 1000 posts because the members there are very, very active.

[ECA]

can we add (on the front page) a listing for spyware seperate from the OTHER FORUMS.. it overwhelms the front page EVERYDAY. It wipes out the main HOT TOPICS... Or at least make it the top 20-30, not just the top 10..

[dang]

I'll make sure spyware forums are not listed on the front page.

[dang]

actually, spyware forums already excluded (or should be). problem i think is people are posting spyware issues outside the spyware forum. If you all move them to the correct forum it should keep the front page clean from them (I exclude forum id 94)

[dang]

actually, just realized i was only excluding the parent spyware forum, but not the children forums under it. that is now fixed. thanks eca.

[ECA]

Its nice to see NEW ones posted...but be better to have there own posted section on front.. But thats cool.

[llbbl]

Yea the forums need to be reorganized. If we do a major reorg of the forums dang will have to change a lot of the code else where.

Gary has voiced what I have been thinking for about a year now and what I have TRIED to change before.

[llbbl]

woohoo changes!

[llbbl]

How about we combine Home Audio and Home Video and Home Theatre into one main catagory called Audio/Video Appliances or Home Audio/Video Something like that. We could keep all the posts under each. Or we could combine all three since there is only about 500 threads total.

oh wait I know . just call it the home theatre section. and if you want to have guides or something like that you could make a sub catagory and stick all the stuff currently in home theatre there.

[llbbl]

We should probably combine all the Car Audio section into one section.

[Ioman]

We should probably combine all the Car Audio section into one section.

I am down with that. I might just delete the home theater forum and leave it as home audio and home video.

[llbbl]

I changed name of the Hardware mega catagory to Tech Gear. Tech Center might work better what do you think?

[Ioman]

I changed name of the Hardware mega catagory to Tech Gear. Tech Center might work better what do you think?

Sounds better. What about "Digital Lifestyle"? That would incorporate stuff like furniture etc?

[llbbl]

digital implies electronic devices...

[Ioman]

digital implies electronic devices...


I just asked you over MSN if you liked Digital Lifestyle and you said that sounded like a good fit. Make up your mind doofus.

How about "Hi-Tech Lifestyle"?

[llbbl]

well maybe there is something better. I liked it better than Tech center. what do you think of designtechnica lifestyle. or just Lifestyle

[llbbl]

oh i moved things around a bit some more to clean up forums . i couldn't stand computer software + spyware in same section.

[llbbl]

Hey I am thinking of combining the staff only section into two instead of 4. anyone have problems with this?

[Ioman]

Yeah, leave it.

Thanks

[znaps]

*golf clap*

Much improved..this is close to what I suggested a while back.

[hassassin]

thank you for killing the only philips mp3 players community, for some reason this forum seem to be the only place where a group of people who owned philips mp3 players posted, i dout they will now, oh well i can see why u did it

[Archon]

...pron thread.

AND HIDE SPYWARE THREADS FROM 'NEW POST' SEARCHES

[Ioman]

thank you for killing the only philips mp3 players community, for some reason this forum seem to be the only place where a group of people who owned philips mp3 players posted, i dout they will now, oh well i can see why u did it

oops I think the sub category was accidently deleted, I can remake it real quick.

[llbbl]

doh ! eheh . Did you fix that? I hope wasn't permenant. Maybe you just made it so wasn't visible. Otherwise if deleted have to recover from backup.

[Ioman]

doh ! eheh . Did you fix that? I hope wasn't permenant. Maybe you just made it so wasn't visible. Otherwise if deleted have to recover from backup.


I fixed it, the Philips sub category forum was accidently deleted when I moved everything, thankfully all the posts just dumped into the regular MP3 player forum. I spent about 3 hours manually moving everything back.

My apologies everyone!

[ECA]

Ow..OW OWWWW

[dobble]

hi guys! i'm new in this forum and i'm looking forward to learn something about various topics and share my thoughts as well. Godspeed! :P

[dang]

welcome dobble!

[ECA]

MoooO

[ModestMouse13]

ok guys i am on this site 24/7 pratically other then me being gone for 2 months i am on all the time. They also need to know you do not need to be a member to post