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1. 

   Ben
   Big Kahuna

   Here's an interesting question for you all: why don't you register for this community? I know there are a lot more anonymous browsers and posts than registered.

   Is it too niche? Is it just one more forum to manage? Is it not integrated with Bookface enough? Is there not enough content?

   I'm thinking of doing something and I'd be interested in your feedback and/or suggestions. Here goes:
   

   • Add a rating engine to the forum so members can rate posts
   • Kick off a competition for members with $1500 worth of prizes (Squeezebox Duet, Garmin GPS, LG Bluetooth hands-free, iPod Touch, etc.)
   • One entry for being a member. One entry for having submitted at least one post or reply
   • Multiple entries for top-rated comments, perhaps one per "star"
   • Highest-rated member gets a prize.
   • Random winner gets most of the prizes, and gets to select another member as the recipient of one item (maybe the GPS). Think friend-get-friend.

   The theory being to promote membership and (more importantly) good quality content.

   I'm not going to lie to you: there's something in it for me. More content means more pageviews which means more chance for revenue so I can spend more time creating great content for the main site.

   BUT also: I fricken love the content in here so far. I get a real thrill when I get those "there is a new post" emails in my inbox, and to date those posts have been brilliant. I mean check out Rob's Magic series for example.

   So my question to you: shit idea? Good idea? And yes, I realise the irony of asking for a comment about asking for comments.

   Follow me on Twitter

   Posted 7 months ago #
2. 

   Anonymous
   Inactive

   Posted by unregistered user:

   Prizes man! its all about the freebies! :D

   Posted 7 months ago #
3. 

   Anonymous
   Inactive

   Posted by unregistered user:

   Oh yeah, i just posted that as anonymous, i have an account but there's no login box here , is that way up the top of the page or something?

   Posted 7 months ago #
4. 

   Liz Quilty
   Member

   Oh there it is - maybe put that in under the comments?

   Posted 7 months ago #
5. 

   Ben
   Big Kahuna

   LOL yep I do plan to make reg/login more prominent!

   But after hearing some comments on Twitter, I'm shying away. Giveaways will mean insta-spam and bugger-all retention. Hmmm.

   Posted 7 months ago #
6. 

   Anonymous
   Inactive

   Posted by unregistered user:

   Hey Ben, I'd say one big factor keeping people from signing up could be the fact it is unclear what this community is for.

   I've clicked through on your links from Twitter multiple times, but it's only now I've even realised there ARE forums here.

   If it's not clear what a community's goal is, or who it is made up of, I'm unlikely to join it and get consistently involved. In this day and age of online communities sprouting up everywhere, we've all only got time to invest in so many...

   Posted 7 months ago #
7. 

   mrjudkins
   Member

   In saying that, I've just signed up to put a name and face to the above "Anonymous" comment. =)

   Posted 7 months ago #
8. 

   davesparks
   Member

   Forum? Who knew. I thought this was just blogs. Talk about it more and people will come. As you are and as they seem to be!

   Posted 7 months ago #
9. 

   NZRob
   Member

   I'm with Anonymous (no not that on, the other one...no.. no.. yes.. him/her!) - A community is difficult to establish and maintain if the drive for interaction isn't immediately apparent - this is why the 90:10 rule applies as most of us will lurk and watch the conversation if there is a 'firewall' of registration, or no immediate call to action to participate in the discussion.
   I'm LOVING the fact you have OpenID integration, I did still have to enter a bunch of info to 'register' despite the OpenID permitting that persona detail to pass to your site (well, in theory). As Anonymous (yes, the same one) says, we've only got so much time to invest in communities - so the barrier to entry (and re-entry) needs to be lowered and things like OpenID (IMO) help this hugely.

   Posted 7 months ago #
10. 

    Ben
    Big Kahuna

    Really good point mrjudkins. I'm planning some changes based on your comments and others:
    - Screw 'community'. It sounded good at the time, but 'Forums' is the accepted nomenclature.
    - More prominent Forum linkage from blog pages (which is where people arrive from RSS/Twitter).
    - 'Discuss in Forums' links on blog posts. Should I close comments altogether a-la PublicAddress?

    But still, prizes for awesome content I reckon.

    Bloody marvelous feedback. Thanks all.

    Posted 7 months ago #
11. 

    Ben
    Big Kahuna

    I hear you NZRob. BBPress is barely 1.0, and OpenID integration is imperfect.
    The upside is the integration with Wordpress. You'll find as a forum membe you're now logged on as a commenter on the blog posts too.

    Perhaps an 'about' page for the Forums is in order? Privacy policy etc too.

    Posted 7 months ago #
12. 

    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Posted by unregistered user:

    Hi Ben,

    Quite simply if I can just post at the bottom of the page why would I sign up?

    Also I am sick of signing up to every single blog site that I visit.

    On my blog I have got around this by using Discus comment system (on wordpress), that way people can use OpenID, Facebook, or Twitter to comment.

    thanks
    Brad Heap

    Posted 7 months ago #
13. 

    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Posted by unregistered user:

    Absolutely agree with mrjudkins views there - despite clicking through from your twitter links on numerous occasions I had never really noticed that this was anymore than a blog. Perhaps in order to generate more sign ups you need to be linking to ‘non-blog’ content more often, although I know for me personally that alone wouldn’t entice me to sign up to something but it would have made me aware that you are offering more than just a blog.

    If I click a link from twitter it’s because I’m interested in reading that particular item and will usually read, digest then close, promptly forgetting the site I was reading it from (in some cases remembering the user who tweeted it in order to find it again if needed but very rarely the site itself because it just faster to find that way). For my more regular reading, which admittedly does on occasion get discovered through twitter, I usually would subscribe to RSS and read directly from there and would only sign up if absolutely required because I already get more than enough general clutter to my online life from the things I am signed up to now without needing to sign up for more things I don’t need (Pro Tip: bugmenot.com for all your single use sign up requirements).

    In terms of more active engagement in a community it usually is driven by some sort of payback to me even if that payback involves investing a lot of my own time. MusicBrainz.org is great example IMHO, it allowed me the initial payback of helping to organise my music collection but I’m sure over the many years I have spent contributing and moderating since it would probably have involved less time to just read details off all my CD cases etc. However, I don’t regret that for a second because adding to the Wiki style music database is a personally rewarding experience for me, and I’m sure the contributors to Wikipedia etc would say the same.

    If you want to generate more registered users I guess you need to find a way to demonstrate the value of the community to people – what do you offer that I can’t get from any one of the other similar communities/forums I might already belong to? Much as everyone loves freebies etc I think more than anything you need to convince me that investing a chunk of my finite time here would be worthwhile in some way and usually the biggest paybacks I get from online communities are intangible (then again maybe I’m just unlucky with prizes!).

    As you say in your post generating high quality content is going to be the key here so perhaps you and some of your existing registered users need to start generating that content and showing it off rather than letting us have to find you. In fact, right here you have me and others engaging in your community through one simple message, which I’m sure was the point of the tweet, but in order to keep me coming back I guess I just need more…

    Posted 7 months ago #
14. 

    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Posted by unregistered user:

    Also do you really need yet another forum?

    The geekzone and gameplanet forums are already really popular, as are the trademe ones with those types :-p

    Some blog sites can be really good forums as well such as Kiwiblog, pretty much generate the content, good content, and the comments will come.

    That is how I see it

    Brad Heap

    Posted 7 months ago #
15. 

    Ben
    Big Kahuna

    Thanks again all. God I love the internets. All of them.

    Completely valid points on "what's in it for me?". My hope is that these forums will develop their own niche that sits apart from Geekzone. I already get the impression that my readers are both more mainstream (due to the TVNZ exposure), but also more nerdy. Subtle difference.

    I'd like to think we have an opportunity to have a higher-level tech debate beyond "but x has more wogglysprockets than y".

    Time will tell.

    I'm not competing with Gameplanet - different demographic.

    Posted 7 months ago #

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