I think that the members are having too much fun on the blog posts where it seems to be everything but the kitchen sink.
If the Mods on the blog section were to steer the off-topic stuff over here…
Edit: Well, gee, I just saw where you tried to do that with the “can we discuss religion w/out killing each other”. Maybe if you’d posted a link to the thread in the relevant blog?
I think that the members are having too much fun on the blog posts where it seems to be everything but the kitchen sink.
If the Mods on the blog section were to steer the off-topic stuff over here…
Edit: Well, gee, I just saw where you tried to do that with the “can we discuss religion w/out killing each other”. Maybe if you’d posted a link to the thread in the relevant blog?
It’s a good idea to shunt discussions over to the forums, and we’ve tried it from time to time. The trouble seems to be that I’m the only admin keeping an eye on the forums, and I think that the rest of them tend to forget that we have a forum at all, and so they tend not to think of doing this.
One thing I was thinking about was asking the webmaster to add a “popular forum threads” section to the homepage. That might remind people to visit the forums more regularly, but unless something interesting is already happening there, odds are it’ll be a somewhat disappointing experience.
We’re getting up close to 2,000 registered members now, so you’d think there’d be so much activity now that you couldn’t keep up with it. What’re all these people doing? What’s the point of joining if you’re not going to participate once in a while?
We’re getting up close to 2,000 registered members now, so you’d think there’d be so much activity now that you couldn’t keep up with it. What’re all these people doing? What’s the point of joining if you’re not going to participate once in a while?
Keep in mind that a blog account and a forum account are the same thing, so everyone who registers so that they can comment unmoderated on the blogs counts as a user on the forums. But relatively few people seem to visit the forums. Unless there’s an argument about animal rights or ghosts or something, that is.
I like the idea of a popular forum thread link somewhere near the ‘front’ of the webpage. I actually like the fact that the forums stay just active enough to have a few interesting discussions but not ‘popular’ enough to sustain trolls in search of egoboos and notoriety fomenting.
If someone misspells a word here on the forum, nobody trounces them as being poorly educated.
However, i would like to see a bit more activity around here.
(Steve said)
One thing I was thinking about was asking the webmaster to add a “popular forum threads” section to the homepage. That might remind people to visit the forums more regularly, but unless something interesting is already happening there, odds are it’ll be a somewhat disappointing experience.
How about if the most recent posts on the forum came up when you went to the “All Recent Comments” option that is on the blogs tab. I’m guessing that that is how most people proceed when they navigate to MtnX.com.
How about if the most recent posts on the forum came up when you went to the “All Recent Comments” option that is on the blogs tab. I’m guessing that that is how most people proceed when they navigate to MtnX.com.
I’ll look into this. Personally, I’d prefer it to be on the main page, even if it’s near the bottom of the screen.
And you might consider a link to the forum at the bottom of EVERY article admonishing folk to stay on topic in article comments (include a photo of Dr. A. there, perhaps<g>) or for wideranging no-holds-barred discussions click HERE (and lead them to the forums).
Promote, promote. And for an enjoyable forums experience for those interested in public access television, visit http://urtvforums.org .
Big news everybody: We’ve just named forum user Zen as our first Moderator. Congrats, Zen, and thanks for stepping up!
Secondly, it turns out that the effort to jump-start the forums has worked. This time two months ago, forum stats were hovering on the brink, down at the bottom of the stats page. But according to Google Analytics, the forums are now the fourth most popular part of the site. (After the main page, classified ads and movies). Well done, everyone!
Also, we’re still working on getting the forum content on the main page. It’s coming, but it’s down the list a little from some bigger improvements. Once that happens, however, we should expect a big jump in terms of users.
Hardly, but i did try it out on Ralph for a day but then kept having to hit the ‘Click Here to see what commenter Ralph Roberts posted’ because the threads didn’t make sense any more.
