Generate activity?

[Rooz]

Hey everyone....

Well, I've been talking to a few new (brand spanking new) members that have registered and have not posted at all to try and see why, well, they won't post, lol.

And I got all kinds of answers somewhat all over board. But now I'd like to ask EVERYONE....

Bottom line is now as far as actual membership goes, we have increased that a ALLLLLLL lot, but we are lacking some serious activity - (Just to kind of give you an idea, I think we only had one or two actual new posts today) - . So, I'd like to ask everyone, what do you think would help us generate more threads and posts. Am really open to anything, if you feel shy to post your reply here, PM me. I really would love to get a lot of feedback on this.

SO, I might as well start us of, my ideas come from what I think would personally help and some of the feedback I received from others (that asked me to post it for them)....

1. Have a more user friendly posting interface,
2. Opening to the forum to non-members,
3. Removing the "edited by tags" when a post gets edited
4. Ability to do more smileys,
5. Changing the color scheme
6. Reseting the post counts of members
7.


PS: Am posting this in a few places to see what ind of responses I get

[RSF5]

Reset my post count and I'll knife you.

j/k... But seriously. I saw the new layout idea, it looked good. Other than that, I wouldn't open the forum to anyone so they can post without registering, we'd get spammed to hell.

[celsdogg]

i thought we were doing well.

[Rooz]

Originally Posted by RSF5

Reset my post count and I'll knife you.

j/k... But seriously. I saw the new layout idea, it looked good. Other than that, I wouldn't open the forum to anyone so they can post without registering, we'd get spammed to hell.

What would you suggest then?

Originally Posted by celsdogg

i thought we were doing well.

We're doing great member wise, but as far as activity goes per member, not too too great.

[drz]

Please leave the 'edited by' labels. Why would we remove this feature?

[RSF5]

Well honestly what else can we do? Advertise? Lots of people get on forums to find the answers to a problem like one time. Only some are in it for the community.

[Dudesky]

Originally Posted by RSF5

Reset my post count and I'll knife you.

+1. That would be like spitting on those who kept this place going through their participation, even during the rough times.

[denyo77]

mh... personally I pretty much only look at the "recent threads" at the title page...
maybe it should show more than only 20...because like every 12 hours or so that is filled with new threads so people don't look at the "older" recent threads---

put it up to 30, that would help a lot imho

[drz]

I click on the "New Posts" link. Perhaps making that link more prominent would help

[denyo77]

yeah, probably

[xsperf]

now are those actual replies or are those suggestions that you made? could you possibly tell us of the actual replies and the frequency so we know how urgent one is vs the other?

[nick_318is]

Originally Posted by RSF5

Reset my post count and I'll knife you.

+2

I would post even more but with a real job now I'm not able to spend as much time on the site as I used to be. In response to what is listed:
1.I think we have a much friendlier environment then many other sites out there and its not very hard to post.
2. I thought the forums were opened up to everyone except in the members lounge if you cant take the 2 minutes or less to register go someplace else.
3.What's wrong with the edited by info? Sometimes I like to have people be able to see I edited something especially if i was in the wrong or insulted anyone.
4. We have a pretty good selection and why would smileys stop you from posting?
5. Preview of whats coming looks pretty good I will withhold all other comments on it until it is live.
6. See Above.
I always only check the "new posts" link unless I know specifically where something I want is and its the easiest way for me to stay current although I'm probably on the site a lot more then some other members, but the newest stuff is the active stuff.

[dinan540]

Part of the problem is pure competition. There are hundreds of bmw sites out, some are sig specific and some are not. What I like about ours is the community. We rarely have assholes posting stupid stuff or insulting other members. We won't tolerate that. On other boards, it happens all of the time. I use other forums to get answers because, for me specifically, I have an E39 and there are not many members who have them on our site. But I still come back almost everyday to see what is happening. Our best bet is internal marketing, i.e. our friends that share our passion for all things BMW/Euro/Cars.

For me, as a professional, the best patients I have are the patients that are referred by existing patients. The worse patients are the yellow page/ bargain hunting patients.

Paul

[Rooz]

Originally Posted by xsperf

now are those actual replies or are those suggestions that you made? could you possibly tell us of the actual replies and the frequency so we know how urgent one is vs the other?

Kind of 50/50 But I was asked by the people who sent those ideas to me to keep them as mine in a way.

But please, don't focus on what I put up, what i really want to see is what ideas you guys have.....

Originally Posted by nick_318is

+2

I would post even more but with a real job now I'm not able to spend as much time on the site as I used to be. In response to what is listed:
1.I think we have a much friendlier environment then many other sites out there and its not very hard to post.
2. I thought the forums were opened up to everyone except in the members lounge if you cant take the 2 minutes or less to register go someplace else.
3.What's wrong with the edited by info? Sometimes I like to have people be able to see I edited something especially if i was in the wrong or insulted anyone.
4. We have a pretty good selection and why would smileys stop you from posting?
5. Preview of whats coming looks pretty good I will withhold all other comments on it until it is live.
6. See Above.
I always only check the "new posts" link unless I know specifically where something I want is and its the easiest way for me to stay current although I'm probably on the site a lot more then some other members, but the newest stuff is the active stuff.

You know, I appreciate how you went and analyzed my post, but my all point here is, please don't just focus on what little ideas I put up, provide me some feedback, on what YOU think should be done

[nick_318is]

^Get C1apton Back.