Reinvigorating the Forum

As many of you have noticed, the activity of the forum has dwindled lately. We only have a group of core members who still post anymore. I don't want this forum to die, I really like this place. So I've invented this new thread.

What do you think we should do to make this forum more active?

Consider this question. None of us want this forum to die so we need to come up with ways to keep it alive. Some questions for you to consider:

How can we get new members?

Unfortunately, you can't run a forum with only five people posting. We need to come up with ways to get more people to join this forum and help electrocute it back into living. Post places you think we can advertise this forum (without being annoying), recruit your friends, etc, etc.

What are you guys interested in?

It's a staff's job to be responsive to what the users want. While I have been kept busy with school I'm willing to help, if the other staff members will help as well, to make this forum what you want it to be. Keep in mind this is a small forum and our main GFX/Programmer has gone AWOL (another possible recruitment. . . ) so nothing drastic. Helping with these changes would make life easier too. So, what do you guys want to see in this website?

What will make you post more?

Regardless of how fun it is, posting in the Off Topic or Forum Games section isn't going to keep this place going for long. We need to start posting in other areas. We ran a suggestion thread awhile back about what anime categories people wanted and no one has utilized these. Either someone needs to start making some new threads or you need to tell us what will make you post more. Should we add RPs, switch anime categories, what?

You need to be active in this project as well.

This is a two way street. The staff can't be expected to do everything: regular users need to help out as well. If you sense that a particular area is becoming dead breath some new life into it. If we make new threads post in them. Actively advertise, recruit new members, and encourage people to post more. We've done this 'come back from the dead thing before' and I believe we can pull it off again.

Suggest away. And please, pay attention and post in this thread.

Well, since you insisted in my opinion here it goes:

The reason why this forum isn't very busy anymore is because either most people are busy with school/other things, or simply forgot about the site.
So basically, as you said, there's really only 5 people that post some what oftenly, and then, it's mostly in the off topic section.

Well, lets think about it this way. There's a quite a few different animes/mangas in the Anime & Manga section, but the thing is, most of them, there aren't even posts under. Because, sure there may be 1 member that likes the series, and would be willing to discuss it, but you can't have much of a conversation with one person. I think we should do away with those series, and try to pull in series that are more popular and more people have read/watched. And that will most likely influence people to join if they see 5 of their favorite series , instead of lets say, 1 or 2. It doesn't even necessarily have to be series you like, it could be one you didn't like, which is fine, because you have seen it and want to share your opinion, even if it isn't a positive opinion.

Also, things sometimes seem to just die out, like the picture contest or the forum comic
collaboration. Which can't always be helped , since things in real life do happen, but still.

And bringing in new members could help. Every now and then, there seems to be a new person. They post a hello topic, and respond to it, but that's about it. I don't know if they were thinking "oh, lookie, a pretty forum, I'm going to join!" and then forget about it. Or that they just don't know where to post beside their introduction topic.

Advertising the forum is hard, without being considered spamming. First off, you would have to spread the word on an anime/manga related site. And most of those sites aren't very friendly towards people coming in and posting all over the place "check out this site, blah blah blah" . Because some people consider it annoying. And some site admins, don't like people doing that because the site your advertising could a actually be a virus infected site out to destroy your computer. Which looks bad to the site your posting on.

Anyways, that my opinion for now. If I think of anything brilliant over night, I'll let you know.

Hey sorry I have not been on in like forever but if no one posts in reguler forum discussion I get bored but I'll be as active as possible cause of holidays. I persanally was sorta waiting for Saya to reply to a PM because of the Collaboration idea.

Anyway explanations aside I don't really know how we could make this site more active, getting new members that will just leave seems to be common practice on many forums and that makes us look even worse than just saying we have 5 whole active members. I'm not saying delete people or not invite more people I'm just stating the negatives of what might happan.

But you are right a site cannot run, sadly, on five members. I will be happy to help with any ideas put forward but at the moment I'm a little stuck. We could go ahead with the collaboration idea and just try.

I happen to have an idea in order to make the forum somewhat more famous, though i can't actually think of the means atm.. My idea is to add a section with anime episodes, mostly famous -or not- so that discussing it in the forum will be much easier since it will be on the same site.

As for advertising, i think sites such as animecrazy, anime-media etc. are good and pretty popular sites to advertise our forum, in a way of course that it doesn't seem like copy paste or spam. Also, maybe a video could be made, including lots of anime scenes in order to advertise our forum and maybe we could upload it on youtube and add lots of tags in order for it to be found easily.

Truth is that even I myself hasn't post for a while and i'm not that active and it's basically because of what clovers_gal said, 1st grade of high school made me and Saya pretty busy..Though i watch all the new posts on the forum and respond wherever needed.

In any case these was my suggestions on the forum. Let me know if you have any ideas on the subject.

So many things to respond to Thanks for posting guys.

Clovers_Gal

Clovers_Gal wrote:

The reason why this forum isn't very busy anymore is because either most people are busy with school/other things, or simply forgot about the site.
So basically, as you said, there's really only 5 people that post some what oftenly, and then, it's mostly in the off topic section.

Originally I thought that people were busy during the school year as well. But when summer came around and the old members didn't come back I was beginning to think that people had forgotten about this forum. So I came up with ideas. One, we can send an e-mail/pm to some of the older members to remind them that the site still exists and that we would like them to post here. This method worked for me, I had virtually forgotten about this forum until I was sent a PM asking me to come back. The second idea is that we can forget about the new members, possible purging their accounts (an idea I'm not very fond of) and concentrate on getting new members. Reply away with your opinions about this.

Quote :

Well, lets think about it this way. There's a quite a few different animes/mangas in the Anime & Manga section, but the thing is, most of them, there aren't even posts under. Because, sure there may be 1 member that likes the series, and would be willing to discuss it, but you can't have much of a conversation with one person. I think we should do away with those series, and try to pull in series that are more popular and more people have read/watched. And that will most likely influence people to join if they see 5 of their favorite series , instead of lets say, 1 or 2. It doesn't even necessarily have to be series you like, it could be one you didn't like, which is fine, because you have seen it and want to share your opinion, even if it isn't a positive opinion.

Okay, so I can start a suggestion thread asking what anime categories people want. I'll also ask about which of the old categories we want removed. I'll get on making these threads as quickly as possible. However, when you post an anime category you want to be made post in the category. Make new threads there (you can do that, you know) and try to make as much conversation as possible. Make sure you consider how many other people you can have a conversation with when you suggest these categories.

In addition I think we should combine our old layout with this new one. In the 'Anime Discussion' area we can divide it into a few sub-categories: one for general discussion for thread's like What are you watching right now?, etc and two other categories, Anime A-L and Anime M-Z. This way people can talk about specific anime and we don't have threads clogging up the same area. What are your opinions on this?

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Also, things sometimes seem to just die out, like the picture contest or the forum comic
collaboration. Which can't always be helped , since things in real life do happen, but still.

With the permission of Merrin I would like to close the book on the forum comic idea for now. And as Raven doesn't come on anymore I am closing that contest as well. I'll be trying to close up old contests so state any that are still open. If anyone is interested in holding a contest send one of the staff a PM (if this is okay with Tofa) and a thread with the rules and a poll will be made. Sorry if I'm sounding like a totalitarian dictator Feel free to add suggestions and your own opinions on whatever I say.

Quote :

And bringing in new members could help. Every now and then, there seems to be a new person. They post a hello topic, and respond to it, but that's about it. I don't know if they were thinking "oh, lookie, a pretty forum, I'm going to join!" and then forget about it. Or that they just don't know where to post beside their introduction topic.

This worries me as well. I don't know why people don't post more: Are they intimidated by the lack of activity or are they just lazy? I'll send our newest member a PM asking him to please post more and help reinvigorate the forum. Eventually I'd like to send PMs to some other recent new members (signed up past few months ago).

Quote :

Advertising the forum is hard, without being considered spamming. First off, you would have to spread the word on an anime/manga related site. And most of those sites aren't very friendly towards people coming in and posting all over the place "check out this site, blah blah blah" . Because some people consider it annoying. And some site admins, don't like people doing that because the site your advertising could a actually be a virus infected site out to destroy your computer. Which looks bad to the site your posting on.

Saya used to advertise on MAL and other sites similar. Any website where you are allowed to have a signature you can link back to this forum from it. As for sending people PMs, you'd have to check with the rules about advertising (probably a no-no). While advertising isn't the best option we do need to find someway to get the word out--remember that spreading the word to real life as well as internet friends is an option.

Yeah, I'm double posting. Big whoop, wanna fight about it? It makes it easier for people to differentiate between big blocks of text. Don't follow my examples, kiddies.

Merrin:

Nice to see you back

Merrin wrote:

Anyway explanations aside I don't really know how we could make this site more active, getting new members that will just leave seems to be common practice on many forums and that makes us look even worse than just saying we have 5 whole active members. I'm not saying delete people or not invite more people I'm just stating the negatives of what might happan.

I don't think purging accounts is a good idea. The staff has permanently banned spammers and we don't have any other problem users. It may sound naively hopeful but I want to keep these accounts open if an old member wants to repost things. The part about new people leaving is a huge problems. Any suggestions on things that would keep new people around would be great (so far sending PMs seems to be the best option).

And, uh, sorry for sounding like a dunb mod but what exactly is the Collaboration idea? It's gotten lost in all the things I've been doing lately.

Tofa:

Nice to see you again as well

Tofa wrote:

I happen to have an idea in order to make the forum somewhat more famous, though i can't actually think of the means atm.. My idea is to add a section with anime episodes, mostly famous -or not- so that discussing it in the forum will be much easier since it will be on the same site.

I do not mind a section for discussing episodes of anime for, say, Naruto or Bleach. What I don't think is a good idea is linking to these episodes. Unless we're linking to legal streams there is an illegal area we're entering and we could potentially get into some trouble (there has been a recent crackdown on fansubs as of late). I'm all for the idea of anime episode discussions as long as we don't allow outside linking. Again, post your opinions. This isn't a one man thing

Quote :

As for advertising, i think sites such as animecrazy, anime-media etc. are good and pretty popular sites to advertise our forum, in a way of course that it doesn't seem like copy paste or spam. Also, maybe a video could be made, including lots of anime scenes in order to advertise our forum and maybe we could upload it on youtube and add lots of tags in order for it to be found easily.

These sites do seem like good advertising venues. However, I do not have the time or knowledge to do all of things. Someone else will need to take the reins regarding advertising. It is unfortunate, but I am only human and cannot do everything myself. So while it may sound selfish, while I am in favor of your idea someone else will need to take up the project unless you want to wait until my next break (Thanksgiving Break) for this project to start. Anyone can volunteer for this. Posting in here or sending one of the staff a PM would be awesome.

Nice to know you're still lurknig, Tofa

Okay, I've responded to everyone's suggestions and am going to create some category threads. I probably won't be on until 7-8:00 pm tomorrow evening or early tomorrow morning so it might take awhile to respond and get to everything I've said I was going to do. In the mean time another member is free to direct discussion

Oh, I love sounding like a real mod

This Genten: https://animeboulevard.forumotion.com/rules-announcements-f1/rpg-interactive-activity-t684.htm#25341

Ah, okay. Well, I'm all in favor of an RPG. You just need to work out the details of that

Well if we do the rp we have two choices, set up another site that way we might be able to get more people comming in or we could just make it for our members or we could set somthing up in this forum. Either way I am happy to help in any way I can.

I think the RP would work well on this forum. Like I've mentioned, we need all the attention we can get XD If the RP gets too big (something I highly doubt) we could move it to another site. But I think it would work well if we created a new section for it (maybe in the 'clan' section).

(Also, if people could check out the Anime Categories threads and post in them it would be great).

I thoguht there was a limit to categories we could have...hmm well if someone can set it up (and thats just Saya and Tofa who can mess with categories right?) I will be happy to do my best to sort of create the atmosphere and set up threads and get it started.

Yep, you'll have to talk to Saya or Tofa about the details. Looking forward to when you have the RP up.

I truly am capable of adding another section for RP though I'm not quite sure about the categories limits..and of course I am not capable of doing something like that without having it discussed with Saya first..I'll inform her as soon as possible and when I have an answer and a way to do that, I'll let you know so that you'll inform us of anything else needes to be done..

Okay Speaking of, where is Saya? Is she too busy to come on?

I guess so..school's been rough on her..I see her everyday though, so I'll make sure to tell her everything going on in the forum..

Okay. Hope to see her back sometime.

Sorry I haven't posted in a week or two, I've been really busy with school and all. :(

Anyways, I was really looking foward to the RPG thingy that we discussed at the end of July. I think Saya said she was going to make character forms or something but then that never happened DX This is the first fourm I've actually ever stayed somewhat active on, and I also would like to keep it going.

I tried posting in the 07 Ghost categories a few times a while back, but oh well. P:

We've lost most of our 07-Ghost fans, unfortunately. But keep trying to post things. Hopefully people will start discussing again.

As for the RPG, we need Saya to get back to us on that.

BUMP

Come on, guys, we can't let the hard work we've done so far go to waste. What other things do you think we should do, improve upon, etc? I know you can't have run out of ideas.

Here's an idea I had:

On a lot of popular forums there are member groups. We had something like this as well. I was thinking we could reinvigorate the member groups and make more than what we just have now. What do you think of this idea? Does anyone have any specific groups they want to see made?

I'm not sure if this will work but I have made a new forum, if someone makes an ad I can post it on my forum and ask people to join?

I'll agree with Genten about the group thing, and I think that it can be associated with the Role Playing..Let's keep that in mind..

Merrin wrote:

I'm not sure if this will work but I have made a new forum, if someone makes an ad I can post it on my forum and ask people to join?

That should be fine. Just ask Tofa or Saya for a second opinion.

@Tofa: Sure, I'll keep it in mind for whenever we start on that RP.

BUMP

Have to bump this. We can't let this venture die, so I need either some suggestions or more clarification on past suggestions.

Seriously though, post. What do you think we can do to get more new members and get them to stay? How can we increase forum activity?

New idea for the RP:

Anime Boulevard is a quiet little area on an island unaccessible unless you are accepted by the all knowing ruler. But things aren't as simple as it seems and when a mysterious portal appears something goes terribly wrong. The inhabitants decide to walk around when dark figures walk out and walk up to one person each, the figures turn out to be a favorite character of each inhabitant. But not all is peaceful for there are evil character bent on world domination or at least the death of everyone in Anime Boulevard. But little do the inhabitans know but their favorate characters double as weapons/protecters/fighters who can help them by turning into weapons, supporting the inhabitants with magical ability, give them weapons, protect them while they attack and of course help them train and live with them.

Sounds like a game I'd play XD Do we want to start setting that up or should we wait a little while longer?