What's up with the site

Beowulf

Well-Known Member
Hi All,
I have just been looking through the statistics for the amount of new members that joined in April of this year. Fifty six new members, only seventy seven posts made by new members of which forty five were made by one person. :confused:
Also their seems to be less people willing to answer questions from new members. I think this is down to the fact that a lot of newbies are not looking through the old threads to get the answers they require and are just relying on the other members to come up with the same old answers.
I personally think that the site is suffering because of this. :confused:

It would be good if newbies looked at one of the new members threads and used them to introduce and tell us a bit about themselves. That way they would gain the trust of the other members and may even get some stalking out of it!

Can any other members think of ways to kick start the old girl because its getting rather stale on here.

Getting on the site and simply saying 'I want to go stalking, who is going to take me' or 'Is a 243 Sako better than a 308 Howa' Well it isn't very stimulating is it.

You get back what you put in after all. Otherwise we may as well just stand around the counter of the local gun shop talking the usual bollocks.

Sorry I say what I see. :confused:
 
Sorry MrB are you saying that only a very few users are contributing and you would like to know why and find ways of galvanising the membership.
 
Getting a forum to turn over is never easy, especially in a fairly niche area such as stalking, I run a general shooting forum and is nearly as bad there even with a wider range of topics. We mainly suffer from a dip in activity in the summer when things are quieter and then a ramp up as the new game season gets closer.

Trying to stimulate open friendly and inclusive debate is not easy though, and some forums can be seen to be “clichy” by new members. (I do not believe that to be the case here by the way).

And the same old subjects will come up time and time again in one form or another, people don’t like to use the search facility as they perceive it to be more work than asking fresh. Without a doubt new blood is always good but you will get an element of churn on the topics.

I think the approach here is pretty good though, I certainly felt welcome when I stumbled along and a number of members have helped me, not just in posts on the forum but also behind the scenes, I hope I get a chance to repay them for their efforts one day.

I do tend to lurk a fair bit as still got a looooong way to go as far as learning before I go out after my first deer.

Jerry
 
Hi Beo,

My wife thinks I'm a very sad individual :cry: - not just because I love stalking but because I regularly stalk this forum.

I try and check it daily during my luch hour and when things are not too busy in the office.

As for posting, there are obviously topics where I might have an opinion or might be able to point some one in the right direction and I'm sure the other members are the same.

From what I've read on other non stalking or shooting related forums, maintaining interest in a forum is very much dependant on the members posting topics which generate sufficient interest.

So come everyone start a topic which willl create a stir and force everyone to their keyboards :!:

Nick
 
Thank you all for your replies. I'll answer Grant's question first if I may. In some aspects yes I do think that we need to galvanise the members more, hopefully Grant the Quex visit, the CLA and the 'March and Shoot ' will do exactly that.

I just think we have a great membership and many good tales to tell. If everyone just thought 'sod it' and just posted one thread on something that is important to them or they feel would be interesting to others, well we would have it! Its hard yes and their are some wicked critics on here, but hey they can't kill you! Anything too inflamatory will be taken off as will in some cases the offender.

More pictures, more stories and more questions that will spark the interest of the membership and lead in turn to a satisfactory answer to a question.

There is a 'clique' on here apparently, I personally think it is infact the hardcore membership chatting to each other because they have similar interests and laugh at the same things. If this is a clique well I hope that the 'clique' gets bigger and we become a very big cliquey site that attracts more people into its fold.

I'm thinking of writting an article on muntjac, it would be great if a couple off other members followed suit and wrote about their Roe Buck season or something. Hopefully the critics will think 'well that took some balls' and give credit where credit is due.

Newbies please get more involved, especially you youngsters. You won't find the sort information you can get on this site even if you read every book on deer ever published! Take advantage of the great knowledge given freely on this site. 'No question is a stupid question' but answering the same good question every week gets tiresome.
Swampy mate it was a trick question, Tikka T3 Varmint in 6.5x55 is the correct answer. ;) :lol:
 
Well B as you know I agree with you about some of the challenges ahead of a site such as this and I believe that Jerry is bang on when he says that the narrowness of the topic is an issue.

It is very possible that we just have too high a level of expectation and that we should just accept that a narrow topic and the inevitable churn of the same questions will lead to staleness and people moving off to other sites for fresh blood.

I can certainly see your point about quex and the march and shoot, but if you apply the same analysis of the numbers involved in those events that you have to the posts, you may come up with the same disappointing conclusion. The quex visit and clay event sounds great but very few site members are actually going. The march and shoot sounds good and is in a tremendous cause, but are we really going to get six teams of four to march eight miles in September. What happens if only eleven take part? Are we going to get any serious sponsorship and if we don’t then we don’t raise any money either. I think there are ways in which the site could retain its vitality but targets have to be achievable. If the march and shoot became a ‘charitable shoot day’, with a number of events with rifle and shotgun at somewhere like minsterly or bisley then more people might take part. If you add in some summer sun a marquee a bbq and hog roast, you have a good day out and more money should be raised. Much as I would like to march and shoot, the reality is that I would amble and wheeeeeze and the only money raised would be by the local taxi firm getting me to the range.

I entirely accept that the will always be people who feel more involved or dynamic and will dominate, but when this issue was first raised there was a general consensus that a chat facility should be added so that ‘back slapping’ and ‘in jokes’ could be communicated there. Looking back at old threads would be easier if there were fewer and they were more topical.

Certainly if 36 posts are made about ‘window stickers’ and yet no-one answers a request for information the use of ballistic tipped ammunition for stalking then something is slightly awry.

One of the best and most informative sessions we have had of late is eddy showing us all how to bed in a rifle. I found it excellent and very informative. The same could be done for other topics IMO. There have been some wonderful stories and a photograph posted to this site and the experience available is something that I wished I had discovered years ago.

Anyway B your wrong the answer is a steyr 308. :lol:
 
What about making the monthly sporting rifle competition a 'best post of the month' competition. May encourage some interesting reads. Maybe the members could nominate their favorite posts and Rob could judge them or someone from sporting Rifle.
Just a thought.
 
I have felt for a little while now that the site seems, dare i say it
"a little boring" :eek: , and no, this does not mean that there are boring people posting, but as Beowulf says, the same old questions being asked and answered.

I have personally not posted much of late,

1, Being very busy, as are plenty of others too. and
2, When i have had chance to look, it has sempt very quiet and uninteresting.

As for the "CLIQUE", if there is one, :confused: well, i personally think you get out what you put in as you don`t make friendships by sitting at the computer posting the odd question once in a blue moon.

wadas
 
Well are coming up with some good ideas for the site and this is very refreshing. The events will start off small and Quex and the March and Shoot will for this year at least will be a steep learning curve, however once people read and see the pictures then I'm sure they will be keen to get involved when the events come back around the following year.

Grant your ideas for the March and Shoot are great, Rob is looking at getting a range and then seeing what people want to do and how many want to come. So please keep the ideas and offers of help rolling in everyone.
 
I think it is disgusting, encouraging people to talk about shooting animals and stuff like that, and I also understand that enjoying yourself is high on the agenda, disgusting!!!

:eek: :D :eek: :D :eek: :D :eek: :D :eek: :D :eek: :D
 
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