Where are they all??

basil

Distinguished Member
I`ve just looked at the member list and there are nigh on 1000 members but contributions come from the same 15-20 members. With so much knowledge available on here, all i can think of is those non posters already know it all.
basil.
 
I have asked the same question some 4-5 weeks ago to Beowulf.

I suppose some people forget about the site, forget passwords etc....

I did suggest that a generic email/PM gets sent out to all members about the march and shoot, this would maby then prompt others to return who have not logged on or used the site for a long time.

This was all during the HOTO of the site, it might happen now though.

TJ
 
TJ, I do believe that two emails were actually sent out detailing the march and shoot and suggesting a visit to the site would be worthwhile. I guess that it was not just me that received the emails, they must have been generic.
In the early days, there was not a lot going on on the site and so many people probably got bored. I do not know why some newer members do not post though, especially after going to the hassle of joining the site. Never mind.
 
Funny isn`t it? I only spoke about this earlier to someone, why would anyone want to become a member and then never post :confused: :rolleyes: i mean you can openly read the posts without becoming a member. :confused:


wadas
 
Basil, you have a marketer's instinct.

I saw with concern the same thing. Works well for (us) active posters. But from a commercial point of view it doesnt bode well that we have xxx members but only 20 or so active (advertising), and any paying sponsors for the new owners can see the fact for themsleves.

Thereby always lies the conflict.

As an active deer bloke I want to keep it small + focussed, but as a site owner I would want it as big a possible. You can keep it small but have it look big. Suggest mods change it to list top 20 poster only and hide the rest and delete this thread! I wont complain, anyone you sell ad space to will do due dilligence and search the archives to see what they are buying advertising on.

I wonder what the business model is, and delete this thread for the sake of the site.
 
I think the fact that the site has almost 300,000 hits a month will tell the advertisers most of what they want to know. 1000 members, whether posting or not, are small potatoes!
 
lets hope that the buyers of the site will not sell out to commercialism regardless of number of active posters or number of hits
 
snowstorm said:
Basil, you have a marketer's instinct.

I saw with concern the same thing. Works well for (us) active posters. But from a commercial point of view it doesnt bode well that we have xxx members but only 20 or so active (advertising), and any paying sponsors for the new owners can see the fact for themsleves.

Thereby always lies the conflict.

As an active deer bloke I want to keep it small + focussed, but as a site owner I would want it as big a possible. You can keep it small but have it look big. Suggest mods change it to list top 20 poster only and hide the rest and delete this thread! I wont complain, anyone you sell ad space to will do due dilligence and search the archives to see what they are buying advertising on.

I wonder what the business model is, and delete this thread for the sake of the site.
I`m happy for the thread to be deleted, it was just something i picked up on. Maybe a good thing to delete the earliest non posters, just an idea.
basil.
 
This is a good debate Basil, you are spot on.

I mean the threads are searchable. Any potential advetiser probs doesnt want to read that we think there are only a handful of posters. Thats why for the benefit of the buyers, who will want to sell ad space (and why not) this specific thread, my comments included!, should be binned.

The delete idea is a commercial thing.

300k hits - that's a lot for a specialist site, 1000 a day? :eek: are they 300k unique visitors or page impressions, and how many bots in there?

It's for the good of the site I say these things.

It's for the good of me that I'm going to bed now. I'm all databased and referential integritied out :p ;)
 
Is there anyway you can analyize the hits! are they just robots looking for search words or are they specific to SD? I am no computer expert and don't know if this is possible!
regards
griff
 
I think with just about every site I have looked at Centrefire, Accurate Reloading etc they all have a nucleus of folk who do most of the posting, that is a fact of websites I think. The SD site is no different, folk are very welcome to post or just browze around and glean information, it is their choice as to whether or not they post or comment on a post.

I am no techno wizz kid, far from it, but I do know that the numbers are increasing and the pages downloaded are also increasing, so someone is interested :eek:

As for commercialism on this site, at the moment we are still not the owners, but that should be finalised very soon. We will be looking at the adverstising and site members also will have the chance to promote their goods.

Thank you

Sikamalc
 
OK lets try to address a few of these points, if we can,

1. The fact that there is only a few posters in relation to the membership is a problem, or a condition that seems to affect most sites. Even the huge sites such as Accurate Reloading, although the number of posters looks to be a lot in terms of the membership the percentage is low. It appears to be the nature of the beast. If you look at the bottom of the page you can see how many people are visiting the site. The members names alone far exceed the number of regular posters, many members log in, but post rarely. Plus there are always guests on the site. That's OK if they visit and are happy, what more could you ask for.

2. "lets hope that the buyers of the site will not sell out to commercialism regardless of number of active posters or number of hits" I can tell you this we w ill be looking for advertisers, there is a cost implication here and it has to be met, preferably not out of our pockets. So if anybody would like to advertise, we will be cheaper than glossy magazines.

3. "this specific thread, my comments included!, should be binned." Well, we are not going to bin this thread, you, the members, have said it so you must think it is worthy of comment. If you feel that it should not be there, that is up to you to edit your own posts accordingly, but we wont. Nothing has been said that could be described as abusive, libelous, unworthy etc, etc, so as far as we are concerned the thread stays. By we I mean Malcolm and I, he is busy doing something very unpleasant to a white fox at the moment!

4. The figures thing, well its statistics and everybody can make them do all sorts of tricks. I can tell you this which I hope are statistics that are pretty much "unbendable". There have been 314588 page views, there has been 17696 visits to the site, 3280 of these being absolute unique visitors, this is from 19/6/08 to 19/708.
I don't profess to understand statistic but, they do not appear to be too shabby to me.

John

I got interrupted mid post and when I finished this Malc had already been on, never mind you now have it in stereo.
 
Hi JAYB

My comment - 3. "this specific thread, my comments included!, should be binned." is made from a purely commercial point of view.

Selling ad space is one way the site will fund itself - but it might be harder to do so if any potential advertiser searches the archives to get a feel for the site and sees us talking about low levels of activity.

The comment was made to prptect the site, not because I thought the thread inappropriate - which I dont, not that its up to me anyway!
 
snowstorm,

I know you had the best intentions in mind for the site when you posted, I was highlighting the fact that the members have a right to speak as they find, and anyway it would not take a lot of investigation to dig it out. No, you were right to say it.

Why does it feel like I have just shot myself :eek:

John
 
It is true that most sites have plenty of members visible on the board stats when in fact most sites have about a third of what is on the stats. Most of the sites like to leave the membership on the boards as it dose look better for the site but if the new site owners look at the stats of members that have not posted or visited for the last 6 months i would suggest they are dead wood and should be removed. Sites can only stay active if the members keep posting interesting stuff.
 
IF it were down to me i would only delete those from, say, the year 2006 that have never posted for now. More and more people are entering the world of stalking so they would soon be replaced.
basil.
 
6.5x55 and basil
its at this point of the thread i feel that i can add
i shall use robin as an example as i am sure he won't mind, if he does he will soon tell me
robin is member 171 joined jan 07
untill the quex trip this year he had not made a post due to difficulties in loggin in and also not being very computer minded ,robin wanted to come to quex and the only way he could let us know was by turning up , since then he has learn't to post and get around the site with a lot more ease and confidence , but told me that he looked at the site most days and learn't a lot from it , just because members don't post does not mean that they are deadwood or should be deleted , a lot of silent members are learning from those that post ,as what is posted is often helping those that are not in the know,
yes i agree i wish more members would post as you can only get out from what you put in,
but on this site, a lot can be learnt just by reading past posts,
as lots of new stalkers may be intimidated by those of on site who hav knowledge coming out of there ears and are to frightened to ask incase they are made to look stupid
that is why all old and new members should be made to feel welcome if possible ,
 
stone said:
6.5x55 and basil
its at this point of the thread i feel that i can add
i shall use robin as an example as i am sure he won't mind, if he does he will soon tell me
robin is member 171 joined jan 07
untill the quex trip this year he had not made a post due to difficulties in loggin in and also not being very computer minded ,robin wanted to come to quex and the only way he could let us know was by turning up , since then he has learn't to post and get around the site with a lot more ease and confidence , but told me that he looked at the site most days and learn't a lot from it , just because members don't post does not mean that they are deadwood or should be deleted , a lot of silent members are learning from those that post ,as what is posted is often helping those that are not in the know,
yes i agree i wish more members would post as you can only get out from what you put in,
but on this site, a lot can be learnt just by reading past posts,
as lots of new stalkers may be intimidated by those of on site who hav knowledge coming out of there ears and are to frightened to ask incase they are made to look stupid
that is why all old and new members should be made to feel welcome if possible ,

Fair comment stone.
basil.
 
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