Getting New Members To Stay - ideas

[oslo]

I have a few ideas, but I think the main problem is that this forum is so PC.

[oslo]

Surfing Waves Forum is meant to be a helpful, informative and friendly environment so if you could please follow the guidelines below

Good!

1 No swearing or profanities

bull! What is the diffence between fleshin' an f**k? Or fleshin'?

2 No flaming, abusive, threatening or derogatory comments about any person or group

Apart from the abusive thing, all cool.

3 No spamming, messages that promote unsuitable products will be deleted. Do not post multiple identical messages

Agree.

4 Please post new topics in the relevant forum

You got to be kidding me!

5 Do not post full URL's in the forum. This forum is not a means to advertise your website

That never happends?

6 Members should post in a way which is consistent with "normal writing". That is users should not post excessive numbers of emoticons, large, small or coloured text, etc.

R U Totally pwned man? Txt spek fleshin' pwns here slashing xxxxx!

7 You will not copy and retransmit any information out of these forums without first getting the permission of the original author of the message and the administrator.

Good one. It's not like half the contents ion this fora is copied []into[/] here?

8 Try to keep the title of posts as descriptive as possible

Doesn't seem like it's going going to happend

9 When a message is placed in any forum system, you are granting a soft license to the site to use it.

A "soft license"? There is no such thing.

[Dec]

What crawled up your ass and died. You seriously have a porblem, and if it's with this forum..then leave.

I don't want to have to edit or delete anymore of your unnessary posts.

[surf patrol]

The rules are a general guide only. It's meant to give people an idea of what is acceptable and what is not. There are surfing forums which are full of abuse, flaming, spam etc. Surfing Waves is meant to be a nice mellow place where surfers can come and chat, newbies can get there questions answered without 20 KOOK! posts following.
Take gulfsurfer as Libbys example - a bloody menace on arrival but after a gentle nudge or two one of the most helpful members on the forum. Nothing wrong with that in my eyes.

1 No swearing or profanities

bull! What is the diffence between fleshin' an f**k? Or fleshin'?

Its so that youngsters can use the site and that nobody is put of by a forum full of profanity. Some people do not find it acceptable for their kids to be reading stuff like this and do not want to read posts smattered with swearing.
Would someone actually be put off by not being able to eff this and c that?

2 No flaming, abusive, threatening or derogatory comments about any person or group

Apart from the abusive thing, all cool.

Abusing someone is different to disagreeing of debating points. There is no room here for personal attacks. People get abused and they stop using the forum. I dont what things turning into a slanging match. There are plenty of surf forums to go to for a sledging match.

4 Please post new topics in the relevant forum

You got to be kidding me!

You've got to try! This can also be taken care of by the moderators. Makes it easy to find what you are looking for.

5 Do not post full URL's in the forum. This forum is not a means to advertise your website

That never happends?

Of course it does and it always will. It's meant to put people off from promoting their own stuff. I get emails from people saying where has my post gone all the time and I can just point them here and not have a debate about it. A lot of the spam stuff is removed by the mods anyway.

6 Members should post in a way which is consistent with "normal writing". That is users should not post excessive numbers of emoticons, large, small or coloured text, etc.

R U Totally pwned man? Txt spek fleshin' pwns here slashing xxxxx!

7 You will not copy and retransmit any information out of these forums without first getting the permission of the original author of the message and the administrator.

Good one. It's not like half the contents ion this fora is copied []into[/] here?

I'll remove info on the forum if someone feels that they have breached copyright - just as I would expect someone who copies stuff off SW for their site to do the same.

8 Try to keep the title of posts as descriptive as possible

Doesn't seem like it's going going to happend

Another job for the mods. It makes it easier for people to find the topics they are searching for and it makes the search engine searches more effective.

9 When a message is placed in any forum system, you are granting a soft license to the site to use it.

A "soft license"? There is no such thing.

Just trying to cover ourselves here. Generally I will ask if I am going to post stuff from the forum onto the main site. Some people can get funny about stuff. You post it on the forum - SW can use it elsewhere.


I must admit I find the 'too PC' comment a little unsettling - I am not particularly PC myself. I happen to think you are all fleshin fleshers and would be happy to tell you face to face

[Phil]

I've got that way with MSW... I do try to start some every now and again If I feel its relavant :p

magicseaweed has gone right down hill, no one really talks much about surfing on there anymore, but it can still be highly entertaining at times like the matteeboy watch threads :lol: :lol:

[PapaW]

The rules are a general guide only

Jsut What I was going to say.... Plus realisticly you can talk!!! Youseem to have taken to the "latest surfs" thread a tad too seriously!!!!! Let things flow its all good!


Aye Phil, its a shame really, there seem to be a few too many egos on there at the moement. Still get the odd thread thats good tho.





Oh yeah you can all fleshin' well flesh off! heheheheh

[oslo]

Oh yeah you can all fleshin' well flesh off! heheheheh

That was totally unnecessary. hiphopdocker is coming straight outta Thailand to edit this!

[PapaW]

Oh yeah you can all fleshin' well flesh off! heheheheh

That was totally unnecessary. hiphopdocker is coming straight outta Thailand to edit this!

That was me actually :p

Plus the foums code picks up the likes of f00k cu.nt etc... and changes it to fleshin' automatically.

[oslo]

No hard feelings. Whisky is dangerous, I tell you.

Back to topic.

In my opinion a forum existing of 40-100 active users, plus about 50 not so active users is the best way to run it. As we speak, there are 3131 registered users. I don't know how many of the them logged in during during the last six months, but I'm guessing it's not even 30% of the users.

If you can get a forum consiting of around 60 users, people get to know eachother a little better, and the vibe here will be different. That, in turn will make people feel better. It will, I think, result in more interesting threads and a better forum.

To achieve this, you can put together a simple application, for the new members to answer. Existing members can review the application and say wheter they wan't them in or not. In the end, you or someone else, should decide if they get in or not.

An effort is needed to be accepted, and for the applicant who get trough, it's a bigger chance that they will stay.

I'm saying, keep a "Questions for beginners" sub- forum open for everyone, as well as an application forum.

The rest should be open only for registered users.

Just a thought.

[Hopupu]

To achieve this, you can put together a simple application, for the new members to answer. Existing members can review the application and say wheter they wan't them in or not. In the end, you or someone else, should decide if they get in or not.

I don't know about this. Filling in applications is not exactly the thing I associate with drawing new interesting members.

Anyway, I really like the forum (and site) as it is right now. Obviously beginners aren't affraid of asking questions in here, which is a good thing if you ask me. But the "what board should I get" thingy works on everyones nerves, so maybe it's better to have that all in one thread (or maybe forumsection as suggested).

So I wanted to thank the crew behind this site, good work.

[Dec]

Maybe offer something to people that post over 100.

I dont know what, but just a reward.

**It's only an idea**

[Hopupu]

FREE WAX!!!!

[Dec]

hahha..i was think more of a reward to do with the website. Like priveleges to certain Sections etc..

(Free wasx would be cool!)

[PapaW]

Trouble with that dec is that people will just post crap to get their post count up :(

[Dec]

Well, if you say that they need 100 posts, or a member for 2months...something like that.

The reward doesn't have to be material...anything, open to suggestions?!

[tomcat360]

This topic has kinda faded, but whatever--

I think the reason we are losing a bunch of people that appear that they will be a regular (100 post over 2 months or more) is because of the "how do you pop-up?" and "what wax should I use?" types of questions.

Is there a way that we could organize the forums so that all of that sticks to one board? I guess we kinda do have one, but I guess some people don't listen.

What if we had a "Q/A and Resources for new surfers" board? Only problem with that is I basically stole the name from another site

I think the reward thing is good in theory, except what Papa said, people would up their post counts just to get it. There is nothing worse than a post whore, I think we all found that out when the 'A GUY WHO REALLY SURFS' and a whole bunch of other names came around.

[Dec]

If there was a reward for people that stayed an active member for 2months, then another for 4months...etc..

and there should be a simple begginers Q&A Area.

[drowningbitbybit]

The beginners bit is a good idea

Is it possible to link a forum (via a panel of links to the side, maybe) to a set of standard answers ("What board should I get?" "What wax?" "How do you turn?", written by the regulars/experienced) so if they post a question they cant help but see the answer staring them in the face?

Its all very well telling people to search... but they dont!!!

[Dec]

Yea, the sticky's are there but they dont read them.

How about when someone posts, it has to be granted by moderators/ admin before it's published.

[PapaW]

Everything else asside, I think its ok now, quite a few new regulars plus its bound to pick up with more n00b posts becuase of the time of year.