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You are here: MacNN Forums > Community > Feedback > Constructive ideas on growing membership.

Constructive ideas on growing membership.
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Athens
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Oct 28, 2011, 02:51 AM
 
Every one seems to complain about how the numbers are getting low but not many offer real constructive idea's on how to grow the forums back. Well im going to try and offer 3 ideas.

Idea 1, a Facebook Like and a Google +1 for posts. This will add exposure and link posts to social media sites which could attract more users.

Second a upgrade to vbulletin 4 and the addition of these two mods/apps

Facebook integration allowing for the forum to be integrated with facebook. There is a demo video.
https://www.vbulletin.com/index.php?do=facebookapp

Forum Mobile option. I currently post via my phone on the normal site which is a royal pain in the arse.
https://www.vbulletin.com/index.php?do=mobile

I think these are all in reach with a little will and would positively affect the current membership numbers.

I don't think we really need to make any major changes other then this. The world changed, and I don't think the reason our numbers are down are related to moding or users but the way the world has changed. from 2000-2005 the social network was forums. When Facebook came along it slowly changed social networking and forums got left in the dust. Social Media linking would put the forums back in the social network. I don't think any of the other mac forums are linked up either which could put MacNN back in the lead.
Blandine Bureau 1940 - 2011
Missed 2012 by 3 days, RIP Grandma :-(
     
Andy8
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Oct 28, 2011, 06:57 PM
 
Ditch the front page news in the mess it is now and link news articles into the forums as macrumors does.
     
Athens  (op)
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Oct 28, 2011, 07:03 PM
 
I think there is a major disconnect between the front page macnn site and the forums. So screw the macnn site and link off to social media on its own.
Blandine Bureau 1940 - 2011
Missed 2012 by 3 days, RIP Grandma :-(
     
Kerrigan
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Oct 28, 2011, 07:16 PM
 
this forum needs MORE COWBELL
     
imitchellg5
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Oct 30, 2011, 01:31 AM
 
Do we really need more members?
     
Lateralus
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Oct 30, 2011, 03:29 AM
 
Yes.
I like chicken
I like liver
Meow Mix, Meow Mix
Please de-liv-er
     
besson3c
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Oct 30, 2011, 07:42 AM
 
I'm just here for the free spaghetti
     
ajprice
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Nov 1, 2011, 08:37 AM
 
All good points in the first post...

Link front page news story comments to forum threads
Mobile site
Facebook Like, Google +1 and Tweet buttons

For whatever reason I was logged out of the forums on my iPhone the other day, the popup log in button in the bar at the top doesn't work on an iPhone, to log in I had to go to a thread, go to add a post for it to tell me I wasn't logged in and do I want to log in from there. PITA.

It'll be much easier if you just comply.
     
subego
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Nov 2, 2011, 12:37 AM
 
Lazy load banner ads.
     
Big Mac
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Nov 2, 2011, 01:17 AM
 
What are those subego?

"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground." TJ
     
besson3c
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Nov 2, 2011, 02:09 AM
 
Originally Posted by Big Mac View Post
What are those subego?
I hope you don't mind me answering this subego, I can't resist a geek teaching moment...

Stuff that gets rendered on a webpage is traditionally requested within the actual HTML of the page. This is how MacNN is setup. When there is a banner ad or something that resides on a server that is unresponsive, this blocks pages from rendering immediately.

Lazy loading is a technique handled via Javascript, and works by fetching the remainder of stuff needed for a page after the DOM has loaded (DOM = document object model).

So, what this would mean for MacNN would be to put all of the actual forum guts: the template images, post HTML, CSS, etc. into the document that is rendered initially, and then lazy load all ads, user provided images, emoticons, and other crap. The net result is that pages will load and render faster - you'll see all the important stuff displayed normally, and loading of the non-important stuff like the ads and the aforementioned won't block or suspend the loading of the important stuff.

This has been suggested before, but I'd add to that that if we are interested in improving performance the actual HTML could be restructured too to get rid of all of those tables and inline Javascript (and possibly CSS, if applicable) in the markup. I think what is inspiring this now is some ads inconveniencing people here. I would probably be inclined to disable my ad blocker for this site if ads were lazy loaded.
     
Athens  (op)
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Nov 2, 2011, 03:28 AM
 
I started using Ad blocks because of MacNN. Of all the sites that the ad's are blocked I think it affects MacNN the most in speeding it up.
Blandine Bureau 1940 - 2011
Missed 2012 by 3 days, RIP Grandma :-(
     
subego
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Nov 2, 2011, 12:05 PM
 
Originally Posted by besson3c View Post
I hope you don't mind me answering this subego, I can't resist a geek teaching moment...
Of course not. In fact, I was just repeating a term I heard from you.


Edit: and hoping you were right.
( Last edited by subego; Nov 2, 2011 at 12:32 PM. )
     
Shaddim
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Nov 6, 2011, 10:41 PM
 
I should be made a mod, that would spice things up around here.
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
- Thomas Paine
     
subego
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Nov 7, 2011, 10:59 AM
 
Why not? You can always be fired.
     
Doofy
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Nov 7, 2011, 11:21 AM
 
Best idea for growing membership: Remove the mods and admins who're overly ban happy. We all know who they are.
Been inclined to wander... off the beaten track.
That's where there's thunder... and the wind shouts back.
     
P
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Nov 7, 2011, 01:09 PM
 
Bans (excluding spammers) are decided on by the entire team. Who actually pulls the trigger is irrelevant.
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
subego
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Nov 7, 2011, 03:23 PM
 
Does it get decided by "one mod, one vote"?
     
Lateralus
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Nov 7, 2011, 04:01 PM
 
It's actually based on a complicated, tiered point-based system. There are certain things we can do to the benefit of the staff as a whole, from bringing certain types of beer to the annual gathering in Bogata, to outright bribery, which yield certain types of points in varying amounts. These points fluctuate in value depending on the length of time they're held before use, Lunar month earned, and combination of types of points used to buy spots on the Force of Will game board.
( Last edited by Lateralus; Nov 7, 2011 at 04:08 PM. )
I like chicken
I like liver
Meow Mix, Meow Mix
Please de-liv-er
     
mattyb
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Nov 7, 2011, 04:46 PM
 
Originally Posted by imitchellg5 View Post
Do we really need more members?
Originally Posted by Lateralus View Post
Yes.
Who has decided that more members are needed?

What is the desired number of members and what are 'we' at now?
     
reader50
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Nov 7, 2011, 05:56 PM
 
We have ~320 active members last week / ~560 last month out of ~82K members. Not counting banned spammers (13K), unconfirmed (8K), or a few special cases like staff (< 50). Years ago, there were 2-3 pages of new/active threads in the Lounge each day. The tech forums mostly did less, but PowerMac / iMac / OS X got hit hard too. Today, Lounge page 1 goes back over a week.

1,000 active per week would be a good start. Unless we were all post whores back then (possible) the active count was probably 3K-5K per week.
     
The Final Dakar
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Nov 7, 2011, 06:00 PM
 
Originally Posted by reader50 View Post
We have ~320 active members last week / ~560 last month out of ~82K members. Not counting banned spammers (13K), unconfirmed (8K), or a few special cases like staff (< 50). Years ago, there were 2-3 pages of new/active threads in the Lounge each day. The tech forums mostly did less, but PowerMac / iMac / OS X got hit hard too. Today, Lounge page 1 goes back over a week.

1,000 active per week would be a good start. Unless we were all post whores back then (possible) the active count was probably 3K-5K per week.
Well, look at at his way. The Lounge hit a page a day, and it usually contained several multi-page threads. Active in every sense.
     
reader50
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Nov 7, 2011, 06:07 PM
 
I could swear I just said that.
     
The Final Dakar
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Nov 7, 2011, 06:34 PM
 
Originally Posted by reader50 View Post
I could swear I just said that.
Not in a clear manner.

Originally Posted by reader50 View Post
Years ago, there were 2-3 pages of new/active threads in the Lounge each day.
To me, this is talking about the amount of pages the forum had, not the size of the threads within it.
     
mattyb
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Nov 7, 2011, 07:11 PM
 
I know that its been said before, but you'll never get back to the pre-social-networking thread numbers. Forums like this aren't where people 'hang out' anymore.

I do however think that a mobile version would be nice, but would it actually bring the numbers back up? I don't think so. I have no idea about Facebook/Google+/Twitter having never used them.

If I'm honest, I've never, apart from the day that I joined, read the MacNN site. I don't see it in any/many links with Mac related searches either.
     
Shaddim
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Nov 7, 2011, 09:22 PM
 
Originally Posted by subego View Post
Why not? You can always be fired.
I'd be a great mod, I'm very warm and snuggly. I have more free time now, too.
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
- Thomas Paine
     
besson3c
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Nov 8, 2011, 01:39 AM
 
Originally Posted by Shaddim View Post
I'd be a great mod, I'm very warm and snuggly. I have more free time now, too.

If you were to be a mod you'd have to be warm and snuggly with all rule-abiding members such as myself. I think to prove your mod-worthiness you should demonstrate your warm and snuggliness by giving me some of that!

Dorks need love too.... Also, Dork.s.
     
Shaddim
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Nov 8, 2011, 05:06 AM
 
Originally Posted by besson3c View Post
If you were to be a mod you'd have to be warm and snuggly with all rule-abiding members such as myself. I think to prove your mod-worthiness you should demonstrate your warm and snuggliness by giving me some of that!

Dorks need love too.... Also, Dork.s.
The only time I have issues with you is when you go off your meds and make 50-100 nigh incomprehensible posts /hour.
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
- Thomas Paine
     
besson3c
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Nov 8, 2011, 05:15 AM
 
Originally Posted by Shaddim View Post
The only time I have issues with you is when you go off your meds and make 50-100 nigh incomprehensible posts /hour.

hug me.
     
Athens  (op)
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Nov 8, 2011, 05:16 AM
 
*hug*
Blandine Bureau 1940 - 2011
Missed 2012 by 3 days, RIP Grandma :-(
     
Shaddim
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Nov 8, 2011, 02:24 PM
 
Originally Posted by besson3c View Post
hug me.
No. You smell like Ben Gay and wet poodle.
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
- Thomas Paine
     
hyteckit
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Nov 8, 2011, 07:25 PM
 
I'm here for the bacon.
Bush Tax Cuts == Job Killer
June 2001: 132,047,000 employed
June 2003: 129,839,000 employed
2.21 million jobs were LOST after 2 years of Bush Tax Cuts.
     
TimmyDee51
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Nov 22, 2011, 10:59 AM
 
Originally Posted by Andy8 View Post
Ditch the front page news in the mess it is now and link news articles into the forums as macrumors does.
I'm going to second this. The MacNN front page is a bit of a drag. I still visit it regularly, but it definitely needs to feed directly into the forums like MacRumors. Also, the "click to read more" thing is getting tired, especially when sites like MacRumors offer the full article on the main page (I have MacNN set to summaries, so I expect the whole summary). Finally, MacNN was slow to pick up on the iPhone and iPad trends. The MacRumors forums had new sections for each in a heartbeat, and I suspect that drew people. There's not a lot that can be done about that now, but it's something I noticed.
Per Square Mile | A blog about density
     
Athens  (op)
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Nov 24, 2011, 03:44 PM
 
To put in perspective how bad things are we currently have 8 members logged in and 400 guests. Compare that to MacRumors which has 424 Members logged in and 8500 guests.
Blandine Bureau 1940 - 2011
Missed 2012 by 3 days, RIP Grandma :-(
     
Athens  (op)
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Nov 24, 2011, 04:19 PM
 
I don't get it. MacNN is a nicer layout, better color setup and overall a nicer forum. I actually cant stand MacRumors and the only thing it has going for it is *users*

Im starting to wonder if its not the forum... if its the main website that is the problem.
Blandine Bureau 1940 - 2011
Missed 2012 by 3 days, RIP Grandma :-(
     
Kevin Bogues
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Dec 1, 2011, 12:18 PM
 
Originally Posted by Athens View Post
Forum Mobile option. I currently post via my phone on the normal site which is a royal pain in the arse.
https://www.vbulletin.com/index.php?do=mobile
THIS! Please!... posting from the iPhone (our beloved Apple phone) is atrocious.
     
   
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