Forum Arrangement

[delericho]

I think you're basically right: empty, dead forums do you no favors. I'm a member of 4 community forums here, and the only one with a post in the past year is the one that started this year.

Yep, this.

 

[Morrus]

I'm considering one more forum, with the caveat that the threads can be moved back easily. I was thinking of using the ICv2 chart to determine which games are popular enough to warrant their own forum. D&D, Pathfinder, and Star Wars are the top three obvious choices. Then we have a few choices - Cypher System right now, or Shadowrun or Fate from other recent charts.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

If you base forum breakdowns on what is hot, you'll just wind up changing them if/when those systems are not.

 

[Morrus]

If you base forum breakdowns on what is hot, you'll just wind up changing them if/when those systems are not.

Maybe.

 

[delericho]

I'm considering one more forum, with the caveat that the threads can be moved back easily. I was thinking of using the ICv2 chart to determine which games are popular enough to warrant their own forum.

Doesn't that have the problem that what's hot in terms of game-store sales may well not be what's hot amongst ENWorld members? In particular, Numenera was largely sold via Kickstarter and so probably has an artificially low position on the charts.

Based on a cursory glance at the thread tags that crop up (and ignoring all the "Aberrant" threads that the spambots seem to like), there really don't seem to be any games that see much traffic. So maybe there's no pressing need for another forum at this time?

 

[Morrus]

Doesn't that have the problem that what's hot in terms of game-store sales may well not be what's hot amongst ENworld members?

It does, yes.

Based on a cursory glance at the thread tags that crop up (and ignoring all the "Aberrant" threads that the spambots seem to like), there really don't seem to be any games that see much traffic. So maybe there's no pressing need for another forum at this time?

The context of the thread isn't pressing needs. It's experimentation to test the causation hypothesis in the OP.

 

[Umbran]

The context of the thread isn't pressing needs. It's experimentation to test the causation hypothesis in the OP.

Are you tracking the number of threads and number of posts per day in the new forums over time? I think the search function will allow us to build up that information after the fact, come to think of it. So we can have some data, rather than just impressions. On which day did you create the Star Wars forum?

 

[Morrus]

Are you tracking the number of threads and number of posts per day in the new forums over time? I think the search function will allow us to build up that information after the fact, come to think of it. So we can have some data, rather than just impressions. On which day did you create the Star Wars forum?

It's slow enough that we don't need the search function.

It opened on 9th May (10 days ago). There have been exactly 20 threads since then, 7 of which I started. I think that's OK - less than 1 a day would be an issue, I think.

 

[Umbran]

It's slow enough that we don't need the search function.

Okay, so what was the impact on General? How many threads (or posts) per week were we getting before this, and how many after? Because the activity change is not necessarily just "consider anything in the new forum as something that would have been in General".

 

[Morrus]

Okay, so what was the impact on General? How many threads (or posts) per week were we getting before this, and how many after? Because the activity change is not necessarily just "consider anything in the new forum as something that would have been in General".

No significant change at all.