More regular posting members

[60800]

It seems to me that there is only a group of about 40 of us that post regularly on the forum. Does anyone think we need more people posting regulary, and if so, how could we draw people in?

[rob237]

Normal practice amongst all forums. Only a small percentage of 'members' will contribute...
Of the dozen, or so, forums with which I'm actively involved a similar ratio of members to postings applies.
Cheers
Robt P.

[Bryan]

It's the same with all activities.
Look at the various preserved railway sites, membership might be 4000+ but active members will be a couple of 100.
The regular cry "Its the same old faces" is oft to be heard.

[richard]

All told, I think we are doing pretty well.

The forums were created to try and provide a self-help group to answer the questions I kept receiving by email. People thought I was an expert! They've grown quite a way beyond that so they attract their own people to the site.


Richard

[Malcolm]

It seems to me that there is only a group of about 40 of us that post regularly on the forum. Does anyone think we need more people posting regulary, and if so, how could we draw people in?

I second the opinion that the forum is doing well. The number of members since I joined has shot up, and the number online at any one time has set new records. However, I think you will find that the topic of a thread has a lot to do with the number of people contributing. If there is a query about a loco, rolling stock, a photo's location, an accident etc. then the number of members contributing increases. If someone asks for help, then the response is fantastic. The modelling forum is amazing sometimes, but on others there seems to be a lot of frivolous chatting about useless "What if.....?", or the topic goes completely off course with useless banter about presents and what happened to me type stuff. There are others who just seem to post to change their profile loco designation.

However, on second thoughts the term "frivolous chatting" seems a bit unfair. There must be members out there for which this encyclopedia is one of their few chances to communicate with people who enjoy railways topics, and have no other chance to exercise a common interest. Having lived abroad for so many years I, myself, log on occaisionally just to be reminded of a world I enjoy so much.

On the whole, though, the long time members who don't post so often will rise to the occasion if a good topic presents itself.
I still log on everyday even if I don't post so often. This is a great forum.

Malcolm

[richard]

Well people ignored my warnings and the thread deteriorated again, so as I outlined in some off-thread messages a couple of days ago, I've deleted all but the first few posts and locked the thread.

The original question was a legitimate one even if I thought the concern expressed was ill-founded.

Any attempts to restart this thread will be deleted.

As I've said before, I don't want to be defining the line of what is acceptable - so don't force me. I also don't want to spend all my time moderating and disciplining. If I wanted to do that I would have taken a job as a primary school teacher.

We do have two other moderators. If things continue, I may be looking to recruit more moderators. If that doesn't help or I am unable to, I can always pull the plug on the forums. Quite frankly, I have better things to do than keep you all in order.