by OldGuy » 27 Feb 2022, 14:00
The low count of available topics appears to be a serious issue at this time. The very life of this site depends on a steady flow of new topics for everyone.
As I have been monitoring recent site activity since January, I have noted that the total count of available topics over the most recent 7 day display is rarely over 200. As you stated and has been noted, you alone have provided nearly a full third of all recently discussed topics. When you slow down, the counts of available topics to discuss falls off a cliff. Very few others are picking up any of the slack.
Netherrealmer wrote:I stopped making new threads to give way to people but only few people are still doing their part.
When I first mentioned this to Fergal, there were only 159 topics even listed for the whole week. It has barely risen to 200 to maybe 205 over the most recent week mostly with your new topics and bumps, but the oldest topics are dropping off the list by an average of 10 to 15 topics every day and the count continues to fall since incoming new topics are so rare. We need at least that many new topics every single day just to keep somewhere near the 200 count to work with. Even that is not enough. We used to have an average of around 350 topics in any most recent 7 day period.
I have also noted that the total volume of members even logging in is shrinking. It used to be a fairly normal day to see something between 75 and 80 members in the list on the home page showing those who had recently logged in. Now, it has been a struggle to even see 45 to 50 members in that list. I have seen the counts drop into the 30s several times in recent weeks.
A startling detail is that only 60% actually find topics to work on. 40% of all who log in browse the listings during a brief visit but then leave with no activity at all since they find nothing new of interest. New visits from long inactive existing members show up every day but most of those older members visit without posting anything. We need a lot of new topics as regular site activity from everyone.
I was thinking this issue may be a good reason to actually use the reputation points and a scoring system to determine a log in procedure.
If you divide your total count of reputation points by your total number of posts and read the results as a percentage, you can quickly see your own reputation score. The current site average score is 8.51%.
I have already suggested that part of the log in procedure should include an added step of providing one new topic each time you log in before you are allowed to post on existing topics. However, Fergal does not want to interfere with members who are providing high quality content.
Maybe that log in procedure could be keyed to the reputation score. Those who have an above average reputation score could just log in and go straight to posting. However, those with a below average reputation score would be required to post a new topic before proceeding to posting comments.
That step alone would be a significant incentive to provide much higher quality content to the site. Improve the quality of your content to earn an above average score and you would no longer be required to post a new topic before posting comments on existing topics.
This change could improve the overall quality of all content on the site as a side effect. The overall average score would improve over time raising the bar for all below average members. It would be very effective in pushing out the very low score members as an added benefit.
Anyhow, for now, we just need a lot more members to take the time to post new topics. Everyone needs them and we need them every single day.
The low count of available topics appears to be a serious issue at this time. The very life of this site depends on a steady flow of new topics for everyone.
As I have been monitoring recent site activity since January, I have noted that the total count of available topics over the most recent 7 day display is rarely over 200. As you stated and has been noted, you alone have provided nearly a full third of all recently discussed topics. When you slow down, the counts of available topics to discuss falls off a cliff. Very few others are picking up any of the slack.
[quote="Netherrealmer"]I stopped making new threads to give way to people but only few people are still doing their part.[/quote]
When I first mentioned this to Fergal, there were only 159 topics even listed for the whole week. It has barely risen to 200 to maybe 205 over the most recent week mostly with your new topics and bumps, but the oldest topics are dropping off the list by an average of 10 to 15 topics every day and the count continues to fall since incoming new topics are so rare. We need at least that many new topics every single day just to keep somewhere near the 200 count to work with. Even that is not enough. We used to have an average of around 350 topics in any most recent 7 day period.
I have also noted that the total volume of members even logging in is shrinking. It used to be a fairly normal day to see something between 75 and 80 members in the list on the home page showing those who had recently logged in. Now, it has been a struggle to even see 45 to 50 members in that list. I have seen the counts drop into the 30s several times in recent weeks.
A startling detail is that only 60% actually find topics to work on. 40% of all who log in browse the listings during a brief visit but then leave with no activity at all since they find nothing new of interest. New visits from long inactive existing members show up every day but most of those older members visit without posting anything. We need a lot of new topics as regular site activity from everyone.
I was thinking this issue may be a good reason to actually use the reputation points and a scoring system to determine a log in procedure.
If you divide your total count of reputation points by your total number of posts and read the results as a percentage, you can quickly see your own reputation score. The current site average score is 8.51%.
I have already suggested that part of the log in procedure should include an added step of providing one new topic each time you log in before you are allowed to post on existing topics. However, Fergal does not want to interfere with members who are providing high quality content.
Maybe that log in procedure could be keyed to the reputation score. Those who have an above average reputation score could just log in and go straight to posting. However, those with a below average reputation score would be required to post a new topic before proceeding to posting comments.
That step alone would be a significant incentive to provide much higher quality content to the site. Improve the quality of your content to earn an above average score and you would no longer be required to post a new topic before posting comments on existing topics.
This change could improve the overall quality of all content on the site as a side effect. The overall average score would improve over time raising the bar for all below average members. It would be very effective in pushing out the very low score members as an added benefit.
Anyhow, for now, we just need a lot more members to take the time to post new topics. Everyone needs them and we need them every single day.
I completely forgot I have a post scheduler software I can use to post. Might as well start processing some unposted topics I haven't used yet, to this forum.
