Site Growth Discussion (Pared from spotted thread)

[zedonist]

Just Going to throw this out there, but don't you think that all this recruiting will result in a paradigm shift of the forum kind (yes I know it's not science related), and as a consequence will alienate long established members if not done in a controlled manner?

I have noticed a content change over the last few weeks, and there is a danger that forum identity could be lost, it's a typical symptom of growth.

 

[BMBabe]

Just Going to throw this out there, but don't you think that all this recruiting will result in a paradigm shift of the forum kind (yes I know it's not science related), and as a consequence will alienate long established members if not done in a controlled manner?

I have noticed a content change over the last few weeks, and there is a danger that forum identity could be lost, it's a typical symptom of growth.

New is good!! And it's all controlled by the top guys @GazHyde and @hard top
Long standing members will surely be pleased to have more people to banter with and pass on their skills and advice

 

[hard top]

I am an oligarch.

 

[oldcarman]

You are right about the content shift as the new people sign on. What I have noticed when I check to see who has been signed on daily is that there has been a lot more initial chatter coming from newer members and I also see a lot of names that have been around quite a while that I don't recall postings from since I joined about a year ago. Why this is I don't know. There are still a lot of tech questions being asked but I've found that in most cases it isn't long timers providing guidance with several exceptions. Obviously these people are still checking in but for whatever reason are not posting. We encourage people to post questions in our welcome threads and answers are pretty quick coming. Are you feeling that the quality of advise is suffering due to the swelling of forum numbers or that as more younger people come on board that the content is swaying because of that. I think this is a growing pain that will sort itself out. It is a choice whether to post or not post and I would expect some older members as well as some new members to float along the fringe joining in if and when something prompts them to action. I personally intend to be here. JIM

 

[EnthuZiaZT]

I am an oligarch.

Qui?????

 

[hard top]

Qui?????

Inside joke in the oil biz Mike....

 

[zedonist]

I think you summed it up nicely Jim, and I don't think it needs a flippant answer, as it has serious implications as to the future of the forum, there are very few in the way of technical threads appearing and if they do they are lost in the sea of hello threads, for sale adds and general waffle and therefore can go unanswered. I think this will cause some members not to participate, which means the knowledge base will leach out to other forums, leaving behind in effect a miscellaneous posting and jumble sale site, nothing wrong in that if it is sustainable and brings pleasure to those members that partake, however it would be nice to find that happy medium once again and provide some loyalty to those members that helped to get this up and running those years back, and while it is hat off to Gaz and HT, alas without the members it would not have been the success it has been, people should take a step back and look what is happening, as usual I would advise going with the majority, but it needs to be looked at how you control the growth to ensure parity across the board, even I am finding myself drawn away from the site these days, but to illustrate my point here is the first two pages of the forum recent posts it does not scream Z3 forum to me, it's more meet greet and sell with the occasional mention of a Zed.

 

[GazHyde]

don't you think that all this recruiting will result in a paradigm shift of the forum

That's a difficult thing to quantify as only a percentage of the new members come from Facebook. I think that you will find that many more people find this site 'organically' from Google and other search engines than Facebook (I'd need to check the stats, but traffic originating from Facebook is a small percentage than from Google for example).

The site is expanding rapidly, and there isn't much I can do to affect that now other than switching off registration and stopping new sign ups. It's a measure of it's success in the search rankings that people discover the site, see that they like it here and sign up.

I think this is a growing pain that will sort itself out.

Yes it probably is, and forums of all types of subjects go through phases of members joining and members moving on.

 

[GazHyde]

I think you summed it up nicely Jim, and I don't think it needs a flippant answer, as it has serious implications as to the future of the forum, there are very few in the way of technical threads appearing and if they do they are lost in the sea of hello threads, for sale adds and general waffle and therefore can go unanswered. I think this will cause some members not to participate, which means the knowledge base will leach out to other forums, leaving behind in effect a miscellaneous posting and jumble sale site, nothing wrong in that if it is sustainable and brings pleasure to those members that partake, however it would be nice to find that happy medium once again and provide some loyalty to those members that helped to get this up and running those years back, and while it is hat off to Gaz and HT, alas without the members it would not have been the success it has been, people should take a step back and look what is happening, as usual I would advise going with the majority, but it needs to be looked at how you control the growth to ensure parity across the board, even I am finding myself drawn away from the site these days, but to illustrate my point here is the first two pages of the forum recent posts it does not scream Z3 forum to me, it's more meet greet and sell with the occasional mention of a Zed.

You know I'm always open to suggestions Rich, what do you suggest? I don't take offence at feedback and never have

EDIT: and that's open to anyone to give useful feedback too.

EDIT 2: Also moved these posts to the Site Feedback area to continue the discussion

 

[Kit]

Well I didn't come from Farcbook hate it and twatter, came because of google.
And I hope to meet some of you during the year.
You could make it a paid site, with the first 2 weeks free, I would not mind paying a subscription for the wealth of knowledge that can had here. But free is friendly and also good, however I would, and I guess more would be happy to pay.
PS shortened my name from Kitcat to what they call me at work just "Kit" and its not short for Christopher.

 

[GazHyde]

Just had a quick look at our sites statistics for you to get a better understanding of how people find us. This is traffic data collected and covers the last months inbound visitors.

53.69% of visitors to the site came through a search engine query. These are people who are looking for information on Zeds and arriving here.
8.56% of visitors came from social media (Facebook, Twitter & Google+)
4.66% of visitors came referred from another site. This would be clicking a link on another forum for example

Finally 33.09% of visitors came from a direct link. These are our existing member visits (where people are either typing the site name in to the address bar or clicking on a browser bookmark).

The upshot of this is that Google is ranking us highly for our content, and displaying it in more and more search results. It doesn't answer the whole discussion but it does go somewhere to answering the question of whether active recruiting is causing a "paradigm shift". Yes it has a small effect, but the majority is down to Google and the site organically growing.

 

[miller1098]

Really good question,I notice a change and I sometimes think what I post is just banter with a very few z tec bits thrown in.If this site was all tec Q&A I wouldn't be so interested .its getting the mix right.perhaps there is too much banter?im willing to go with the flow and take guidance for the good of the forum

 

[hard top]

to illustrate my point here is the first two pages of the forum recent posts it does not scream Z3 forum to me, it's more meet greet and sell with the occasional mention of a Zed.

@zedonist you are talking out of your back side.
Your point is what? Your 'illustration' is/are screen shots from one day and a little bit of yesterday.
Do you (obviously not) realize how much traffic we have now on this site?
How often do you want to chew over questions asked that people can find in the Wiki and the technical database, as that is what they are for and that is what people use. We can remove them if you like and you are more than welcome to spend all day answering these questions.
Have a read of this, been on the front page from day one......

ZRoadster.org was launched on December 5th 2011, and has been growing rapidly ever since.

We are the most social Z community on the web!

Oh, and by the way, thank's for the hats off............

 

[GazHyde]

came because of google.

Haha, case in point . That's where one of you came from then!

You could make it a paid site, with the first 2 weeks free

Charging for forum access isn't likely to be considered but I appreciate the offer. We are lucky that we have low running costs being part subsidised by my co-admins company. What we do have to pay for is about £200 of software license renewals, and that is usually covered by the donations, calendar and occasional merchandise sales. I could do with a holiday though...

 

[miller1098]

It's more like being down the pub with your mates,only there from Canada,USA ,England,Holland,Austrailia,Romainia New Zeland,Ireland Scotland ........the list goes on, I quite like it

 

[oldcarman]

Putin has been called an oligarch! Which means he's the business ruler of a small country called Russia! HT is the ruler of his own domain! What the gas boys use it for is probably not for this section.

 

[billz]

We have had a lot of new members in the last 2 months so there for i see it that yes quite a bit of introductions but if they can not be made to feel welcome then they would just leave. We also have to bare in mind it is winter and even in the past nothing much goes on, i joined when the site started and always remember it being very quiet over the winter period yet now it is a live with chatter. What would you prfer no one to post cos they have nothing to say or chit chat to fill the time. Can you imagine it being how it was in your own home (bliss) if the misses only spoke regarding things i was interested in

 

[TaffZee]

Diversity IsThe Spice of Life, Not sure what the problem is? If we cant embrace new members then I am out of here, we were all new members once, the more the merrier is my opinion. I just dont understand this discussion, and the reason for it!

 

[billz]

And to p--s all those who feel like that off
HELLO JIM not heard from you in a while

 

[TaffZee]

And to p--s all those who feel like that off
HELLO JIM not heard from you in a while

Morning Bill, been hibernating for the winter.