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Lurkers

S

SilveryChris

New Member
I see that you are having the same happenstance that I am having at my Board and that is the "Lurkers Who Do Not Post Syndrome". Personally, I find that SO frustrating. Do you have any suggestions as to how to get those Lurkers to come out and join in the festivities and post? How do we convince them that the old adage "the more the merrier" is REALLY true?

I need HELP with this one!

Chris :confused:
 
I'm not sure really. I know I sometimes lurk around a forum before decing to join (or not). If the people are friendly and polite and there's something that I'm interested in, then I'll join them.

If it's full of people flaming each other, and generally just a free-for-all, then I'll give it a miss.
 
Yep, I'd have to go with Darren on this one. The onus is really on the posters to provide a good reason for lurkers to come aboard. If the forum is a good one, a like-minded lurker (or perhaps "recurrent viewer" is a less sinister term?!) is very likely to join.

Sometimes people just like to read. In a forum like this, with its subjects and tone, I don't think there's anything unwholesome about that. Go ahead and lurk, and blessings be upon ye.

Personally, I find forums and mailing lists that demand you join before seeing them a bit unappealing. It does depend on their subject, granted, but generally I hold this to be true.

Tobytook
 
One way is to lock an interesting PART of the forum for members-only. Let it show in the overview, but lurkers cannot access ...
Ok, this maybe will not increase the posts - or wait! - it will: people who registers are really interested. Maybe you can try that. Take a look at my forum, there you will see that the part at the bottom is partly invisible.

/Holger
 
My problem is really with the Short Story Authors themselves. The Board was created at their request in February. They wanted a forum where they could showcase their original short stories without any of the clutter that was surrounding their stories at the Board at ivillage where we were posting our stories at that time. We didn't have a large number of posters to the stories even at ivillage. But when I started the Short Story Board at EZBoard the original group of Authors quickly became disillusioned with the number of respondents to their stories. Four of them have already dropped out of the Board that they asked for. They want the "lurkers" to post and say something about their stories. I have tried everything I can think of to get the "lurkers" to post. The attitude of the authors has surprised me to say the least. Apparently, even though the posters at ivillage were few the authors STILL thought that thousands were reading their stories while at EZBoard they don't seem to believe that anyone is reading unless they post. I am truly amazed at the perceptions! But the bottom line is that the Writers are not writing now. And I have not had time to write any myself (which I do not like) due to managing the new Board ! Darren can relate to this. I do not want to occupy my time with a 'Chit-Chat" Board! I was willing to spend the time to see good short stories, but I am not getting those due to the writer's perceptions. So, when the ad-free time expires over there I am going to shut the story Board down unless something drastic changes.............which I am not expecting. To say the least it has been a learning experience! :rolleyes:

Chris
 
I think it has a lot to do with the type of people you have and the mix of people you have at your board. I recently opened a "writers" type forum at my board. The activity comes and goes, but the members seem very satisfied with it. The authors post for the sake of enjoyment, not for "show". And the other members usually put a few nice comments about each writer's work.
 
Well, I must have located a wierd group of ego-maniacal writers then because they sure don't seem to be posting for self-gratification. Glad that your group is much different! Congrats, Annabelle!

Chris
 
Originally posted by Holger
One way is to lock an interesting PART of the forum for members-only.
/Holger
Click to expand...
I have seen this done on other fourms. I feel that if you hid the interesting sections... you're hiding the sections that compel people to register. How do you peak interest in people to register, if the best part is locked from their view?
 
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