Heh. CSR beat me to it. As usual
However, I'd like to take a more analytical approach to what we could be doing; I like the suggestions in this thread, so I have tried to sort them out into a slightly cohesive framework. Although this is a long post, please do take some time to read it. I need feedback too, you see!
Click here to view the secret text
×First of all, with 65 votes, this poll is getting a better turnout than I expected. Thanks for voting, everyone! And if you haven't already, please do vote.
The results demonstrate some interesting trends.
First of all, 70% of the voters were veterans (>2 years), which is surprising. Clearly, newbies are somewhat rare around here, or are not active. Futhermore, many of the people who voted are lurkers, and don't post despite visiting often.
On the question of why this is, taking the #1 slot is "I don't feel anything I can do or post will be appreciated by the community", followed by "there's not enough general activity on the forums" in #2. Clearly both are self-perpetuating, and #1 is somewhat of a concern; where has all that supportive community spirit gone?
Also surprisingly high on the list are "I actively dislike a number of people or things that happen here" with 12 votes and "I feel a bit intimidated or confused by everyone else here" with 10. This also demonstrates a breakdown in community relations, which I find quite saddening.
It is apparent that some think "people just aren't being creative enough", which may be a direct consequence of "I don't feel anything I can do or post will be appreciated by the community". It may, however, also be because many of us are busy (understandable), and especially with DROD (good).
Based on this information, the posts in this thread, and various related topics on the forum, I have made a diagram (attached) to show my interpretation of how I think this community functions, what might be going wrong, and what we could do to fix it.
Click here to view the secret text
×Diagram 1 shows how I interpret the forum would run if it were active. Basically, we could divide the forum up into three major groups; Forumites (who browse and post), DRODers (who play and build) and Advancers (who expand DROD and our community with creativity). All of us are bound up together in a network of interactions that keep the forum going.
The community could be considered to have seven major resources:
1) DROD: the game, without which none of this would exist.
2) Forum activity, which is how active we are in posting interesting things.
3) The Forum archive, which contains our past history.
4) Publicity, which brings in new faces and reminds older people about us.
5) The DROD pool, containing all the DRODistic media we have.
6) The Creativity pool, containing all the other creative art users have created and shared with us.
7) Inspiration, a loose term referring to how motivated we are to contribute to the other six things.
On diagram 2, I have marked the various reasons people have suggested for the slowdown in red, and possible solutions in brown. I think if we could get at least some of these in action, it could go some way to rejuvenating the forum:
Click here to view the secret text
×1) DROD's infrastructure needs oiling
There are lots of things that need doing in DROD and on these forums, for example, setting up the RPG hold publishing system and getting the latest TCB patches out.
We should go on a recruitment drive!
Mike has asked if anyone is interested in helping to develop DROD, and I second that. Get in contact with the Caravel team and lend us your skills!
2) Holds need testing
As Dischorran, CSR and I have mentioned, we desperately need more hold testers to be active. Without testing, architects lose their incentive to build new holds, and the whole DROD pool stagnates. Furthermore, testers have always been in the minority (as far as I can remember) and this appears to be getting worse. One reason for the problem may be that testing does imply effort needing to be put in multiple times over the course of a hold's development, sometimes apparently without much reward. After all, your progress is likely to be erased with newer versions, and you don't get to play it all in one go until the very end.
I propose we should reward testers for their efforts with something more tangible than a fuzzy feeling. One of the main motivators to do things here (and something I will get to later) is having fair recognition for what you have done.
Kwakstur's suggestion further down here is simpler and if anything, easier to implement. I replace my original suggestion (secreted below) with his:
People who test holds should get more mod points than they currently do. There should be a moderator taking care of this, checking Architecture for helpful posts and awarding +1s somewhat generously, making sure that all who actively contributed to the hold get at least a few points.
To do this, please nominate people for solution 5), below!
Click here to view the secret text
×My suggestion would be to implement a system whereby players that test holds can be rewarded with a new type of rank point by hold architects (or administrators). Players with tester points could then be rewarded by being able to change their "level" status (on the left of each post) to something that reflects the number of testing points they have (e.g. "Experimental Exterminator Level: 4") as opposed to their number of rank points.
While it could potentially stir up arguments about whether people deserve points for testing or not (as in the various rank point fiascos), I'd say that if it actually encourages people to play other peoples' holds and comment on them, it's a risk that's worth taking.
3) (New) people are intimidated by the community/unhappy about specific things here
I don't really know why people appear to be upset about things, but since this is the DROD forum, I can't imagine the reasons are good. For one thing, there have been quite a number of instances of, shall we say,
not-very-social behaviour here, and it has been considered amusing.
While I am not saying people don't have a right to free speech or cracking jokes, I don't think doing so at other people's expense (especially at newer members) is going to help any of us at all. When you do it with the intention of being hurtful, it doesn't matter how funny you personally think it is; the person on the receiving end could very well be offended. Please could people try to be a bit more accommodating and less unpleasant, as Jeremy suggests?
In addition, I also agree a more newbie-friendly introduction to the Forums and DROD would also be a good idea. There have been suggestions, for example, that we might want to change the Arnold thread to something else that is less confusing, and having more guides like
Jacob's would help give people a better intiation into what is a reasonably complex community. RoboBob's suggestion to cut the number of boards is also a good idea, although perhaps hiding them by default might be a better way to archive them (since deletion appears to be quite a contentious issue).
Also, I'd just like to mention that zwetchenwasser, on behalf of
this department is doing a fine job of enthusiastically welcoming people. Keep it up!
4) People don't feel they can contribute to the community
As the #1 option in the poll, this is kind of disappointing. I am sure we all would appreciate anything that people do, but I guess the issue has managed to entangle itself up with a low posting rate in general.
In addition to 3), in which we could be more understanding towards each other when we post replies, part of the solution may lie in what I mentioned for 2); we should try to reward people for their efforts. Simplest would be mod-pointing; I'm sure even the least concerned of us about rank points would still feel fuzzy if they got a +5 for something they made and shared with us. We also already have a system
in place to do this; now all we need are volunteer content seekers to go for a trawl to dig up that hidden art that's lurking around here somewhere.
Getting a few more site editors on board might also be an idea, since what better place could there be to showcase all of that (newly-found) creativity? It's not to say that Matt, Patrick and anyone else who worked on the site haven't done a good job (they certainly have, and kudos are indeed in order), but we all have limited time to do things (as the poll indicates) and we definitely don't want volunteer burnout if we can avoid it.
But above all, if you've got something creative, don't be afraid to share it with us. If you see something you like, don't be afraid to post back to say so. As CSR says, even a short comment is feedback, and feedback is what drives inspiration!
5) More admins would be nice
It's not to say that our current admins aren't good either; as outstanding members of the community, they have always fully deserved their statuses and have worked hard to keep the community going through the years. But, as Ryan and Jeremy point out, our current admins may be strapped for time, and we need at least some active moderators to keep things running. Even if it's only to seed mod points around, I'm sure it would help.
6) "DROD simply isn't getting out there, to the people who would be interested in it"
One thing I have learnt is that marketing can be more important than the product itself sometimes. As DROD's community will always need replenishing as it grows, marketing is important to us for all kinds of reasons.
It appears that the
marketing team was never active. While the Press Clippings board does show some activity on that front, I think we really do need someone (or a small group of people) to consider our marketing strategy to get DROD out there. It would also help Mike free up more time for development!
The Illuminations are also a good way to maintain interest in the community, so keep up the good work, Patrick!
And finally, we probably will struggle against a lack of time and manpower. I know that I've probably spent far longer than I should have posting this.
But the evidence shows that people still care about the forums and want them to be more active. I'd say now is as good a time as any to try to
reverse the slowdown and do something for your community.
Let's go!
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Resident Medic/Mycologist
[Last edited by agaricus5 at 03-05-2009 11:16 PM]
/dy
) then WTF is it doing there?
