Where am I going wrong with this site?

This is Rich's thread. I DO NOT want to see any good riddance posts or anything even remotely close. Get this back on topic and KEEP it that way.

What about from a moderators point of view. Your on the forum a lot and have to deal with the good and the bad aspects of fauna on a daily basis. You being a moderator must have a opinion as to what are some of the biggest problems and draw backs you guys face with the site and on the same token by reading a lot of the posts maybe you would know what draws new people here to fauna in the first place.
I spent 4 hours yesterday going to the first posts of the last 50 registered members (atleast the ones that actually posted) and found that most come here for a specific forum be it leopard geckos or cal kings and so on but it seems the majority come here to talk about what animals they have or want. Grant you there were a few that posted to other forums for thier first post ie. boi, web watch, etc. but the mojority are definetely animal selective. I would love to be able to see the last 20 views of the new members, meaning where did they spend most of thier time here while they were logged in not just posting. that would give a little more information as to what the real draw is to the site and what is interesting to people and may keep them coming back.There is a huge number of lurkers on the site that never post and just want to watch whats going on without having to or wanting to participate in the site personally.
I think that what Rich is mainly concerned about is the "HIT" count. Most advertising is sold or measured according to the daily or weekly hits on the site in question. Just because thier are 24,000 registered members he can only claim the 1,200 or so daily visitors or hits when talking to perspective advertisers.If he actually had 24,000 hits a day, trust me, Rich would have a lot less financial worries.
There are a number of piggyback programs that could be used with this site to track all the visitors movements on the site and be able to give a accurate accounting of exactly where most of the people spend thier time and what the biggest draws to the site are. That way rich could offer more of what people are looking for and increase the hits.
What he/we have to think of now is what could be changed or added to the site to get people to come here more often and to bring more new members here. Lets find out whats popular with the people just getting into the hobby and maybe offer that here. There are a lot of extremely intellegent people on here (besides myself :-) ) so we should be able to figure this out.
Sorry to ramble on but sometimes it takes me a while to speak my mind on something.

P.S. Rich - I noticed you havent posted since the initial question starting this thread???

Originally Posted by nicolai

What about from a moderators point of view. Your on the forum a lot and have to deal with the good and the bad aspects of fauna on a daily basis. You being a moderator must have a opinion as to what are some of the biggest problems and draw backs you guys face with the site...

As a moderator, I discuss those types of things with Rich in private. And before anyone asks, he has not asked us to. He has never limited us from expressing our own opinions. This is a choice I have made out of respect for Rich and this site.

Originally Posted by DThomas

As a moderator, I discuss those types of things with Rich in private. And before anyone asks, he has not asked us to. He has never limited us from expressing our own opinions. This is a choice I have made out of respect for Rich and this site.

I need a seal similar to that most vaunted of all crusty humbradges, ribbons huge and blue and belonging to Good Housekeeping to award to this Moderator Most Excellent that masquarades as mild mannered Dennis Thomas, often rumored but rarely seen, dispenser of justice and the Fauna Way, one of those your children should seek to emulate as they grow up, just one of the GOOD guys, to show that HIS sound sensing and far seeing are appreciated. It is also to be hoped that those who are not so well familiarized with his "way" will come to know it much more intimately.

Thanks, man.

Originally Posted by nicolai

I think that what Rich is mainly concerned about is the "HIT" count. Most advertising is sold or measured according to the daily or weekly hits on the site in question. Just because thier are 24,000 registered members he can only claim the 1,200 or so daily visitors or hits when talking to perspective advertisers.If he actually had 24,000 hits a day, trust me, Rich would have a lot less financial worries.

Actually no, it is not the raw hits at all I am concerned about. That number being mentioned is 1,200 REGISTERED MEMBERS visiting. It does not include visitors, both unregistered, or registered members who are logged out at the time.

As for raw hits, which mean the number of times a new page is displayed to any visitor, shows traffic is quite substantial and well over that 24,000 daily hit count.



This snapshot was taken at around 5:30pm today.

What concerns me is the lack of PARTICIPANTS, not just viewers. Why are people declining to participate? Is this something I can fix to change that to a higher proportion of actively participating members here?

Originally Posted by nicolai

P.S. Rich - I noticed you havent posted since the initial question starting this thread???

All in due time. I like to read and assimilate more lately before jumping in and posting. But I am definitely reading everything that is being posted and thinking about it. I am also in the process of making some changes, programmatically, to implement a change in the manner in which "problem people" will be dealt with here in the future. Again, all in due time.....

I guess I should explain that graphic above.

• "Hits" means the number of raw page hits to the site within a 24 hour period.
• "Unique" means the number of unique IP addresses visiting the site in a 24 hour period. This can pretty accurately gauge how many unique visitors have visited. The "hits" divided by "unique" give you a rough idea of how many pages each unique visitor looked at while here.
• "Clicks" is the number of times someone clicked on the FaunaTopSites banner here on this site to go to FaunaTopSites.com

It took more than 12 months to start posting here after registering.

Why? I don't know.

What got me started? I don't remember.

Why do I stay? I like the company.

Why don't I go back to the other forums I am registered on to post? I like it here.

That is all I personally can contribute.

Just an off the cuff comment here before I have to go back to the salt mines and deal with the animals.

Do you know what, in my opinion, makes a great message board? The simple courtesy from ALL members that NO question from ANYONE goes unanswered. NOBODY is ignored. I have been to other unrelated message boards myself, and NOTHING frustrated me more then just simply being ignored. When my questions are unanswered and my comments ignored, I simply do not got back again, ever.

No one has to be an expert to make someone new feel wanted and welcomed.

Just my opinion......... And certainly I am as guilty of it as many other people. I SHOULD be in the cornsnakes forum, but I am not. So I certainly cannot throw stones at other people's glass houses.

Originally Posted by WebSlave

Is this something I can fix to change that to a higher proportion of actively participating members here?

There is the million dollar question!!!!! To answer that question one must be able to answer the 6 questions leading up to the million dollar question.

1) Why do the people that actively participate do so?
2) What keeps the others from participating?
3) How can i find out what will make more people participate?
4) How can i get the members to help encourage others to participate?
5) What can i do to stop some members from keeping others from actively
participating without losing more active members?
6) Is all this actually worth it?

P.S. Dam rich, 40-50,000 hits a day is a very respectable number!!!!! especially when you getting 8-11,000 unique hits a day.You may just get to be a millionaire yet!!!

Forums are kinda like your favorite neighborhood pub. What is it exactly that makes that pub your favorite? Hell there are 100's of pubs very similar to your favorite, similar pricing and food quality, similar juke box and pool tables, similar big breasted waitresses....but what makes you frequent that one pub the most?

Generally the atmosphere. The sense of acceptance among the other patrons (NORM!!!!), a place where you feel you can kick back and enjoy yourself... let your guard down a little and where the other patrons have many of the same likes and dislikes as yourself.

Not everyone is going to be looking for the same things out of a pub. That is why you have some folks who are regs, others that just show up for the "Specials" and some that just come for a quick beer or two twice a week and others that just pop in to see what the place is like never to return.

Thank you for allowing me to share my "Bad Analogy of the Day" with you all.