Quote:
Originally Posted by Robert Walker
Okay just trying to put some shared suggestions to bullet points. I think we all realize everyone appreciates suggestions even if actually doing something about it might simply not be feasible. So in order of posting, not importance.
1. Auctions: Combining them into the classifieds
2. Splash Page: linking the FC Logo to it & perhaps adding it to the Nav bar or Quick links.
3. Mobile Friendlier: ability to leave Karma comments
4. More Participation in Forums: __________suggestions?
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I think that part of the issue at least with #4 is that a lot of newbies have drifted away from interactive forums to social media, especially Facebook. I am a member of many reptile classifieds and groups on Facebook. Some are extremely poorly moderated and have become a real cesspool of overused memes, sarcasm, and just general negativity. I honestly believe we're losing a lot of new people in this hobby to cynical, self-righteous trolls.
Here are a couple of avenues I think we could examine:
1. Actually create a Facebook page for Faunaclassifieds. I know the admins and mods here are probably way too busy to take on additional responsibilities, and having someone actively monitor the page is absolutely essential to keep the trolls at bay. A really great example is The Reptile Report's facebook presence. They have 1-4 posts a day on cool topics that are currently being discussed and/or advertised on their site. I think this would be a great way to reel the Facebook crowd back in to either utilize the site as far as purchasing animals goes, and to encourage more forum participation. To help alleviate workload, what some sites have done is have rotating staff that take care of the posting and basic moderating, while having a global administrator that is notified if anything major needs to be done.
2. Advertise Faunaclassifieds as a newbie-friendly site through various outlets, including Facebook. Faunaclassifieds is still widely accessed for the BOI, but like Robert noted, I do feel we are losing the interaction. Our experienced members are simply not responding very much to questions posed on here, and I'm not sure why. I think part of the reason is that forum questions very quickly get bumped off the limit of "New Posts" by classifieds ads. Perhaps if there was a way to divorce a discussion forum update from a classifieds update, that would help with the issue? I doubt that's possible though from a web design standpoint.