How to expand the current poster base?

[Guest lvdkeyes]

This is beginning to sound a bit familiar to me.

[Guest BeginnersMind]

This is beginning to sound a bit familiar to me.

 

How cryptic! Do expand. Has all this been tried before only to end in a train wreck?

[Guest BeginnersMind]

You have amazing ideas. I can tell you are going to be a true asset here. Thank you for joining and going through the process to post. I can't wait to see your new posts. Welcome!

 

Well thankyou for your kind and warm welcome! Sawadee Krap.

[Guest fountainhall]

There is one issue that I do not think has yet come up regarding the topic of this thread. It seems there is a huge number of registered members of gaythailand - more than 10,000. Look at the membership list and you will be amazed. Many may have joined and given up. Others may have left Thailand. Yet more may be here for the personals rather than the forums. But surely we should also be looking at ways for inactive members to become more active - not only attracting new members. Should there be a short questionnaire circulated to all members to find out more about who they are, why they joined, why they don't post, what changes they'd like to see, etc.?

[Guest Astrrro]

 

This moderation of the first few posts is a barrier - it doesn't allow new users to get right into the discussion, and you won't see a second post until you approve the first post, slowing the user down. A new user will repeatedly check back with the site to see if anyone has responded to his post - it's addictive in nature. He won't do that if the post doesn't appear! He'll lose interest and go somewhere else.

 

Some forums put brand new users on moderated status as a spam control device. While no one really minds a little spam for half a day. sometimes spam can take over the whole first page of a forum.

 

One idea is if a mod is online, permit first posts to appear instantly.

 

I get discouraged if my first post doesn't appear and makes it less likely that I will return.

[Guest beachlover]

Let's start with the less contentious stuff. This is a basic usability problem. I've registered twice on the site, and had problems finding the "Register" link both times. Maybe because it is called "Join" and is at the bottom of the page. Sometimes the bottom of the pages doesn't appear! There should be a link at the top of the page too, it should be easy to find and it should be linked with the word "Register". It should be easy to find on the homepage of the website.

I agree! This is a fairly serious issue. I had a similar frustrating experience when I first registered. People are so impatient with websites that even a few moments is too long for something to be obvious.

 

From a usability perspective - GB's site is superior. It doesn't have all the cruft and complication that surrounds this forum. What do all those links do? I don't know. I don't care, I just want to read the forum.

I agree... GBT is so much clearer, simpler and less cluttered. But that's one of the challenges of having a website like GT, which offers multiple features. GBT's website design doesn't need to factor in all the other features GT has.

 

I think it's possible for GT's design to be as clear and uncluttered as GBT is... It would just take a lot more skill and effort.

 

If I were running a site like this, I'd stay focussed on a niche - Pattaya seems to be it. Gay Thailand/Gay SE Asia are subjects too big to tackle.

 

But the site is called Gay Thailand. Not Gay Pattaya.

 

I would have no interest at all in a site that only talks about gay Pattaya. I think the forum would lose a significant portion of its members.

 

Gay Thailand, is not that broad a topic that focusing the niche further would 'grow the business'. I think the current value proposition is perfect - Have Gay Thailand as the primary offering, and a little bit of info and discussion on surrounding countries as a peripheral secondary offering.

 

If I were running a forum like this, I'd allow immediate, anonymous, single-click posting, with maybe a captcha, and delete the spam. Registration is a pain in the ass - it'll drive away 80% of potential posters. This is how I'd increase poster numbers - some of those posters will go on to become members.

This, I wouldn't agree to. It's ok for blogs and news articles. But on a forum like this, you want committed posters. And you want people to go through the process of registering. Otherwise you just get a bunch of "anonymous guests" posting and no long-term characters or relationships forming.

[Guest BeginnersMind]

Gay Thailand, is not that broad a topic that focusing the niche further would 'grow the business'. I think the current value proposition is perfect - Have Gay Thailand as the primary offering, and a little bit of info and discussion on surrounding countries as a peripheral secondary offering.

 

On the web, I'm a big believer in doing something small well. When someone visits Pattaya, they want to find the website with the best info on Pattaya, not the one about Thailand that has some info about Pattaya. That's why Nick's Gay Pattaya works so well.

 

I think have Gay Pattaya as the primary offering, and a little bit of info and discussion on surrounding areas (Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Phuket, Issan etc) as the peripheral secondary offering. If it goes well, expand. But get one small market right first.

[Guest BeginnersMind]

Should there be a short questionnaire circulated to all members to find out more about who they are, why they joined, why they don't post, what changes they'd like to see, etc.?

 

Oh I hate getting questionnairres and always ignore them. A mailshot is a fine idea though - one with a list of the most interesting recents threads and posts maybe?

[ChristianPFC]

The timing of events for this site was very unfortunate. Expecting it to close down or become appendix to an escort service, I changed to Gaybuttons new board and stayed there (before, this was the board I read and posted most). There are currently five gay Thailand blogs, I check and post on one daily, the others once or twice a week. In my opinion, this 500USD-marathon was a very bad idea, as it created a lot of posts that have nothing to do with Thailand (or if they were about Thailand, there was no new information). I don't know how long it will take until this forum gets back on track (at least until the marathon is over), and even then I ask, maybe 3 or 4 message boards about gay Thailand are enough?

[Guest xiandarkthorne]

I can only speak for myself but when I visit a forum like this, my main purpose is to look for information. I don't mind stimulating repartee between posters as long as some effort is made to keep to the content of the thread but the last thing I want to have to do is to wade through a series of long, side-tracking arguments between posters in which all kinds of nitpicking is given under the excuse of "content accuracy".

 

Whenever that has happened, threads are derailed and become lost in the ensuing battle of posting one-upmanship and I find that very irritating. That is one reason why I no longer comment on or even look at one particular poster's stuff and also why I no longer post here with any frequency.