Raising Membership....

[Mother Sanity (JackieRodzinski)]

Before I go any further, I want to say that I am asking this question as an 'innocent civilian', and not a member of an administrative group (though that may change). Whether it changes or not is STILL NOT why I am asking the question. I am asking it for curiosities sake, mostly; I have difficulty believing that a social site aimed at us, Babyboomers, would not be successful.Sure there's Facebook and the like, but to me, Facebook is a little like Calcutta...or NYC. Just a little bit too broad spectrum and ceratinly too large. (Descriptors like 'a mess' come to mind...).

 

Why wasnt this site successful in the first place? If it relied soley on pay per click advertising...well there's your answer. Maybe thats the reason (ofcourse, the ONLY reason) that my InqquiringEye site never made me any money...

'

Let's give it some thought. (Maybe it will pay off in our own respective, private-life projects). Fisrt off, what about membership? Right now, I see 12 people online. (Prior to the last closing scare, there were roughly 40ish online, at any given time.) To raise membership, I would start with raising awareness. But 'raising aware-ness; as a rule, costs money, doesnt it? Not necessarily so. When ever I needed awareness  (or money) raised for a project (my college education might be an example here...), I went straight to the media. When the media wouldn't bite, or when I was not a part of the media per se, I d use free media, like the internet. And I was not beyond using myself, mystuff, or my friends to advertise my cause.

 

Why isnt this happening already? Well, it beats me, but maybe since the site does not 'belong' to anyone, there is no real incentive to work on it? I dont kbow the answer to this. Is it a 'ning' product? Is there a copyright? Could interested individuals throw in ...10 bucks and incorporate the site? The word 'membership-fee' no doubt causes everyone to cringe, But what if that fee were optional, and it bought you 'stock' in the site? I read that the original site started by Robin (hi Robin) had a  24 million (or so )dollar budget...? Certainly there's enough brainpower between us, we could do it for less...

 

The same article (which I skimmed through) suggested that there was not enough 'content' to keep people interested. I often thought there should be a daily poll (for fun). That should be easy enough to do. Perhaps art or photography, writing or fund raising contests? Not only would the site benefit, but so would we, in our own individualives... Really, the list of contest possibilities is as long as the list of discussion possibilities.

 

Maybe you've rolled this topic around, yourself. Certainly, all of the threats that this site mght close, must certainly have peaked your awareness. Creating, funding, maintaining, administering a site like this a huge job for a handful of people. But if that work was spread out (I can see much of the tedious stuff being automated), maybe it could work. Sure, we wouldnt always agree, but that, inandofitself, would serve to make things livelier (what doesnt kill you makes you stronger...?)

 

Anyway, knowing nothing, I've been thinking. Maybe you have too. Maybe you even know something and would like to share it.. Here's to putting it out in the open! Mother Sanity

[Chez moi]

The same article (which I skimmed through) suggested that there was not enough 'content' to keep people interested.

Jackie, I think this is a good point, but 'content' as such is mostly buried in the groups, isn't it? We can't do it all on the Forum or Q&A, though we can try to improve their content.

BTW, which article are you citing? was it talking about us specifically, or social sites in general?

[Chez moi]

The only way I know to tell is to go the Groups and look at each one to see when it posted last. Aaarrrggghhh.

[Aggie]

Wendy come on over to Aggie, Longhorns and everything Texas. We will feed you.

[Mother Sanity (JackieRodzinski)]

Again, WendyLynn, I would think that a small statistical analysis program run against the database would be able to produce answers to your very, very good question.

[Mother Sanity (JackieRodzinski)]

Thanks for asking. I thought of making a note of the article as I skimmed through it, but, alas, failed to do so. It was about TBD closing the first time.

We agree on alot of things, Chez Moi. It seems that a 'bot', or 'spider', or whatever its called these days, to skim through submissions would aid in sorting and perhaps access. Thats a good idea. I dont know how to do it, though, but that doesnt mean it cant be done, right?

[Chez moi]

That's a good point, Wendy, I don't look there very often - never really got the chat habit. I guess if we miss someone there, we could send a nice little greeting to their page and invite them to post or PM.

[Chez moi]

Next time...
,-D

I'll try to remember to look in once in a while. Trouble is, I can never remember what time it is over there. I guess I can look and see if they're still on first. Or who's on second.
:-O

[Mother Sanity (JackieRodzinski)]

Again, WendyLynn, I would think that a small program run against the database should be able to do this. There do seem to be an awful lot of cobwebs, hmm? (Please, no offense meant to anyone!) But that's what computers are supposed to do: automate routine tasks...all we gotta do is figure out how. and who. and what, and when, and all that stuff.

[Stir Young]

I wonder if she was from Nigeria, WendyLynn?