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

[darroll]

This is still Robins site the way I understand it anyway.
I won't go into the reasons that I thought brought down the other site. (It’s History)
People flit around allot.
I think FB is the most boring site I have ever been on.
Some of the other sites that I frequent have one month of entertainment and two months of boredom.
When you are on a social website you have to be thick skinned. I have been cussed out plenty for stating my opinion. One guy told me that I was to ******g old to talk about soldiers. I just laughed but I think the site banned him. I liked the guy/girl? Never know on the net.

[Mother Sanity (JackieRodzinski)]

I've taken my share of hits too, oddly wnough never for what i deserved. I guess this is a ' social website in general' question if you were starting a social site( which i currently have no plans for doing)...what would you do?

[Mother Sanity (JackieRodzinski)]

I hate facebook. But I frequent it to keep an eye on the kiddies (something I encourage ALL PARENTS to do).

[P.A.]

I am seriously worried that this site is going away. If not actually then by loss of active members. I hate to see this happen because after the death of my wife the original TBD saved me. At least that is how I see it. However I don't know of anything I can do. I have looked at other sites but nothing is anywhere near this one. I may be the last one here

[Bull]

PA I'm glad you are here and many of us will be around for a good long time.

[Mother Sanity (JackieRodzinski)]

Yes, PA, this site is nowhere near the hair pullin', gut punchin GIT DOWN I remember when I first joined. Above all, the advantage to that is that people who were less likely to voice their opinion, are not now so intimidated to do so now.

I've heard 'Atlantis' mentioned several times, and I'm gonna go over and have a look/see. This site does seem to be pretty unique, in that I dont see many others catering to the Boomer target market. But then I can be as ill-informed as I am naive...(like I said, this was a question I've been 'ponderin'...not part of a greater scheme...

[Bull]

One thing I sometimes wonder about when questions like this arise, why not do it yourself. Ask a poll question? Why not act on some of the suggestions yourselves instead of waiting for others.

[Mother Sanity (JackieRodzinski)]

Ah Grasshopper...it takes a village to raise a child.

[Chez moi]

Well, that sounds like a death knell, obituary, call it what you will. I don't care to move on, so I guess I'll sit here at my table in the resto at the end of the universe (thank you Douglas) and chuckle with my like minded friends until we go up in smoke. One thing I do like just now is exactly the fact that it is rather quiet and lacking in drama.

There is another way to phrase the question Jackie is asking: do those of us who are happy here care enough to do something to make it work better? After the last flurry of interest, our activity has dropped to new lows. I am convinced it's seasonal to a certain extent (other sites I visit are also in the doldrums these last few weeks) but yes, we do need to dynamize if we want more new members to be intrigued enough to stay when they look in.

We do appear to have a few new members from time to time, but where do they go? They don't seem to show up here in the Forum; perhaps they go directly to a group where they are happy. Because of the miserable tracking system here, there is no way of knowing who posts where, but that is the same in all Ning groups.

Robin has given us the means to contribute in order to keep the site running. Thus it is not going to disappear. But now what will we do with it? Even on TBD1, though it was her baby, she was not constantly present; it was up to us all to animate the place. It still is.

[Bull]

Chez I have updated the notification on post and will let it run for a bit and see if that helps tracking as you say. If not I will see what else is possible.

[Chez moi]

I guess I am not sure how it works, Bull, can you explain what you mean by that?

[Mother Sanity (JackieRodzinski)]

maybe they...'passed on'...