Countries represented on CookingBites

Everything you say above is true. I've many times thought that the word 'forum' conveys the wrong message (or too many multiple messages). Whilst by definition it is correct, it tends to convey too many 'fleeting' concepts such as 'a place to drop into to ask a technical question'. For example, if I want to know how to fix an issue on my phone I might drop into a Samsung Galaxy forum to ask, but I'm hardly likely to think of that forum as a community where I am going to spend time and get to know people.

Maybe we need a new word.
Hope it would be alright if I add a few more things :)
To be honest, those hit and run members are also an important part of a forum. Because they may come for just a solution but they are are one step closer to the forum than those who just read and go away. And all those who read and join help the SEO of the forum. For example I searched for "cooking forum" and found this site. Search bots placed this site on the top of results because there are so many clicks by people, and the engagement rate is high. Those hit and run members also help the "engagement" metric to go up. Usually in the internet language a good conversion rate is something between 1% - 2% of visitors. So if the forum gets something like 1% of visitors to join then that's a great rate.
But regular members and mods might find it kind of a trouble but that's part of the virtual world, and a blessing dressed in a costume of trouble. :)
 
I was just thinking that we don't have a member from Germany and bingo, a noob from Germany shows up. But so far, there's been no activity from this noob. I can't imagine what they might contribute.
 
I belonged to a gardening forum for several years. There were three topics that were strictly off limits - guns, politics and religion. The mods strictly enforce the policy and pull any post that strays into the banned topics.

CD - when it comes to characters you, Burt and TR are at the top of the list. Think Three Stooges. :laugh:
 
Question for Morning Glory
As MOD you have access to numbers. How many countries are represented?

The numbers aren't crunched or displayed in that way and I don't have any way to know. Its a bit meaningless in any case since the membership dates back to when the forum began and includes many long gone posters as well as those who joined and were never seen again. Literally thousands. Many didn't ever post.

You can look at it this way - imagine a large department store in a big multicultural city. Since it first opened, literally thousands may have looked in the window or had a browse around. Some may have bought things. Some never had any intention of buying anything. Some are regular customers. This changes from year to year as new customers arrive. Its not an exact parallel - its simply that we are an 'open shop' and anyone may join up and may or may not contribute. Those who stick around become part of the community here. Others don't even want that - they are simply browsing or here to ask a simple question.

The only meaningful thing is to look at where regular contributors come from and I think we have more less covered that in this thread?
 
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