Forum Membership

ElizabethB said:
I am a firm believer that there are no stupid questions. I am bothered by ignorance. When a person receives a reply and either ignores the advice or argues with the veracity of the reply I do get a little ticked off. Not on this forum. On my gardening forum. There are certain rules and considerations for gardening. I get frustrated when posters insist on their way instead of the correct way. Thankfully that is not a big issue on this lovely forum. Food and cooking is treated as an art. You are all artist and masterful chefs.
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The "stupid questions" I meant are those seem so simple everyone should know the answer to. Some don't want to ask those questions. You don't ask, you'll never find out the answer. This applies to almost every forum I'm on, whatever the subject of that forum. I'll give an example, What do the numbers on a side of a glass mean and why are they there?
You order a drink in a glass, that glass will have numbers on the outside.
 
But are a lot of "stupid" questions really that stupid. We've all got to start somewhere, and some things which may seem quite simple to some of us are not that simple to someone else (and there are some people who, as has been mentioned, just don't seem to like the advice that's being given or the most honest and polite answers to their questions). There are plenty of dishes on here that I've never even heard of, let alone cooked. In that respect, I am a beginner too. At the same time. I seem to be thought of as a bit of an expert in other things which I tend to do/make/cook automatically these days, and I have never regarded myself as being such, but some 50+ years of experience must have rubbed off somewhere.

The only forums I belong to which seem to have thousands of members (5000+), most of whom contribute regularly, are the greyhound forums, but then greyhounds are rather breed specific unlike being just another dog (to the point that, for example, many vets are not greyhound-savvy and could not - or should not - treat a sick greyhound) and there are plenty of health, safety, welfare, and other greyhound-specific questions that form the majority of the posts of them. One of these forums closed down rather dramatically just before Christmas because they could no longer cope with the numbers of people registered on there. They then posted that they were limiting the membership to the first 3500 old members to reapply. It didn't take them long to reach that number, and they are still very busy. Yes, we do need more members, but don't let CB get like that.
 
@Elawin
The thought of thousands of active members is mind boggling. Yes the forum needs new, active members to remain interesting, diverse and viable. Thousands? That would be a determent rather than an asset. @SatNavSaysStraightOn and our wonderful staff members would not be able to monitor and keep control of the quality of the forum. My thought is a few, new, active members each month. Not huge numbers. Just a few new, passionate members to keep things interesting. Members who will sit and stay awhile rather than pop in then vanish.

A quandary. Just enough but not too much.

I really love this forum and feel connected to all of you. :bravo: to the staff and all active members. You all make this a great place to visit.
 
Elawin said:
They then posted that they were limiting the membership to the first 3500 old members to reapply. It didn't take them long to reach that number, and they are still very busy. Yes, we do need more members, but don't let CB get like that.
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Somehow, I don't think that will ever happen! Forums are something of a dying platform.The ones that seem to survive are specialist (like the greyhound forum) or like our sister site CycleChat. Many of the members of the latter know each other through taking part in cycling events around the UK. As I write there are 357 members who have visited there so far today compared to 15 here.

I think the demise of Forums may have a lot to do with social media and smart phones. Forums like this aren't ideally suited to being viewed on a smartphone (although the site has been optimised as far as possible to fit) - and there are many people now who rarely use a computer these days. Facebook groups have replaced some of the old food forums and instagram has taken centre stage as a platform for food photos. One small example. I posted a vegan recipe not long ago on a vegan FB group. It got over 500 'likes' and three people made the dish (one even posted a photo of her version). Here, the same dish got 4 likes and was probably viewed by 20 people at most. I linked the post to the recipe here which meant members needed to visit this forum to get the recipe. Two of these people joined this forum - but haven't posted or been seen since! Sigh... I keep meaning to post more on that vegan group as eventually perhaps we could gain members from there.
 
ElizabethB said:
I just looked back at the new member forum. So many people popped in then disappeared. They were warmly welcomed and invited to visit various forums. Then they vanished.

I am obviously enamored with this forum and all of you. What can we do to keep new comers from dropping out? The number of registered members is impressive. Reality - very few active members. I guess that is an issue with all forums. I have been a mostly active member of a gardening forum for 5 years. I have faded out at times - like this winter. I always return with fingers flying and mouth in overdrive. If I am away for a while I get private messages - "Where are you? Are you OK?" Gives me warm fuzzies.

I really love this forum and would like to see it grow. A good thing for all of us. So @SatNavSaysStraightOn, @morning glory are there any proactive steps that the rest of us can take to promote this wonderful forum and encourage new comers to stick around?
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@ElizabethB I'm not so baffled. I think instead it's normal. Maybe they are taken by the enthusiasm of the moment and then they no longer want, it happens as in all things. Regarding the welcome in the forum I only had the welcome of the administrators of the forum. Not very encouraging as a beginning. But I stayed. Others instead have warm welcome messages and then disappear. Maybe we have to try not to welcome them and then stay :happy:
 
ElizabethB said:
. So @SatNavSaysStraightOn, @morning glory are there any proactive steps that the rest of us can take to promote this wonderful forum and encourage new comers to stick around?
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Welcoming new members and replying to there posts is a good start. And I suppose, if you have something in common with them you could always PM them to say hi - for example, if they live in your region or express an interest in a type of cooking that you like.

The more new threads we generate the more noticeable we are in Google searches - but that is more to do with recruitment. I think probably recruitment is more important - members will inevitably come and go but if the recruitment goes up the central core of regulars will be higher. At the moment we don't even get one new member a week most of the time (unless I count spammers of which there are several a day! ). The latter are removed before members see them. We ought to be getting a few new members a day at least...
 
I belong to several FB cookery groups and follow a lot of cookery pages (indeed, I have my own) but they all have their own problems. If the group or page is public, they attract a lot of advertising and also spammers, and if they are closed groups or pages they do not get the membership some of them deserve. They don't have the chattiness of a forum either. You certainly couldn't discuss topics in a FB group like we do on here. Really what is needed is a combination of the two.
 
I do not like FB and have not been on in ages. So you are on vacation - I do not want to see pics of your toes on a beach. I do not need or want to know every stop you made today. I do not care if you went to the grocery store or got your teeth cleaned. How many selfies must you post? Give me a break! TMI.

Sorry. :oops: Just had to get that out.

I am defiantly the older generation. I value the written word.
 
ElizabethB said:
I am defiantly the older generation. I value the written word.
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A lot of things on FB are the written word. But not as wordy as we tend to be here! I think its really important to embrace all new means of communication - and make them better if we can.

Having said that, I am not a big mover on FB and only drop in occasionally!
 
ElizabethB said:
I do not like FB and have not been on in ages. So you are on vacation - I do not want to see pics of your toes on a beach. I do not need or want to know every stop you made today. I do not care if you went to the grocery store or got your teeth cleaned. How many selfies must you post? Give me a break! TMI.

Sorry. :oops: Just had to get that out.

I am defiantly the older generation. I value the written word.
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You wouldn't see pics of my toes on FB - you wouldn't want to :laugh:In fact my page isn't a bit like you described. It's 90% greyhounds for a start :roflmao: Otherwise I mainly use it to keep in touch with various members of my family and my friends and also keep in touch with my friends who organise greyhound walks. A phone call or a letter to everyone with the same message, photo etc would cost a small fortune.
 
ElizabethB said:
I do not like FB and have not been on in ages. So you are on vacation - I do not want to see pics of your toes on a beach. I do not need or want to know every stop you made today. I do not care if you went to the grocery store or got your teeth cleaned. How many selfies must you post? Give me a break! TMI.

Sorry. :oops: Just had to get that out.

I am defiantly the older generation. I value the written word.
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I am on facebook because it is a great way to keep in touch with family and friends, however I have unfriended people due to their constant selfies and me me me stuff all of the time, I have been asked why I don't take selfies, I reply 'why should I ? people know what I look like' Some people post way too much on social media :headshake:
 
Lullabelle said:
I am on facebook because it is a great way to keep in touch with family and friends, however I have unfriended people due to their constant selfies and me me me stuff all of the time, I have been asked why I don't take selfies, I reply 'why should I ? people know what I look like' Some people post way too much on social media :headshake:
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I signed up for Facebook less than a year ago. I have a personal profile and another of mypinch. On the personal one I put filters and sometimes placed a few photos of places, or my dog in funny positions, or some sharing to support the animal shelters and associations or some event linked to the theater. But fb boring me terribly. Different is the mypinch profile, there are my recipes, it is another matter.
I often see people posting phrases, political comments, or something I do not conceive, photos of children, even newborns :stop:
a few years ago a person posted comments on the company and a couple of colleagues .. but how can you be so naive? and apart from that, you never ever ever make direct comments, especially on the company you're working for, there may be penalties and problems. And indeed it is what happened.
Or even someone who spies your fb profile and during a conversation distractedly says what he has seen of you. Sometimes people feel entitled to spy because "so much you're on fb" .. ok, but at least not reveal things that do not concern you.
 
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