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Bytes might be killing the forum activity.

hi,
Let me get something clear. I don't think bytes were a bad idea, in fact its quite fun to play some slots here and there. But I think bytes might be one of the reasons the forum activity isn't at its best.
So, of course everyone loved bytes when it first came out, everyone was posting everywhere to get some bites, none really knew what bits were when it first came out, which made people more interested in it. Anyways, the activity was very high because people were receiving something from posting, great. The problem what I think is, people are burning themselves out, they try to post four bytes, and don't even care what the thread is about, they just want to post because of the bytes. I've been there myself, and I'm trying to stop. Bytes are 100%, generating low quality threads and posts.
Then we have gambling, gambling can be a problem in some cases. People who have earned a lot of bits and want's to gamble, then loses them all, they are probably going to feel unmotivated and might even quit.
I think byte addiction is a real thing. People want to get their quick byte fix by posting a lot of shit, which in the end will kill the forum, in some way or another.

Then we have the award market, completely ruins the purpose of having awards in the first place.

What i think we can do to promote this website and gain some more traffic, is to run some kind of advertisement, on either instagram or youtube, hell im down to even put up flyers to help the community out. I think that might make some people join.

feel free to debate, im calling this facts, but it's just what i think is causing the activity to go down. - might add more.

traffic sources -
https://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/hackforums.net
http://www.siteworthtraffic.com/report/hackforums.net

Visits: Nov 2018 1.6M−1.56%
Unique Visitors Nov 2018 562.3K−2.39%
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Bounce Rate Nov 2018 47.01%+3.25%
Traffic Rank Nov 2018 36,6632,804
I don't really care about bytes at all, other than it's fun to bet it all on blackjack. The same people shitposting for bytes would be the same people shitposting for "post count" anyways.
I do agree the forum doesn't seem as well as back when it had the regular rep system & all that.
(Dec 17, 2018 09:58 AM)pms Wrote:  Bytes are 100%, generating low quality threads and posts.

There was still a lot of low quality threads and posts before Bytes but I have to agree, it seems like the actual posts in threads are getting shittier.
We use to have the copy pasta threads from other forums / communities but now we have posts replying to threads and just by reading it you can clearly tell user didn't read OP and is just replying for the Bytes.

You should be able to get Bytes without posting. Online time on HF = X Bytes per minute but then again, everyone would leave their browser open somewhere just to get their daily Bytes.

Make a Bytes faucet.
I agree about the awards but I feel the activity is a goodd thing. I've not noticed a change in posting quality, to be fair.
Resident Writer for MyGamer.Com and Horrify.Net
I don't see how bytes decreased forum activity. Yes, a number of low quality posts has increased but if you suspect someone is byte farming by constantly posting lq posts, report their posts and/or PM any of us. We'll take action if it's needed.
Staff member 10th Jan 2017 - 30th May 2020.
HF Administrator 30th May 2020 - 14th July 2022.

It was a blast being on staff. I stepped down as it's time for me to move on. I wish you all the best and if you were hit by my warnings and/or bans, it was nothing personal.

Peace out!
(Dec 17, 2018 10:17 AM)Eagle 95 Wrote:  I don't see how bytes decreased forum activity. Yes, a number of low quality posts has increased but if you suspect someone is byte farming by constantly posting lq posts, report their posts and/or PM any of us. We'll take action if it's needed.

Maybe having it so you only get bytes if you hit a certain amount of chars wpuld eliminate this.
Resident Writer for MyGamer.Com and Horrify.Net
I think forum activity is slowly getting back up now. Yea, I also noticed it decreased a little. But since quite some time now, I am seeing an "INCREASE" in traffic to hf.
(Dec 17, 2018 10:26 AM)Effexion Wrote:  Maybe having it so you only get bytes if you hit a certain amount of chars wpuld eliminate this.

Maybe that could work, just maybe. However, far better technique is to report those posts so users doing it get warned and/or banned. Usually those that got warned will report others so we'll have a chain reaction. Eventually that results in much lower presence of low quality posts posted with bytes farming in mind.
Staff member 10th Jan 2017 - 30th May 2020.
HF Administrator 30th May 2020 - 14th July 2022.

It was a blast being on staff. I stepped down as it's time for me to move on. I wish you all the best and if you were hit by my warnings and/or bans, it was nothing personal.

Peace out!
Agree with decrease in quality of Posts , but it's indeed increased a lot of forums activity + made a good postive environment , also as eagle said you can report a shit poster who trying to farm bytes so all good so far
(Dec 17, 2018 10:42 AM)CyberError Wrote:  Agree with decrease in quality of Posts , but it's indeed increased a lot of forums activity + made a good postive environment , also as eagle said you can report a shit poster who trying to farm bytes so all good so far

I just feel like bytes might make people unmotivated in the long run. Weird example but, cookie clicker for example, its fun in the beginning then when you have a lot, you start to lose interest in it and stop playing it.
(Dec 17, 2018 10:26 AM)Effexion Wrote:  Maybe having it so you only get bytes if you hit a certain amount of chars wpuld eliminate this.

I agree with this. But maybe removing bytes per thread/post and leaving the 7 day bonus bytes would help reduce the amount of LQ posts.
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Thanks for your feedback.


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