[thales]

With all the drama going on about recent changes I thought I'd make my own thread with some feedback.


Whenever the new HF news threads come out I always look at the site statistics/averages and have always noticed something.

(averages)
New daily members are up
Posts per member are down
Replies per thread are down

I decided to take 10 of the most recent page's HF news statistics and graph Posts per member + Replies per thread.

2 HF Trends (downloadable spreadsheet)

As you can see, with each new issue both are rapidly going down. However, one thing I did not plot (I got lazy), was new daily members... which are increasing almost every edition.


This goes to show that people are joining hackforums but participating in forum activities less than before (recently) as well current members being less active on the forum. I have a few opinions on why this is happening.

1. New members are primarily not joining hackforums in the pursuit of knowledge, but rather for buying things or looking for freebies. This is a huge problem. As more previously active members leave the forum, the new wave of incoming members will (based on this data) not have the same amount of participation on the forums. They may buy products or similar things but will have less of an incentive to post quality threads or replies to threads (due to recent changes). This results in less posts / replies and more "lurking" members.

2. The recent marketplace changes are intimidating to new members. When the contract system first came out I was very very confused at first glance and still am with some things. I would imagine as a new member seeing a contract being required for an on-site exchange would be a huge turn-off to participate in future forum activities. In addition, the separate rep system is most likely confusing to new members as well but I don't believe that is too much of an issue here.


Possible solutions:
(Now I know I don't have much say in this and many people won't care but I thought I'd give some possible solutions on my behalf.)

1. A community incentivization program. Just like rep members are given points of some sort (or even bytes) on a daily basis SPECIFICALLY for rewarding a quality thread that has had a good impact on the community.
2. Currently Omni is pretty much the only person who can give awards to members. It would be cool if each forum tab had an "Award giver" (perhaps mentors) that would award members who consistently post high quality content to the related forums. Each award would be for a specific section.
3. Lastly but I feel as a great solution: A community poll system (similar to one in OSRS).

Omni (and other staff members) put out a poll with various hf related changes to be voted on by specific members. These members would need to have a certain account age/post count/etc in order to make sure the right members are sharing their voice. With this system Omni (and staff) are able to somewhat gauge the community's feelings on certain changes or additions before implementing them and facing backlash.

Some other suggestions:
- Allow members to own a maximum of 1 group
- Open more gateways for member -> staff communication (many members are worried about getting backlash for posting on this subforum)
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(may update with more)


Lastly, these are just my thoughts as well as some suggestion/feedback. I'm not trying to bash on recent changes or insult anyone. I am also not trying to have my "Final Blaze Of Glory" as Omni said here: https://hackforums.net/showthread.php?tid=1356147 . I will continue to be here and am just trying to help the forum for the better.

[Omniscient]

You're not accounting for a few things. One is that visitors are more likely on mobile and less likely to be active based on HF not really being very mobile friendly. Hence they may not post or participate very much.

Another is that I think overall forum activity online is in decline. Most who have something to say want to do it from their own social media accounts. Forums could be viewed by a younger audience as old-tech.

Realistically it's my job to know the numbers and to make changes that I think are required. No one has more information about HF statistics than I do.

Things get old and unless they evolve into something fresher/newer they die. The internet does not change that dynamic.

The recent marketplace changes are intimidating to new members.

Activity started to decline a couple years ago right when Google changed their algo and our SEO got screwed up. Long before I made any site changes to reputations or marketplace. So don't believe that because reps got reset that the site lost activity.

1. A community incentivization program. Just like rep members are given points of some sort (or even bytes) on a daily basis SPECIFICALLY for rewarding a quality thread that has had a good impact on the community.

What do you think Bytes are about? Please try to keep up with the recent changes.

Allow members to own a maximum of 1 group

Great idea. Let me go close the 9 groups that Divined paid for.

Open more gateways for member -> staff communication

Yeah, because we need more communication like this thread. It's very helpful.

Currently Omni is pretty much the only person who can give awards to members. It would be cool if each forum tab had an "Award giver" (perhaps mentors) that would award members who consistently post high quality content to the related forums. Each award would be for a specific section.

And you think that won't be a corrupt shit show in a week?

You don't have one good suggestion on your entire post. It's all crap. It's all worthless. You wasted my time and your own.