Suggestion: Increasing Forum Population & Activity

I have noticed in the past few months that forum activity and content has been coming from a fairly small percentage of its population. So I had an idea. Why not promote more forum activity and participation from SL and PL players by having forum related in game promotions.

For instance there is a deal of the day promotion when you log in each day. You could implement a similar idea but for the forums. Have an thread of the day type contest each day. Users could log in to forums and leave suggestions or feedback on threads created by either devs or community members. And then at the end of each day have a governing body vote for the best suggestion or comment. That player could receive anything from an enhancer to a vanity to weapon or gear.

The idea of this promotion would be to create a wider variety of opinions and information being discussed. Also this could help increase a community feel once in game. Guilds would hopefully have more members interested in what's being discussed here and amongst their peers. It is easier to create meeting times and group events here on the forums.

It would be great for others to see how useful these forums can be. Instead of just joining a game they feel like they are joining a community. And not just that. A community that is welcoming and doesn't leave you out of the loop just because your new or are unaware of how online communities work.

There is lots of other info that could go into creating this idea. Feel free to post your idea's and comments after reading.

Face,

There is a lot more people using the PL forums. IMO the reason the SL forums has so little traffic is due to the fact it has only been out 2-3 months. Once it has been out longer I think more people will join the SL side of the forums.

As far as your idea I think it is very good but I don't think the devs will do it just to much work for them lol. I however think that is why they have star guards and guardians is to encourage things similar to that.

Not sure, that's the case exactly.. seems like alot of players join up or even visit without signing up (as its not required *could change this, but may have a negative effect) to access the forums, that means they have the information found here, just do not like posting or may feel a little silly/uncomfortable if they do post and its in the wrong location.. like this suggestion as SL section is for SL content, the section you would get a better response for this kind of suggestion would be the Websites and Forum Discussion (looked over by Devs as all other sections etc) as that's what they have come on here to Discuss or have more of a know how about forum matters.

Think its a good suggestion but unsure how this would be successful and worth the Devs time to implement, could do some trials I guess if they do approve of this :)

I intended this to be mainly for SL players, but I don't see why PL players should lose out. Suggestion noted and PM sent to have thread moved.

With the ambassador program (read about it HERE) that PL has in the works I think that traffic will pick up as the chosen players will direct others to the forums. As stated before, they don't have to create an account in order to access the information, but sometimes it comes in handy to voice an opinion or vote in a poll. I know that I've been playing PL since the beginning and pretty much logging in everyday since December and even though I knew about the forums the whole time, I didn't join until Feb simply because I didn't think my voice mattered of thought I'd get into more trouble than t was worth with my big fat mouth. I had no idea that the forums was such a great community and I would be able to speak my mind (with only an occasional thread lock/delete). In the end the player has to make the choice to want to be here; giving them incentives is perhaps just boosting numbers for the sake of it. I'm not sure that's the direction I'd like the forums to take.

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In the end the player has to make the choice to want to be here; giving them incentives is perhaps just boosting numbers for the sake of it. I'm not sure that's the direction I'd like the forums to take.

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I'm not sure how giving people an incentive to join forum discussions removes their right to choice. Or why awarding people for discussing their opinions would not be a direction anyone wouldn't want to go in. And the only people who would join these forums would be people who play SL. So how would that be boosting numbers for the sake of it?

The idea of my promotional suggestion was to get more people who play the game onto the forums. Getting them involved in feedback and suggestions for improvements. If you can find something negative in that, your digging to hard.

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Originally Posted by Fac3bon3s

I'm not sure how giving people an incentive to join forum discussions removes their right to choice. Or why awarding people for discussing their opinions would not be a direction anyone wouldn't want to go in. And the only people who would join these forums would be people who play SL. So how would that be boosting numbers for the sake of it?

The idea of my promotional suggestion was to get more people who play the game onto the forums. Getting them involved in feedback and suggestions for improvements. If you can find something negative in that, your digging to hard.

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I'm sorry you misunderstood my words; I didn't suggest that adding incentives to join removes the choice, but it does make it a weighted decision. If you join you get cookies, if you don't no cookies for you; guess which choice I'm going to make. By boosting numbers I simply meant that handing out something for joining and logging in daily you increase the number of players here because they want the reward and may not want anything else. Think of when STS announced the next GoA was going to be picked based on who answered the most portal questions. Players were answering simply for the prize; questions would get answered multiple times because it became a competition.

I never suggested anything negative about the program, but just that you may get players to join who have an agenda and it may not actually help your cause. I find something negative in almost everything so guess I'm digging a pretty deep grave, just my thoughts is all. I like playing the devil's advocate; it's a role that I'm good at. Perhaps putting my words in context will prevent others from misunderstanding me. When STS wants to show off their game they have an in-game event; think the BBQ event or the Chrome event, STS was showing off their product and to boost the number of players in game the hosted an event with in game gear. Many just showed up for the chance at the items and didn't care about much else really. That's basically how participation events work imo and I see nothing different here.

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Originally Posted by Fac3bon3s

I have noticed in the past few months that forum activity and content has been coming from a fairly small percentage of its population. So I had an idea. Why not promote more forum activity and participation from SL and PL players by having forum related in game promotions.

For instance there is a deal of the day promotion when you log in each day. You could implement a similar idea but for the forums. Have an thread of the day type contest each day. Users could log in to forums and leave suggestions or feedback on threads created by either devs or community members. And then at the end of each day have a governing body vote for the best suggestion or comment. That player could receive anything from an enhancer to a vanity to weapon or gear.

The idea of this promotion would be to create a wider variety of opinions and information being discussed. Also this could help increase a community feel once in game. Guilds would hopefully have more members interested in what's being discussed here and amongst their peers. It is easier to create meeting times and group events here on the forums.

It would be great for others to see how useful these forums can be. Instead of just joining a game they feel like they are joining a community. And not just that. A community that is welcoming and doesn't leave you out of the loop just because your new or are unaware of how online communities work.

There is lots of other info that could go into creating this idea. Feel free to post your idea's and comments after reading.

Face,

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I've been quite disappointed with this as well. I have the Halloween Haiku Contest running on the General Discussion forums and I would have thought more people would have participated by now. Especially for the fact that the prize rewards aren't bad at all. But I have been constantly advertising the contest in game to hopefully interest people to join us on the forums. The whole purpose of the Contest was to try and bring the community a little closer together. That's why I specifically came up with an idea that everyone could participate in. I've even went as far to PMing random people in game asking them to let their guilds know about the contest as well. Hopefully like Cabero said perhaps there will be more activity when SL has been out longer. At least we can only hope.

And as for participation, if you haven't already, here's the link Halloween Haiku Contest. Please let your guilds know about it and the community. Even let them know whats up for grabs, that might spark some interest in some folks. Maybe this will help promote what you're trying to do with this post in the first place...=)

Thanks and great suggestion,
-Rodvik

I've been thinking about this all night. I had some new idea's. As well with Rodvik's comments above, some other idea's popped in.

They could tie this directly in with the Deal of the Day promo in game. Make it more of an egg hunt when it comes to the forums. You suggest an area with in the forums to look for an egg. Once found and " logged in " to your account a discount or give away would be awarded to your account. Having them log in would be the main idea.

My main issue with creating more traffic in the forums is this. How many times have you been in Blackstar and people ask, what was the new update? Where are people getting the jetpacks from? Who is this droid everyone is talking about. What skills should I use? These are all issue's that can easily be solved by having people know that all of this info is available to them on these forums. I don't think the log in message once in town or in a level is getting through to some of these people. So to get them in here and contributing maybe a promotion, weekly, daily contest is what is in order.