Site Critique

[sjp1966]

I have been a moderator on a website for some time now, the site has a forum attached to it and this is where i spend most of my time putting up press releases and other such stuff, there are a few other contributors to the site.

The main problem is that we cannot for love nor money seem to atract people to register AND post in the forums, the majority of registrations we have had recently are from that lovely bunch of people called spammers.

personally i feel we are in a catch 22 situation, people will not post if the site looks "dead" and the sites looks "dead" because people dont post.

So the front end of the site is http://www.dvdlard.co.uk/
the Forum side is http://www.dvdlard.co.uk/forums/forums.php you will need to register to post although you should be able to see the content without registering.

I really would appreciate some feedback on what is "wrong" with the site so we can try and attract more people to interact.

Thanks in advance

Steve

[Itchy]

Erm 1st hello

now erm from your post it sounds as if your forum is dead but ........

Threads: 8,943, Posts: 30,589, Members: 1,260 so whats your problem


What may help you gain more members is remove the oi join our forum before you can read anything ..... if i was looking for something and it looked like the answer was in one of your threads that i cant access im hardly likey to join up just to read a thread only to find it dont contain what i want
Far better for ppl to see what its like and if they like that sort of forum then their join up ..stop people from reading and thier go else where just google dvd reviews and their off

[sjp1966]

Originally Posted by Itchy Erm 1st hello now erm from your post it sounds as if your forum is dead but ........ Threads: 8,943, Posts: 30,589, Members: 1,260 so whats your problem What may help you gain more members is remove the oi join our forum before you can read anything ..... if i was looking for something and it looked like the answer was in one of your threads that i cant access im hardly likey to join up just to read a thread only to find it dont contain what i want Far better for ppl to see what its like and if they like that sort of forum then their join up ..stop people from reading and thier go else where just google dvd reviews and their off

Thanks for the welcome:

yeah, im concious of the numbers, or lack of, ive no idea how old the site actually is as i have not been there since the beginning, but even so i would have thought that there would be more than 6 regular posters (as that is about it).

I thought that as unregistered you could still look at the posts, but you just couldnt post? we have had an issue with spammers recently so it has only been this way for a month or so, before then anyone could post, but even then no one did

[lillajen]

Originally Posted by sjp1966 I have been a moderator on a website for some time now, the site has a forum attached to it and this is where i spend most of my time putting up press releases and other such stuff, there are a few other contributors to the site. The main problem is that we cannot for love nor money seem to atract people to register AND post in the forums, the majority of registrations we have had recently are from that lovely bunch of people called spammers. personally i feel we are in a catch 22 situation, people will not post if the site looks "dead" and the sites looks "dead" because people dont post. So the front end of the site is http://www.dvdlard.co.uk/ the Forum side is http://www.dvdlard.co.uk/forums/forums.php you will need to register to post although you should be able to see the content without registering. I really would appreciate some feedback on what is "wrong" with the site so we can try and attract more people to interact. Thanks in advance Steve

I can't really find anything wrong with the forum. Though i have understood that people also want a thread where they can let loose and maybe discuss things totally off topic. This usually leads to a forum "lightening up" and people start to post in the other threads.

Just my experience with things. Hope it helps.

[sjp1966]

Originally Posted by lillajen I can't really find anything wrong with the forum. Though i have understood that people also want a thread where they can let loose and maybe discuss things totally off topic. This usually leads to a forum "lightening up" and people start to post in the other threads. Just my experience with things. Hope it helps.

There a section called Lardies Lounge where people can discuss anything off topic. and sadly it hasnt "lit" up anything. there issomething A: keeping the numebrs down and B: when they do join stopping them from posting and ill be darned if i know what it is.

[daveh]

I personally don't like the colour scheme but I wouldn't let that put me off.

The thing that struck me most was the read restriction; I am required to join before I see if its worth joining! This is like committing to buy something before you are allowed in the shop, you just wouldn't do it and you'd look elsewhere.

As for spammers signing up, a lot of these are automated bots, can you employ some sort of verification at signup such as image text?

[sjp1966]

Originally Posted by daveh I personally don't like the colour scheme but I wouldn't let that put me off. The thing that struck me most was the read restriction; I am required to join before I see if its worth joining! This is like committing to buy something before you are allowed in the shop, you just wouldn't do it and you'd look elsewhere. As for spammers signing up, a lot of these are automated bots, can you employ some sort of verification at signup such as image text?

Dave: thats an interesting observation and to me that explains two things, it tells me why people sign up and never post. They sign up hoping to read somethng interesting, and they are obviously finding nothign interesting and so therefore do not post

I will post these findings back to the site, thanks again.