Quiet Forums are Quiet O.o

[Noola]

What's everyone up to?  :albino:

[Noola]

*crickets*


Hmm. People looking but not talking. Well, I'll talk. I haven't been up to much lately. Been having insomnia the last two nights so I'm really tried right now. Course, I'm also at work, so there's not much I can do about that! LOL Been looking through the Triad website while I wait on answers to some questions I've sent in and having fun replying to coposts. Also, I've been calculating how many member reward marks I'll need to earn within different time-frames in order to get the cool things I want. Prepare for an influx of craft articles, people! Muahahaha!

Anyone doing anything more interesting than me? (Which means, more interesting that watching paint dry or grass grow or mold spread?)  :flower:

[Devin]

I've been working on yet another novel. Eighth one? I'm starting to lose count!

[Noola]

Ooh! Neat! What's it about?

[Paula]

I'm doing the usual stuff: work, homechores, looking after two kids and husband...
I've also found something new to occupy my time when Triad is slow and quiet: Ogame. It's browser-based, free sci-fi empirebuilding game. (Now, it I just got scaped together enough chrystals to build my first colony-ship....)

[Noola]

After reading that, I decided to try Ogame and it seems kind of neat. One thing I don't like about it though is that it doesn't seem to work right on Firefox, so I have to launch Explorer just to play it.

[Noola]

I bet the forums would be more of a hub of activity if the forum points were reinstated for member rewards. Not even at 1 to 1 - I can see how it'd be easy to rack up serious member rewards that way... but even like a quarter of a mark for every post or something would both help make getting those high end items more feasible and encourage people to participate. I know I've been gone a year and don't know what's happened as far as people coming and going and folks have other things to do and so on but it seems, looking through threads and just observing for the last few days, that these forums hardly get used and I mostly see that the same few people reply to posts.

And maybe there's the feeling that people shouldn't be bribed to participate in community discussions, but at the same time the member rewards are something really cool that the club offers, IMO. I know that when I thought of returning, one of the very fist things I looked at was the member reward page and I started thinking about the things I wanted and making plans and so on. And bribery is a great gateway tool anyway. People hang out and post to get points, and wind up enjoying themselves and community building and the fun becomes as much a thing as the points.

And I realize that I'm new and all, and a lot of the people in this club have been in it for years and know each other really well and use other means to keep up with each other socially and might not notice the fact that there doesn't seem to be anything outside of the writing going on. But as someone new, I've got to say that I've noticed a distinct lack of activity. I don't know exactly how many active people there are in the club - the roll call announcement email (and I still haven't gotten that survey, btw) plus another thread I saw where it was mentioned that the member list on the site might not be accurate. But, just judging by the forums, I'd guess there were only five or six people in the club.

Part of it might be that nothing seems to happen here. And I understand that I've only been 'back' for less than a week, but still. Most of the posts in the last couple of days have been mine. I've been keeping the forums up behind my other windows at work and checking it now and then throughout the day, and occasionally I see one of maybe three people's names as being on but posts are rare. Most of the boards have the latest post being days and days ago. I've signed up to join a subforum and it hasn't been activated yet, so I dunno if the planning boards are the same or not.

Anyway this is my argument for reinstating the forum points. Giving people a reason to use the forums will lead to more people using the forums which will lead to more people enjoying the forums which will lead to more people using the forums. And I think that'd be good for the club as a whole. I plan on making advertisements for the club (for the points, of course! LOL) and I wanna be able to say how awesome and active and friendly we all are. And we are! I've been welcomed back with open arms and that's so nice! Everyone I've been coposting with has been nice! Triad Weyrs is full of nice people! But one way folks judge how active a community is, is by what goes on in the forums - at least I've noticed this has been a good barometer in other communities and I can't imagine Pern fandom to be that different - and so the busier and more active the forums are, the more people posting and chatting and hanging out, the better, IMO.

And I'm not meaning to step on any toes or imply anything bad with this. Just the opposite!

[Devin]

Ooh! Neat! What's it about?

This one is about portals that lead to other worlds, a bad guy trying to amass power, and a hero trying to stop him. The concept I came up with is neat, but I'm not in love with the book yet.

[Paula]

I think the major problem is that we only have a dozen or so really active writers. We do need more people like you, Noola, you kick up some dust and shake things into a move.

[Eimi]

And Noola, about the member rewards, we switched PHP forum formats and the program that was being used to track the member rewards doesn't work on the new version and we haven't found another one that will work the same...  But we haven't given up yet!

[Noola]

Ah! A technical problem then. That can be worked out I guess. I just wasn't sure if anyone was even thinking about it anymore cause I remember when I was here a year ago, it was the same thing. But if ya'll are still looking for something that works, that's awesome! I'll keep my fingers crossed! And not only cause I want some of those high-end items. LOL

I really am gonna write up an ad. I guess I'll send it to the council when I finish it, like I'll send the craft article on cooperage I'm working on then. (Unless I'm supposed to send things like that somewhere else? I haven't heard back about if that's the right place to send things like that yet or not.)

[Eimi]

Sorry, I'm semi-one-handed at the moment...  Yes, send it to the Council.

[Noola]

How's your thumb, by the way?