Are we a bad forum?

[Ryli]

We have 6407 newbies (7034 total). What the hell are we doing to scare people off so fast? Is there a way to make new members want to be more involved in the community?
Discuss.

[TimerClock14]

put up a giant smiley face

[Wolfunit]

You need to get zanzarino to maybe place a link to forums on the main menu because many many players dont know about this forums also players are board from the same old cards they neds new cards/features to keppt the game alive.You need to make more community based forums topic and have the community have a say to what can benefit this game also this game needs to be on other gaming sites to earn a bigger player base.A next reason why new plears just leave is because when higher forums members see noob topics they dont even comment on the post you need to get the vets/higher forums members/staff answering those noobs topics.

[ddevans96]

The "one of our members is a haxxor" thread probably scared a lot of people away.

[teffy]

I read in a book that there exists a 90-9-1 rule for comunities.

90% never write in the forum, 9% write sometimes, and 1% of the community are very active and make the most posts.

This here is pretty normal. I think the percentage of people who have > 0 posts is even increasing.

One source of that is here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1%25_rule_%28Internet_culture%29):

[Higurashi]

Answering for myself, I didn't have anything to say when I was a noob. It's that easy for people like me.
Of course, we see a lot of pointless topics made by newbs who haven't perused the forums out of laziness to see decks and topics like the one they were thinking of making. When I got here, the forum layout was more than daunting. I had no idea what boards were for what, and it took quite a while to figure out how things worked. It's pretty convoluted, and that's enough to put off a high percentage of internet-goers.

It's also very hard to get involved in the community and get feedback on your work. Unless you have a title, it'll take months to get people to listen and acknowledge you. -That- may need changing, but I doubt we could do anything about it outside of toning down on the number of titles.

To say vets need to post in newb topics more isn't really realistic. We've posted in a hundred of the same nature in the past, and it rarely has any impact. You just get tired of repeating yourself.

[Shantu]

I can think of 3 reasons right now.
- Kongregate. Kongregate has its own forums and many Kong player posts there. Since there is no link to this forum on the Kong page of the game, they don't know of the awesomeness they can find here.
- Many people generally avoid forums/don't care.
- Many people just stalk the forums, perhaps register to ask a question but that's it. If the question doesn't get answered, there is an even higher chance of the potential community member not caring about the forum anymore.

[hrmmm]

ninja'd by teffy, hehe

yep, this forum is a bit a nerd place. ^^

@ wolfunit: agree with your 1st point. but i think most of the veterans are quite "newie friendly": like puting up farms, helping out in the chat and i dont see much posts from newer players that dont get commented from more experienced players.

[Ryli]

@hrmmm, Shantu & teffy. Very interesting. I knew not many readers posted on what they read, but I hadn't realised it was so few.

@Higurashi & wolfunit. So you think people don't feel appreciated enough? Completely understandable. I wouldn't want to be somewhere if no-one listens to me either. Maybe the forums should have more for newbs to get involved in?

@ddevans96. I thought that thread was hilarious, even when I was a newb, but I do see why it'd push people away. That thread is gone and we probably shouldn't start it or anything similar again.

@Timerclock 14. If you're being serious, I hope you never take over as Admin

[CrazyJay94]

i think we simply have alot of non responsive members because they come to ask a question and some other noob gives them a sarcastic comment that doesnt help them at all. but i personally have learned to wait when i post in deck help. and the other people just mkae accounts so they can look around and see everything incase theres something they want to look at but become too lazy to post.

[Daxx]

It's a general rule of the internet. Most people who arrive at a forum don't register. Of those who register, few post. Of those who post, few post a lot.

This is pretty natural and nothing to be worried about. So, no, we're not a "bad forum".

Of course, if you're interested in driving community engagement, we're all about that on this forum. If you have any ideas, PM them to the appropriate staff member or Scaredgirl.

[Scaredgirl]

This phenomenon is nothing new in the world of internet forums. For each active poster, there are 20 members who never post anything, and other 20 who quit after a week.

Being able to keep all the new members and somehow making them all active is something that it's not going to happen even if you had the most awesome forum in the world. This is especially true with online gaming because gamers are not very loyal and will move on to other games the second they find something that interests them more. I'm not saying they are evil for doing so but that's how it goes.

There is always room for improvement, and some kind of system of welcoming new members might help a bit, but it is my experience that it usually doesn't. Best way to make community bigger is to contribute by having events and other interesting content that makes people want to come back.