Why is this forum attracting so few new members?

[Rhiannon]

It's a two way street though, HH. We have a sprinkling of atheists who greet every post from a believer with sniggers and comments about being loopy and the old imaginary friend cliche. That isn't debate, it's like spending a evening with Jimmy Carr.

[Gonnagle]

Dear Rhiannon,

Well said

On the subject of new members, can I ask how old is this forum, I can only compare it to the old Beeb, how long did it take before it had lots of members and of course the Beeb had a name which people could flock to.

Were any of our forum around in the early days of the beeb forum.

Gonnagle.

[wigginhall]

That's just the internet, isn't it?   You are always going to get insults and back-biting.   

I've noticed with other forums that they often shrink, and become reduced to a core set of members, who become familiar to each other, a kind of clique phenomenon.   Maybe it's inevitable.   

The Ship of Fools has a big membership, about 18, 000, but if you read it regularly, you will also find certain members crop up all the time.   I used to read Rational Skepticism, which followed the demise of Dawkins' forum, and it has also shrunk to a clique, (and Dawkins' one had 60, 000 members).

Gonners is right, the Beeb attracted people because of its name. 

Let's face it also - religion can become very boring. 

[Rhiannon]

This place is a bedrock of peace and decorum compared to Mumsnet.

As I said, I think we keep posting because generally we like each other. Either that or we have co-dependency issues.

[wigginhall]

It's not either/or!

[Rhiannon]

 

[Gonnagle]

Dear Rhiannon,

I post on this forum because we have some terrific minds on here, I still have this wacky idea ( before I invade Poland ) of somehow harnessing those minds, the internet is a great medium for communication.

Gonnagle.

[Rhiannon]

Yes, I've learned a huge amount of stuff here and still do. Not necessarily about religion, but I've been sent off to look at scientific things I didn't really have much interest in and various art and artists of all kinds I'd never heard of. I've laughed often and I've cried for more than one of our posters. And every now and then a conversation will spark up and through the bandwidth there's a real connection, and I think, wow, we get each other.

[Owlswing]

That's just the internet, isn't it?   You are always going to get insults and back-biting.   

I've noticed with other forums that they often shrink, and become reduced to a core set of members, who become familiar to each other, a kind of clique phenomenon.   Maybe it's inevitable.   

The Ship of Fools has a big membership, about 18, 000, but if you read it regularly, you will also find certain members crop up all the time.   I used to read Rational Skepticism, which followed the demise of Dawkins' forum, and it has also shrunk to a clique, (and Dawkins' one had 60, 000 members).

Gonners is right, the Beeb attracted people because of its name. 

Let's face it also - religion can become very boring.

I think that religion becomes boring because opinions are so entrenched - no-one will budge an inch from "I'm right, my belief is right, and everybody else and every other belief is wrong/crap/stupid/deluded/ etc!

[Owlswing]

Dear Rhiannon,

Well said

On the subject of new members, can I ask how old is this forum, I can only compare it to the old Beeb, how long did it take before it had lots of members and of course the Beeb had a name which people could flock to.

Were any of our forum around in the early days of the beeb forum.

Gonnagle.

The Beeb R and E appears to have run from July 2005 to June 2011.

[Shaker]

This place is a bedrock of peace and decorum compared to Mumsnet.

Compared to Mumsnet, so is Syria.

[floo]

Dear Rhiannon,

Well said

On the subject of new members, can I ask how old is this forum, I can only compare it to the old Beeb, how long did it take before it had lots of members and of course the Beeb had a name which people could flock to.

Were any of our forum around in the early days of the beeb forum.

Gonnagle.

The Beeb R and E appears to have run from July 2005 to June 2011.

I was posting on the Beeb forum well before 2005.

[Gonnagle]

Dear Floo,

What was it like in the early days, members wise.

Gonnagle.

[floo]

Dear Floo,

What was it like in the early days, members wise.

Gonnagle.

The Beeb religious forum had the same sort of debates as this forum, but if I remember rightly the moderation was more strict.

[Gonnagle]

Dear Floo,

Sorry, I am asking about numbers, in the early days were number of members small, I could ask this question of Wigs, Leonard, Susan, Shaker, Bashers.

Just wondering if membership of this forum simply needs time or do we need to think about how to increase numbers.

Gonnagle.

[Ricky Spanish]

At a rate of 3 new members per year this board is not replacing those who have left.

[ProfessorDavey]

Dear Floo,

Sorry, I am asking about numbers, in the early days were number of members small, I could ask this question of Wigs, Leonard, Susan, Shaker, Bashers.

Just wondering if membership of this forum simply needs time or do we need to think about how to increase numbers.

Gonnagle.

As one of the many who transferred across from the BBC forum I think the issue may be a lack of profile for this forum.

Because of the closure of the BBC forum we had a fairly sizeable ready made block of members so the forum could take off without any 'marketing' so to speak. But if you weren't on the old BBC forum I'm not sure how easily you might stumble across this forum. And if very few new people come across it, of course there will be very few new members.

I'm not sure if there is any way of working out whether the forum has many 'lurkers' i.e. people who just view the threads, but aren't members and don't post. My gut feeling (nothing to base this on) is probably very few regular lurkers. Of course the easiest way to increase membership and posters is to get lurkers to delurk, but this isn't going to work if there aren't any!

I am also unsure how attractive this forum would look to a random new person. As has been mentioned by others, there are lots of similar threads, and plenty of threads are actually only really interesting if you know the 'personalities' of the posters, which takes time. Otherwise I think plenty of threads might look like an old boys and girls club of people talking to other people they have known (online) for many years - a kind of 'in-joke' impenetrable to a newby.

[Udayana]

It is pretty much of an clique or club here. The point of the BBC message boards is that they were effectively a "platform" where views could expressed and discussed with a wide audience. part of a national dialogue that did not exist elsewhere. I don't think a "private" forum can meet those expectations. A critical mass of participants with a wide range of information and knowledge is needed.

Eg. Take the "Muslim board" discussion. On the BBC forum there were a large numbers of Muslims present to explain, defend  or just discuss Islam and Islamic precepts. In depth discussions could be had, but here the "burden" has fallen on at most a couple of members - so the discussions are bound to be repetitive and, ultimately, un-informative.

The "Eastern religions" board has fallen into disuse altogether.

[floo]

Dear Floo,

Sorry, I am asking about numbers, in the early days were number of members small, I could ask this question of Wigs, Leonard, Susan, Shaker, Bashers.

Just wondering if membership of this forum simply needs time or do we need to think about how to increase numbers.

Gonnagle.

As far as I remember there seemed to be many different posters, only a relatively small number of whom ended up on this forum. I don't think the Beeb gave the exact number of members though.

[SusanDoris]

I would like to post something on the topic for going off topic thread, but that has been ruined by the stupid posts put in usually by Vlad or BA.

[floo]

I would like to post something on the topic for going off topic thread, but that has been ruined by the stupid posts put in usually by Vlad or BA.

Probably because I re-activated the thread they decided to scupper it because they have nothing better to do with their sad little lives!

[Ricky Spanish]

I would like to post something on the topic for going off topic thread, but that has been ruined by the stupid posts put in usually by Vlad or BA.

Stupid is in the eye of the beholder.

[Sassy]

If people are insulting other members and being aggressive to other members and this is resulting in members leaving the board isn't this something that should be addressed by the moderators?

Would that be with the wand of partial or impartiality? Or both?

I think we know interest in the internet is a dying thing...
Social media like twitter and face book take up so much of peoples time.

Personally, maybe the fact that a lot of believers were driven away means the atheists have very few people who can be bothered to answer the same old, same old.

Then again some we use to post with still post on other forums.. Including people like Andrew, Victoria Plum and Greg...

[Ricky Spanish]

And technology moves on too.

The format of this board doesn't make it particularly accessible for those using a phone. It's barely useable on a tablet.

[floo]

If people are insulting other members and being aggressive to other members and this is resulting in members leaving the board isn't this something that should be addressed by the moderators?

Would that be with the wand of partial or impartiality? Or both?

I think we know interest in the internet is a dying thing...
Social media like twitter and face book take up so much of peoples time.

Personally, maybe the fact that a lot of believers were driven away means the atheists have very few people who can be bothered to answer the same old, same old.

Then again some we use to post with still post on other forums.. Including people like Andrew, Victoria Plum and Greg...

VP still posts on this forum under another name.