Forum expectations/suggestions?

[Kathleen Konno]

I've noticed that a lot of the same people keep posting in most of the threads, and I've heard some things about how the forum is a boring place.  What types of discussions or features would you like to see more of?  Do you have any suggestions on how to make the community more interesting or fun?  How can we help inspire newcomers to post more often?  As one of the new Ningmasters, I'd like to know everyone's opinions concerning the "State of the Forum", if you will.

[Emily Notmylastname]

I wish there was something to do about the spam bots. There are more spam bot topics on the recent activity page than real topics. That seems really sad to me.

[Jamie Sparkes]

I've just joined, and my first impression is that it's not very 'inviting'.

For instance, on the page , half of the page isn't used, and I believe it'd look a little nicer, and more inviting if the forum sections were a little more spaced out. But I doubt that is something that can be changed.

As for discussions, I believe it's activity, or lack of, that might be the problem. No way to fix that. The discussions I've seen in the forums are great. Nothing has made me believe that this isn't worth my time, it has done the opposite.

[Abreo]

Well that is a good example of why the forums are unappealing, just in case you were wondering.

[Cavalier]

Thankyou. I already was aware of some of these and will attempt to improve these areas.

(I'm the other Forum Ningmaster.)

[Pardeep Dhaliwal]

Maybe a list of forum rules somewhere so newbies know what's going on. Or if there already is one, make it easier to find.

[Clayton Gillespie]

Hello everyone, I think I have an awesome idea...

 

My idea aims to better facilitate interpersonal relations between awesome Nerdfighters.  It's loosely based on chat roulette with a view to improving 1-on-1 contact. Theoretically, once you're on the ning, you would then be able to click on some sort of button or tab which opens a new chat window. Then the computer randomly pairs you up with another person logged into the same system and you can introduce yourself and talk and get to know more about the other person; or hit 'next' if you're not getting on well. Hopefully people all over would then be able to easily meet like-minded Nerdfighters and then add them as friends and keep in touch at their will.

 

Any Thoughts? I realise the idea would need some help from a computer literate person with some free time, but in my opinion it would definitely be worth the wait.

[Spookus]

Improve the social aspect of the website somehow, I'd like to see it developing into a more social place. I want to be able to come to the ning and feel as strong a desire to chat to my friends as I do on facebook. Though I'm not sure of the best way to go about this. It just feels like a slightly closed off community atm, people will come here mainly to meet other nerdfighters. I'm sure there are plenty of examples of people creating meaningful friendships on the ning, but for the most part there are just other nerdfighters chatting about random topics on the forums and their profiles serve little other than being a noticeboard for the ning based activities.

[Alex Leestemaker]

First things first: The whole blogpage has been spammed. Another thing about the blogpage: Does anyone even read that? I mean, there's only 9 views on a new video from Hank...

[Heilerin von Doom [Games NM]]

Maybe combine some posts... It seems that there a lot of the same topics just repeating and each one has only a few posts.

I think that might help.

[CD]

I think we need a tutorial that pops up when someone registers for the site that can be accessed later.  It covers basic principles of how to use the site, what the site features, and frequently asked questions (some which have been covered in multiple forums).  In the tutorial covering the "Tag" feature of forums and blog posts would be really handy, because for me at least, it took awhile before I even knew I could post a discussion of my own, and then I noticed that some of what I was trying to figure out, others had already posted on, but not used tags.  So better use of tags and understanding how to use the site will go a long way.  It also might help noobs feel more comfortable posting their ideas....dealing with unwieldy tech doesn't leave much head space to talk nerdy.

*Other things I didn't know when I registered:  John and Hank started this up with the vlogbrothers project. The site has individual blogs.  It has lots of people under 20 (I had no idea, serious).   The site has chat. The site has a noobie adoption project. the site has groups.