Author Topic: Where are the posters at??? (Read 1640 times)

Black_Wolf · « **on:** April 22, 2006, 03:55:10 PM »

You all mustered the 12 votes to get this forum added, but i'm not seeing even 12 posts in here now that it's going. Let's get the ball rolling and hear about tactics, equipment, more injuries, and all the good stuff. Come on, dont be shy. :-D

Graybeard · « **Reply #1 on:** April 23, 2006, 04:34:02 AM »

It took a long time to get the 12 votes, too long probably. One chose to leave the forum on his own over some minor issue he got miffed over. One went into the Army so won't be around much for some while. We had a forum like this once long ago and hardly anyone used it. Membership was much lower then however. Most of the traffic it did get were young punks out to cause trouble only. Needless to say it didn't last.

If this one does I will be surprised but I am giving it a fair chance to see if there is a genuine interest in it here. However I doubt there is.

Black_Wolf · « **Reply #2 on:** April 23, 2006, 06:49:00 AM »

That sounds like a fair shake to me, Graybeard. This is your ball game and if this forum stays idle for too long you can blast it out of here without a peep from me. It will just lighten my pack to better keep an eye on the other forums.

Graybeard · « **Reply #3 on:** April 23, 2006, 09:35:58 AM »

All things new on the internet face a period of slowness due to no one knowing it's there. Even on a site like this we have over 150 different forums so this one for now is lost in the maze. Even GBO Members don't realize it's here yet much less the rest of the internet. To be honest when I agreed to set it up due to the vote I didn't really think it had enough of an interest base here at GBO to sustain it. Still don't.

It's gonna take folks from outside of the current GBO Membership coming in to sustain it most likely.

Now the one thing you can count on is that if you have say 100 people of them about 4 or 5 at most will be thread starters. You'll have perhaps another 20-30 who while they won't start a thread will participate once it has been started. The rest are lurkers or readers only and will almost never post.

So if you draw 100 folks to this forum to read it some will start threads and some will add to them but most will only read. But with nothing here to read there is nothing to pull them. So to get a new forum like this or a new site to go you must have folks to start new thread and then attract folks who will add to them. Where you get those is the question.

That's why a moderator is so important in the early days. If you start say two new threads per day on some subject regardless of what that gets threads here for folks to read and folks to reply to. Once the base is up to 50-100 threads it is large enough to draw in the lurkers and among them those few who will add their comments will begin to show up.

We're set up so Google and the other search engines are all over us like white on rice. So if there are posts here they will pick up on it really fast and start routing folks here when they search for the topics.

But it's always a slow go getting a new one started. The one thing you can almost count on is it won't self start. Someone has to take the bull by the horns and start those first 50-100 threads it takes to get noticed in the search engine rankings.

Black_Wolf · « **Reply #4 on:** April 23, 2006, 01:46:05 PM »

You are right 110% GB. The problem is i dont know enough about these two sports to be able to make the two or three threads a day to pull posters in.

I can speak of my limited experiences of my buddies and i shooting each other with the paintball/airsoft guns, but how interesting could that be to others as an incentive to post? Not very.
My main thing was that i saw the votes were there and it was hinging on a moderator stepping up to take the reigns and like some other ideas/requests for forums i thought it should deserve a shot.

Other than trolling at other established Paintball and Airsoft forums to pull members over here (which i will not do) i dont really know how to draw traffic to this forum?

Whether it makes it or not i will do my best, but the main fact is you gave it fair chance against your better judgement and i think that was mighty big of you :grin:

Snomon · « **Reply #5 on:** May 30, 2006, 05:05:14 AM »

I just found this forum due to my new interest in silhouette shooting but I have almost two years in airsofting here in the Northwest. I play twice a month with a club out here in which I'm one of the officers. We routinely get 35-50 people at each game during the winter and peaked at over 100 last summer.

I have a pretty good knowledge base on upper end airsoft weapons (read: expensive hobby), mechanics, upgrades and where to get airsoft parts at various US and Hong Kong vendors. I'll be glad to provide any input to this forum as needed.

Airsoft has been getting a bad rap due to "punk kids" using them to hold up grocery stores and banks around here and kids shooting each other where the general public can see them. I think I see an article titled "Cops almost shoot kids with BB guns" once a month. The funny thing is that the newspapers don't use the word "airsoft" but "air operated BB guns that shoot plastic BBs."

The more people to spread the positive aspects and the proper safe handling of the weapons of this sport, the better.

Snomon,
Snohomish, WA