Diaries

[ohdear]

no matter how obvious it is that it's having an adverse affect on the forum it's a hard habit to break, but for now it seems people are content to sacrifice the groth of the forum for the personal gain of their diaries

you are stating this as if it is a fact. Its not. No growth of the forum is being sacrificed (evidence, traffic and sign ups), and no-one amongst the forum principals is interested in "personal gain of their diaries" over other aspects of the forum

You state a lot of further stuff as facts. They are not, they are opinions. Albeit verbose ones, that to me dilute some sensible points you make!

also just to ask about the numbers, even though they're up haven't you gone through 10 or so different forum sponsors and everytime get dumped, the reason being not enough traffic through the site, not enough clicks on the sponsors banners, generally not enough new members and growth(yay got it right) for a sponsor to justify continuing, if this just keeps on happening and happening time and time again does it not leave you scratching your heads as to why you're not able to keep a sponsor, didn't even DTD sponsor you before and it just didn't work? i think even though you are growing the numbers are nowhere near enough to keep a sponsor happy or interested, if you don't need a sponsor then it doesn't matter, if you do and you've failed with a handfull of them then shouldn't you be looking at why it is you're not getting the new numbers in and growing in accordance with how a sponsor would like, in that case i'd be breaking my back to make this place as easy as possible for new members to come into, with the configuration of the rail and mentality if the diarists it's like your actually trying to make it as difficult as possible, it's a shame, it's like you're living day to day and just about keeping your head above water when you should be thriving and growing, make a start, have a word with the owners of the diaries, get them to get their stuff out onto the rail and in the lounge, streamline the rail, move the diarys to their own section, it'll tidy up the rail and the whole forum and make it so much easier for newbies to get involved

[gatso]

i think it was gatso who made the point about one of the most frustrating aspects of the diarys for him is that if someone had something, fun, entertaining etc that they wanted to share then instead of posting a thread about it in the lounge or rail it was just natural for them to automatically go to their favorite diary where 10 or so of there friends post and say: "wow look at this, what do we all think"?, it's become second nature

example of this from yesterday. I don't remember who it was but someone posted a video on tikay's diary about how people aren't very good at walking straight. as far as I can see there's no logical reason for posting it there. it probably got 2 or 3 comments as not everyone reads that thread and stuff on there gets lost in amongst the other stuff. if it had been posted on a new thread something like that would probs run to 2 or 3 pages of comments

[Laxie]

Each diary has it's own set of followers and not everyone reads every diary.  Like minds tend to flock together to a certain extent.  Pretty sure people will still go to the diary of their choice to post a topic, even if they're all placed in a new sub section.  Thing is, each diary has it's own special 'feel' and people who read them know what works in them.  They know what's of interest to the 'owner' and like to interact.  Posting those topics in the diary aids the interaction.  

Sure the owners of the diaries like to see people reading, but the readers like to read them too.  It's a two way street.  And fact is, while they may not be one person's cup of tea - there's a whole lot of viewer stats to suggest they appeal to many others.  I don't care if they're moved or not, but I don't believe for a minute they make any part of the forum look messy.  That's just silly.  Doesn't matter if it's a diary or some other thread.  Something's going to turn up there.

[TightEnd]

no matter how obvious it is that it's having an adverse affect on the forum it's a hard habit to break, but for now it seems people are content to sacrifice the groth of the forum for the personal gain of their diaries

you are stating this as if it is a fact. Its not. No growth of the forum is being sacrificed (evidence, traffic and sign ups), and no-one amongst the forum principals is interested in "personal gain of their diaries" over other aspects of the forum

You state a lot of further stuff as facts. They are not, they are opinions. Albeit verbose ones, that to me dilute some sensible points you make!

also just to ask about the numbers, even though they're up haven't you gone through 10 or so different forum sponsors and everytime get dumped, the reason being not enough traffic through the site, not enough clicks on the sponsors banners, generally not enough new members and growth(yay got it right) for a sponsor to justify continuing, if this just keeps on happening and happening time and time again does it not leave you scratching your heads as to why you're not able to keep a sponsor, didn't even DTD sponsor you before and it just didn't work? i think even though you are growing the numbers are nowhere near enough to keep a sponsor happy or interested, if you don't need a sponsor then it doesn't matter, if you do and you've failed with a handfull of them then shouldn't you be looking at why it is you're not getting the new numbers in and growing in accordance with how a sponsor would like, in that case i'd be breaking my back to make this place as easy as possible for new members to come into, with the configuration of the rail and mentality if the diarists it's like your actually trying to make it as difficult as possible, it's a shame, it's like you're living day to day and just about keeping your head above water when you should be thriving and growing, make a start, have a word with the owners of the diaries, get them to get their stuff out onto the rail and in the lounge, streamline the rail, move the diarys to their own section, it tidies up the rail and the whole forum

The reason is that the current member base is "mature" (mostly  ) and in general either has accounts everywhere already or if they don't its a struggle to get them to support blonde online initiatives. Its not that traffic is weak. blonde worked fantastically as a promotional tool, but that is difficult to quantify.

[TightEnd]

i think it was gatso who made the point about one of the most frustrating aspects of the diarys for him is that if someone had something, fun, entertaining etc that they wanted to share then instead of posting a thread about it in the lounge or rail it was just natural for them to automatically go to their favorite diary where 10 or so of there friends post and say: "wow look at this, what do we all think"?, it's become second nature

example of this from yesterday. I don't remember who it was but someone posted a video on tikay's diary about how people aren't very good at walking straight. as far as I can see there's no logical reason for posting it there. it probably got 2 or 3 comments as not everyone reads that thread and stuff on there gets lost in amongst the other stuff. if it had been posted on a new thread something like that would probs run to 2 or 3 pages of comments

because Manuels Mum, who posted it, thinks it will appeal to tikay

[ohdear]

i think it was gatso who made the point about one of the most frustrating aspects of the diarys for him is that if someone had something, fun, entertaining etc that they wanted to share then instead of posting a thread about it in the lounge or rail it was just natural for them to automatically go to their favorite diary where 10 or so of there friends post and say: "wow look at this, what do we all think"?, it's become second nature

example of this from yesterday. I don't remember who it was but someone posted a video on tikay's diary about how people aren't very good at walking straight. as far as I can see there's no logical reason for posting it there. it probably got 2 or 3 comments as not everyone reads that thread and stuff on there gets lost in amongst the other stuff. if it had been posted on a new thread something like that would probs run to 2 or 3 pages of comments

i think responsibility for that should be equally shared between the poster and diary owner, marky147 made reference to the guy Milky on my bb'ing forum, he's not a mod or admin but he's the man, most posts, most reps, likes etc, if someone posted that on his diary he'd be like: "wtf are you posting that on my diary for, go and post it in the general discussion area and we'll talk about it there" and rightly so imo, and you often see threads there "FAO Milky" (or whoever) because it benefits the forum and everyone knows that, i think that's what the guys on my bb'ing get and maybe what some people here have lost sight of, i really think it is a ego thing and it must feel really good when everyone's telling you how great your diary is and even brining content directly to it for discussion, it's a huge stroke to your ego, but as you've said with the example above if that doesn't clearly demonstrate how it's of greater detriment to the forum as a whole then i don't know what will, so many people, specifically newbies, missing out on so much stuff, a lot of it great stuff

[gatso]

an example of the opposite backing up that post ^^^^ by ohdear

camel's tips for tikay thread

he could've chosen to put it on tikay's diary where it would've got swallowed up amongst everything else and almost certainly died a death pdq

instead he started a new thread with an appropriate title, it's now approaching 100 pages and has turned into a great read

[ohdear]

i think it was gatso who made the point about one of the most frustrating aspects of the diarys for him is that if someone had something, fun, entertaining etc that they wanted to share then instead of posting a thread about it in the lounge or rail it was just natural for them to automatically go to their favorite diary where 10 or so of there friends post and say: "wow look at this, what do we all think"?, it's become second nature

example of this from yesterday. I don't remember who it was but someone posted a video on tikay's diary about how people aren't very good at walking straight. as far as I can see there's no logical reason for posting it there. it probably got 2 or 3 comments as not everyone reads that thread and stuff on there gets lost in amongst the other stuff. if it had been posted on a new thread something like that would probs run to 2 or 3 pages of comments

because Manuels Mum, who posted it, thinks it will appeal to tikay

therefore could he not start a thread in the lounge entitled "FAO tikay" thus opening the subject up to a whole bunch of existing members than don't read tikays diarys as well as potential newbies

[TightEnd]

i think it was gatso who made the point about one of the most frustrating aspects of the diarys for him is that if someone had something, fun, entertaining etc that they wanted to share then instead of posting a thread about it in the lounge or rail it was just natural for them to automatically go to their favorite diary where 10 or so of there friends post and say: "wow look at this, what do we all think"?, it's become second nature

example of this from yesterday. I don't remember who it was but someone posted a video on tikay's diary about how people aren't very good at walking straight. as far as I can see there's no logical reason for posting it there. it probably got 2 or 3 comments as not everyone reads that thread and stuff on there gets lost in amongst the other stuff. if it had been posted on a new thread something like that would probs run to 2 or 3 pages of comments

because Manuels Mum, who posted it, thinks it will appeal to tikay

therefore could he not start a thread in the lounge entitled "FAO tikay" thus opening the subject up to a whole bunch of existing members than don't read tikays diarys as well as potential newbies

yes he could, but who is anyone to tell a poster where to post?  That's not what a community or forum is about

[Laxie]

Each diary has it's own set of followers and not everyone reads every diary.  Like minds tend to flock together to a certain extent.  Pretty sure people will still go to the diary of their choice to post a topic, even if they're all placed in a new sub section.  Thing is, each diary has it's own special 'feel' and people who read them know what works in them.  They know what's of interest to the 'owner' and like to interact.  Posting those topics in the diary aids the interaction.  

Sure the owners of the diaries like to see people reading, but the readers like to read them too.  It's a two way street.  And fact is, while they may not be one person's cup of tea - there's a whole lot of viewer stats to suggest they appeal to many others.  I don't care if they're moved or not, but I don't believe for a minute they make any part of the forum look messy.  That's just silly.  Doesn't matter if it's a diary or some other thread.  Something's going to turn up there.

[TightEnd]

an example of the opposite backing up that post ^^^^ by ohdear

camel's tips for tikay thread

he could've chosen to put it on tikay's diary where it would've got swallowed up amongst everything else and almost certainly died a death pdq

instead he started a new thread with an appropriate title, it's now approaching 100 pages and has turned into a great read

but that's Camel's choice. As to my reply above, why should we be rigid and prescrptive as to where people post

I've posted 2,800 new threads. My choice. Some spam (a lot spam) but the non spam ones, some work, some don't. I also post on diaries

If everyone complaining simply started a few of their own threads, then the "problems" people are pointed out would be partially alleviated,

I don't see a lot of people complaining starting ANY threads

[ohdear]

an example of the opposite backing up that post ^^^^ by ohdear

camel's tips for tikay thread

he could've chosen to put it on tikay's diary where it would've got swallowed up amongst everything else and almost certainly died a death pdq

instead he started a new thread with an appropriate title, it's now approaching 100 pages and has turned into a great read

copletely agree, it's exactly the thing i'm talking about, and tikays done great getting into the swing of it, i'm sure that the recent interest and growth in the betting section is in no small part down to that thread and tikays presence and participation in it, if that kind of willingnes to engage in the forum outside of his own diary was done so more often and followed by other prominet diary owners, maybe willing to discuss some of the more topical stuff outside of their diares on other areas of the forum i think you might see the forum as a whole become a lot more livlier like the betting section has, bringing in a lot of new members too

[Laxie]

Sigh.  Blinkered much?

[cambridgealex]

I wish oh dear would use capital letters and paragraphs like the rest of us. His posts are so tilting to try and wade through, it's just a big wall of text with the occasional decent point mixed in, it's just not worth the effort anymore.

[TightEnd]

an example of the opposite backing up that post ^^^^ by ohdear

camel's tips for tikay thread

he could've chosen to put it on tikay's diary where it would've got swallowed up amongst everything else and almost certainly died a death pdq

instead he started a new thread with an appropriate title, it's now approaching 100 pages and has turned into a great read

copletely agree, it's exactly the thing i'm talking about, and tikays done great getting into the swing of it, i'm sure that the recent interest and growth in the betting section is in no small part down to that thread and tikays presence and participation in it, if that kind of willingnes to engage in the forum outside of his own diary was done so more often and followed by other prominet diary owners, maybe willing to discuss some of the more topical stuff outside of their diares on other areas of the forum i think you might see the forum as a whole become a lot more livlier like the betting section has

tikay and RED-DOG to name but two contribute to masses of threads, not just their own diaries. You don't see that?

I agree that tikay's participaton in BTSD is a major part of the boom in that section, yes.