New MB Community Site

[TheBig3]

Originally Posted by tore

This is definetly a concern and also one I've covered in the first post. A new site would require participation, basically people to fill it with content, so that it starts generating backlinks and so on and eventually appears visibly in a google search. Only at that point should one expect it to get new members in a way which is sustainable.

To be fair, there is stuff we could do to help somewhat. Perhaps we could put some cash together to run a google ad and we can of course promote the site ourselves on facebook and so on.

Take it from a guy who markets in two different jobs. Word of mouth is cheaper, smarter, and with enough status posts, and twitter'd tweets, you can gin up enough support to move ahead with anything. What matters is not recruitment but retention. Not to mention you can still, i believe, googlebomb things.

I'm for the idea. I have a modicom of web design skills if you need anything. Let me know.

[Ska Lagos Jew Sun Ra]

The advantage of a forum is that everyone has even access, and equal say. A community site would have to have it's content controlled by whoever is moderating it, taking away the communal feel of the forums.

[Zer0]

Hmmm I'm not sure about this idea. I think setting up a new site might damage the wonderful MB community we currently have. Why risk fracturing our community just for the sake of some extra site features?
I think better idea would be to set up a petition for requesting change/more administration, get as many members as possible to put down their name and send it to the admins. Maybe they'll see the potential that this site has?

[djchameleon]

Originally Posted by Zero1986

Hmmm I'm not sure about this idea. I think setting up a new site might damage the wonderful MB community we currently have. Why risk fracturing our community just for the sake of some extra site features?
I think better idea would be to set up a petition for requesting change/more administration, get as many members as possible to put down their name and send it to the admins. Maybe they'll see the potential that this site has?

I feel like i'm beating a dead horse at this point but no one has responded to me about it.

Why do certain people feel like if there is a new site that the community will become divided and members will only go to one site and not the either and vice versa?

it's just another site...what's wrong with visiting both of them?

[Scarlett O'Hara]

DJ is right. I'm certainly not going to stop posting in MB, I'm quite capable of posting at both places.

[Guybrush]

Originally Posted by djchameleon

it's just another site...what's wrong with visiting both of them?

I believe it is a valid concern because if you're making a thread you'd otherwise make here there instead, that means part of djchameleon's activity (which there is a limited amount of) has shifted to the new site. For your activity here to stay as high as it is now while still posting on a new site, you'd have to increase the average amount of posts you make every day. I don't think one should assume that people will increase their overall activity and if they don't, that means their activity will shift from one site to another.

The two sites would be in the same niche or at least have very overlapping niches (general music discussion) and so would be competitors for limited resources which are users and the time those users spend on the internet.

I'm sorry, I wish it wasn't true, but .. it is. And it's something to consider.

[Zer0]

Originally Posted by djchameleon

I feel like i'm beating a dead horse at this point but no one has responded to me about it.

Why do certain people feel like if there is a new site that the community will become divided and members will only go to one site and not the either and vice versa?

it's just another site...what's wrong with visiting both of them?

Well some people might choose to post mainly on the new site and some might choose to stay here instead and continue posting as usual, hence causing a division in the community. It would very difficult to post at the same frequency on both sites and we might have to choose between one or the other to maintain our presence. MB is the only forum I really post on frequently because I don't really have the time for other forums.

[Guybrush]

I'm not sure people should vote as if they knew what others are voting though. If you only think it's a bad idea if it splits the community, but otherwise love it, then you should vote that you like the idea. Otherwise, you get a situation where people vote negatively just because others vote negatively .. instead of voting for what they themselves would like to see happen.

Originally Posted by tore

if only half the members here support the idea, it's a horrible idea. If 100% support the idea, then it's brilliant! The poll requires you to ignore others though and just vote how you would feel based on you and yourself.

Forgot to reply to this :

Originally Posted by TheBig3

I'm for the idea. I have a modicom of web design skills if you need anything. Let me know.

Personally, if something like this happened, I'd love to see us put our collective skills together to create something to suit all of us.

[right-track]

Admin need to be petitioned by the members outlining their concerns of the future of this site due to their own inactivity and apparent disinterest.
They should be given the option to make the improvements the members want before the creation of a new site.
If they fail to make the improvements necessary, then there can be no half measures, no duel memberships.
If they are not interested...why should we be?

[VEGANGELICA]

Originally Posted by Zero1986

Hmmm I'm not sure about this idea. I think setting up a new site might damage the wonderful MB community we currently have. Why risk fracturing our community just for the sake of some extra site features?
I think better idea would be to set up a petition for requesting change/more administration, get as many members as possible to put down their name and send it to the admins. Maybe they'll see the potential that this site has?

^ This.

I wrote before in another thread that if you could get enough people (1,000) to sign a petition asking the administration to make the site changes desired by MB members, then based on my experience with petitions in a REAL community of around 50,000 people this would probably get the leadership's attention and willingness to work on making improvements.

A petition, however, would require ORGANIZATION to be effective. You would probably need to set up a contact tree in which core members send private messages to other members to make them aware of the MB petition.

For example, those poeple who vote YES on your poll here, Tore, might be willing to try one last time to get the changes they want on MB by...
(1) working together to write a petition, and
(2) dividing the MB membership into sections based on their usernames (A-C, E-G, etc.) and sending private messages to the active users to ask them to sign the petition, which would be its own separate thread, similar to this one.

If 1,000 people sign the petition requesting changes to MB, and the administration STILL ignores these requests, then I think setting up a new site would be reasonable AND feasible, especially with 1,000 people ready to divert their energies to a new music community they create.

BTW, www.muzicbanter.com has not yet been taken as a domain name! I checked. You can buy a domain name for around $20/year at places like GoDaddy.com, and have your URL link to your new music community that you can set up for free at various websites, I assume. With a name like MuzicBanter, you might entice a lot of confused young new members who were trying to find MuzicForums or MusicBanter!

Originally Posted by tore

I believe it is a valid concern because if you're making a thread you'd otherwise make here there instead, that means part of djchameleon's activity (which there is a limited amount of) has shifted to the new site. For your activity here to stay as high as it is now while still posting on a new site, you'd have to increase the average amount of posts you make every day. I don't think one should assume that people will increase their overall activity and if they don't, that means their activity will shift from one site to another.

The two sites would be in the same niche or at least have very overlapping niches (general music discussion) and so would be competitors for limited resources which are users and the time those users spend on the internet.
I'm sorry, I wish it wasn't true, but .. it is. And it's something to consider.

I agree, Tore, that most members can't double the time they spend at music forums, and so their activity at MusicBanter would decrease if they were involved in a separate, new community.

I know one member of MuzicForums who, after being banned, set up a new website that I joined to show support. However, I just don't have time to post on MuzicForums AND another site AND here. If enough people from MB joined together to create a new site, I'd happily follow, however. That would mean I wouldn't post here as often, though, because I just wouldn't have the time to do both.

Originally Posted by tore

I like to believe that knocking me down from my position as a mod and/or banning me from the site would only have a negative impact on the site as a whole and hope that they would see that too. But you never know, there's definetly a risk, but sometimes they're worth taking.

*I* certainly think banning you from MB would be a HUGE HUGE HUGE loss.

I encourage you not to give up on MB until you (the mods) and other members have tried Zero's petition idea. It would require organization, communication, and effort to succeed.

If the petition failed, then leaving MB for a new community would *not* be abandonment or mutiny. The abandonment would have been done by the administration. That's the whole source of the problem to begin with: the administration has abandoned MB by being minimally responsive.

EDIT: Basically I'm saying what Right-Track said and posted while I was working on my longer version of his wise words!