This forum kinda sucks

[Kemper]

Too much trouble to post a pic and do other things. It is way outdated and would probably have more participation if it were updated.

[Smf-retired-user-0043]

So true the forum software is very outdated, it's a PITA to upload pictures to another host, copy the url, come back to the page your working on to insert the link. Then when one of the free hosts suddenly insisted on paid membership, those who held their ground soon found their images blocked with broken links to the forums those images had been posted on.

Admin recently spent time tweaking some of the forums self serving features, but modernizing user features was overlooked.

[Kemper]

It is what it is and it certainly doesn't seem like anybody is doing anything to encourage more people to post.

[hills]

My understanding is that a forum needs a lot more bandwidth in order to host graphics. Bandwidth costs money. Also too ...the threads that had a lot of pictures seemed awfully slow to load in the past.

Personally ... i'm well enough satisfied with it the way it is. It doesn't seem to be a big income producer for whoever owns the site. I wouldn't expect them to put a lot of their own money into it ... if they aren't getting much money out of it.

The other thing too ... times have changed. Everything has scaled up. There aren't all that many small time scrappers around anymore. We're a dying breed. Kinda like the old time shoe maker that could stitch new soles onto your shoes & boots when you wore a hole through them. Every city and town had at least one back in the 60's.

[Kemper]

My understanding is that a forum needs a lot more bandwidth in order to host graphics. Bandwidth costs money. Also too ...the threads that had a lot of pictures seemed awfully slow to load in the past.

Personally ... i'm well enough satisfied with it the way it is. It doesn't seem to be a big income producer for whoever owns the site. I wouldn't expect them to put a lot of their own money into it ... if they aren't getting much money out of it.

The other thing too ... times have changed. Everything has scaled up. There aren't all that many small time scrappers around anymore. We're a dying breed. Kinda like the old time shoe maker that could stitch new soles onto your shoes & boots when you wore a hole through them. Every city and town had at least one back in the 60's.

So, you're saying it's a matter of money ? How much do you think it costs to have more bandwidth ?

[hills]

So, you're saying it's a matter of money ? How much do you think it costs to have more bandwidth ?

I honestly don't know.

One thing i have noticed over the years is that the forum goes off-line every so often. Might be down for a week or two until the hosting bill has been paid. For me ... that's okay. I understand about running an operation on a shoestring. As old uncle base oil used to say : Ayuh ... good enough !

Every forum has it's life. I would imagine that there will eventually come a day when the site goes off-line and doesn't come back. (I've seen it happen before.) That would be a shame because there's still a lot of good stuff in the archives ... even if the forum isn't as active as it once was.

[Scrap-Metal-Forum]

You can add photo attachments to your post, it is pretty simple to upload them. I will work on making a tutorial post for those that are not aware of how to do it.

Valid file extensions: bmp doc gif jpe jpeg jpg pdf png psd txt zip

[Kemper]

You can add photo attachments to your post, it is pretty simple to upload them. I will work on making a tutorial post for those that are not aware of how to do it.

Valid file extensions: bmp doc gif jpe jpeg jpg pdf png psd txt zip

I know you can do it . It's a matter of whether or not you want more participation by having a forum that people are more likely to use.

[Scrap-Metal-Forum]

I definitely do want to encourage more participation and build a forum that’s active, helpful, and easy for members to use. I am in the process of updating things around here so if you have specific updates or changes in mind that you think would make the forum more appealing or user-friendly, I’d love to hear them.

[hills]

I know you can do it . It's a matter of whether or not you want more participation by having a forum that people are more likely to use.

A lot of that is on us ... the people participating. Scrappers aren't always the easiest people in the world to get along with. We can be kinda grouchy sometimes ... especially old farts like me.

[Smf-retired-user-0043]

I definitely do want to encourage more participation and build a forum that’s active, helpful, and easy for members to use. I am in the process of updating things around here so if you have specific updates or changes in mind that you think would make the forum more appealing or user-friendly, I’d love to hear them.

Your site stats are deceiving you, yea it will inform you how many hits the site gets daily and which country those hits are originating from. What the stats won't tell ya is how many of those hits actually logged onto the site.

I suggested to you years ago the need to make the site members only, guests don't pay the bills nor do they contribute to the site.

Similar to your Scrap Room members only format. Every post I've ever made too SMF , under the various alias's used were on the public side.

Time to lock in membership, open up the scrap room. Not that i believe anything important resides behind closed doors.

The more members you have will certainly add income from your associate links.

In the past week no more than six active members participating, while the guest count was in the hundreds.

There are threads on the forum with thousands of views, the question is how many of those were logged in versus guests. With incomplete data how are you able to make rational plans for future development. Be like pissing into the wind.

[Smf-retired-user-0043]

A lot of that is on us ... the people participating. Scrappers aren't always the easiest people in the world to get along with. We can be kinda grouchy sometimes ... especially old farts like me.

Watch the page views go up when there's a **** storm going on. Most will be guests checking in for a daily laugh. Then someone go and spoil the ruckus by bringing in Admin.

Its a proven fact bad advertising gets better word of mouth versus paid. People have very short attention spans, end up doing business with the guy who garnered the most attention.

Another observation, you know when your good at what your doing when your customers are introducing you to their daughters.

[hills]

Watch the page views go up when there's a **** storm going on. Most will be guests checking in for a daily laugh. Then someone go and spoil the ruckus by bringing in Admin.

I know ... people like their drama. Others crave the limelight. It really doesn't build community though. People eventually grow weary of all the angst & chaos and lose interest in visiting this place.

I have to put up with enough Bull**** on my regular day job. Sometimes i have to be a real hardass and tell people exactly where the bear sits. I would rather not be that way on my off-time. Best to keep it professional and focus on talking about the scrapping work we do.

It's a good day when i learn a better way of doing things.

[Kemper]

I know ... people like their drama. Others crave the limelight. It really doesn't build community though. People eventually grow weary of all the angst & chaos and lose interest in visiting this place.

I have to put up with enough Bull**** on my regular day job. Sometimes i have to be a real hardass and tell people exactly where the bear sits. I would rather not be that way on my off-time. Best to keep it professional and focus on talking about the scrapping work we do.

It's a good day when i learn a better way of doing things.

Off topic and drama are what drive any successful forum. You could eliminate any other sub-forum and not really hurt participation as much as you would if you eliminated off-topic.
But nobody wants to babysit and do what it takes to keep people interested .

[hills]

Off topic and drama are what drive any successful forum. You could eliminate any other sub-forum and not really hurt participation as much as you would if you eliminated off-topic.
But nobody wants to babysit and do what it takes to keep people interested .

It's been my experience that you are apt to have people's undivided attention when you're talking about making money. Better ways to scrap = money in the pocket.

[Kemper]

It's been my experience that you are apt to have people's undivided attention when you're talking about making money. Better ways to scrap = money in the pocket.

Doesn't seem to be much interest.

[Smf-retired-user-0043]

Doesn't seem to be much interest.

Both sides came to the bargaining table, nothing was accomplished.

[Kemper]

Both sides came to the bargaining table, nothing was accomplished.

I don't think there is really much that anyone could do. There are some things that may help but there are too many other options in social media. I don't think they are as good but they are more popular. A lot of the forums that had a fair amount of traffic were primarily off-topic . A lot of them took their off-topic underground to members only while they still had a fair amount of posters.

[Kemper]

Disregard - double post

[Kemper]

I definitely do want to encourage more participation and build a forum that’s active, helpful, and easy for members to use. I am in the process of updating things around here so if you have specific updates or changes in mind that you think would make the forum more appealing or user-friendly, I’d love to hear them.

It looks like you are trying to make a buck and there is nothing wrong with that. But, I noticed this posted by you recently-
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and I wonder if you even need or want more posts by members.