Announcement Newbies: how can we make you keep coming back?

[Bump]

This still haunts me btw


It's a look that makes guests dubious

Mafia is a high intensity section so if a guest goes and lurks there, when they see in game spats and people aggressively mouthing off to one another or even flaming (if it isn't removed promptly or have an administrative note placed on it as a caution) they're going to judge OLF by that

Right now, from guests, the site looks like it's only for two cliques that are relevant to niche hobbies (battlesome and text based Mafia)
We see beyond all of the bitter interactions - I can call Ekko a shithead lovingly but they're only going to see the shithead part
It paints an impression the site has no mission past maintaining the current activity the highest traffic sections do and the some purpose is to harbor specific groups of people instead

Would you agree?

I think the staff is all on the same page but I'll double-check - there needs to be an overhaul at this point, many sections that aren't just making the cut can either be converted into prefixes and moved into the main section or just be removed entirely for now, it's way past time for that so I'll be setting aside at least an hour to come up with a thread announcing what the restructure is going to look like
There's also going to be two new sections added aswell to depart from the "no other man's island" appearance I think we may be currently giving off

I agree with your point in regards with the Mafia and honestly some times I get lost in that section while lurking thats why I stressed the point with simple easy posts that keep users engaged like posting about the song you listing or movie you wathed it creates an easy going thread to thread post that helps them get thiewr feet wet before engaging in threads like mafia or even forums games, hell even commented on a thread that has over 20 pages dicussing Pokemon or Anime that they have a take on but might be too shy to contribute because they see some much diffrent opions

I also agree with your point with sections doing an over haul and moving them into a quote and quote main section and maybe in the future if said section grows we can then let it survive on its own

also sorry for the typos im on the iphone and the screen is fucked lol

Fortunately, censorship is enabled for guests, and it gets disabled as soon as they register lol all they're going to see is a bunch of ***** and ** ***** * ** * ** * *********'s from the outside

 

[Dr. Watson]

I agree with your point in regards with the Mafia and honestly some times I get lost in that section while lurking thats why I stressed the point with simple easy posts that keep users engaged like posting about the song you listing or movie you wathed it creates an easy going thread to thread post that helps them get thiewr feet wet before engaging in threads like mafia or even forums games, hell even commented on a thread that has over 20 pages dicussing Pokemon or Anime that they have a take on but might be too shy to contribute because they see some much diffrent opions

I also agree with your point with sections doing an over haul and moving them into a quote and quote main section and maybe in the future if said section grows we can then let it survive on its own

also sorry for the typos im on the iphone and the screen is fucked lol

So here's the thing about threads like those and why I have a small bone to pick with them

Anyone can go elsewhere to post a song they're listening to. To top it off, they usually post stuff like that in sites they're already familiar with. Why? There's a higher likelihood that it'll actually be acknowledged.
Music, literature, sports, whatever - they're all personal things to people. It becomes impersonal if a take or rec is posted among s sea of other takes or recs.

To put it bluntly, they offer nothing. They're not interesting, they're not something that people ponder on. They don't generate discussion and in fact contribute to section deaths. They're just... there.

Yes, it allows newcomers to post in a thread that's simple but is it enough for newbies to keep coming back? Isn't there a better safety net?

I think there are better ways to encourage newbies the dip their feet into the water but it requires heavy lifting and genuine interest for it. Say, a nasterlist of recommended songs or books members ask to be added to under a specific genre. Or books that are considered cult classics.
Something with a personal touch, something that stands out from a sea of other forums that have the same old song and dance.

 

[Sky]

I was also considering adding a prefix tag for "coached" Mafia which would feature extremely small setups that are for learning purposes so if there are people interested but are not quite sure where to go, they can dip their feet in the water with this instead
No such instances would occur in a simulation and once someone feels comfortable enough, they can stay within Unranked games if they wish

There's a few good mini setups on the mafia wiki, I'd feel down to run them

 

[Dr. Watson]

There's a few good mini setups on the mafia wiki, I'd feel down to run them

Based

Training simulation prefix added

 

[Ultra]

How I play mabia?

 

[Bump]

So here's the thing about threads like those and why I have a small bone to pick with them

Anyone can go elsewhere to post a song they're listening to. To top it off, they usually post stuff like that in sites they're already familiar with. Why? There's a higher likelihood that it'll actually be acknowledged.
Music, literature, sports, whatever - they're all personal things to people. It becomes impersonal if a take or rec is posted among s sea of other takes or recs.

To put it bluntly, they offer nothing. They're not interesting, they're not something that people ponder on. They don't generate discussion and in fact contribute to section deaths. They're just... there.

Yes, it allows newcomers to post in a thread that's simple but is it enough for newbies to keep coming back? Isn't there a better safety net?

I think there are better ways to encourage newbies the dip their feet into the water but it requires heavy lifting and genuine interest for it. Say, a nasterlist of recommended songs or books members ask to be added to under a specific genre. Or books that are considered cult classics.
Something with a personal touch, something that stands out from a sea of other forums that have the same old song and dance.

I see your point and I wont argue your feelings on it but it does allow newibies to come back berceuse its normally a safe thread that doesnt have any judgement that why I normally advocate for those threads, people have so much different thughts and feelings on music and movies that they dont ever tell someone not to like it

Anime and manga threads newbies neeed confidence because this genration (i sound like an old man lol) is lacking that so if you come in telling them why they are wrong most of the time they flame and dont come back or think thier option is useless

Your second point about the threads with a personal touch i agree we need more users, old and new to make threads with personal explanation of why they like said book or movie etc so it engages people that have read it, wathed it etc to agree or disagree or even see it from the model. Id love all users myself included to do that but I just simply say why I like thoose threads are it normally lets someone get thier feet wet or even helps lurkers post once in awhile

Simple put we need to bridge the two together which goes back to a point you made earlier simplify sections idk may help

Based

Training simulation prefix added

Thats good add-on

Also I like the discussion that we can have, hopefully it helps newbies see that people can discuss things and come back to a forum

 

[Leng]

More forum games, they're really good reads.

 

[Dr. Watson]

More forum games, they're really good reads.

!! It's you

Can you specify

 

[Goth Boy]

More forum games, they're really good reads.

Specially Rock Paper Scissors

 

[Leng]

!! It's you

Can you specify

I spend a lot of time reading in here: https://onelastforum.com/forums/forum-games.8/

I had a car accident when I was younger which put my nose through the back of my skull. The doctors recommended this kind of material to relax me and help me remember basic math and the alphabet.

And sometimes I post elsewhere but it can be like I'm in a temporal warp of unrelated 90s sitcoms.

 

[Galan]

I'm enjoying my stay here. I'm liking forum games.

 

[RavenSupreme]

I like it here. It’s cosy and familiar.

 

[Dr. Watson]

The game stuff is all noted - would you guys be interested in participating in search word puzzles and the like, too? I could perhaps move the game subsection to contests for more visibility and take a few of my own ideas

 

[Ral]

The game stuff is all noted - would you guys be interested in participating in search word puzzles and the like, too? I could perhaps move the game subsection to contests for more visibility and take a few of my own ideas

Forum games is fine where it is right now and I have a few more planned games coming down the pipes. Contests, on the other hand, require more commitment, and as you can tell from previous and existing contests, forum humans are just ultimately lazy lol. I honestly think removing the contests section entirely and just setting up a "Contest" prefix for all sections it will apply to would be much better and makes the most sense as far as setup goes for our forum.

Probably a Lifestyle section like I talked about previously too which should help us organize the dead sections a bit more. I'm also thinking about removing the Shitpost Central section entirely as well and simply include spam under General Discussions. To be honest, we can probably make that section more useful too given it's fairly popular for people to want to talk about whatever aka off-topic from the rest of the sections on the forum.

 

[Dr. Watson]

Er

We haven't even tried to get it going, Ral
Please don't jump the gun just yet - I'm trying, give me time to.

If it doesn't get off the ground and the contests/events/however you prefer to call it, sure, a prefix is fine. But you haven't even given me month to see if the cooking contest might lift off.

 

[Ral]

Er

We haven't even tried to get it going, Ral
Please don't jump the gun just yet - I'm trying, give me time to.

I don't see the current Contents and Events section making any true headway with the level of activity we have now. See it in my view, where we have a bunch of dead sections already. Consolidation might sound like a good option, but removing sections entirely isn't one either. I see a better approach to attract more activity to dead sections, even with GFX stuff, is to utilize prefixes, and allow members to host contests in their appropriate sections altogether. This will bring more attention to these sections instead of stuffing things like contests in its own isolated island as it is today. I feel this would be the best approach for us and I'm sure others would agree as well.

 

[Ral]

Shitpost Central is also just a meme section on its own, so it's relevance to what I stated previously should be ignored until we figure out what we want to do with that section altogether.

 

[Dr. Watson]

See Discord.

 

[Ral]

If it doesn't get off the ground and the contests/events/however you prefer to call it, sure, a prefix is fine. But you haven't even given me month to see if the cooking contest might lift off.

Forgive me for being impatient and forgetting yet again lol. I will give it the time we discussed countless times before and take things from there. I'm still stuck on the whole prefix idea because it finally makes sense to me after you brought up the idea many months ago, and now I understand why it makes the most sense.

 

[Bump]

The game stuff is all noted - would you guys be interested in participating in search word puzzles and the like, too? I could perhaps move the game subsection to contests for more visibility and take a few of my own ideas

Id legit pour my free time into this