Board activity and new memberships

[tea pls 86]

Just got a few questions regarding some funny stuff on the site lately.

 

1. Been noticing an increase of scripted/bot posts on the forums. I am wondering if the board is completely up to date? I know IPB has yet to release their ipb.4.x.x version and this version has been out for almost a year now (i believe it was released in may last year). If it is up to date then is there a possibility of adding a more secure registration process (i.e. add captcha or a skill testing question, both of which are supported by ipb) to weed out the scripted posts and keep the clutter down on the forum.

 

2. If the board is not up to date, whose responsibility does that fall on to? Does Salmoneus himself still look after the back end of things?

 

3. Does anyone make an attempt to bring players in to the community from outside "in-game" Runescape? Utilizing social media is a great way to attract members. Social media has changed the way the internet gets information across. Social media opens a great doorway to a before untapped resource of potential members. (Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, everywhere).

 

The internet has changed a lot in the past 5 years perhaps too much

 

Thanks

Edited March 19, 2014 by Iamyouronly

[reepicheep 324]

1. As far as I'm aware, there really isn't an increase to speak of, unless you mean since before June. Keep in mind that I can only speak about the Runescape subforums, but most of the spam seems to be directed there. That being said, I personally wouldn't be against more security measures but that's up to Sal/lilshu to do.

2. Sal still looks after the back end of things, unless something's changed.

3. I don't have a good answer for 3.

[Sobend 962]

I actually talk to people in-game about this fansite and ask them how when was the last time they used it, how they liked it, how they like it now, etc. I don't get them to try and join the forums though.

[Army of One 139]

3. I retweet every time Sal tweets! (Not like it helps, but its something!!)

Sadly, a lot of people i've talked to dislike Sals because the "guides suck", which is actually a quite common prejudice, as nobody really knows about our huge guide drive recently (props to you Sobend). People seem to like articles a lot more than they like guides.

[tea pls 86]

The recently updated guides are great but there are some outdated ones up there that should be edited (updated pitcures, prices and information) or removed entirely (some money making guides are no longer profitable). I think if they were indexed a little differently, things would run a bit smoother. The main problem is that Wikia is a highly used source for not just RS but almost ANYTHING. If you want the attention of the players you must either come up with something better/faster/easier or you do what they do and try to do it better. Since I'm sure we don't want to compete with Wikia, i am sure there are things that can be done to increase site traffic. But i agree Sobend does great keeping up the new guides and what not, that is a big deal, having a new quest guide out before other fan sites would give us the chance to attract those seeking the newest content guides.

Edited March 20, 2014 by Iamyouronly

[Sobend 962]

I agree that there are massive hurdles to climb over in regards to getting people to use our site once again. We have made good progress with the site but not with letting people know we have. Sal tweets stuff every time an update is made, but I'm not sure how much that helps.

 

As for how to attract people, I agree with absolutely everything Adam? says in this thread (rip Adam btw). The only way you can beat the wiki enough to get people to go to your site instead is to actually not try to beat the wiki - occupy a different niche instead.

 

As for the actual content, I am highly focused on updating what we have now. This is because I simply can't do anything else. I haven't played in years and there are countless updates that exist in game that I am still not aware of. Personally, I would prefer to update what we have and let somebody else prioritize getting new information onto the site. However, there is no other person with access to the site to accomplish this and putting up new material decreases the time I get to update existing information. I highly suggest the higher-ups create more CMS accounts and give them out to trusted, interested members of this community.

 

I also feel that other things may be needed to rejuvenate site traffic, such as further work on the site itself (i.e. a site upgrade). Traffic decreased significantly with the site upgrade, and although the site upgrade itself was not necessarily considered a cause for this I believe it may be. With the 2011 upgrade, Sal's Realm lost much of its personal feel and this detracted many users who came to the site for its homely feel. This conclusion is not purely speculation; I have received feedback from people in game who tell me this.

[Shooter585 193]

The thing that would help solve the bot problems would be to give DMs moderation powers over all forums. I know this would make them more or less mods, but they have been that way for a long time.

[tea pls 86]

As much as adding mod powers to some people would help keep the forum clean, it won't do much for the overall activity of actual members on the forum. I have read over the topic that Sobend linked and i see that this is not a new problem to anyone here, quite a shame to come back to see a very dead board. Unfortunately for the forum style communities, social media plugins and blog style websites are taking over forum boards due to their integration in to pre-existing social media accounts and it's user friendly-ness. I think if we want to attract more people here we must utilize the 'clan' side of Sal's. Seeing as how we are more of a 'community' than a 'clan', we already have something that has a market for new members. Pushing things like the citadel and weekend competitions (though comps are now hanging by a thread, no pun) should boost numbers slightly.

 

One thing that is for sure, if you want an active community again, you are going to have to take risks. It doesn't hurt to snoop around popular fansites to see what makes their boards more active, we can then use that to our advantage in an attempt to attract a new crowd. The official RS forums should be a starting point.

[Sobend 962]

One thing that is for sure, if you want an active community again, you are going to have to take risks. It doesn't hurt to snoop around popular fansites to see what makes their boards more active, we can then use that to our advantage in an attempt to attract a new crowd. The official RS forums should be a starting point.

There aren't that many RS boards that are more active than us and the ones that are have similar decreasing activity problems. I wouldn't suggest going to other boards for help honestly. We need to take a risk (as you said) and come out with a unique product.

 

Ultimately this isn't actually something that most of us can control - it's not our website. And even Sal can't battle the public trends towards facebook and reddit. I'm not a defeatist, but at the same time we need to realize that if Sal's is going to make a comeback it is going to come out looking completely different. This is going to take the work of a team.

Edited March 22, 2014 by Sobend

[tea pls 86]

One thing that is for sure, if you want an active community again, you are going to have to take risks. It doesn't hurt to snoop around popular fansites to see what makes their boards more active, we can then use that to our advantage in an attempt to attract a new crowd. The official RS forums should be a starting point.

There aren't that many RS boards that are more active than us and the ones that are have similar decreasing activity problems. I wouldn't suggest going to other boards for help honestly. We need to take a risk (as you said) and come out with a unique product.

 

We don't necessarily have to look at 'Runescape' fan sites. Fan sites of other MMO games would work metaphorically. It's less of the subject and more of the delivery when it comes to that 'snooping'.

 

I am unsure at this point what the best course of action would be, but i don't think i would go as extreme as to complete overhaul. Maybe sal's community should work a bit more towards their clan/community style rather than providing guides at a quick turn around time. Wikia has destroyed the market for guides on almost ANYTHING, whether it be a video game, something around the house, or you want to know what actor that was in that movie... You cannot compete with Wikia on the internet anymore. They have become a Wal-Mart of guides. Im not saying our guides aren't great, because they are great, we are just not in the spotlight enough for us to steal any thunder from wikia. :(

 

[Sobend 962]

One thing that is for sure, if you want an active community again, you are going to have to take risks. It doesn't hurt to snoop around popular fansites to see what makes their boards more active, we can then use that to our advantage in an attempt to attract a new crowd. The official RS forums should be a starting point.

There aren't that many RS boards that are more active than us and the ones that are have similar decreasing activity problems. I wouldn't suggest going to other boards for help honestly. We need to take a risk (as you said) and come out with a unique product.

 

We don't necessarily have to look at 'Runescape' fan sites. Fan sites of other MMO games would work metaphorically. It's less of the subject and more of the delivery when it comes to that 'snooping'.

 

I am unsure at this point what the best course of action would be, but i don't think i would go as extreme as to complete overhaul. Maybe sal's community should work a bit more towards their clan/community style rather than providing guides at a quick turn around time. Wikia has destroyed the market for guides on almost ANYTHING, whether it be a video game, something around the house, or you want to know what actor that was in that movie... You cannot compete with Wikia on the internet anymore. They have become a Wal-Mart of guides. Im not saying our guides aren't great, because they are great, we are just not in the spotlight enough for us to steal any thunder from wikia. :(

I somewhat disagree with you. The problem with the wiki is that it is plain boring to read. I've said this ten times, but for those who do not know this I believe that Sals can be extraordinarily successful as a fansite that makes fun of the Runescape stereotype. Sort of an anti-Runescape fansite. I realize this is very vague, but I think this could work. This however would take some work.

 

Could you be more specific on what you are suggesting though? It's vague (like mine).

[Shooter585 193]

How would you make fun of the Runescape stereotype. What would one of these guides look like?

[tea pls 86]

I can see where you are going and i can also see that you understand it is the lesser-popular way to deliver the information. Wikia tries to give just the facts, to the point, and does it in a Wikipage style. Their strength is in their power, lots of servers to power that type of a site, so many images and pages. I see what you are saying, the wiki does lack character or 'soul'. But if you look at this from a business perspective, it makes sense that Wiki is more popular. Everything about the way it is laid out is beyond efficient.

 

What we need to discover is something to give Sal's something unique yet attractive, i think we need to ask ourselves 1. what aim sal's wishes to take in regards to target audience and 2. what does the player/fan want from an RS fan site.

 

I for one don't mind a smaller, tighter communities, but i know sal's is capable of great things, just a matter of how far everyone is willing to reach. :)

[Aabid 14]

How many people are on the Sals Clan Chat IN Rs?

How many of those people are not present here?

 

Wondering if that many people still play RS.

[Sobend 962]

How many people are on the Sals Clan Chat IN Rs?

How many of those people are not present here?

 

Wondering if that many people still play RS.

The forum community is pretty much separate from the game community - which is bad of course.

 

Over the past couple months I'd say that there were 15-40 people in the cc at a time, however lately (past two weeks) I have noticed its been slower.

[Luftey 23]

I rarely come on here anymore :P Overall, most of the forums on RS fansites don't seem as active as they were back when I first joined Sals/other sites. As for quest guides, i used to use Sals all the time. Now I use Wiki just because it tends to be the first site to have a guide up/first result on Google/Yahoo (that said, guide for the new quest here is pretty good)

 

I personally don't really post on fansite forums a lot anymore just because none of the topics are that intriguing or they're something that has been discussed so many times before. I really used to enjoy all the PvM type logs on forums, but those have really died off since EOC came out :(

Edited March 31, 2014 by Luftey