How To Spot If BA Is In Trouble

Found an interesting list of red flags that could show if a community forum is in trouble.

http://www.feverbee.com/2010/06/onlinecommunityintrouble.html

This is from the article:

  • No new posts in 24 hours. If your community goes an entire day (except Christmas) without a single interaction you’re on the brink of failure. Push the panic button. Engage heavily in one to one interactions to inject activity.
  • Key members have gone missing. Name your top 10 members. Have any of them been posting less frequently recently? Why? Find out and adapt.
  • Less members are joining. Community members are transient, they get jobs, move location, start families. You need fresh blood to keep the community active. Regularly measure the number of new members joining, when it dips (or slows) take action to recruit new members.
  • A new rival community is rapidly gaining momentum. If you see a new community in your field rapidly gaining momentum, it means you’re not providing something these members need.
  • Posts go unanswered. The lack of conversation is a clear flag something is wrong. When posts start going unanswered, people begin to drift away.
  • Declining sector/topic/passion. UK-CT is a dying community for a video game which is over 10 years old. It’s entire audience has moved on to other games. It’s niche is dying, it didn’t stick with the players.
  • Lack of friendliness. Whilst arguments are important, friendliness is more important. Do members seem less friendly recently? Do they lack familiarity with each other and previous community discussions? Do they know how the top members in a community are?
  • Boring discussions. Subjective, but important. Do the discussions feel like they’re less interesting recently? Is there a poor quality of things to talk about?

Great stuff Bigboil. I always had a feeling you was a closet journalist, and with this, you have confirmed your status among the best.

I think it best to file this one under -

Boring discussions. Subjective, but important. Do the discussions feel like they’re less interesting recently? Is there a poor quality of things to talk about?

Heh, I think BA is most active christmas day, everyones always on posting christmas related 3D stuff and heaps of off topic threads about what presents you got etc.

I’m most worried about number 5 in the help sections and number 2. Some of the moderators are gone. Also the gallery forum is never updated because one of the moderators are never here.

How would one go about being a moderator, if a number of moderator’s have left then perhaps it’s a good idea to start looking for new people to help out.

As for number 5, I think that could be down to a lot of people not knowing the answers, there seems to be a lot of new people here that heavily out weigh the more experienced users and as such it’s hard to stay on top of everything, over time as more and more people learn about Blender , I think questions will be answered more often, it’s just one of those things though, you can’t spend 24/7 answering questions, people need to live etcetera :slight_smile:

that, and I seem to see much, much more activity in #blender lately, where I get few notifications from BA. just my 2¢.

In the past I would have loved to be moderator, but looking back over my past history on the internet in general perhaps i wouldn’t be suitable lol. I certainly would have spiced things up but maybe for the wrong reasons.

I used to live and love this site. I think i’ve just got over my 3d fetish and i’ve done nothing blendery for quite along time.

I’ve never really had the confidence to hit the help sections, i’m not that versed on helping people and usually someone else had beaten me to it.

Also Blender’s “Make Great Render” button isn’t working properly yet.

yes, we need new/more moderators!
I’m looking at the list of mods here: http://blenderartists.org/forum/showgroups.php

several of them haven’t been active for months, if not years

what if the only really active section is Off-Topic?

not the case here, of course, but I’ve seen quite a few examples around when members just gather around off-topic even if they just don’t care for a software that much anymore. It’s kinda like a bar when they go meet Bob and Barney, old fellows…

http://www.stories.the-ridges.net/images/ba.jpg

Never in trouble.

Damn this was double posted

I agree!

I think one of the main issues is we are not cycling enough moderators. i.e. they come and go, but it seems to be a transition in ones life and moderating/answering support questions seems to come in second to life unfortunately.

I for one have dropped off a bit just due to the recession and needing to work massive days to keep on top of work.

anyone want to manage the gallery? please PM me and i will put a word in to the other mods about adding someone to the role of gallery updating.

I agree about the mods issue, but the forums are quite active, especially WIP.
I think the issue in the support forums is that most people don’t post screenshots, blend files, or anything useful to work off of. Also with the recent transition to 2.5, there are fewer people who know the solutions to the problems. I still use 2.49.

+1 for boosting the mod team.
I think that having an actual moderator post a reply/welcome early goes a long way in making a new member feel welcome and gives them more sticking power to the community. I don’t mean to over state it, but the mood set by the moderators seems to be one of the most powerful forces in the social dynamics of an online community. Mods should be more then just maintaining the site in a literal sense of ad sweeping and breaking fights, I’m sure that must get tiring to do all the time anyways. If our mods are to busy to just use the site as it is normally meant for everyone themselves then they need some help.

Edit: and I know everyone here knows this already, but the view counter isn’t helping…

Or you could use google trends. Blue-blenderartists.org
http://www.google.com/chart?cht=lc&chd=e%3A2Y2Y2Y2Y2Y2Y2Y2Y%2CB6B6B6B6B6B6B6B6B6B6B6B6B6B6B6B6B6B6B6B6%2Cf8adZbZZcidCcAb1btdxeCb1fdcHdDZbbYf-gWeKdncIe2dZaRXIdHZSbkaLbcfMc6aZdAdjiM__________________________________________%2C__________________________________________________________________________AYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY&chs=580x188&chco=ffffff00%2Cffffff00%2C4684eeff%2C4684eeff&chls=1.0%2C1.0%2C0.0|1.0%2C1.0%2C0.0|1.75%2C1.0%2C0.0|1.5%2C3.0%2C3.0&chxt=x&chxr=0%2C0.0%2C100.0&chxl=0%3A||Jan+2009|||Apr+2009|||Jul+2009|||Oct+2009|||Jan+2010|||Apr+2010|||&chxs=0%2C443322ff%2C9.0%2C0.0&chm=v%2C443322ff%2C1%2C-1%2C1|t+Daily+Unique+Visitors%2C676767ff%2C0%2C0%2C10%2C1|t+Google+Trends%2C676767ff%2C0%2C6%2C10%2C1&chg=15.790000000000001%2C33.33%2C1.0%2C1.0%2C5.263

Blue-blender, Red-Megan fox

Heh, and they probably have about the same amount of ‘nude’ references in the titles.

A slightly more useful… wait, I don’t see much use in this, whatever, but why doesn’t it have a graph for BA.org for the last half a year plus?
google page views

I agree with all the points above. The main problem I think is people just isn’t interested in what other people do. And it doesn’t seems to be anyone who is willing to cooperate on movie projects or games.

For old users that already know the basics there isn’t much on a forum like this to do. Except posting their work, but as with everything else in life. Working alone isn’t always very fun, especially if you lack inspiration, or is stuck on something.

Getting a team together is both effective and fun to get something done. But this forum seems dead when it comes to creating projects together. It seems to be a bit dead indeed…:no:

Whats involved in being a moderator, what knoledge and skills are required, you should explain something like that so that people who are interested will have a better idea of what they are getting into, like I have in the past been interested in being a game engine moderator, but I doub’t I have the skills needed.

Also, I really don’t think the BA is in any real trouble, its just a slow time, I’m sure every forum goes through those, I try to help out when I can, but my knowledge is only so great, but as long as everyone gives their 2 cents, then I’m sure we will keep going. :yes: