Increasing forum engagement - thoughts?

[Hamish Gill]

One of the longest and most engaged with posts for a while is a post about people not being engaged ... Irony in action!

So ...

Let's have some suggestions please

What features do you think would engage you better as a member?

What features do you think would engage new members better?

Let's try and keep answers short and sweet please, remember I've got to read through this and comment where applicable, so if you can make my job easier that'd be great!

I am also specifically, though not exclusively, looking for ideas that the forum can maintain without ongoing input from me ...

So if you want competitions and challenges back (like I do) that that suggestion needs to come from a willingness to instigate and run such things yourself!

As I said elsewhere, the whole concept of this place is based on it being a community that takes responsibility for itself... If you want something you gotta help make it happen!

 

[Hamish Gill]

Here is an idea to get the grey matter going ...

We do a £10 camera challenge again.

You buy a camera for £10 or less.

You write a blog post on the blog about where you bought it, how much it cost, a bit about its features, things you like things you don't ... Doesn't need to be much. Maybe a couple of photos of it...

You shoot a single film (like last time)

Put the photos in a forum post linked to from the blog

Then put the favourite photo in a gallery (which I will make) in the "showcase" section of the site.

When everyone is done we can create a forum poll to vote on a winner.

This uses all aspects of the website without any need for complicated changes.

Gets people on the blog (which Google likes more than forums) get content about cameras on the blog (which people are more likely to find when searching google). It also links from the blog to the website. And makes use of the showcase section of the site which is currently underused ...

How does that sound for a kick off

 

[Pete Askew]

Sounds good to me.

 

[Martin Pancisin]

I am in

 

[Rob MacKillop]

I suppose I could slum it for a while Off to ebay...

 

[Beth Carter]

probably won't work for me for the next few months, but i'd like to see what everyone else puts out.

 

[Rob MacKillop]

Right, just bought an Olympus XA3 on ebay for £9.99. I missed out on a couple of other cameras in the last second of bidding, so took this one on a Pay It Now fixed price. It seems to get good comments here and there online. We shall see.

Here's the ad page: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/171490970274

 

[Kev Pugh]

Mmmm just mentioned on @Tom Dunne thread that Silence doesn't necessarily mean non- participation or to that matter non-appreciation of the images, I often browse without comment, sometimes leaving a hugo sometimes just passing by...it is difficult to keep up at times especially if you have missed a post and pick it up later on when it is along as the book of Genesis. One thing that springs to mind for me is that when a thread grows I find I am always scrolling up and down, looking at replies, responses, comments, then back through pages to the original to see what was posted and how the comments etc. affect my viewing....or any thoughts I may have about it, so.....is there anyway that the initial post can be held and all the subsequent postings and replies etc. allowed to scrolled through?
For me I think it would hold my attention and to make comment more likely, then the poster knows that I have been there and am participating rather than just being a poster hoping for a reply, don't know about anyone else but I do find it difficult at times to hold my attention when flicking between posts and pages....and this particularly applies when we have done the Cheap as Chips challenges etc...maybe its just me dunno, just a thought.