Facts, figures, and whys

[Gregoire]

There are 1,668 of us as of now.

 

Yet the most that have been online at one time is 117.

 

We are supposedly a community, but the numbers just don't add up. I think that if enough of us find a day that's good for us or authors collaborate on one day to release their stories (as a one time thing) that we could up the number to at least 500.

 

That's one way that we could show support for the site. The thought just came to me as I woke up from my nap (I'm good like that).

 

I really don't know why I'm doing this anymore, but it's a good idea, right?

---Greg.

[AFriendlyFace]

There are 1,668 of us as of now.

 

Yet the most that have been online at one time is 117.

 

We are supposedly a community, but the numbers just don't add up. I think that if enough of us find a day that's good for us or authors collaborate on one day to release their stories (as a one time thing) that we could up the number to at least 500.

 

That's one way that we could show support for the site. The thought just came to me as I woke up from my nap (I'm good like that).

 

I really don't know why I'm doing this anymore, but it's a good idea, right?

---Greg.

Well I'm game to give it a shot if it's a time I'd be available.

[Dio]

There must be almost 40 people online at any given time all throughout the day regardless of the record... I think that's fairly impressive all on its own.

[shadows]

Well, consider how much of that community might have registered once, took a look around and left, how many might only be able to check once or twice a week, how many have abandoned those accounts and created new ones and it adds up. Personally, I'd be impressed to see 70 people on at once.

 

//shadows

[TheZot]

As a little bit of trivia, of those 1668 users (1676 now), 1005 of them haven't ever posted anything. And, not counting Myr, Snowy's posted the most.

[AFriendlyFace]

As a little bit of trivia, of those 1668 users (1676 now), 1005 of them haven't ever posted anything. And, not counting Myr, Snowy's posted the most.

That's all very interesting! I have a question. How did you guys find all these fascinating facts out?? I'd love to checkem out myself.

[PartsBoy]

Looks like we beat the record yesterday: "Most users ever online was 359 on Yesterday, 06:13 PM"

 

So

 

Aaron

[TheZot]

That's all very interesting! I have a question. How did you guys find all these fascinating facts out?? I'd love to checkem out myself.

Who's not posted can be found by doing a search on the members list. You can sort by number of posts, and it's just a quick bit of math to see how many pages of people have zero posts plus the stragglers on the last page where some do and some don't.

[Xandra Kitee]

That's one way that we could show support for the site. The thought just came to me as I woke up from my nap (I'm good like that).

 

I really don't know why I'm doing this anymore, but it's a good idea, right?

---Greg.

First, will the bandwidth stand it ? ^^

 

For how long has this forum existed ? Nearly 3 years I think. It's already an achievement of some sort. A lot of forums don't exist for that long. (That's what made me register by the way) Not to mention that the site is very well placed when you search such content with google.

 

Maybe it's better to have a loyal and quietly growing community than to have impressive numbers.

 

And no matter what you do, the number of "simple lurkers" will always be far more important than the number of forum active members, since the forum is just some kind of side dish.

 

But, now, a fourth of the registered members connected at the same time is truly amazing. Though there's still a bit of posting to do before we can compete with IGN Boards. =^^=

[NaperVic]

But, now, a fourth of the registered members connected at the same time is truly amazing.

 

FYI...I believe the MOST USERS ONLINE number includes both registered and non-registered members.

[Xandra Kitee]

FYI...I believe the MOST USERS ONLINE number includes both registered and non-registered members.

ai.

 

Well then that's slightly different. But not so much.

[AFriendlyFace]

Who's not posted can be found by doing a search on the members list. You can sort by number of posts, and it's just a quick bit of math to see how many pages of people have zero posts plus the stragglers on the last page where some do and some don't.

Thanks Zot! I've been playing with this alot lately .

 

And no matter what you do, the number of "simple lurkers" will always be far more important than the number of forum active members, since the forum is just some kind of side dish.

 

But, now, a fourth of the registered members connected at the same time is truly amazing. Though there's still a bit of posting to do before we can compete with IGN Boards. =^^=

 

I like the way you put that Xandra. And it's no wonder I like this place. At most meals I tend to enjoy and focus on the side dish more than the main course!

 

***waves at everyone in the shadows***

 

For me it just took (takes) me awhile to get to new parts of the site. The first couple of months I stayed entirely in the Domaholics>Dom Stories forum. Then I slowly found the general discussion board, eventually the blogs, and finally live chat. Only a few months ago I realized there was a main page section of the Domaholics forum (without going into the Dom Stories section), which totally blew my mind...You'd think I would have noticed that earlier! Then later I found out about the e-fiction section. and LAST NIGHT I found this For Readers>Story cafe' section!! I swear I don't know what other mysteries GA will reveal to me in March!......I used to think I was "tech savy" and good at figuring stuff out with computers/online...but clearly I lost those abilities sometime around my midteens . Now before any of you younger people laugh, you just wait! I swear it's like you hit legal drinking age and suddenly you don't know how to work an Ipod and your VCR/DVD player confuses you! :wacko: (any older guys/gals who CAN work their VCR, SSSHHHH)

 

Um so What's an IGN board?

 

Anyway take care everyone and have an awesome day!

Kevin

[Xandra Kitee]

Um so What's an IGN board?

The second biggest forum of the world : http://www.big-boards.com/

[Myr]

I'm generally for Xandra Kitee's slow approach. It has taken time to grow our community to what it is. (Yes Xandra, we are on a dedicated server, we have plenty of bandwidth) Some interesting stats for you...

 

All traffic to the site accounts for 4- 7 Million hits per month.

The forums portion of the site accounts for less than half of all traffic.

We are averaging 6-10 new members daily. Most of these members tend to lurk and not to post right away.

 

We are generally very highly ranked by the search engines. At any given point during the day, there is at least one search spider on the site. (Googlebot, MSNbot, Lycosbot, etc)

 

The long term question that needs an answer is: What causes people to register... but then never post?

[Gregoire]

I'm generally for Xandra Kitee's slow approach. It has taken time to grow our community to what it is. (Yes Xandra, we are on a dedicated server, we have plenty of bandwidth) Some interesting stats for you...

 

All traffic to the site accounts for 4- 7 Million hits per month.

The forums portion of the site accounts for less than half of all traffic.

We are averaging 6-10 new members daily. Most of these members tend to lurk and not to post right away.

 

We are generally very highly ranked by the search engines. At any given point during the day, there is at least one search spider on the site. (Googlebot, MSNbot, Lycosbot, etc)

 

The long term question that needs an answer is: What causes people to register... but then never post?

 

I don't know about everyone, but I didn't post right away because the way you guys act it's like you've been best friends forever. Everything was really tight knit and factiony (expecially on Dom's boards). It's kind of intimidating. I didn't want to say the wrong thing and I felt like there was nothing that I could contribute. I was just Greg. Plus you guys seemed a little weird and I didn't think I had anything in common with you guys.

 

What made me want to post?

 

The hell if I know.

 

All I know is after I did it, I posted more and more until I became the annoying, little, lovable creature that I am now.

 

In short...we're are scary and far too buddy-buddy for most people to just jump in...and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

 

I'm sorry, I think I got off subject...what was the question again?

---Greg.

[NickolasJames8]

I don't know about everyone, but I didn't post right away because the way you guys act it's like you've been best friends forever. Everything was really tight knit and factiony (expecially on Dom's boards). It's kind of intimidating. I didn't want to say the wrong thing and I felt like there was nothing that I could contribute. I was just Greg. Plus you guys seemed a little weird and I didn't think I had anything in common with you guys.

 

What made me want to post?

 

The hell if I know.

 

All I know is after I did it, I posted more and more until I became the annoying, little, lovable creature that I am now.

 

In short...we're are scary and far too buddy-buddy for most people to just jump in...and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

 

I'm sorry, I think I got off subject...what was the question again?

---Greg.

It was a lot easier for me to post when I first signed up because I just went into the soapbox and dissagreed with 99.99991% of everyone in there.... That got everyones attention. Especially when I laid the facts down about Hurricane Katrina and the people in N/O....but anyway, I know what you mean though about it being a kinda tight knit community. I guess you just have to barge in and make yourself known

[Xandra Kitee]

All traffic to the site accounts for 4- 7 Million hits per month.

The forums portion of the site accounts for less than half of all traffic.

That is surprisingly (for me I mean) high for the forums. I would have thought a lot less.

 

But it's good. Really good. Considering the amount of stuff to read outside of the forums it means that a real lot of the users goes beyond simple reading. Even if they're not posting, they're still involved in the community.

 

Now, as for why they're not posting, I think that shyness and lack of time are the main reasons. Not to mention that this is not an attractive forum for immature spammers.

 

But I think shyness is the main reason. I mean, here, the subject is litterature. The people who makes the effort to read must have a little bit of brain. They'll not find it amusing to post only meaningless stuffs and even less to look like dorks. It goes beyond the usual little fear to not fit in an already existing community, I think.

 

There's only two thing to do : being nice to newcomers ( Dozo yoroshiku by the way. O_o) and wait. If the content is overall good enough (and it is for me - no sucking up intended - else I'd never had register) the forum will grow.

 

 

...

 

I'll shut up now because I really sound like an old sea dog of the web, gee. >_>

[Myr]

After I posted, I went and looked at the stats again. We have over 4 million hits on this part of the site, and it is only half the traffic. Which means we have over 8 million hits so far this month...

 

We are working on a number of new content pieces, specifically for writers. I have some articles from Hosted Authors about how they write. Tips and such.

 

Myr

[rknapp]

I don't know about everyone, but I didn't post right away because the way you guys act it's like you've been best friends forever. Everything was really tight knit and factiony (expecially on Dom's boards). It's kind of intimidating. I didn't want to say the wrong thing and I felt like there was nothing that I could contribute. I was just Greg. Plus you guys seemed a little weird and I didn't think I had anything in common with you guys.

 

What made me want to post?

 

The hell if I know.

 

All I know is after I did it, I posted more and more until I became the annoying, little, lovable creature that I am now.

 

In short...we're are scary and far too buddy-buddy for most people to just jump in...and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

 

I'm sorry, I think I got off subject...what was the question again?

---Greg.

 

 

X2

 

I actually first posted I think because this was the first place that I could be myself without consequence. I grew comfortable. Then I got on Vic's nerves. I liked that so much that I continued to do it and now he doesn't know what to do with me .

[Guest timtheslut]

ok the question was "what causes people to register but never post?"

 

and the answers so far have been good, and i agree with most.

 

 

mr greg said were scary and budy-buddy

nickolas said were a tight knit community

xandra kittee said shyness and lack of time

 

all of these r true. we are scary, it is a pretty tight knit community, and i'm sure we have got to seem sort of off our marbles most of the time. now to us that know each other here, there's nothing wrong with that, and i know i'm going to ask the impossible here, but if you can think back to the first time you were here(i know it's been awhile), i know what i thought of all of u nuts here.

 

shyness? ok i was so painfully shy at one point in my life, i never made a single friend in the entire 8th grade. ok, mb i was kinda depressed at the time, but still.

 

then i got involved in doms forums, mainly because he is such a writing god that i just had to talk about his work with someone else. but you have to understand, i didnt post anything for oer 6 mos after i joined. i lurked for awile until i kinda knew how peoples opinions on some matters were. then i just started agreeing with other peoples posts, and then that wasnt even enough--then i had to start arguments with people, which i think is a good thing. you see, after arguing with the voices in my head all the time, it was like a breath of fresh air to have people disagree with me, instead of just disagreeing and arguing with myself.

 

needless to say, now i cant even shut up when i want too.

 

 

another aspect to the original question i havent seen addessed yet.

i dont know about yall, but i am so far in the closet that i cant even find the door anymore. reading dom's stories are one thing, but when you start discussing them in detail, it can bring things up some people like me might want to not think about--i know i hadnt really admitted to myself if i was gay,bi,or straight when i first started posting in the forums--but if you arnet ready to look at that aspect of your life yet, it can be really intimidating.

 

i guess i just decided that there are people here that can accept just about anything about anyone, and what better people to associate myself with. if i cant leave the closet in my day-to-day life, at least i can be me here. but you have to realize, that with this being a forum for gay authors, there will be many lurkers who just arent facing the facts and never will. it's not their fault, but rather societies for making them outcasts. all we can do is do what we are doing, just being here for anyone who cares to take a step out and look around.

 

<<<<<<<<end of rant>>>>>>>>>>>

[TheZot]

Getting new people into a community's a tricky thing. There'll always be a constant trickle of people just joining in because they fit in well with the current tenor of the group (or don't notice that they don't) which is usually sized proportional to the community, but that's often not enough to keep things going. (Depends on how many people come, and how many go) People, generally, are loathe to join a community all by themselves.

 

What does help is to have new projects, things people can get in at the beginning of. For GA, that'd mean new authors and to some extent new stories for existing authors. (The community overlap on a story-to-story basis for an author's pretty significant, since most authors write pieces that strongly resemble previous things they've written) For example while Dom, Comicality, and dkstories all have some fan overlap, each of them has a relatively unique tone to their communities, and each has attracted people who wouldn't otherwise be here. Some of the folks who've come for a particular author end up spilling over into the general GA community.

 

Myr laying on new authors (like CPL or Dio -- if not new per se, at least new to here) is the single biggest thing that helps the community grow rapidly, since each new author will, at least initially, bring in a good-sized lump of new people. They'll each help widen that stream of people who just join in, since each author's got his or her own tone, and that just gives more potential hooks to catch people's iinterest enough to participate.

 

Another thing that can help, though it's less likely (especially here) is for people to bring other folks into the community with 'em. It's not as common, since odds are you're not chatting with your friends about the latest sex scene in one of Dom's stories. (And if you are, you're probably hanging around more in the Real World than here ) The official greeter folks, and everyone in general, can actively reach out to new people, but that requires folks to have posted at least once, which is a pretty big hurdle, one that most of the GA members don't ever get to.

 

-Dan (Who's done this community building thing before)

[Tim the Traveller]

all right. just a suggestion here

 

when i first joined, it was just for dom's work. that being said, i cant say i even read vic's welcome messaage for a couple months(no offense vic, but when i see i have a new message anywhere other than in my email, it generally gets ignored as spam or something i dont want to click on). this is a wonderful site, however there are still parts to it that i havent even got into yet.

 

that being said, i'm fairly certain that i'm not the only one this has happened to. mb when someone joins, try sending them an email(yes messages in this site work too, but i didnt even check my box inside this site for a long time) with just a brief outline of all the site has to offer. imagine my surprise of finding this general discussion forum after being here for months. live chat was something i was slow to grab hold of too. i still havent even cracked open the anthology or efiction areas yet.

 

ok thats all i got for now.

[NaperVic]

Why do people join but not post?

 

Speaking for myself, I was a bit intimidated when I first joined GA and probably lurked for several months before I posted anything. It seemed like such a tight knit and relatively serious group of people. And I felt like I was intruding and wasn't cerebral enough to join in.

 

I was part of Dom's original Yahoo Group but when his Author Forum was created here, many of us came in mass. It was easy to be silly with the same group of people as before and we didn't really care what all the more serious kids were saying about us .

 

So if you feel like saying something, Come to the forums and say so!!!!! I can understand that some people are here just for the stories and don't want to get involved. And that's ok. But for those of you who want to discuss any of the stories, just post .

 

It's funny, people think the current posters are 'tight knit', but it really isn't true. Members come and go, some are really active for a couple months, may take a break, lurk, then come back. When new people post, many people (not only official welcomers), try to make them feel at home. Why's that? because they remember what it was like to put themselves out on the line for their first post.

 

I troll mostly in the Domaholic's forum and the posters are a VARIED group of people. Topics range from pure nonsense, to Dom worshipping that any religion would die for, all the way to critical literary analysis of Dom's writing. All are welcome!

 

Take Care®,

 

Vic

[AFriendlyFace]

In short...we're are scary and far too buddy-buddy for most people to just jump in...and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

---Greg.

glad you're here Greg!

 

It was a lot easier for me to post when I first signed up because I just went into the soapbox and dissagreed with 99.99991% of everyone in there....

I wish I'd gone to the soapbox. It was still here for a pretty good while after I joined, but I was so slow in exploring the site that I literally didn't check it out until about 2 or 3 days before it was closed.

 

But I think shyness is the main reason. I mean, here, the subject is litterature. The people who makes the effort to read must have a little bit of brain. They'll not find it amusing to post only meaningless stuffs and even less to look like dorks. It goes beyond the usual little fear to not fit in an already existing community, I think.

Good point Xandra, I know I was concerned about saying something foolish at first, but I say foolish things all the time so I've gotten used to it

 

all of these r true. we are scary, it is a pretty tight knit community, and i'm sure we have got to seem sort of off our marbles most of the time.

 

i dont know about yall, but i am so far in the closet that i cant even find the door anymore. reading dom's stories are one thing, but when you start discussing them in detail, it can bring things up some people like me might want to not think about--i know i hadnt really admitted to myself if i was gay,bi,or straight when i first started posting in the forums--but if you arnet ready to look at that aspect of your life yet, it can be really intimidating.

so glad you're here Tim

I'm still mostly in the closet right now too. You're right some people aren't really ready to face some of their stuff. Actually, while I'd mostly dealt with my sexuality already, I hadn't really dealt with the implications. I mean I was pretty much disillusioned and wasn't really "going to do anything about it". Reading TOU and TLW really inspired me to get out there and find myself an Aiden or a Jude! And ever since I've been gradually working my way out of the closet. First I told one of my closest friends (a lesbian), and her girlfriend/friends, then my mom, then a gay coworker and his friends. And now I'm strongly considering telling a couple more "safe" friends. So I know I'm not doing that great, I mean up till now I've stuck with completely safe people, but I guess it's a start. And I have gone out to gay clubs a couple of times, so obviously everyone knew there, and if I think I'm "picking up vibes" from a guy I'll flirt with him (if he's my type ). Mostly though I'm thinking I'll solve the whole thing by just never being "in" when I move to a new city in a couple months. What I'm getting at though is that I owe ALOT to the inspiration I got from the stories here, and an immeasuable amount to the support and friendship I've gotten here......Ok before I get all weepy eyed, hugs all around

 

when i first joined, it was just for dom's work. that being said, i cant say i even read vic's welcome messaage for a couple months(no offense vic, but when i see i have a new message anywhere other than in my email, it generally gets ignored as spam or something i dont want to click on). this is a wonderful site, however there are still parts to it that i havent even got into yet.

 

that being said, i'm fairly certain that i'm not the only one this has happened to. mb when someone joins, try sending them an email(yes messages in this site work too, but i didnt even check my box inside this site for a long time) with just a brief outline of all the site has to offer. imagine my surprise of finding this general discussion forum after being here for months. live chat was something i was slow to grab hold of too. i still havent even cracked open the anthology or efiction areas yet.

First off: I didn't get a welcome email when I joined! (LOL J/K I don't really mind ) Was it just too long ago and before the program had started or something?

 

When I got here it was from reading TOU over at Nifty, it had only been updated up to like chapter 10 or 11, then I saw the link for Dom's page. There I found that it was up to chapter 13 (which ended with the marshmellow scene). While waiting for updates I read all of TLW. It was then that I decided to join because I just had to comment on what I thought about TLW. So I joined and made my first post the night I finished TLW, and from there very gradually branched out. But I completely agree Tim, it was months before I ever wandered over from Dom's forum to this one, mostly because I didn't know how to navigate the site and was content sticking with the familar. Similarly I missed out on the soapbox completely (which I bet I'd have liked), and I'm still discovering new features here on a regular basis; of course that I blame on myself, I really should just do some "exploring" instead of stick with the beaten path.

 

 

I think most people join and don't post so that they can receive the story updates - unless you can subscribe to the "Story Announcements" forum without joining, but if so that's unlike any other forum I've ever been on.

See until the other day I didn't know there was an "announcements forum" or anything about update notifications lol.

 

 

So now for something really surprising: I actually used to help run a forum on MSN's boards. It was for a card game I used to play. Anyway I actually used to email everyone who joined welcoming them in too, and encouraging them to let me know if they had any questions. I found that even a surprising number of people who responded to my email still never posted. I think everyone is very correct in saying that it's because people are intimidated by it. But I also think that ultimately the people who want to post will, and a good portion of the people who never do really never intended too. The only worrying aspect is the people who want/need to post and become involved here, who need to feel like they "belong", yet don't

 

And Vic's right, we just seem tight knit (and I really am crazy about you guys ), but we're really not in that anyone and everyone is welcome! And people do come and go. So please guys, if you want to say something go ahead! and get involved in whatever way is most comfortable for you. You may prefer to post here, or a subforum. Maybe livechat appeals more to you. Perhaps you'd be most comfortable just leaving comments on the blogs at first, or PM-ing (another feature I didn't know about until someone did it!). Anyway if you can't jump right in, ease on in

 

All the best and have an awesome day EVERYONE (yes, you there in the shadows! )

Kevin

[RISC]

i dont know about yall, but i am so far in the closet that i cant even find the door anymore. reading dom's stories are one thing, but when you start discussing them in detail, it can bring things up some people like me might want to not think about

 

I'm pretty much the same way. I would read stories on Nifty and not really face what that was saying about me (any thoughts straying in the general direction of being gay were quickly suppressed). Even though the internet offers some anonymity (less than you think ), they're still your words and thoughts when you choose to discuss and you can't avoid the implications of that. I was so scared about coming here, I used to use Tor/I2P (anonymising networks) until I figured out people don't really care.

 

Reading TOU and TLW really inspired me to get out there and find myself an Aiden or a Jude! And ever since I've been gradually working my way out of the closet.

 

Me too. Reading stories that had relationships in them instead of just a haphazard collection of erotic scenes definitely has helped me feel a bit more comfortable with myself.

 

So a lot of people here may still be uncomfortable with themselves. After lurking for a some time, they may eventually post. That would be great since this forum offers a place for people to be comfortable without the hookup element (like mogenic or one of those sites where you'd constantly be asked for pics/asl).

 

 

Also, random tech question. What kind of bandwidth does this site consume and how are you funded (unless that's some sort of top secret piece of info)?