Hitting a Plateau

[grieves and squick]

I wanted to post this in Your Proboard but there's no option to post a new thread there. I looked for a topic already started about this subject but couldn't find any. My topics usually get shot down as against some regulation or other, but if this is in the wrong board, please feel free to move it; I tried to find the right place for it and just couldn't. I consider this topic a problem, as it is frustrating me.

My forum is running well and at a pretty fast clip, however, even though I advertise regularly, and I and my staff make sure things are running smoothly {they are very smooth, no real drama at all and any conflicts quickly get solved}, and the plots {it's an rpg} are bursting with new ideas, as they always have and in fact seem at a height of creativity now, the overall guest views, level of activity and postrate seem virtually unchanged over the past year, in fact, it even seems to have slowed a little, over the past few months from a height back in spring and early summer. I don't know what is causing the slowing, or why even as I advertise more, and contribute more posts and activity myself to give it an extra boost, the overall activity has not gotten better at all. All my efforts seem to have no effect. It's kind of like a dieter who suddenly stops losing weight and can't seem to get past that sticking point no matter what they do.

Has anyone ever experienced this on their board? Is there a way to break past this "plateau"? Or is there such a thing as a high point that no matter what you do, it is impossible to improve the activity of that board?

Further info: I participate in both guest ads and affiliations, including the ad board here, we affiliate with pretty much anyone and always respect the ad rules of other boards; we try as hard as we can to stay friendly, and not ignore members, and I think we definitely accomplish all this. In fact we've gotten better at it, not worse. The current members never seem to have a bad thing to say. Yet they aren't afraid to give opinions on how to improve the board, or stuff they want added or whatnot and so I know it's not that they're scared of staff. Many of them comment how friendly we are.

And yes: We are indexed in Google, as well as other search engines I believe. I know we're in google because quite a few members found us there.

I guess you could also say I should just be glad with what I have, since the above seems to paint a pretty picture, but the slowdown is concerning me...the forum has never really done this before {started to get slower}. And who doesn't want their board to be perpetually growing and improving, right?

And yes I am aware of cyclical slowdowns/pickups. Summer seems to be a slower time. But last year, things picked way up at the beginning of September, and this year that is not happening at all.

This is more an asking for advice, than complaining I guess.

[Artemis]

Your topic has been added, the discussion can continue from here. :]

I think when someone hits this level, it's time to stop looking at the same methods of advertising and activity, because it's less likely to keep bringing in the same level of members and increasing activity as before. When I encounter something like this, I change things around, start looking at different places to advertise, start adding more activities, etc. I also go through to make sure that everything is still appealing to new members as well as 'veteran' members. Easy to get into, but also containing a wide enough variety of activities and posts, etc. to keep people coming back.

Though it will also depend on the time of year and your audience. For example, school has just started for many people, so if you have a member base of younger people, you may deal with people putting forums aside for school work. Sometimes it picks up, sometimes it doesn't. All I can suggest is making sure there's a wide variety of things to do, because the more there is to do, the more people will like to come back and see what's up.

[grieves and squick]

I would use other methods if I knew what they were, and if I knew that they produced actual results. I also belong to a few topsites, one of them is quite large and we rank on the front page yet again, nothing has changed there either.

What do the really big sites do? Sure, they use Google ads and all, but that's really the same as the ads I place on RPGs and stuff, it's still text. But there are all these huge, booming boards that seem to spring up and flourish without any advertising at all. Sometimes, yes, they are connected to a large popular website, but often they are not. They shut guests out of affiliating or advertising, and yet they are huge. And yes, many of them are RPG sites, too. Both original and fandoms.

What are they doing that I am not?

We have a lot of younger members, most of our board is teens. But again, we have had an upswing not a downswing during September in years past; summer was actually always a slower point. This year it slipped during late summer and has failed to budge back up. The recovery just isn't there this year, and that worries me.

We have introduced new elements into the game as well as new twists and features and in fact, far less people complain of boredom in the game now than they did a year and a half ago when I was new. The people who join seem to stay and participate about the same and in fact some older members have returned.

I know of one method that would probably be VERY effective but I am scared to use it.

I REALLY want to get a Youtube video contest underway, for forum money again, I know a LOT of people would want to participate. But that's another issue, because I'm afraid that Proboards staff will consider videos to be a copyright violation {although Youtube seems to consider them fair use--if you enter a fair use application to them they will allow you to keep the music in your video.} I can never get a clear answer from PBS about whether it's a TOS or not so I have remained too frightened to run the contest.

{IF I can get an official word on this from Craig or Patrick, and you mods can help me do this by speaking to them about it, I would worship the ground you guys walk on!!!! But all I ever seem to hear when these things are asked is "If it violates copyright law it's a TOS break." But what I DON'T know is whether it DOES or not!!! There are grey areas! And I don't know if their interpretation would be the same as mine! God, I'm pulling my hair out.}

Any other methods/places/etc besides Youtube and anything else that I've mentioned, please let me know, I'm more than willing to try just about anything!

[Cuethelaugh]

I am finding this discussion very helpful and I'd just like to thank you for posting it.

One of the few advertising places I know of, other than the very board we're on, is livejournal. They have tons of groups for advertising roleplays (if that's somewhere you haven't hit on yet). It tends to bring in a whole new crowd.

[ToriJ]

I find the best form of advertising is word of mouth. When I made a new RPG earlier this year I had told a lot of my friends who enjoyed the topic about it and let them joined while I was still developing it then encourage them to tell their friends who may be interested about it. By the time the forum actually was open the forum already had a few members and looked very active. Perhaps there are some friends you know that aren't on the site you could speak with and encourage some word of mouth advertising?

Another means if checking out Advertising Forums. There are quite a few forums that are just for people to advertise but I'm not sure how effective they can be... I also heard of a method of creating a Myspace for your forum to further promote the forum and get the word out but again I am not sure how effective that means of advertising really is but it may be worth a try.

[mikiomiles23]

Word of mouth can certainly be very powerful, but it depends on the project, Sometimes it just doesn't work well for some things.

One thing that I've found to work really well is to buy an advertisement on a high traffic site. If you can find a good deal, it can help tremendously. The less the person knows about CPM's and market averages, the better off you are!

[grieves and squick]

good ideas guys!

It's a little scary when the things that always worked for you suddenly stop working. I've seen so many huge sites just up and die, and efforts to revive them nearly always fail. When I joined this place a little less than two years ago, there were several others larger than it. They all died over the next year. I see it happen to so many RPGs even successful ones. Sometimes, as they are slowing down but not dead yet, through good management and viral advertising they can sometimes be snatched back from death. That's what I'm trying to do. RPGs seem not to last more than a few years tops. Ours has been going since 2005. Those that last longer than that, usually are large sites that die down, like a dying star, shrinking down to almost nothing, only a few players who keep it going at a slow pace for a few more years. I guess I'm trying to beat the odds.

Livejournal--I go there for many other things, but don't have an account. I should look into it though I hate joining stuff purely for advertising.

[grieves and squick]

I see a new post was made today so I guess I can post an update?

We had a small surge of activity over Thanksgiving break but since then it's died back down. Struggling to break out of this "plateau" which is actually more like a slow, gentle downhill slope. The interesting thing is, we're getting somewhat more guest hits now, but the activity itself on the site is no greater than it was over the summer.

Buying an ad on a high traffic site, as long as it would get me targeted hits--not spam or bot hits, sounds like a possibility as long as it's not too expensive. I don't know any sites that do this though.

[HoudiniDerek]

I see that a lot. When those things are all going my way, as you have mentioned, I go internally. I see what the members suggest that we might update or add that benefits the community, but might also grab the random lurker or passerby. Plus, I try to get my members to bring other members into the fold. Usually that is the best way to build an active and loyal membership in my opinion. Advertising, affiliating, Google, etc. might work initially, but it can't keep members. Only the members themselves, staff included, can really do that. It doesn't keep the plateaus away, but it makes them less frequent and for a lesser duration I have found.

[grieves and squick]

I added a whole "newbie helper" thing by having in my signature and other people can have in theirs, a note to PM us if nobody is responding to their first thread. Even with all the help stuff we have like a whole board for just finding someone to RP with, it seems like a lot of new members still have trouble getting started. So I let them know they can come to us for one-on-one.

Time will tell if it works. What's weird is the people who appear to love what they see when they join, introduce themselves, and get started with no problem, never have any conflicts, then without warning they just up and leave after only a couple of weeks.

[Kami]

hoookay. grieves, i appreciate that this is a delicate subject. however if someone is harassing you here on PBS, you need to report it to a moderator and not reply to the post.

i've gone ahead and removed both posts, as they are not in compliance with the discussion board rules.

chez, if you have a grievance with grieves, you need to keep it off these boards and between the two of you, if she decides to let you communicate with her [it's her choice]. if she doesn't, that does NOT give you leave to publicise it here on the Support forum. Thanks.

[snowtail12345]

a lot of warrior sites are dying ;_; it is NOT just you!! it is the time of year. It is school time and the kids dont have time for RPGing as much as they did in summer. just be patient and i bet christmas break will bring more activity i always get more time then to RPG but right now i cant do much i only got my ad site. that dosnt take much time to do!! So just be patient and hang in there!!

[zachwad22]

As I'm sure has been said, change, change, change. I used to administrate an RP forum myself, and I can tell you that creative layout changes as well as encouraging creativity from members themselves can work wonders on a stale forum.

[trent]

This is a short post, but hitting a plateau for me is like 4 or 5 active members. I can't seem to get people to join the forums I create. Forums I join have the same problem. Like King Midas and his touch turned everything to gold, it seems like wherever I join on proboards turns to ****.

[Jaguar]

This thread is very interesting and informative. I would have never of thought about the 'livejournal' thing. I remember that place being the 'thing' back before facebook, etc. Those where to good 'ol days. I am having the problem of finding more members. That plateau has indeed been hit, but at a very low number of members.

I have advertised within the support board, as well as forum RPG support boards, i even went to creating my own 'top sites' site to help. However, it seems that no matter what i do there is a lake of individuals coming my way. Its hard to get people to visit a site let alone join.

The whole school situation and work, now that it is no longer summer, has played its toll on a lot. I am hoping that if i continue to lurk on this thread i will receive more thoughts and ideas to help with this stand still.