Older & Wiser - Post with Your Peers

[linche]

We just changed from a "politics focused" board to a board for seniors since most people on our board are retirement age.

We have our regulars but never seem to get new members.  (Our newest member is actually a former member who had to quit for a while.)

I'd love some opinons because I'm considering closing.  I check "guests" IP addresses sometimes and they're all just bots. 

I must be doing something wrong but I can't figure out what that is.

Thanks to anyone who checks us out and gives me some feedback.

Linche

Older & Wiser

[bigballofyarn]

linche,

Good morning. I hope you are doing well. Please don't take any negative feedback too personally. You are free to disagree with me. Please don't feel obligated to make changes just because I don't like something. My goal is for your forum to be successful and you should always do what you feel is best.

The first thing most members will see is your banner. "A Forum for Older Americans" is almost the same color as your background and it's a little hard to read. This description also tells me that I probably shouldn't join. What if I'm not old enough? What if everyone will think I'm a kid even though I'm over 30?

I don't like that your info center is missing. I'm big on looking at statistics and when the info center is missing, a forum is usually trying to hide something. Maybe it's that 5 members made all the posts. Maybe it's that no one has posted in a week. I'd rather know that in advance.

Are there any boards that are hidden from guest viewing? Maybe you can create a few more so people feel like they have more to talk about. If you want your rule board to be the first thing people see, it should be at the top of the page and not the bottom. It was last thing I saw when looking around your forum.

A lot of your forum images are broken for me. I don't see any thread images. I don't see the image for "no new posts." Are they working for you? Is it a blank, white box? Maybe you can make sure these images have more character.

I like the grey colors though. They are very neutral and can appeal to all different types of people.

[Former Member]

Jul 16, 2022 5:42:12 GMT -8 bigballofyarn said:

linche ,



I don't like that your info center is missing. I'm big on looking at statistics and when the info center is missing, a forum is usually trying to hide something. Maybe it's that 5 members made all the posts. Maybe it's that no one has posted in a week. I'd rather know that in advance.

I couldn't agree more, that is the *FIRST* thing that I check on any forum. I need to know if the place is alive or on life support.

But linche I know the feeling. How am I supposed to get any traction on my board when the best I've ever gotten is 18 guests in a 24 hour period? They can't join if they don't check us out. I'm going to hang in there for awhile and do what I can.

One suggestion that I would offer though, try putting in some new categories and see if that doesn't work. What have you got to lose?

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