So which direction is this forum heading in?
On the one hand, happygeek seems to think it's all about the quality. But when it comes to doing something about it, the enthusiasm seems to be more muted
On the other hand, all Dani seems to care about is post and be damned, like the 1-line copy/paste pith of a drive-by sig-spammer is somehow equal to the carefully thought out analysis and response of the regulars in say the C/C++ forums and the virus fixing forum.
I'm sure "909,753 Members" plays very well when setting rates for advertisers.
But somehow the reality is a little different.
Points Earned Today from Activities Worth 1 Point Each
Logging In: 338
That's easy - 338 people have logged in today (it's 4pm here and now, so I guess it's about midday in New York)
That's not many out of the total membership. Probably half of them will be the drive-by's, or short-stay members.
Points Earned Today from Activities Worth 3 Points Each
Replying to Threads: 1,524
So 508 replies so far....
I wonder how much less it would be if posting games and internet scammers were eliminated? Here's an idea, if the management doesn't want to delete those sub-forums, just try "closed for maintenance" for a week or two, just to see what happens.
Points Earned Today from Activities Worth 5 Points Each
Starting Threads: 660
And 132 new threads (133 if you count this one).
And now a quick look at post count ranks:
Total Posts: 1 Member Rank by Post Count: #83,661
Total Posts: 2 Member Rank by Post Count: #56,610
Total Posts: 3 Member Rank by Post Count: #42,554
Total Posts: 4 Member Rank by Post Count: #34,017
Total Posts: 5 Member Rank by Post Count: #28,316
Total Posts: 10 Member Rank by Post Count: #15,394
90% of the members never bother to post, so if the "problem" was simply down to the number of posts (good or bad), then getting even a small number of the silent majority to say something would be a big plus.
It only takes 17 posts to get into the top 1% of posters on the forum. Most drive-by spammers are valued members by that metric.
Consider sending each 0-poster an email asking why they didn't post, 1 week after signing up, asking why they didn't post. You might have to bait it with say "free entry into a draw for $ amazon voucher" or something.
The number of members joining per day falling off a cliff wouldn't matter so much if most of them actually engaged in some way.
Who knows, maybe they just like to read sig-link spam ;)