Is DW alive?

[devs4p]

Ive been here (and there) for quite some time as a guest
Been wondering - seeing DW with (hardly) no new content from people like Dani or other staff - is DaniWeb dead?

[ddanbe]

Why not?
I guess we have many mature members, that try to solve themselves the problems they are confronted with,
If they get stuck, they pose a question.
We don't do homework assignments, but if you show some effort, we will be kind enough to help you out. If we can.
Perhaps you would like to share some code with the community. Please do.

[Reverend Jim]

@ddanbe - did you reply to the wrong post?

[happygeek]

Still alive, but certainly not as healthy as once was...

[JamesCherrill]

It seems there's a problem where Google has been failing to give enough prominence to sites like DaniWeb when people search for IT help, so please tell all your friends about us and give us some good exposure in your social media. We're still here and ready to help.

[happygeek]

What James said. If you have questions, ask them. If you know of others with questions, point them here to ask them. If you have knowledge to share, share it here. The DaniWeb community has always been the heart of this forum, and to keep it beating we need to ensure that the community continues contributing - especially so when things appear so quiet...

[devs4p]

@happygeek (btw nice nick)
Why is DW in the current state? What (or who) contributed to it?

[happygeek]

As James says, much of it can be attributed to Google changing the way that it prioritises searches for help. This has seen forums such as ours, and we are far from alone amongst forums that have seen traffic fall dramatically over the last couple of years, drop out of the top hits when people search for help. Dani has tried, and continues to try, to breathe new life into DaniWeb and find new ways to get the word out and people in.

[stultuske]

I'm not sure if that is all to it.

Personally, I found the old forum layout easier to work/navigate with, so after the switch I didn't visit that often anymore.

No doubt this won't contribute to the bigger part of the leaving members, but it might explain a few.

Also keep in mind, that for a lot of us (me included) DaniWeb is something we do in our spare time. Over time (as it was with me), peoples priorities in life change, and less spare time means less time spent on pages as DaniWeb.

Next to that: the number of fora and online communities helping people out rises considerably, meaning that the amount of people that used to subscribe to one forum, such as DaniWeb, now have the option to choose from a lot more options.

Let's assume that x, y and z are numerical values, amounting up to the number of people who used to subscribe to DW.
Now: x number of people subscribe to DW, y number of people subscribe to DW and to something else, dividing their spare time between the two, and z number of people subscribe to other available sources

[Dani]

Personally, I found the old forum layout easier to work/navigate with, so after the switch I didn't visit that often anymore.

Which old forum layout? We have always changed every 2 years. We have gone through at least 3 iterations since our traffic was destroyed.

[Dani]

Been wondering - seeing DW with (hardly) no new content from people like Dani or other staff - is DaniWeb dead?

It's not dead. Traffic has been declining but I've been working super hard to keep the site alive. DaniWeb and Dazah are still my main focus day-to-day.

[jwenting]

Why is DW in the current state? What (or who) contributed to it?

The massive flood of homework kiddos dumping their highschool programming assignments verbatim caused many of the regulars to stop even bothering to browse the programming forums.

Combine that with the very high incidence of spambots in the community forums at around the same time and a lot of people just stopped coming regularly at all.

This coming around the same time as a change in the site layout that was far from loved by the oldtimers (the current...) and is pretty hard to navigate (and was even harder initially) and you have the reason many people no longer read what questions are posted.
If they're even there (the people with answers) chances are good they can't see the questions they could have an answer to so those questions go unanswered.

[Dani]

Combine that with the very high incidence of spambots in the community forums at around the same time and a lot of people just stopped coming regularly at all.

Well that's really only been a problem for the past few weeks. DaniWeb declining really started nearly four years ago at this point.

This coming around the same time as a change in the site layout that was far from loved by the oldtimers (the current...) and is pretty hard to navigate (and was even harder initially) and you have the reason many people no longer read what questions are posted.

We have always changed the site layout every 2-3 years for the entire history of the site. It has always been the case that regulars complain when a new layout is launched (people don't like change), then tweaks are made, and then the majority ends up not having a problem with it anymore and seeing value in the improvements.

That was the same as this past time ... DaniWeb started declining nearly four years ago. We did a layout change about a year and a half ago because we were scheduled for a design refresh. DaniWeb didn't start declining as a result of it.

Either way, you think DaniWeb is still hard to navigate??

If they're even there (the people with answers) chances are good they can't see the questions they could have an answer to so those questions go unanswered.

In what way are questions difficult to find?

[kes166]

I usually use Google to search for my tech answers; however, Daniweb was the very first tech website I visited many years ago so it's a first for me and like most firsts, you have to go back every once in a while to see how it's doing. Every time I decide to go back to get another degree to fluff my resume, I usually stop in here to see what everyone is doing and I find it helps me to read through other peoples posts and code on topics I'm working on which helps me improve myself by teaching others when possible.

Just a few thoughts:

My suggestion is to get on YouTube or other social media and provide tech or programming advice, quick five minute lessons, or other video's or posts on social media that link back to a post on Daniweb. It would put a voice and face to Daniweb and would generate some more traffic. Google crawls the web and websites with larger number of links would give Daniweb a higher preference with searches.

[Dani]

Hi Kes,

Thank you so much for your post!!

I agree with your suggestions. Unfortunately, I don't personally like to produce or star in Youtube videos, so it's hard to get that kind of content generated or incentivize other people to participate. I agree it would be a good way of strengthening the DaniWeb brand though. Feedback anyone?

[Reverend Jim]

I'm not good on camera.

[happygeek]

I'm not quite sure how a forum-based support system would translate to video, if I'm being honest. Possibly parts of DaniWeb could work as video tutorials, such as SEO advuice for example, but then it would still have the problem of getting bums on seats for those videos which surely isn't much different (possibly harder) than getting bums on seats at DaniWeb itself.

Out of interest, how would programming tutorials work in video format? I'm assuming screen-based content with a narrator?