Why do you think the forum has a retention issue?

Bridgehouse

We do have a retention issue in as much as some members don’t like the passive aggressive way some threads go, and don’t enjoy the pile on threads - that’s from direct feedback.

But actually the bigger issue we seem to have is an awful lot of people come here and browse content but choose not to join and participate. The ratio between regular registered user participants and unique visitors in total is massive. 

Why aren’t they joining? Is something putting them off? Are they worried their first post might get jumped on? 

Yeah, there will be a lot of people who search and get directed here for answers to questions they have - but all of them? I doubt it. Even 10% of casual visitors signing up and posting would feel like a huge influx. 

Bridgehouse

Just to put a number of some sort on my above post - visitors to the site who aren’t registered outnumber registered users by 10 to 1….

PolarityMan

fretmeister said:

The FDP was stuffed with god and guns people. I quit that years ago.

Just a thought though - if people generally go with a forum in their native tongue then it's the USA, UK, and Aus / NZ as the largest pool of potential members.

People gravitate to what feels comfortable and the USA has 330 million people. Americans still, even in this day and age, have a USA is best approach to everything - even patch cables. So they stick with what they know. I suspect people like sticking with their own Time Zones so active stuff happens while they are awake.

When number retention is mentioned is that percentages or actual numbers? If the TGP and TFB lost 1000 members over night the TGP wouldn't even notice.

With more members there is an increased chance of arseholes. We've seen Andertons etc etc get chased away from here, but Basschat hasn't had that problem - Ashdown / Darkglass / Barefaced / Mesa / Tech21 all active members who engage with threads and don't use it just as a sales opportunity.

Maybe bassists are just more easy going?  


Personally I like the smaller forums. There's a chance for a bit of community rather than a musical version of Linked In.

Line 6 have an active presence here. 

Bridgehouse

Oh, and if you think about it, every time you post something it has the potential to be read by a much bigger audience than the regular membership. We always knew that.

The reality is the actual numbers of that wider audience who are reading is much bigger than we thought….

Iamnobody

Bridgehouse said:

Just to put a number of some sort on my above post - visitors to the site who aren’t registered outnumber registered users by 10 to 1….

I’d imagine that’s probably typical of traffic to most forums? 

EDIT: just to expand especially forums like this that have good SEO and appear in search results for some fairly well searched terms.

Philly_Q

Bridgehouse said:

We do have a retention issue in as much as some members don’t like the passive aggressive way some threads go, and don’t enjoy the pile on threads - that’s from direct feedback.

But actually the bigger issue we seem to have is an awful lot of people come here and browse content but choose not to join and participate. The ratio between regular registered user participants and unique visitors in total is massive. 

Why aren’t they joining? Is something putting them off? Are they worried their first post might get jumped on? 

Yeah, there will be a lot of people who search and get directed here for answers to questions they have - but all of them? I doubt it. Even 10% of casual visitors signing up and posting would feel like a huge influx. 

Presumably there would be a similar situation on other forums, it can't be unique to us.

When researching things like guitar specs I often end up on TGP, Les Paul Forum, TDPRI etc but I've never felt an urge to sign up.

poopot

Bridgehouse said:

Just to put a number of some sort on my above post - visitors to the site who aren’t registered outnumber registered users by 10 to 1….

Is that a true representation tho’?

I only log in when I want to post or comment… the rest of the time I browse the forum logged out… wondering how many other members do the same…

fob

WiresDreamDisasters said:

@fob ;

Well I criticised Andertons at one point, in a polite and respectful manner - I said they were box-shifters. The Captain himself jumped on to say he thought that was an unfair comment and put me straight on a few things. It wasn't comments like those that chased them off.

Same for Peach - someone called up the shop and gave them abuse; proper abuse for not giving them a deal purely because they were a member of this forum. I'll never forget that because it's just about the most crass thing to have come out of this forum IMO.

Agreed; I'm sure it was quite unpleasant re Peach but you know what you're in for in any public facing enterprise and doubt that any business would really confuse a member or three for the forum at large. I might try and look up your exchange with Andertons (I don't remember it) but it sounds like it could be an example of how their involvement could be positive for both forum members and retailers. 

My guess - and guess it very much is - is that the bigger retailers simply don't envisage that much return in their day-to-day business. On the whole it's a forum whose member's buying habits aren't necessarily going to be swayed by either generic offerings (Classic Vibe at the same price as every other retailer) or impressed by 'special editions available only at...'.

Possibly going a bit off-topic but I would think that the advertising appeal of the forum lays with smaller companies trying to get their product in front of a big potential audience. I haven't bought one but I have gone to Trent Guitars website on the basis of the lovely looking guitar at the top of the page - I doubt I'd have even heard the name if they were just another catergory in the 'brands' list on a big retailers website.

fob

Bridgehouse said:

We do have a retention issue in as much as some members don’t like the passive aggressive way some threads go, and don’t enjoy the pile on threads - that’s from direct feedback.

But actually the bigger issue we seem to have is an awful lot of people come here and browse content but choose not to join and participate. The ratio between regular registered user participants and unique visitors in total is massive. 

Why aren’t they joining? Is something putting them off? Are they worried their first post might get jumped on?

I understand that you might not have access to the sort of info that intrigues me regarding this but how does this compare to other fora? TFB might have a retention rate better than most in the grander scheme.

Bridgehouse said:

Oh, and if you think about it, every time you post something it has the potential to be read by a much bigger audience than the regular membership. We always knew that.

The reality is the actual numbers of that wider audience who are reading is much bigger than we thought….

When I look at a thread in its parent category it tells me how many replies there are and how many views it has. Does this only count views by logged in members?

tanihhiavlt

Are we measuring retention as "Days since last login"? 

What kinda threshholds are we looking for daily usage? weekly usage?

Typically we'll need a portfolio of customer types - every hour, every day, check in every week... 

What do we get for having these types of users? Advertising revenue? Sponsorship? Donations? 

Those things dictate the way a forum evolves and who it favours. 

I think ultimately the problem of retention is probably due to a lack of fibre, everyone thinks it helps with poos but really it helps with water retention that in turn makes poos easier.. if Starbuck allowed their franchises to stock Signature hot chocolates you could buy a medium, put it in a large and fill the rest with shreddied wheat - those things are bran monsters... that'd be a lovely drink... but franchises can only sell a regular hot chocolate and it hardly seems worth it for a regular hot-chocolate. 

FelineGuitars

I love this place but sometimes I walk away shaking my head in disbelief when some parties are kicking off - I just take a break and get on with other stuff as it usually blows over in a day or so.

To be fair most (if not all of you) guys turn out to be a delight when dealing "face to face", and it has been a great pleasure to have done work for so many of you.

Sometimes though if something is kicking off that is polarising opinions I decide to not comment as I have no appetite for arguing with people on the internet, and nobody comes off looking good in those scenarios, and I don't want to tangle my brand name up in such discussions even though I may personally feel strongly one way or another.

The most recent example was the " guitar shop owners who are still requiring masks to be worn are hypochondriacs" at a time when reports of infection rates on the rise and after a weekend where I lost a touring guitar tech (online) friend to Covid, brought that a bit close to home. Also for my own part I look after my elderly mother who for complex reasons can't have a vax, so I have to be cautious, but the discussion broke down into mask and vax deniers vs those who play safe etc

So I didn't join in, and took a day out to let things play out or settle.

Sometimes we get a "name and shame" mob when someone has had a less that stellar experience somewhere but not had a chance to correct things with said shop/trader/craftsperson and a trial by internet plays out when there was ample opportunity to rectify that issue to everyone's satisfaction.

I guess we all like a bit of drama, just that some are happy to get their fix on TV or Netflix

digitalscream

Bridgehouse said:

We do have a retention issue in as much as some members don’t like the passive aggressive way some threads go, and don’t enjoy the pile on threads - that’s from direct feedback.

But actually the bigger issue we seem to have is an awful lot of people come here and browse content but choose not to join and participate. The ratio between regular registered user participants and unique visitors in total is massive. 

Why aren’t they joining? Is something putting them off? Are they worried their first post might get jumped on? 

Yeah, there will be a lot of people who search and get directed here for answers to questions they have - but all of them? I doubt it. Even 10% of casual visitors signing up and posting would feel like a huge influx. 

That's the interesting thing. If 10% of the lurkers suddenly signed up in a month, that number alone would be three times the number of registered members visiting the site in that month.

I've no idea what they're doing, but they're incredibly consistent about it.

monquixote

Bridgehouse said:

Just to put a number of some sort on my above post - visitors to the site who aren’t registered outnumber registered users by 10 to 1….

That's actually completely industry standard. 

They call it 100 / 10 / 1 

100 view, 10 casually participate, 1 becomes highly active 

EDIT: Here you go: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1%_rule_(Internet_culture)

Hootsmon

TGP is good but not GREAT because they don't allow topics like God,Gays and Politics

TFB is good but not GREAT because they do allow topics like God,Gays and Politics

TimmyO

WiresDreamDisasters said:

@TimmyO - it was raised to me in a discussion with admin recently, and I'm just curious what the "punters" think.

What problems do the Admin(s) think the forum has?

What aims do the Admin(s) have for the forum? 

Mellish

My last post here was in poor taste and I apologise to all. I'm sorry. I meant nothing bad by it. 

TimmyO

Bridgehouse said:

We do have a retention issue in as much as some members don’t like the passive aggressive way some threads go, and don’t enjoy the pile on threads - that’s from direct feedback.

But actually the bigger issue we seem to have is an awful lot of people come here and browse content but choose not to join and participate. The ratio between regular registered user participants and unique visitors in total is massive. 

Why aren’t they joining? Is something putting them off? Are they worried their first post might get jumped on? 

Yeah, there will be a lot of people who search and get directed here for answers to questions they have - but all of them? I doubt it. Even 10% of casual visitors signing up and posting would feel like a huge influx. 

Under-enforcement of rule 1 is my answer to your why 

Adey

Grumpyrocker said:

It's not exactly friendly to half the population.

It is definately very "blokey" and not particularly female friendly.

Bridgehouse

fob said:

Bridgehouse said:

We do have a retention issue in as much as some members don’t like the passive aggressive way some threads go, and don’t enjoy the pile on threads - that’s from direct feedback.

But actually the bigger issue we seem to have is an awful lot of people come here and browse content but choose not to join and participate. The ratio between regular registered user participants and unique visitors in total is massive. 

Why aren’t they joining? Is something putting them off? Are they worried their first post might get jumped on?

I understand that you might not have access to the sort of info that intrigues me regarding this but how does this compare to other fora? TFB might have a retention rate better than most in the grander scheme.

Bridgehouse said:

Oh, and if you think about it, every time you post something it has the potential to be read by a much bigger audience than the regular membership. We always knew that.

The reality is the actual numbers of that wider audience who are reading is much bigger than we thought….

When I look at a thread in its parent category it tells me how many replies there are and how many views it has. Does this only count views by logged in members?

Views by logged in members as far as I know.

Bridgehouse

TimmyO said:

Bridgehouse said:

We do have a retention issue in as much as some members don’t like the passive aggressive way some threads go, and don’t enjoy the pile on threads - that’s from direct feedback.

But actually the bigger issue we seem to have is an awful lot of people come here and browse content but choose not to join and participate. The ratio between regular registered user participants and unique visitors in total is massive. 

Why aren’t they joining? Is something putting them off? Are they worried their first post might get jumped on? 

Yeah, there will be a lot of people who search and get directed here for answers to questions they have - but all of them? I doubt it. Even 10% of casual visitors signing up and posting would feel like a huge influx. 

Under-enforcement of rule 1 is my answer to your why 

I’m not sure that’s even a significant part of the reason. I’m sure some won’t join for that reason, but not the majority. 

I’m leaning more towards the 1/10/100 rule at the moment, and it’s simply that a lot of people don’t like joining forums but like the info they provide.

We do have a lot of sign ups that don’t visit much after a few visits.. now that one is intriguing