how active should ADISC be?

[avery]

pros of being a bigger, more active site:

• we help more people
• we show up more on google, and places like deeker and dpf show up less
• we could change people's perceptions of what being ABDL means
• we'll never get bored here

cons of being a bigger, more active site:

• more crazy people, spammy posts
• less intelligent discussion -- we compromise our principles
• little or no sense of community
• impossible to keep track of all the new posts
• very difficult to make any new friends, or keep in touch with old ones

personally i can totally see both sides of this issue. i'm not even going to vote yet. i'm just interested in whether anyone has anything to say about this.

 

[Baby-JJ]

I don't think we should get too much bigger. Smaller communities are easier to get settled in and a lot friendlier. Then again, more people would spice things up.. A bit more activity is good in my opinion.

 

[Squigma]

Though question. I think I'd prefer a smaller community, because I love the feeling of a family... having new users coming in all the time and posting quite unintelligent things kinda ruins that. And then having loads of new posts all the time makes things hard to follow... in fact, some days I just shut down and don't post anything because it's going to fast for me.

So I'd definitely prefer a smaller community. But that would mean we would sacrifice our ability to help people so it could be better for the people already here - and that is very, very selfish. We're supposed to be a support community, so it'd make no sense to shut ourselves off.

And that's the dilemma - We shouldn't push away people who need help, but if we let them all in we won't even be able to help them! It's already too big for me to keep up, so I have no idea what'll happen when it gets bigger. But there are so many people out there that genuinely need our help... I'd never support anything that makes it harder for them to get it.

 

[BluTack]

We need more lolable idiots.

Just I think we could do with a few more. (people not idiots)

 

[Monkey]

When we start to turn away members for our own selfish reasons, that's what this is, then I'll be unhappy.

 

[Spirit]

You can't control how large a community grows unless you turn the registration off, and that greatly decreases the appeal of the forum because many people don't like reclusive/paid forums.

In all honesty, if God was a member of one of these reclusive forums I still wouldn't attempt to join or accept an invitation.

</pointless rant>

 

[Charlie]

Well, what would be better for me would be a nice tight community where I could read most of the posts.
But from an outside view the best thing would be a large community that helps a lot of people.

I guess I'm on the fence too... I know what I'd like, but I'm not sure what's the best for the site.

Imagine there was a cake, that was baked by a million people who now all wanted a bite. Do you give the cake to 3 people, who get very fulfilled by their generous slices and the 999,997 people left get nothing? I think most people would say that's unfair.
So do you split the cake a million ways? That would be pretty silly, since (and by the way I'm talking about an averaged size cake!) everyone would get such a small amount they would gain nothing by eating it.
So do you split it between X amount of people, and turn away the rest? Well then you'd have to say who should get the cake. Does being here before someone else make us more deserving of using this site?

So now I'm hungry, but also thinking that we should take what measures we can to promote good quality posts and good quality members. There's a lot of pointless posts here now. If we can minimise the crap, and attract the right kind of members then we might be a bit less active but things will still be as useful!
In other words: get fewer people to bake a bigger cake!

 

[kite]

i partly agree with jack. i like the intimacy with the small group we have and yes, we do get some spammy posts, but what i've noticed is we turn those people around (or out) real quick.
i like the idea of having new members because they bring fresh, new, and unventured ideas into our small group and make us think.

 

[avery]

You can't control how large a community grows unless you turn the registration off

actually there are a lot of things you can do.

• you can request that other sites link to you.
• you can discourage or limit lurking so that people have to sign up and post if they want to read the site.
• you can post statistics like "referrals" "gallery uploads" and "wiki edits" in prominent places so that people feel motivated to be as active as possible.

all those actions encourage an increase in membership and activity. in my opinion they also tend to lower the common denominator and decrease the overall quality of discussion.

i'll freely admit to being a bit elitist. my idea of an ideal community is one that people seek out over time, then lurk for a few days to see if they want to sign up, and then register IF they feel drawn to the particular type of conversation that takes place there. it'd be a small, tight community of friends who get to know each other quite well, and who are able to take the time to get to know each new person who signs up.

our forum would grow even if nothing was being actively done to increase our exposure and seek out new members. i definitely understand the desire to help as many people as possible, but we also have a reputation for being one of the few ABDL sites on the internet where common sense and rationality prevail. it'd be nice to preserve that reputation.

 

[Dash]

I don't think we should get too much bigger. Smaller communities are easier to get settled in and a lot friendlier. Then again, more people would spice things up.. A bit more activity is good in my opinion.

Very true, I think when a community grows beyond a certain point, "cliques" or "sub-communities" of members start to form - which defeats the purpose of the word "community". To me that could discourage people to make new friends, let alone keep in contact with the old.

i like the idea of having new members because they bring fresh, new, and unventured ideas into our small group and make us think.

Yeah; on the other hand, there will always be people finding themselves in the position most of us came to ADISC (or TBDL) in - looking for a forum where they can open up about being *B, DL, babyfur or whatever. By halting the registration process and preventing newcomers, we ourselves become our own wee clique in a corner of the internet.
Like kite said, the idea of having new ideas, fresh input, and of course newcomers' perspectives of what it's like to be *B or DL is something we shouldn't be saying no to.
I mean you gotta look at it from the perspective of someone who is looking for the forums such as this one. In my opinion, ADISC is the best support community in it's field. To be turned away would be quite a put down...?

 

[Takashi]

I think it should stay the way it is now because this place is like a family everyone knows everyone and if it gets bigger we will loose that. Instead of being your own person you will be treated like a number and I would hate it if the site turned into that.

 

[whitefox]

I think it would work like the Law of Averages. Bear with me here: at the moment, we have a certain number of sensible people (type A's), and (luckily) a much smaller number of, well, non-helpful people (type B's). As our community grows, we will get more and more non-helpful people (type B's), but also a proportional number of nice, good-natured people (type A's).

As time goes on, the community has the advantage becuase those type B's can slowly become type A's as they learn how to interact with other people in a manner that is acceptable to everyone else. The type A's rarely (if ever) would become type B's. Eventually the type A's win. Hooray.

So yes, the rules might end up being a little bit more restrictive for newer users as the community gets (much) larger, but in return, the quality of those users, and the resulting discussion, as also much higher. I'd rather have that happen then have a lot of pointless, spam-y posts, although I can't really talk becuase I'm not really a new user/lurker. Perhaps it would help to get their input on this?

Whew: breathe out. That's just my outlook on it. Honestly, I don't mind the community getting bigger, so long as our ratio (A's to B's) stays the same. It's quite a theory, but so is the heliocentric one.

 

[Moo]

pros of being a bigger, more active site:

• we help more people
• we show up more on google, and places like deeker and dpf show up less
• we could change people's perceptions of what being ABDL means
• we'll never get bored here

cons of being a bigger, more active site:

• more crazy people, spammy posts
• less intelligent discussion -- we compromise our principles
• little or no sense of community
• impossible to keep track of all the new posts
• very difficult to make any new friends, or keep in touch with old ones

personally i can totally see both sides of this issue. i'm not even going to vote yet. i'm just interested in whether anyone has anything to say about this.

A few comments :

(1) The mods are currently discussing ways of discouraging creeps from registering, and preventing spam posts.
Various ideas have been floated, including :
* hiding the live chat / gallery links from guests, to discourage creepy people from signing up
* removing the "thread games" forum and discouraging pointless posts in general
* giving up on the "everyone should play nice!" principle and letting posters say "GTFO" to newbies who post extremely unlikely stories
* requiring members to post before they can use the live chat or gallery.
Nothing has been decided yet. Once we have a better idea of the options, we'll narrow them down into a shortlist, and will probably post a poll, to find out how much the community supports each of the shortlisted ideas.


(2) Why does the forum being bigger make it harder to make new friends or keep in touch with old ones?
Surely you can PM them just as easily as you could before?

actually there are a lot of things you can do.

• you can request that other sites link to you.
• you can discourage or limit lurking so that people have to sign up and post if they want to read the site.
• you can post statistics like "referrals" "gallery uploads" and "wiki edits" in prominent places so that people feel motivated to be as active as possible.

all those actions encourage an increase in membership and activity. in my opinion they also tend to lower the common denominator and decrease the overall quality of discussion.

i'll freely admit to being a bit elitist. my idea of an ideal community is one that people seek out over time, then lurk for a few days to see if they want to sign up, and then register IF they feel drawn to the particular type of conversation that takes place there. it'd be a small, tight community of friends who get to know each other quite well, and who are able to take the time to get to know each new person who signs up.

our forum would grow even if nothing was being actively done to increase our exposure and seek out new members. i definitely understand the desire to help as many people as possible, but we also have a reputation for being one of the few ABDL sites on the internet where common sense and rationality prevail. it'd be nice to preserve that reputation.

I am aiming for a balance.
On the one hand, yes, I am doing a lot of things to try to boost ADISC's membership and activity level. Why? Quite simply, communities are either stagnating/dying, or growing. And I'd like us to grow. More bluntly still... if a newbie came to ADISC and saw we had only, say, 10,000 posts, would they register? Probably not! That's why the stats display on the forum homepage is disabled for guests right now, and why I push new people to post and get involved. Once our stats are at a more comfortable level, where we don't need to worry about people sent here by other sites taking one look at us and saying "too small"... then I will likely stop encouraging growth so much.

On the other hand... I'm very keen to retain the distinctive, rational culture of ADISC. The question is... how do we do that? There are many suggestions, from closing the thread games forum to having moderators close any "frequently asked question" thread, directing the poster to a wiki article on the subject instead. That's one of my plans... build a comprehensive wiki database so that common questions can be answered there and don't need to be asked over and over and over again on the forums.
There are other ways I'm trying to encourage original content, too. The mature topics forum (and the way it encourages serious discussion) is one way. Discouraging repetitive memes is another. Reducing the visibility of the gallery is another possibility I am considering.

I'm still undecided about what further measures we will take towards ensuring that ADISC's unique culture is maintained. Really, I think that that is what this is about. More active is good, so long as it doesn't damage our valuable culture.

Once the moderators have whittled down the relevant suggestions to a shortlist, I'll probably post a poll to find out how much each option appeals to the community.

 

[Vladimir]

It's already too big, there are too many people who sign up without even posting, and people that sound... weird to me. Plus, too many people makes the website less welcoming somehow.

 

[Point]

I personally would like a big community. It's always fun to make friends! Even if a lot of them are only acquaintances you still have a handful that you really connect with, no matter how many people there are. The only problem that I'd have with a hueg amount of people is the chat - what would happen if fifty people were there instead of 20?

I agree that I like the level of discussion but if this is a help forum then as many people should join as possible! I'd hope that the people that don't contribute to threads wouldn't spam the actual serious threads. Also I doubt it'd get that way with the Members Only or VIP Forums.

 

[d4l]

Who's to say what the right size is? Anyways on the thread game is think it should stay it the one forum where member sin a way to just goof around and have fun.(great for the lulz too) I thought posts in there didn't count towards your post count anyways(that could be old)

 

[Eclipse]

Well I voted that we should let it grow as big as it possibly can. I do not think we should restrict the growth in any way, except protect it from inactive registered users and pedophiles like we have done for both always before. Yes I agree that more members will make it feel less like a family, but I do not agree how it would be harder to keep in contact with original members.
So here is my main reason for wanting it to grow as big as possible, it is worth helping everyone who wants to register here. Think about it, there are still lots and lots of infantilists out there that still think they are alone, and when they find this site and are so happy they are not alone anymore, imagine how they would feel if the registration was dissabled. If I was them I would seriously want to cry. It is our obligation of being infantilist and being apart of this community that we are liable to accept, support, and help any memember who is a *b, dl, fur, or incon. If we don't then who the hell else will!!?? Have some sympathy people, and reach out a helping hand to whoever comes to the site no matter who they are (unless their pedos). In the end when that person is obviously happier, or their problem is fixed, or they thank you for your help, that fuzzy feeling inside will make it all worth it.
Also another great reason to let this site to continue to grow is, we have more voices and opinions with more people. Therefore we have more power as a group. So for example with only the abou 600 memebers we have right now, we could not really have much of any effect on society. Lets say if we reached 5,000 one day, we would be able to hold local conventions helping form more of a community in reality. Plus with large numbers it makes it more likey for someone from the media scene to be a member so they could do a report on our community explaining it helping create a better understanding of infantilism. So overall my second main reason is, the bigger number of people will help us accomplisments for our community possible in society. So if we grow and all support eachother, just maybe we will be as well accepted as homosexuals are (in 1950s no one talked about being gay, now look, pretty much anyone knows someone who is gay and it is generally accepted now only 50 years later). Since homosexuals have come so far, I know we can do it too, if we get enough people and stay dedicated.

 

[Tsendo]

It's my experience that what doesn't grow decays. A steady influx of new people is nessesary for any community to prosper.

I also agree that turning away new people would be bad... very bad T_T - it would kill the community far more then letting them in. So would giving a free reign to anyone who wants to be hostile to newbies.
A hostile community is not a good community.

As for balance...
The friendlier people are towards newbies the more likley they are to become friends with current members and intigrate. That is what a community is. The more friends everyone has and the more bonds exist that unite them, the closer knit the website will be - reguardless of the overall number of people.

Sure there are some people beyond reach... but they either reform or they leave - being hostile won't make a difference in that respect except scaring away the well meaning people. Thought I must admint, a tactifully placed meme is always funny...

 

[xdeadx]

Everything has to stop growing sometime.

*points to Logistic Growth*

 

[Point]

Everything has to stop growing sometime.

*points to Logistic Growth*

See: Humans