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I've been on many sites in my time on the internet. Of all the sites I've been on, is it normal has the smallest population of them all!
| Yes. I have a few ideas, I'll share them with you. | 4 | |
| I don't know. My mind doesn't work like that. | 9 | |
| Fuck you! The sites population count is perfect. | 25 |
Who gives a shit if it has a small population. There is nobody still on here that was around when I first joined but with each new generation a few people stay behind and thats why it's such a good community because people get to know each other.
Get some celebs on here. That seems to be what they do for everything else. Then maybe have a weekly vote where the worst IIN member is voted off and banned for life. Perhaps we'd have to sing for the judges, or dance on ice, or perform a frankly embarrassing routine with our dog where the dog growls every time it sees a picture of Simon Cowell and a sign lights up which says, "You have ruined entertainment for everyone, you greedy stupid-haired bastard".
However, some serious suggestions:
It'd be nice to know who is in the member chat before going in. Sometimes I think it's full of people I'd love to speak to but what if it's the eight people who hate me most and I have to face them all at the same time?
The down-voting problem seems a lot better for some reason so I'm not going to comment on that this time.
I may be remembering incorrectly but I think there used to be a "random" link which chose a story at random. I miss that.
TheManagement talked about "groups" at one point. I was lukewarm on the idea, I seem to remember, but wouldn't it be great if you could join groups for areas you know something about and then groups could claim relevant stories which would appear on their story feeds. The idea being that a group feed allowed relevant stories to stick around longer. It could also promote teamwork between people who suddenly realise they have similar problems and experiences.
If the groups approach was taken, I'd quite like to see another outlet for frivolity (like a games group or something where we could set each other challenges or some such, the kind of thing that otherwise has no place on IIN).
How about an IIN lottery where the hundred people each week who have posted the most useful submissions get thrown into a hat and people are chosen at random until someone without Gold is chosen. They get Gold for a week and a little banner notice on the site congratulating them.
How about a section which shows some popular stories from the past and allows us to reconnect with our IIN history? Or the complete opposite; a page which shows us who has signed up to the site that day and is new, and urges us to make them feel welcome?
What about allowing users to input their birthdays (if they want to) so there could be a "Today's birthday boys and girls" page.
Or avatars. If they were small enough so that they were no bigger than a reply which takes up only one line, it wouldn't much mess around with the flow of the site too much (which I like). People already pick out people based on colours. Why not go one further? Perhaps starting with a set of pre-defined avatars and making them Gold-only, then having user-defined avatars and making the pre-defs available to all.
Lots of places have echelons of users based on activity, thumbs-up, etc. I'm not massively keen on that but it works elsewhere and people might like it here.
Is there any way to influence the age demographic using the site and get it a bit closer to real life? I think plenty of people over 25 could be useful and give good advice.
Okay, that's all I've got off the top of my head. They're all things that talk about change to the site. The easiest change, though, is in how we use the site. I've got no problem with those who come here to snark when their snarking is backed up by something (you all know who you are). You're highlighting an interesting viewpoint and I think you're important here. Perhaps even invaluable.
But I absolutely can't stand someone who feels bad and so looks for someone to victimise on this site just for the sake of victimising someone. It's a simple test. Before you say something mean to someone, are you saying it for you, or are you saying it for them?
I'm not sure if I'm thinking about the same "random story" link as you mentioned, but if I am, then there still is one. It's not very obvious, but it's that little thing right under where you see your notifications. The two little arrows which cross each other. Not sure if that's what you meant, but when you click it, it takes you to a random post.:)
I officially love you, bananaface. I love you, I love you, I love you. I want to kiss you. Actually, I want to marry you. I want to raise little bananas with you, and have grandbananas when we're old.
I.
Love.
You.
:D
P.S. Now nobody will see me for six months because I'm in random stories!
P.P.S. I love you!
P.P.P.S. Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnndom!
Yikes! I think someone likes the random post button a bit too much.:P I don't think I've ever seen you this excited:O.
The random link is still there. Just below notifications, little crisscrossed arrows.
Or, isitnormal.com/random
We don't want all the ooooh did you look at my facebook status last night bitches on here go away.
I don't want it to become big as it will probably bring it to ruins. Why can't things be left the way they are?!
No! We don't want it to be popular! Then a whole bunch of bastards are gonna come on here in leave there rude-ass comments and it'll be just like yahoo!answers.
To make the site more popular it needs to be noticed, and those who notice it need to stick around. This often takes marketing dollars. And those tactics can be a bit sleezy and manipulative. I'm glad I don't see IIN ads spammed everywhere. But new users join every day. The question is, "how does IIN keep them?" Dappled made some good suggestions on how to do this. But maybe the management doesn't have the resources to make these changes very quickly.
Or maybe, you are the management in disguise looking for free marketing advice...
The only way to attract more users is to integrate more with FB and twitter somehow since that's where nearly ALL internet users are. I hate it too but that's a fact of life.
Dappled. Those are all great suggestions, but, just tell me how any of that will make the site more popular?
"It'd be nice to know who is in the member chat before going in. Sometimes I think it's full of people I'd love to speak to but what if it's the eight people who hate me most and I have to face them all at the same time?"
No. I think that chat should go. It feeds the very thing that genius up there was talking about. Facebook drama! I'm going to make a follow up thread to this one asking for the chat to be removed.
Why should you not be able to use the chat because haters are in there hating on you? It breeds drama. But I'll see to it that it gets fixed.
If the chat was removed, someone would just make a chat room on another site, like tinychat or something, and just use that instead. Except that would probably create even more drama because it would be impossible to moderate (you can't ban someone on IIN for bullying someone on another site, can you?).
There are problems with the chat, but they're more indicative of the way the site as a whole is used. The problems with the chat are a symptom of a greater problem. The way the chat is used should be changed, but removing it would create more problems.
People who are bullies would find another feeding ground. If they did move to tinychat I highly doubt the people who are bullied would follow.
I understand where you're coming from though. Maybe the chat should get shut down temporally until the management can find a way to make it fun for everyone? I need to get ky new thread up regarding the chat.
In short, the ideas would incentivise being here. More people = popularity.
You were asking about how to make the site more popular (not better) so I just answered the question as it was. I think a lot of my answers would make the site worse (but more popular) but again, I was only answering the question that was asked. If you'd have asked me how to make the site better, you'd have got a very different answer.
For me personally, I think both the chat and private messaging can and do cause problems. I know people enjoy the chat and I wouldn't want to take that away from them (or the chance to use it myself occasionally) but perhaps it should be more divorced from the site. I think things have becoming blurred and the site feels different from when I started. Not that there's any rule that says the site has to be what it was like when I started. I'm only one user.
Dappled. Your suggestions would only make things better for people that are already here, not more popular.
There's a handful of daily users. But I agree it needs to be more popular. Something like 4chan or reddit. It'd be awesome to have more people.