[genedefcon]

Back when I first came on in mid aug. there were like 50 posts per day, and now there are like 20 posts per day. What is the matter? I went on the Computer Forums and in the 45 min. I was on there, 10 posts were posted. come on people POST!

[AuroraDizon]

I dunno its always seemed kinda slow to me. Its picked up from when I first joined lol, there was pratically no one here, lots of the forums had only the standard sticky posts lol

[KellieCM]

I think there are a few things at play here.When the forums first launched along with the new site, we had lots of pointers from pages on the site asking people for their feedback and pointing them to the website feedback forum. There were LOTS of posts in there, but the other forums were fairly slow.The site is not new anymore, and a lot of people who only showed up to comment on the new site are now gone. Others have moved away from the website feedback forum and into the other forums, which are considerably more busy now than they were when we first started.Another thing that we did was to (finally!) get the spam problem as under control as possible. We were having problems with spam bots getting past our security systems early on, but now we are down to actual humans who register on the site and then come to the forums and spam.In terms of page views on the forums, we stayed the same in September as we did in August -- right around a quarter million for the month. That's not huge by any means, but for a 2 month old community, it's fantastic. I also think that statistic is a bit skewed because of the spam problem, which we conquered early to mid September. The fact that September stayed the same but had no bot spam for most of the month means that more people were reading and posting on the forums in September than in August. All of that is to say that I think we are growing, and while I'll always want a faster growth, I don't think there is a reason to worry.

[Donovan]

I'm trying to do my part! :D Recently joined up and have been checking the forums periodically.

[genedefcon]

That's good.

[genedefcon]

1.Good job on the spam problem!2. 250,000 posts are good, but for a magazine with over 800,000 subscribers and not counting newsstand buyers, the forum should have at least 500,000 posts per month. In my opinion there should be more posts. It does take some time to get a reply though, but I am not complaning, I love the forums. Heck I even got the forums on RSS feed. I go on a forum with maybe 25 posts per month, and the guy bought a .tv domain(those TLD's go for $29.95 year).

[KellieCM]

Well, that's Pageviews, not posts. Pageviews count both registered and non-registered members, if they are reading, posting, or doing anything on the forums. We have about 60 posts per day here in the forums, but that includes the new threads that are started when new columns and news stories are posted. The magazine audience is generally separate from the online audience. People may subscribe but not come to the website or vice versa. It's an apples to oranges comparison to measure forum population against magazine circulation. Yes, the members that participate on the forums are a fraction of our total site visitors. And yes, the number of pageviews here is a fraction of the total site pageviews. But that's really normal, especially since the forums are new. For sites that don't soley exist based on member generated content, it is normal for there to be a lot less on the forums than the rest of the site. Obviously, that differs with sites like Digg, Flickr, Slashdot or del.icio.us, which soley exist because of member content and participation.All of that is to say -- don't worry. I'm not. If you really want to help the forums grow, continue to post interesting comments, start and contribute to discussions, and tell all your friends to come join us. And, if you have any ideas on how we can grow the community (product reviews, blogs, forums, etc), please let me know!

[genedefcon]

Don't worry I'll help make it grow. Can I invite other users here?

[KellieCM]

Please -- they just need to register on the site in order to post. Everyone is welcome as long as they follow our community rules!

[AuroraDizon]

Yea there always seem to be a ton of people as guests browsing the forms all the time.Some people do that, I attribute some of it to the excellent job it has been listed on google, I google search things sometimes and find posts, recent posts from here. So they could be a bunch of people looking for answers.

[KellieCM]

Yes, having a high number of lurkers on forums like this is not unusual. Nearly every forum has that problem, especially when registration is required to post. The more that is required during registration, the more disparity there will be.It could be regular visitors that just haven't or don't want to register, it could be visitors from google or other search engines, it could be that people are just shy. :)

[genedefcon]

What's so bad about registering? Your e-mail address? It's okay to give your opinion. Come on people register! We would like to know your opinion!

[AuroraDizon]

Yea, I have a few friends that are on some boards all the time but do nothing but lurk. I really don't understand it, I asked them and they usually say something like: "I just don't have anything to say" Personally I can't read posts and not have something to say lol

[genedefcon]

On my forums, at the top of the page, I insist that people register, it's free, and you can post your opinion. People are just too shy, or maybe there boss doesn't allow them to post on forums? It my guess.

[KellieCM]

I admit to lurking on a few forums. Well, ok, ONE. They have a culture of being very rude to new people or anyone who violates their norms (which, of course, are not written down anywhere so how would you know the rules unless you lurk for a long time?). I read it seasonally (in the summer -- it is tied to a particular tv show that is on then) and have never posted.But more often, I am like you Aurora. I am an extrovert and I like to participate in discussions. I guess that's why I like my job so much. I guess some people are that way, and others aren't. I work hard to make sure that there are interesting topics and polls to post on, and we hope that our news stories are interesting enough that people want to comment on them.In terms of registering, I agree it's not that big of a deal. PCW's registration is a bit more demanding than most, but it is also for good business reasons. We also have double opt in (we send you an email with a link you must click to verify) to help prevent false registrations, spam, and identity theft. Some people find this a big hassle, and thus would rather read along without registering until they finally stumble upon something they feel so strongly about, they just HAVE to register so they can say it.

[genedefcon]

I do lurk on 1 forum, becuase they only talk to there "click". I once registered and every time i posted on a thread, they would never answer. i then went back to lurking.

[AuroraDizon]

I only "lurk" if im checking for new messages and there arn't any, well one's to me if I haven't visited in a long time.The odd thing is I'm not really an extrovert, I really don't like being around people, except when it comes to people online for some reason.I guess theres a few things about it, like being able to narrow your 'group' of people there knowladge level or passions. I really don't like talking to closeminded idoits, and with the internet you can skim down who you talk to, or who you respond to anyway. Its not really like socializing in real life with random people that you run into (unless your say in college or something). Mabey I'm just too opionated lol.

[ptrcrowder]

No, I don't think the forums are necessarily dead. As all of you have mentioned,alot of people browse the forms and either do not sign in or register until there is a issue they feel strongly about and just have to have their say. I am like this also.As for registering, it is no different than alot of other sites in the amt of information you need to give. However I did find that it took me two or three tries to register, as one of the questions asked, for the state of residence. Being from another country, Canada, I had a hard time registering, as this was a required field. :unsure On the third attempt, I did notice the "N/A" in the state information, so this is what I entered. I wondered at the time if anyone else from outside the USA may have had this problem and not bothered to register at all.As far as being notified by e-mail when a new entry has been made into the forum, I like this feature alot.

[AuroraDizon]

I hated the auto-watch sure it makes people come back to the forum, but I post so much that I don't want an email cluttering up my inbox everytime somone replies! I'll watch a topic if I want to but normally I just bookmark it and then check it later if its that importaint.Seriously it annoyed the hell out of me lol I long ago have switched it off I just wish the default wasn't on.

[KellieCM]

Yeah, we're working on revising the registration functionality. The international issue is for sure one that we're looking at.The email notify is a pain for a lot of people, but it's very useful for others. Many of our editors, for example, use the thread-specific watch to know when there are comments on stories and columns they have written. It saves them from having to come to the board every day to check. It's minimal effort and allows them to still participate in discussions.No one feature is going to be good for everyone.