shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,867
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Post by shaxper on Feb 5, 2021 17:38:30 GMT -5
A little roundtable discussion, for those of you interested.
In the short term, business at the CCF is good. We attract about as many active new members as we lose in a given year, and there is no shortage of discussion.
In the long term, though, we face a unique challenge. We are an aging forum, and the younger generation tends to gravitate more towards social media platforms than private discussion forums.
Or, at least, that was my understanding until today.
For the first time in a very long while, I decided to study the site's analytic data tonight, and I was surprised to learn that the largest demographic that visits the CCF is 25-34 year olds. Keep in mind, this data counts folks who lurk and who actively post, those who visit once and those who come back each day, the same. But the point is that we have over 4,000 unique individuals visit this site each month, and the largest group (accounting for about 1,200 of those visitors) is 25-34 year old lurkers who, for the most part, are not joining and posting.
So I thought it was worth discussing this as a community. Is there anything more we can or should be doing to attract these younger lurkers and encourage them to get involved? Or maybe there's no sense rocking the boat when we have a lively, close-knit community that's doing just fine as is.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Feb 5, 2021 17:43:49 GMT -5
I don't know that I have a lot to contribute. I will say that I my understanding, based on the huge sample size of my two younger sons, is that people under 25-30 avoid Facebook like the plague. My middle son is a bit better about checking it, which is probably attributable to his time in Benin and it being one of the few ways for him to keep track of family. But my youngest son absolutely refuses to have anything to do with it and that's true of most of his friends.
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,867
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Post by shaxper on Feb 5, 2021 17:44:48 GMT -5
I don't know that I have a lot to contribute. I will say that I my understanding, based on the huge sample size of my two younger sons, is that people under 25-30 avoid Facebook like the plague. My middle son is a bit better about checking it, which is probably attributable to his time in Benin and it being one of the few ways for him to keep track of family. But my youngest son absolutely refuses to have anything to do with it and that's true of most of his friends. I know my students all see facebook as a platform for old people, and yet most of them end up using it regularly once they leave high school. |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Feb 5, 2021 17:47:31 GMT -5
Wow... I'm surprised there are so many people that pop in and lurk and don't post. That makes me wonder... are those people coming for reference, or are they regular lurkers just not interested in posting? I'd love to see more different voices, but I'm not exactly sure how to encourage such a thing. We could try allowing guest posts, but that leads to alot of spam and thus alot of work for the mods. I definitely feel like we have a good amount of content and a good vibe of late... do the stats get as detailed as telling you what things the people who lurk and don't post view? perhaps featuring that content might encourage some new posters  Edit: I agree Facebook is now seen as for 'older' people. My oldest daughter has a facebook account (she's 20) but only uses it to message my wife. She actually mostly uses Discord to chat with friends, and does a bit of Snapchat, Instagram and Tiktok. My middle child (16), mostly browses, and rarely posts. She used to Snap her friends constantly, but that seems to have trickled off. My youngest (13 today) uses mostly just Snapchat. I can't imagine either on facebook. |
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,867
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Post by shaxper on Feb 5, 2021 17:49:05 GMT -5
I definitely feel like we have a good amount of content and a good vibe of late... do the stats get as detailed as telling you what things the people who lurk and don't post view? perhaps featuring that content might encourage some new posters No, it does not. I suppose I could set up a different analytics tracker in each highly frequented thread in the community, but that would be a ridiculous amount of work. There is no way to do it by section. |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Feb 5, 2021 17:49:08 GMT -5
I will also say that my middle son is a pretty big Redditer. I've barely dipped a toe in, usually just to read something he's written when he does a big post about history. But it really reminds me of an old fashioned multi-subject old-school message board. So it's not a big stretch to see people moving from Reddit back to a format like this.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Feb 5, 2021 17:52:20 GMT -5
That's a good point... really the only difference between reddit and a proboards board is the method of organization.
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,867
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Post by shaxper on Feb 5, 2021 17:54:26 GMT -5
It's probably worth mentioning that a reasonable percentage of the 25-34 year old lurkers we are experiencing may be spammers trying to figure out how to get around our community's safeguards (I'm very proud of how rarely they get through!). The fact of the matter is, we have no idea why a person comes to this site unless they choose to tell us. The analytics do show us that 60% of people visiting the site got here from a google search, 31% got here with a bookmark or by typing the URL, 2% came from facebook, and the rest is less than 1% a piece.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Feb 5, 2021 17:57:36 GMT -5
huh... I'm surprised facebook is so low...do you still have a group there and post stuff? (I know you were for a while, but I'm not a facebook person). I'd think that would be the most likely source of new contributors given the previously discussed age group facebook is popular with.
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,867
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Post by shaxper on Feb 5, 2021 18:05:08 GMT -5
huh... I'm surprised facebook is so low...do you still have a group there and post stuff? (I know you were for a while, but I'm not a facebook person). I'd think that would be the most likely source of new contributors given the previously discussed age group facebook is popular with. I still post there once a week, but I don't actively share the link in various facebook groups the way I used to. It takes too much time/effort to maintain a credible enough reputation in each facebook group that sharing a link to the CCF isn't perceived as spamming. I'd always intended to get an account going on instagram, as a lot more traffic could be captured via that platform, but I don't have the time. As is, we seem to have a large and silent audience among us already. The question is how to bring them to the table. |
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Post by brutalis on Feb 5, 2021 20:32:11 GMT -5
I will bet many click on to the CCF out of curiosity. Comic book television shows and movies are currently successful in a way they never were before. Some may lurk, checking the site out a bit but few join as the CCF is a "fan" driven engine with no big NAMES to compel regular following. Also in this age of video, that is what more people look for with less emphasis on reading. Lurkers may be those hanging around irregularly to see what new write ups come around and ONLY read threads which pertain to what they like and are into.
The CCF follows the same trend actual comic books are in, a downward spiral of true new fans who enjoy ALL that comic books offer. I see it in the Youtube channels; the good ones struggle to build followers without catering to lower standards while crappy channels build large followings with cheap tricks, sex, stunts, click bait etc. Here folks find legitimately honest, truthful and friendly discussions with no tolerance for ugly, abusive, argumentative comments, responses and threads. There are very few legitimate comic book sites worth being part of. Most are either like Entertainment Tonight, in tone-fast quick daily info dumps of gossip or unconfirmed rumors that u check out each day for the mindless news in a few seconds.
CCF is a true community of like minded individuals interested in learning and sharing about things. That concept is really dying a slow death as people are more and more becoming lookie-loo's who are only interested in mindless entertainment. I see them as drivers who will slow down to view the violence/destruction of an accident but will never pull over to help someone in trouble. 2 out of 10 might be a good samaritan and 2 out of 10 lurkers will join the CCF and participate.
As a forum you either cater to the lowest common denominator in hope of attracting a wide range of ages or you focus on being the "BEST" forum for those loyal and faithful participants. No need to attempt to draw in more people, simply continue to embrace those of us here and welcome any newcomers. Staying or leaving is eventually the individual's decision.
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,867
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Post by shaxper on Feb 6, 2021 7:49:57 GMT -5
As a forum you either cater to the lowest common denominator in hope of attracting a wide range of ages or you focus on being the "BEST" forum for those loyal and faithful participants. Oh, there's no question of which path the CCF is on in regard to this. While we want to be welcoming to new and younger folks so that our ranks replenish with time, there is no intent to change what is working for the community as is nor to bring in such an influx of new members that the dynamic changes significantly. |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 6, 2021 11:02:57 GMT -5
My 26 yr old daughter never had any interest in posting here. She rarely reads anything published before 2000. And now she is too busy being a wife with her career and improving their first home and so on. Other than texting and the occasional series on Netflix she doesn't use Social media very much nor watch much TV.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 6, 2021 11:04:30 GMT -5
My 28 yr old daughter is more established and has more leisure time but has no interest in comics other than the movies.
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Post by The Captain on Feb 6, 2021 14:42:55 GMT -5
My older daughter is only 15, but she has ZERO interest in Facebook. Everything for her is Instagram and Pinterest; she wanted TikTok, but my wife and I were absolutely against it.
As for the growing the community, I think it will just happen organically as it has been. Unless we start going into other Classic Comics communities and recruiting folks, what are our real options?
Mind you, I don't do any of the traditional social media outlets (FB, IG, Snapchat, Twitter), so I am probably one of the more-Ludditic members here, so there may be things that can be done that are out of my scope of understanding.
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