What can we do to get new members?

[Ghost]

Well, any ideas guys? there are a lot of lurkers on here, if they are reading this, join up and post. We could do with a few more posters in here.
Tim, do you have anyway to get new people in on here.
?

anyone got any ideas?

[Hardball]

Ease up on the Censorship.

[kingoftheforest]

How bout......................

Bring back Boarspear.

Suckas

[Tant01]

Ease up on the Censorship.

That's fine... in theory.

Personally I feel that some posts detract from the thread theme and disparage other members. If it reflects poorly on defend dot net it should be erased.

We might get more new folks if we show a little more class and hospitality.

Or not? What the hell do I know...

[Hardball]

Bring back Boarspear.

Suckas

He was censored.

[Tant01]

Ideas!!!

Well, any ideas guys? there are a lot of lurkers on here, if they are reading this, join up and post. We could do with a few more posters in here.
Tim, do you have anyway to get new people in on here.
?

anyone got any ideas?

I'm not too creative but I'd be happy to read your ideas (ANYONE)

Don't be shy. You won't be banned or censored for suggesting creative ways to grow the forum.

I wanted to give away a knife a while back... Random drawing so it would be FAIR type thing.

Just a thought.

Also thought about creating some interest by giving folks more virtual good reputation. Maybe a 100 point bonus instead of 10 or 20 for those really cool posts or threads that get high ratings and participation.

We need to keep in mind that it's a free site. The mods are free the membership is free...

Hard to get excited without spending money.

[Ghost]

but all forums are free, this forum used to be really busy, it was like THE forum for martial arts.

IMO i think the open access/general sections is what makes a forum. and ours is too stuffy.

not enough light hearted stuff and not enough general topics, too much politics.
Usually the general/open access bits are like where you have your chats with people, well it is on every other forum ive used but here its more of a debating society.

[Guest]

Just a couple of points from me:

I don't think this forum is heavily censored at all, in fact the opposite is true. I lurk on a few other forums and they are so sanitised that if your point of view doesn't match with the powers that be, you're not even allowed to express it. Most of them are just big love fests between the people who set them up, its mostly for self-promotion. On here I see heated debate all the time, between the regulars and also with regulars and new members. Some of it crosses the line over into personal abuse, but we're adults and we can handle that, I think the mods do a great job in knowing when to stand back and when to step in.

The boards have been dry for quite some time. The problem is, and its not exclusive to this forum, all of the key topics have gone through the discussion cycle many times already. When new members join the forum, they typically want to discuss topics that the regular guys have seen ten times over, and its often met with boredom and indifference. Sometimes, rather than the regular guys jumping on a topic and killing it, maybe we should stand back and give it room to breathe, allow other new members to comment. If all the lurkers see is the same old names saying the same old things, and jumping on the topics of new members, they won't feel encouraged to join in.

From looking at Google Analytics and a few other programs, this is definitely one of the most, if not the most, prominent martial arts discussion forum on the web. We always tend to come up first in natural search on discussion topics, and the volume of people viewing the site at any time is as high as any forum I have seen. So the profile and the audience are definitely there, I think maybe we need to get better at prompting discussions that will attract people in, but also not killing discussions because of our own personal preferences.

[TTEscrima]

but all forums are free, this forum used to be really busy, it was like THE forum for martial arts.

Not true, there are private forums and pay to participate Martial art and gear forums.

[Ghost]

Not true, there are private forums and pay to participate Martial art and gear forums.

yes thats true but most forums on the net are free, at least the vast majority are.

[kingoftheforest]

Make it more friendly to non-nuthuggers

Maybe if people could get a good conversation going in the non MMA/BJJ forums on here without some one coming in and talking about their sport art in other forums.

The CMA people and combatives people don't come here a lot because every time they talk some one from a sport art comes in and begins a fight about how CMA/combatives is crap.

I think that uneven censorship is the problem here.

Since we're not getting ban for ideas I thought I'd throw that out there.

I know the group I'm with has tried to get those forums going, I've been on this forum a while and I've seen some worthless shits kill some worthwhile stuff.

And recently I've seen some worthless shits throw out as well.

Unfortunately before they were tossed they wreaked havoc on the readership here.

[Ghost]

i was trying to have a discussion with you about body mechanics. Which you didnt want to have. BUt oh well. You were the one that was run off this forum for ages because of your total lack of understanding of boxing, which was hilarious because you were/are so far off the mark and so totally dont have a clue that its laughable.
That made a lot of people on here angry though and you had to leave for a while didnt you.
do you remember? Or do i have to find a link to post for you.

Its you that his the issue with MMA and so on. You see things as an attack when its simply a discussion then you link up crap that you dont understand. I can link your posts for you if you like, its all on here.

[kingoftheforest]

Prime example

i was trying to have a discussion with you about body mechanics. Which you didnt want to have. BUt oh well. You were the one that was run off this forum for ages because of your total lack of understanding of boxing, which was hilarious because you were/are so far off the mark and so totally dont have a clue that its laughable.
That made a lot of people on here angry though and you had to leave for a while didnt you.
do you remember? Or do i have to find a link to post for you.

Its you that his the issue with MMA and so on. You see things as an attack when its simply a discussion then you link up crap that you dont understand. I can link your posts for you if you like, its all on here.

I have never been made to leave this forum at any point. I have chosen to not post on it.

And this post is exactly what I mean. All I had to do was say CMA or combatives and the very next poster comes in and drives a thread about getting new posters off topic at the same time s talking about MMA and boxing because somebody said CMA.

As for my explanation being laughable...that's your opinion and doesn't jive with numerous other martial arts schools. Many top level instructors agree holey with my explanations. You just have to stop fooling yourself.

And my explanations are based on the classics of the CMA's not on a ring sport. My thread Basics of CMA's is a prime example of practitioners attempting to discuss non-MMA or ring sport principles, only to be repeatedly and rudely interrupted by some one attempting to bring ring sport principles into a CMA discussion.

You wanna discuss boxing principles, there is a whole forum for that. Post in there it'll be the first one in a while.

[Tant01]

Ding-Ding... Back to your corners gentlemen! LOL

Idea thread, remember?

[kingoftheforest]

I think maybe you're starting in the wrong place with trying to attract new members. Maybe you should think of ideas that will get current members to participate more.

Hence I refer you back to post #12 in this thread.

People won't exchange new ideas when they know


A. Some one is going to belittle their view on certain MA's by other member who have little to no experience in them.

B. People off track the topic by discussing things that have nothing to do with it because it's not the art they practice or they feel it some how threatens their personal doctrine about what MA's should be.