News reports and frontpage discussion

[Cthulhu]

So, here's an idea, what do you think? Close a news report thread as soon as it's been posted on the front page, leaving a link to the front page article for further discussion on said news.

I really think that having a site that looks active and regularly maintained will improve how long people will stay on it. Looking at the stats (which I'll post up in a bit), we've got a so-called 'bounce rate' of 60%, which means that 60% of our visitors just visits our front page without clicking through on other pages in the site. I think that, if our site looks active - i.e. there seems to be a lot of activity on news articles - people would be more likely to click on one of the articles in order to read the comments.

So, what do you think? Close news threads after the news has been poasted? Blatantly disallow discussion on news reports? Or leave it as it is right now?

 

[Tetsujin]

Hmmm...that's a good question. Encouraging people to post more on the front page would definitely be a good idea. =/

 

[Makoeyes987]

I don't know...closing the news threads immediately in the forums when its posted on the frontpage seems a bit too much because a discussion on a forum can be a bit more personal and dynamic than in just comments. But I do think that closing the news thread after a set period of time would be a good idea.

 

[Cthulhu]

Well yeah, but that's usually when discussion on the subject has died down already. Ideally, I'd like to see forum posts appear under the frontpage's articles and vice-versa, but I don't think that'll be doable anytime soon.

It's a bit of a dilemma, really, :/. There is an alternative, which involves not allowing any comments on the frontpage and linking straight to the forums for discussion, but that kinda defeats the purpose of the frontpage, making it more or less a static entity to put stuff up on.

There's plenty of sites that work very well with both a comment system and a forum, but in those cases the two are separate entities - there are links to frontpage articles on the frontpage, but little else, and there's no discussion on a news article on the forums (besides reporting errors and whatnot). So it's not an impossibility per sé, and I think that, if we'd be able to increase the interactivity of the frontpage, there'd be people spending more time on there.

 

[Makoeyes987]

I definitely want to keep comments on the front page.

I think we just need to start telling people to post on the front page and then just close the threads after awhile.

....Does anyone from our lovely forum userbase have anything else to contribute or say before we enact such a policy?

 

[Ⓐaron]

Honestly, is there any way to just merge the front site comments with forum posts? That seems like it would make the most sense.

 

[Username.]

lol true, i mean most posters on the front page would of come across this site for the first time, post a comment, then leave. The idea above would be good, also in the same post, prehaps you could include a 'continue the discussion in the forums link' visa versa if they are reading it on the forums. i know there are various links already, but having more is better (especially at the end of comments). This would lure people to different parts of this site and possibly signing on and revisiting.

 

[Cthulhu]

[quote author=V link=topic=627.msg26443#msg26443 date=1236120800]
Honestly, is there any way to just merge the front site comments with forum posts? That seems like it would make the most sense.
[/quote]

It would, but that would require me diving into the source code / API's of both our current forum software and Wordpress, both upholding their very own programming style and paradigms. Trying to learn both (in a sense that the integration would be smooth and not very hack-ish and unstable) would take me days at best, since having to learn two different thingies is about as hard as learning a new programming language.

 

[Tennyo]

I don't see anything wrong with it myself really. It would be nice to keep the forums open but we do want to increase site traffic. If people see that the front site is active they may be more apt to join the forum.

 

[Ⓐaron]

[quote author=Cthulhu link=topic=627.msg27088#msg27088 date=1236196093]
[quote author=V link=topic=627.msg26443#msg26443 date=1236120800]
Honestly, is there any way to just merge the front site comments with forum posts? That seems like it would make the most sense.
[/quote]

It would, but that would require me diving into the source code / API's of both our current forum software and Wordpress, both upholding their very own programming style and paradigms. Trying to learn both (in a sense that the integration would be smooth and not very hack-ish and unstable) would take me days at best, since having to learn two different thingies is about as hard as learning a new programming language.
[/quote]sux. There isn't a preexisting merger tool for wordpress and the current forums software then? Cause I know there's several for vB.

 

[Tetsujin]

[quote author=V link=topic=627.msg27121#msg27121 date=1236200878]
[quote author=Cthulhu link=topic=627.msg27088#msg27088 date=1236196093]
[quote author=V link=topic=627.msg26443#msg26443 date=1236120800]
Honestly, is there any way to just merge the front site comments with forum posts? That seems like it would make the most sense.
[/quote]

It would, but that would require me diving into the source code / API's of both our current forum software and Wordpress, both upholding their very own programming style and paradigms. Trying to learn both (in a sense that the integration would be smooth and not very hack-ish and unstable) would take me days at best, since having to learn two different thingies is about as hard as learning a new programming language.
[/quote]sux. There isn't a preexisting merger tool for wordpress and the current forums software then? Cause I know there's several for vB.
[/quote]

We really need vB imo.

 

[Cookie Monster]

Yarly. Didn't CK say he was donating this week? Iirc, he's donating $150 NZD, which would be around $75 when converted to USD. How much do we have already?

 

[Cthulhu]

[quote author=Cookie Monster link=topic=627.msg27129#msg27129 date=1236201412]
Yarly. Didn't CK say he was donating this week? Iirc, he's donating $150 NZD, which would be around $75 when converted to USD. How much do we have already?
[/quote]

Just a bit short of $100,- due to Paypal taking its share. I'll goan get it if it reaches $150, so if CK donates, we'll get vB, .
[quote author=V link=topic=627.msg27121#msg27121 date=1236200878]
sux. There isn't a preexisting merger tool for wordpress and the current forums software then? Cause I know there's several for vB.
[/quote]

There was, but that was limited in just member accounts and maybe something else, and not suitable for the version of the forums software we're using.

 

[Ⓐaron]

oh, sux. I'll donate something for vB wicba then, .

 

[Username.]

Hey it seems ppl have just ignored my own idea (yes MY idea) :,
If you put a link to the forums after the last comment on the front page topics (kinda like continue the discussion in the forums blah blah made up shit), then surely more ppl will think "hmmmm, forums, i'll take a look" and then mabey join and stuff.

 

[Tennyo]

True, true, username does have a good point. :/

Well it isn't my decision anyway. lol

 

[Cthulhu]

[quote author=Username link=topic=627.msg30101#msg30101 date=1236993410]
Hey it seems ppl have just ignored my own idea (yes MY idea) :,
If you put a link to the forums after the last comment on the front page topics (kinda like continue the discussion in the forums blah blah made up shit), then surely more ppl will think "hmmmm, forums, i'll take a look" and then mabey join and stuff.
[/quote]

Well ya, that would be quite easy to do, but it kinda defeats the point. We want our frontpage to be just as frequently visited as our forums, and we don't want our frontpage content (i.e. news) to be posted on the forums, since then nobody would ever visit the frontpage anymore.

Second, I'd like to promote news discussion on the frontpage so that, when people come visit the site, it doesn't look dead. I mean, AC.net didn't have a comment system and posted their news (and the discussion thereon) on the forums, which made their front page look dead, devoid of visitors, etcetera.

That's just not done in Web 2.0 anymore, where 'community' is an important keyword (if not the most important keyword). A frontpage without comments (or other visible signs of users being there) looks dead.

So yar, I have my reasons to not be in favor of posting discussion on the forums.

 

[Makoeyes987]

If you notice, our idea for closing threads in the news section once they're posted on the front page seems to be working. As you can see by our latest comment numbers, our frontpage is getting some discussion and stuff on it.

I think we found a solution that works.

 

[Cthulhu]

Yeah, there's that too, . 20+ comments / news item is a good start, and if we'd be able to put links to the latest news on the forum, I'm sure that we could increase that number even more.

 

[Ⓐaron]

It's worth pointing out that once the forums get upgraded to vB, it's pretty easy to integrate WordPress with vB; there are several existing mechanisms for it.

 

[Cthulhu]

Yeah, I pretty much expected that, . Will look into that after the move and the optimizations.

 

[Username.]

what the hell is vb, i aint no expert and stuff. anyway things look ok.

Just another thing off topic : a while ago there was a link to a brand new lifestream site, i cant find it anywhere now, i guess it has been taken down?

edit: cheers tennyo

 

[Cthulhu]

vb is vBulletin, the forum software used to power ye olde ACF and the current FFOF.

And what new lifestream site?

 

[Username.]

it was a link somewhere in the news section for a new site, and it was a new forum with only a few users on. thats all i remember.