What makes this so successful.

anthropomorphizing_kitty · Thu Oct 28, 2004 9:55 am

As I've pointed out in a few recent posts, I'm working with someone to try to get more traffic to their indie site. One thing we've noticed is that although the main site itself seems to get a lot of traffic (e.g. within a day of a brand new reviews section being implemented, I've already got several angry responses to my first review), but the message board seems to lie stagnant. It only gets 2 or 3 posts a day, despite the fact that there's almost 2 hundred members.
Here on the other hand, I get the impression that the actualy Long Winters site gets little traffic, but the board has frequent and diehard members. Any ideas why this is?

Squid · Post by **Squid** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 11:18 am

i think part of it has to do with exclusivity and what your site has to offer that others don't. We don't have a msg. board at Playing In Fog, but I know for a fact that our hits and reader involvement spiked everytime we had excusive pix or tix to give away or whatever.

Also, you might be up against a saturated market, as there are a ton of places to discuss indie music, and new communities can be slow-growing.I mean, for example, even though indieriot is geographically specific, there's probably a yahoogroup (or something similar) that's already around with peeps from your area? Here in SF, we have sf_indie, and it's got 1500+ people on it. It's, of course, got factions that have split off into splinter groups, but it's still the main hub. It would be hard for another group, be it a board or otherwise, to compete with it's sheer size.
(Plus, people are lazy. I know I can get info from sf_indie, so i'm hardly darting around looking for new groups to join...)

So it's a combination of the factors above that make the LW board so successful, imho. It's exclusive to a unique band with a similarly unique following. There's a very personal feel to it, thanks in no small part to J-rod's interest and involvement and Merlin's unending TLC with regard to processes.

Moreover, (and i can't emphasize how huge this is), I can honestly say that this board is populated with the nicest, most intelligent, most flame-retardant crew I have ever met. Arguments with the capacity to get ugly...just don't. (I'm thinking of the smoking thread, myself...i've seen that sort of thread become horrendous, but here, peeps just seemed to state their case and walk away.) It's amazing, really.

I mean, we're about to start a bookswapping program. what the hell is going ON here?! ;)[/url]

LoveSickJerk · Post by **LoveSickJerk** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 12:25 pm

We just rule.

the hutch · Post by **the hutch** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 2:29 pm

gee, yer right. maybe i'll come back.

aj · Post by aj » Thu Oct 28, 2004 7:37 pm

no pic wrote:gee, yer right. maybe i'll come back.

yeah. what's the deal? we were gonna be new BFFs and then you leave me out in the cold.

Post by **grant** » Fri Oct 29, 2004 6:33 am

Discipline. Strictly enforced disclipine, that's what we've got.

Post by **grant** » Fri Oct 29, 2004 6:38 am

Actually, a trifle more seriously, we have 1. a critical mass of members -- something like 20-50 regulars who are involved in conversations, and 2. we have a Cattywampus area, where being off-topic and "conversational" is encouraged. If you took this area away, you'd be left with a rather sluggish, boring board.

Perhaps attracting a few "seed posters" might be a good thing.

Moni · Post by **Moni** » Fri Oct 29, 2004 6:41 am

Actually, some time ago someone on the cetro-matic board mentioned the TLW board, stating that it was "mostly chicks over there," whereas conversation about music was "limited."

maybe that's it...............

aj · Post by aj » Fri Oct 29, 2004 6:42 am

cool. a rival board.

they are so not invited to our treehouse. I declare war!

anthropomorphizing_kitty · Fri Oct 29, 2004 6:46 am

aj wrote:cool. a rival board.

they are so not invited to our treehouse. I declare war!

Nononono no. Not rival at all. Our tribes can co-exist peacefully and I am the ambassador. I took squid's advice and am trying to help the site creator think of innovative ideas. One thing the site will be offering soon is a weekly update on up and coming new releases. Also he plans on offering bands the ability to upload MP3's soon, and we are thinking of allowing MP3 of the week voting as was once discussed a while ago on this board.

aj · Post by aj » Fri Oct 29, 2004 6:49 am

oh, I didn't mean your board. I meant the centro board since they were talkin trash.

I should use that handydandy quote feature.

anthropomorphizing_kitty · Fri Oct 29, 2004 7:17 am

aj wrote:oh, I didn't mean your board. I meant the centro board since they were talkin trash.

I should use that handydandy quote feature.

Oh yeah, we should totally kick their asses.

chelsea · Post by **chelsea** » Fri Oct 29, 2004 11:31 am

Squid wrote:
Moreover, (and i can't emphasize how huge this is), I can honestly say that this board is populated with the nicest, most intelligent, most flame-retardant crew I have ever met. Arguments with the capacity to get ugly...just don't.

i'm in complete agreement...always have been.

the hutch · Post by **the hutch** » Fri Oct 29, 2004 11:55 am

Actually, that was (ahem) me that made that quote on the CM board, but can it be denied that the LW board is largely populated by females? This is a feature that I find most refreshing, being a member of the fairer sex myself. The CM board, in contrast, sometimes displays a gross excess of testosterone, as evidenced by actual name-calling in certain music discussions (see the "best of 2003" thread). Such actions would certainly be frowned upon on this board, which I agree seems to enjoy the vigorous interaction of some truly lovely people. Who just happen to be (or at least seem to be) predominantly female.

anthropomorphizing_kitty · Fri Oct 29, 2004 12:13 pm

no pic wrote:Actually, that was (ahem) me that made that quote on the CM board, but can it be denied that the LW board is largely populated by females? This is a feature that I find most refreshing, being a member of the fairer sex myself. The CM board, in contrast, sometimes displays a gross excess of testosterone, as evidenced by actual name-calling in certain music discussions (see the "best of 2003" thread). Such actions would certainly be frowned upon on this board, which I agree seems to enjoy the vigorous interaction of some truly lovely people. Who just happen to be (or at least seem to be) predominantly female.

You know, I hadn't thought about it before, but the female-ness of this board does seem to reduce the name calling...poo-poo head.

the hutch · Post by **the hutch** » Fri Oct 29, 2004 12:20 pm

ooh, poo-poo head! That's a fave at my house. You can do better than that.

I remember wondering, shortly after joining the board, if this John person had some kind of strange sex-symbol thing goin on, because there seemed to be so many chicks on the board.

Betty Felon · Post by **Betty Felon** » Fri Oct 29, 2004 12:53 pm

I sort of object to the whole "theres a lot of chicks" comment. But only because I think it reduces the collection of truly extrordinary people to merely being characterized "female" with board having "feminine" traits.

Which is far from the truth. In fact I never really noticed it was mostly girls. There are a lot of strong individual personalities here.

But as far as chicks go, I've never met so many un-catty chicks in my life. They are smart but unpretenious, sweet without being cloying, stylish without being shallow, and witty without being mean, and unapologetically feminine without losing edge.

I could be wrong, but the impression that the comment gives is that the there is a contrast between "music fans" and "chicks"-- if I heard this comment and wast familiar with the board I would think there would be a lot of discussion of purses and hairstyles, etc. barf.

We are all here because we like the band. There are as many reasons why we like the band and choose to participate in the band's message board as there are people here. But if I had to find qualities that we have in common, they would be along the lines of high intellect, appreciation for the arts, general reasonableness, self-knowledge, and pleasentness.

the hutch · Post by **the hutch** » Fri Oct 29, 2004 1:25 pm

Why should there be a disconnect between "music fans" and "chicks"? Are we not one and the same? I personally don't mind being called a chick. I was merely commenting on my observation that the LW board seemed to have more women on it than other music boards, but I of course could be quite wrong about that. I like to think that the high chick titer makes the LW board pretty darned cool.

Anyway, I think I will go away now and sulk.

NatureBoy · Post by **NatureBoy** » Fri Oct 29, 2004 1:31 pm

I have intelligence pictures showing irrefutable proof that the Centro-Matic board has weapons of mass destruction...

Betty Felon · Post by **Betty Felon** » Fri Oct 29, 2004 1:52 pm

no pic wrote:Why should there be a disconnect between "music fans" and "chicks"? Are we not one and the same? I personally don't mind being called a chick. I was merely commenting on my observation that the LW board seemed to have more women on it than other music boards, but I of course could be quite wrong about that. I like to think that the high chick titer makes the LW board pretty darned cool.

Anyway, I think I will go away now and sulk.

mmm...eh...I wasn't saying that. I don't think there is a difference, but I thought your comment suggested there was... oh meh, who cares. Misunderstnadings are silly. This board is just awesome, who cares why.

Lets not sulk. Let's dance instead.