Poll
Question:
How active are you on these forums? How often do you post?
Option 1: Extremely active - I'm a regular who read the site most days and post about as much
Option 2: Very active - I read and post, maybe once a week
Option 3: Somewhat active - I read daily, but almost never post
Option 4: Not-so-active - i read weekly, but almost never post
Option 5: Barely active - I come on less than weekly, but almost never post
Option 6: Basically inactive - I can go for months without coming on - or posting.
Option 7: Other - please post your reason if you feel you are not represented above.
We are curious about how active our little community is. We want to know how active you, and everyone is.
Are we overrun by bots? Or do we have a hidden fanbase we don't know about.
We'd love to hear from you.
Bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy here - only those who come in regularly will see the poll....
Bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy here - only those who come in regularly will see the poll....
It is, but the longer we leave it open, the more of an idea we'll get.
Bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy here - only those who come in regularly will see the poll....
It does show in the “new posts” link in the top of the page, which is where I personally access the site from, I haven’t been to an individual forum for years.
I become more active during the season.
I become more active during the season.
That's true for a lot of folk. I can think of a few regulars who are hardly around at this time of the year
Some people might limit their activity due to a dislike of certain moderators or other posters that respond to their opinions. Maybe and nothing more. Maybe highly likely though. IMO.
This is my 14th year on this site and I am not a member of any other CFC forum.
Contributing factors for me wanting to join this site were the variety of topics that included social issues which seemed to have passionate and thoughtful posts, ease of use and a genuine respect for other contributors even when contrary views were shared. Yes, there were heated exchanges but in the main these seemed to be resolved fairly.
Over the years those who seemed antagonistic, even abusive, have left. But it would be good to attract more members for all the obvious reasons. I wonder if we could promote our site better; create more awareness? Build it and they will come ;D There's plenty that can be done to increase representation outside Vic, genders other than male and even younger cats. Perhaps we could create a YouTube channel linked to this site and linked to existing other CFC YouTube channels? Creating more awareness and inclusiveness might be very helpful for membership numbers.
As for the demographic of older blokes, to a person each seems to be a younger thinker though I get the concern and perhaps this is not being capitalized on enough? From mid March I will have finished a major project and am willing to put my hand up to help promote the site.
Regardless of how active or inactive members are, we may not have the site for much longer:
This was not a DB hack. This was script kiddies uploading a PHP file somehow to the the root directory. This has happened because no one is maintaining the site. I have uploaded the most recent patches to the site and applied the correct permissions to the folders\files after the updates.
Unless someone does take over looking after the site, this will happen again in the future. We have backups as a fallback, but I don't have the time.
Spanner has done a wonderful job over many years but the time came for him to move on. Unless we can find someone, or a team, to maintain the site, it will fall over. :(
23 votes in a day in a half is not bad. Wonder how many more we can get.
23 votes in a day in a half is not bad. Wonder how many more we can get.
I actually see that as encouraging.
That figure would be larger during the football season....and around 30-40 folk is about all you need for a good interaction.
I'm interested in the 'watch but don't post much' brigade...and what if anything could make them more active.
I remember at our peak our membership was something around 5000 on one of our previous sites...but that included many who had registered and then left so the actual participation was less than 100 at any one time.
We'd get the occasional spike after a big win and draft night always saw big numbers.
Of course as DJC points out all this 'recruitment of fresh blood' discussion should probably take a back seat to our more immediate problem of what to do about site hosting and maintenance
Let's face it - there's only 4 real options for the tech support / back end role :
1. Spanner changes his mind
2. One of the regulars or some other member takes up the role
3. Someone external and unrelated to the forum, either paid or through the goodness of their heart, takes up the role
4. We get some new members, and one of those new members takes up the role.
IMO, none of those 4 look particularly promising.
Let's face it - there's only 4 real options for the tech support / back end role :
1. Spanner changes his mind
2. One of the regulars or some other member takes up the role
3. Someone external and unrelated to the forum, either paid or through the goodness of their heart, takes up the role
4. We get some new members, and one of those new members takes up the role.
IMO, none of those 4 look particularly promising.
It is looking a bit shaky.
https://www.carltonsc.com/index.php?topic=5634.0
Six months down the track from the initial 'warning'...and little (no) progress.
Option one is not viable...and Spanner has served his time (with eternal gratitude for his efforts)
Option 2 may have been a goer in the past. We did have a few regulars with some tech nous but given that no-one has stepped up it's also unlikely.
Option 3...Possibly the best option but it would require a financial commitment. That's something we've been able to achieve in the past (player sponsorship etc) but with the number base significantly smaller I'm not so sure.
Option 4- Is a bit of a pot luck option, a maybe, maybe not with no guarantees.
I think that's a fair post Lods, although it's 18 months (not 6) since Spanner made his announcement, and still no takers. IMO the time has well and truly passed to look inside the forums for his replacement.
I think that's a fair post Lods, although it's 18 months (not 6) since Spanner made his announcement, and still no takers. IMO the time has well and truly passed to look inside the forums for his replacement.
It was April last year when I called for "expressions of interest" in taking on the role vacated by Spanner 12 months or so previously. I think that it is pretty clear that no-one among our members has the expertise and/or the capacity to make required commitment.
Rather than steering Kruddler's poll off course, it may be worth running a poll on how to replace Spanner :-\
It was April last year when I called for "expressions of interest" in taking on the role vacated by Spanner 12 months or so previously. I think that it is pretty clear that no-one among our members has the expertise and/or the capacity to make required commitment.
Rather than steering Kruddler's poll off course, it may be worth running a poll on how to replace Spanner :-\
Fair enough, although I'm not sure something like that is poll-worthy.
Some people might limit their activity due to a dislike of certain moderators or other posters that respond to their opinions. Maybe and nothing more. Maybe highly likely though. IMO.
Disagreements happen.
Best not to hold grudges. Life's too short.
If someone is honest enough in their dealings and participate in enough discussions, it's a certainty that sometime somewhere they will find a disagreement, whether it's with the ones you love or a complete stranger!
Disagreements happen.
Best not to hold grudges. Life's too short.
If someone is honest enough in their dealings and participate in enough discussions, it's a certainty that sometime somewhere they will find a disagreement, whether it's with the ones you love or a complete stranger!
Wise words that are easily forgotten.
Id like to know whats involved in maintaining the site. There's a chance I could pull it off, but I've got a bit to learn.
Id like to know whats involved in maintaining the site. There's a chance I could pull it off, but I've got a bit to learn.
Send
@Spanner a message and see what he says.
Id like to know whats involved in maintaining the site. There's a chance I could pull it off, but I've got a bit to learn.
It would be great if you could Thry, but definitely talk to Spanner to see what's involved.
It would be nice to think that one of our own could step up to the plate, but don't do it if it would be too onerous. On the other hand, if it's something that could further your career prospects ...
Bear in mind that my IT knowledge is based almost inclusively from what I picked up from the IT Crowd:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzMCjcVzPcM
It would be great if you could Thry, but definitely talk to Spanner to see what's involved.
It would be nice to think that one of our own could step up to the plate, but don't do it if it would be too onerous. On the other hand, if it's something that could further your career prospects ...
Bear in mind that my IT knowledge is based almost inclusively from what I picked up from the IT Crowd:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzMCjcVzPcM
Have we tried turning it off and on ;)
Suss it out Thry, it would be great if you could manage it.
Id like to know whats involved in maintaining the site. There's a chance I could pull it off, but I've got a bit to learn.
Legend
Id like to know whats involved in maintaining the site. There's a chance I could pull it off, but I've got a bit to learn.
Champ.
I'm curious and surprised about the fact that the leading figure in the poll is "read daily but almost never post"
I'm wondering why that is the case.
Sometimes jumping into what appears to be a 'clique' group can be enough for folks to hold back.
I felt a bit that way myself at the beginning, but after a few posts it quickly becomes comfortable.
For some it might have been a bad or dismissive interaction with another poster.
It would be handy to know some of the reasons.
At different stages we've had these personal threads were folks could divulge as much of their personal information as they wished...real first name, State, Age, profession, favourite player, food, music genre, bank accounts and passwords....that sort of stuff, (seriously, nothing too identifiable) which was a bit of an ice breaker when folks found common interests.
I don’t post much because often by the time I get online and read a thread my view has already been expressed multiple times by others, and often more eloquently than I.
So rather than adding “me too” I’ll add a like and read on.
It’s a pet hate of mine where people don’t read threads (fb anyone…?) and just blurt out whatever’s on their mind, hours, days, weeks after the thread has moved on.
I don’t post much because often by the time I get online and read a thread my view has already been expressed multiple times by others, and often more eloquently than I.
So rather than adding “me too” I’ll add a like and read on.
It’s a pet hate of mine where people don’t read threads (fb anyone…?) and just blurt out whatever’s on their mind, hours, days, weeks after the thread has moved on.
I follow the same procedure.
Bumping this back up. Please vote if you haven't already.
Just bumping this up again.
Please vote if you haven't yet.
Been a while, so just seeing if there are anymore members who haven't voted above.
The start of the football has seen a few familiar faces return to the forum.
So we'll bump this up again to get their input.
The other thing is a facebook page has been set up with a couple of aims.
1) To provide information and continuity during times when the gremlins get into the main site and cause us a bit of grief.
2) To widen exposure and act as conduit to the main forum. The hope is folks will migrate through the facebook page to more in depth discussion on the forum.
You can see it here
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2003905929941294/?ref=share_group_link
If anyone has other suggestions for broadening our membership feel free to toss up the ideas.
Lastly and most importantly....our long term viability is by no means guaranteed.
If folks could just go back to the first couple of pages of this thread....we have an ongoing problem with site maintenance and upkeep.
At the moment the problems seem to be spaced out but the reality is they are likely to become more common.
We really need to address this issue.