New members

[Mr Doodlebug]

The site is doing well at the moment as regards posts but we could do with the occasional new member.
How can we achieve that?

[stryder]

In this day and age, to gain new members requires a number of different things to be true.

One thing is the website they are going to grabs their attention in some way and uses the technologies that they want to use.  The old forum software might not be quite on par with the average youngsters "needs", although a more mature audience will likely overlook the technology issues. 

I could potentially look at migrating to paid forum software (like Vbulletin/Xenforo etc) if only for the technologies issues being easier to overcome, however I'd need to know that we had a popular forum before I'm willing to commit money to license such software.  (It's otherwise expensive to splash out on a whim)

There is also the factor that LaTeX (mathematical markup language) isn't integrated here yet, I didn't want to use the Javascript method of applying it and would likely require setting up a server side library to deal with the code in the future.

There is then the colour of the theme to the site, admittedly The blue theme works however it might be seen as cold and slightly hostile compared to warmer colour combinations and the absence of any significantly sized images within the titling might well again lessen interest.

(So those are the things I can dabble with and change where needed)

The next problem of course is the "Reach".  Currently the site is reliant upon search engines and the word of mouth to potentially get people to come and post here, that means that to get the attention of new members here some of the introduction can rely upon older members being acquaintances with them elsewhere.  Such as links in the profile pages of other websites, posting at the bottom of comments the URL etc.  (mentions on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin etc generate a greater interest in the site the more it's talked about.)

I'm not going to openly ask members to do this, because at the end of the day it's your choice if you want to make this your internet watering hole or wander off to pastures greener.  (Although I'm greatly appreciative of all the support you've given and continue to give in regards to making this site more active and interesting.)

Exclusive content is of course one other potential, If we had just on person release something exclusively here that went viral it would gain interest if only for that content.

[Yazata]

I think that a weakness with Scivillage is that while there are already lots of posts, there aren't really all that many extended threads, containing back and forth conversations that new people might want to participate in.

It's unpleasant to admit, but I find on other boards that oftentimes I'm motivated to post when arguments are taking place, when I disagree with something and want to set everyone else straight.

Here on Scivillage, I've tried to make some controversial posts, in hopes that somebody would want to argue for an opposing view, but no luck so far.

Maybe I'll start some new threads with questions in the subject line, simple scientific or philosophical questions accessible to laypeople, things that it doesn't take a whole lot of technical background to express an opinion about, but hopefully reveal more fundamental issues.

Paradoxically, one of the things that I like about this board is that I'm not getting attacked, challenged and abused constantly, like I am some other places on the internet. I feel comfortable and relaxed here, like I'm among friends rather than enemies. I don't feel defensive here.

I don't want that happy feeling to go away by any means. But a little more drama might be necessary to hook new people who drop by and to motivate them to post something.

[stryder]

Yazata,
You are absolutely right about the need for more threads that stem into multiple posts from multiple members. I guess the main problem is that sometimes a subject can be posted on by a member that isn't something they necessarily know about or have a view on, which in turn makes it difficult to respond.

The problem is trying to find a subject that everybody can connect with in some way. (I guess it's a bit like discussing art... not everyone appreciates it, and peoples definition is relative, i.e. In the eyes of the beholder.)

I'd guess most forums started off as friendly ventures, it's only when they reach a certain point of popularity and the age of the forum before some people tire of others from perhaps posting the same material, making the same arguments or just being misconstrued. At which point some people get offensive just to shake it all up a little which is where a forum starts hitting a decline.