Encouraging more people to post here

[Axel]

Perhaps I'm just creating a straw man here, but it seems to me like posting here has really slowed down a lot over the past 2 years. A large part of that could be due to the string of unsucessful NBA Live releases over the past couple of years. However, despite this, everytime I log in, I always notice that there is a large number of unregistered users browsing the forums. My first question was "why are there always so many more unregistered than registered users here?" Then I realized that to view forums here, you do not have to be registered at all.

Perhaps it is an underhanded way to bring people around to post here, but what if some of the forums required you to register before you're allowed to view? A lot of sites require this. Perhaps leave a few forums open for people to view, but leave a disclaimer that in order to fully view the forums you must register?

I really like posting here, but sometimes there really isn't enough discussion going on in the general forums. I remember when I joined 2 years ago, there was more discussion than I could keep up with. It would be nice to have that kind of talk going on here again.

[Andrew]

I think it would definitely increase registration but I'm not sure about it encouraging more posting since if all people want to do is lurk and read, then they can still do that as long as they register. Then again, perhaps once they've got an account they'll feel inclined to post though there are lot of accounts that have logged in and never posted already.

[cyanide]

Let's consider the flip side of things:

People who normally read through the forums might eventually become a member because they want to post, and if by forcing members to register in order to view posts, people might not want to go through the trouble of registering just to see what's posted. And if they did, just for the purposes of reading and not posting, then those accounts are pretty much wasted bandwidth.

If it's been busy 2 years ago, and it's slower now, I wouldn't say it's because of the lurkers.

[[Q]]

I agree with Cy on this one. we should let them "try before they buy" so if they don't like what they see, then they don't have to register.

[Axel]

Some people may not like the extra step of registering to view all of the contents of the site, but then again where else would they go? Is there another place that offers as much for NBA Live?

I'm not saying the entire site should be blocked unless you register. I'm saying that you should be able to view parts of it (not certain which ones, but enough to give the viewer a general idea of what goes on here), yet leave enough hidden that they will want to register in order to view the remainder of the site.

[Patr1ck]

How about having to register to download? That could save bandwidth.

I lurked for 5-6 years. Hell, I lurked since 95 when I found a message board on geocities or something when Tim, Lutz, and Brien were doing their thing. I registered to post only when I couldn't find an answer to a question I had. I registered here atleast 2 times before becoming truly active, only to have my account purged for inactivity, I forgot my username, or something else like a site/server change.

Now I'm going off topic. We should really encourage more patchers to submit their files to the download database. There are thousands of patches each year, but most of them only end up in the announcement section.

Further off topic. How about a "modder's" section for patchers only? Like 25 patches or referrals/approval to get access?

[[Q]]

yeah i think the emphasis on patching has been lost over the years. i remember back for live 2001 there were so many patches and patching groups and sites, it was hard keeping track of them all.

i think we should definitely encouraging adding patches to the database and then requiring registration for that. honestly i don't reemember the last time i visited nba-live.com. remember that TNT mod for Live 06? yeah that would've been a big draw to get more people to both the forums and the main site.

i remember when it used to be an honor and a privilege to have your patches uploaded to the main site. hell, I remember how proud I was to have my name up on the black & blue site for my first uploaded patch, a Sacramento Kings court for Live 98. nowadays, almost all patches can easily go unnoticed in the forum announcements.

[Andrew]

I know what you mean. That's why I set up the download submission form back in the day and we used to get a lot of submissions, however a lot of people are content to release their work in the Forum and be done with that. I think a lot of that has to do with the Forum's rise in prominence as far as the site is concerned. The Discus Forum wasn't as prominent and even though patchers used the announcements section to release their work the news page was the place to gain visibility.

So absolutely, I think we should encourage people to add their patches to the database. We're also in a position where we can host files up to a certain size for people so anyone who would like us to host their work and add it to the database need only email me about that.

Getting back to the topic of encouraging posting, I still think we should move away from some of the centralised threads like the movie and music stickies. That's what I was trying to do with the Entertainment section, though it obviously wasn't the right time to try that experiment. However, I would still like to cut down on those "official" threads because I can't help but feel they stifle discussion by a whole lot of potential topics to be discussed in one place.

Sometimes they serve a purpose, like the team threads in NBA Talk which can be used to discuss daily team news, results and whatnot with bigger news like trades deserving their own threads. But other than that, we're becoming a bit too reliant on the "official thread" concept in my opinion.

[The X]

if I had to register before I could view a forum, then I definitely would NOT have signed up here....I only signed up after months & months of viewing the forums, picking up patches & reading dynasty stories....it was only when I thought I could contribute through dynasty stories, did I sign up....so I would say the current system is fine....

whilst I no longer do dynasty stories due to the time it takes to maintain them, I am now trying to make contributions in areas such as NBA Talk that hopefully are encouraging conversation & posts....

one thing that I do admit happened in the past though was if a new member posts conflicting or ill-informed views, some members tend to jump down their throats....but I don't surf the whole forums, so it could be an end result of a multitude of stupid posts....but if a potential new poster sees a snapshot that a newbie gets slammed, that person might be reluctant to post, especially if they are younger....

overall, I think it is a little slow atm, but if EA can deliver a good game this year, good posters will follow....

[Lean]

I lurked when I forgot the password to my old account, mostly at the announcements section.

[McDwyane]

Andrew,you're right.I browsed the memberlist and half of them just have 0-10 posts.Some has never visited in their Last visited time.

[Jackal]

0-10 useful posts > you.

[The Other Kevin]

0-10 posts with links direceted to beastiality sites > Him

[JT_55]

Andrew,you're right.I browsed the memberlist and half of them just have 0-10 posts.Some has never visited in their Last visited time.

Apparently, converse lacks the ability to do simple math. That or he's posting statistics that even he cannot prove, just so he could "contribute" to the conversation. I checked the memberlist. As of 3:39 am (Forum standard time) Fri. Aug 17, 2007, there are 24952 out of 28467 members who have the elusive 0-10 posts. That would be 87.65%, much more than the 50% that you said.

Next time you meddle with stats, converse, check your math!

-infinity posts > you

EDIT: Just checked. Even if converse meant 0 posts, he still would've been wrong. 63.51% members have no posts in this fourm. Converse...




EDIT2: I decided that a response of "huh, WTF?" to bigh0rt's post was not worthy of a post of my own, so I just edited this. I'm not trying to jump on a bandwagon. I'm just converse-ist.

EDIT3: Since I'm getting to this edit-reply thing going, I'm gonna say this: Why does everyone on earth think that newbies want to "fit in". Yeah, most do, but can't someone p4wn someone just for the sake of p4wning someone they don't like?

I know you're not likely gonna read this...but that's the beauty of it.

[bigh0rt]

^ Jumping down a guy's throat as a way of jumping on some sort of a bandwagon isn't going to make you cool. Relax.

I agree that we should not require registration to browse the forums. I think you'll see a sharp rise in participation when Live releases a decent title again -- whenever that may be.