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Post by NightBlade on Nov 16, 2015 14:22:12 GMT
Hey all, I spoke with Sir Batson, and he agreed to meet us here to discuss our concerns. I gave him the summary but go ahead and post your questions and thoughts.
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Post by Warrior of Aror on Nov 16, 2015 14:42:57 GMT
Good idea, NightBlade. We need a more permanent place to discuss this issue.
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Post by Ellron Silvertree on Nov 16, 2015 17:53:03 GMT
This being the issue of the Underground dying?
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Post by WookieeElf on Nov 16, 2015 18:56:56 GMT
The Underground isn't dying, per say. It's...not growing. There has to be a way to restart its growth, right?
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Post by Warrior of Aror on Nov 16, 2015 19:46:19 GMT
Ellron Silvertree: Yes. If the Underground doesn't continue to grow then it will eventually die. That's what we're here to talk about and solve.
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Post by CNGoodhue on Nov 16, 2015 21:19:21 GMT
*cough* ads *cough*
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Post by WookieeElf on Nov 16, 2015 21:33:49 GMT
CNGoodhue: To get rid of those would cost money, you know.
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Post by Leilani Sunblade on Nov 17, 2015 0:00:27 GMT
A few of my thoughts on the issue: 1. The Underground has lost members since the site crash earlier this year, both because not all members have found the new site, and because some members have grown up and no longer have time for the Underground. 2. The Underground no longer attracts as many new members as it once did. One reason for this is that the link in the back of the books directs to the old site, not the new one. Various ways to solve this would include: - Changing the link in the back of future printings of the book. I don't know if this is actually doable or not.
- Creating a redirect on the former site which leads here. Again, I don't know how doable this would be, but some people on here have implied it would be possible.
3. If we want to revitalize the Underground, we need to attract new members. - Some people have suggested that the focus of the Underground should expand from The Berinfell Prophecies to writing and Christian fantasy in general. I'm more or less fine with this, considering that it's pretty much already happened.
- People have also suggested that we try advertising the Underground more widely. I would say that advertising requires caution. Talking about it on blogs, or to friends we think might be interested? Sure. But indiscriminate advertising? That sounds like trouble. I love the fact that the Underground is a safe, friendly place; I don't want to lose that- and I have bad memories of when some less-than-friendly sorts did find their way to the old site.
- We do need to keep in mind how much we want the Underground to grow. I like activity- but I don't want the Underground to become huge. As it was, the UG was large enough that there was almost always someone online and small enough that everyone could know everyone else to some degree- and that, I'd say, is the perfect size. Larger and you lose something important.
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Post by Ellron Silvertree on Nov 17, 2015 0:10:11 GMT
I agree.
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Post by Jag Starblade on Nov 17, 2015 7:25:43 GMT
2. The Underground no longer attracts as many new members as it once did. One reason for this is that the link in the back of the books directs to the old site, not the new one. Various ways to solve this would include: - Changing the link in the back of future printings of the book. I don't know if this is actually doable or not.
- Creating a redirect on the former site which leads here. Again, I don't know how doable this would be, but some people on here have implied it would be possible.
Definitely doable (in terms of redirecting the old site) - it just requires someone to spend some money ($14 US/year + however much it costs to get the domain name [which Sir Hopper and Sir Batson were already paying for])
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Post by Leilani Sunblade on Nov 17, 2015 12:48:51 GMT
2. The Underground no longer attracts as many new members as it once did. One reason for this is that the link in the back of the books directs to the old site, not the new one. Various ways to solve this would include: - Changing the link in the back of future printings of the book. I don't know if this is actually doable or not.
- Creating a redirect on the former site which leads here. Again, I don't know how doable this would be, but some people on here have implied it would be possible.
Definitely doable (in terms of redirecting the old site) - it just requires someone to spend some money ($14 US/year + however much it costs to get the domain name [which Sir Hopper and Sir Batson were already paying for]) Got it. Thanks for the info, Jag.
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Post by Elytra on Nov 18, 2015 20:18:47 GMT
An adblocker takes care of the ads.
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Post by CNGoodhue on Nov 18, 2015 21:03:32 GMT
I didn't mean get rid of ads, I meant you could put up ads (WookieeElf said something about putting papers up in a library).
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Post by WookieeElf on Nov 18, 2015 21:04:38 GMT
Elytra: As I told CNG, to get rid of the ads, you need to pay for the Premium account on Proboards. Haven't you seen the ads? XP CNGoodhue: Oh, oops. Read your first post wrong. I'm not sure how that would work, honestly. We want people to join, but we don't want the wrong people to join.
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Post by CNGoodhue on Nov 18, 2015 21:17:51 GMT
I have AdBlocker Plus and I haven't seen an ad on any site that I go to, lol. And yeah, WookieeElf. That's why I've been keeping it to private messaging certain people. Lots of people who like to stir things up on the internet. XP
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Post by WookieeElf on Nov 18, 2015 21:27:35 GMT
CNGoodhue: Lucky. XP I keep my internet friends in a small group, and don't usually add people willy-nilly. But what if I put up something at the library? What's gonna stop some idiot from reading it, joining the site, and starting something awful? What if we get another hacker? I understand that we need to take all the possibilities into consideration, but I don't think I could handle losing the Underground a second time.
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Post by Leilani Sunblade on Nov 18, 2015 22:54:42 GMT
WookieeElf: My thoughts exactly- except that I was less worried about hackers and more worried about people who blantantly disregard the rules. I could see some forms of advertising as being ok- those of us who have blogs could put banners/buttons for the UG on them, for instance, and WTB and CH could do so as well. (Sir Batson already has a button for the Door Within forum, so . . .) After all, I think that the people who read most of said blogs are generally the type of people who we do want on the UG. But more public advertising worries me.
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Post by Elytra on Nov 19, 2015 1:25:59 GMT
WookieeElf: Only very very seldom I see ads on the UG.
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Post by Warrior of Aror on Nov 19, 2015 17:08:56 GMT
Advertising to the general public = money. And I was never suggesting that we spend money on it. But even if we did, it's incredibly easy to create hyper-targeted ads - ones which target only, say, people under eighteen, who searched for Batson's or Hopper's books, or who like other Christian fantasy authors' facebook pages. The point of creating an Underground video "trailer" would be so that we could share it with groups like that.
And the fact is, just having a forum at all is "risky." Even this forum, right now, could be seen by anyone. We'll never have anything that's perfectly safe; so instead we just don't share information like email addresses or whatever.
But so long as we are aware of the fact that we should have some measure of caution, everything will be fine. And the main issue we're here to discuss is how we attract new members. And yes, of course we don't want the forum to get too big. But even if there were twice as many members as there are now it wouldn't be too much; plus it would insure that the UG doesn't die even when all of us, here at this very moment, have moved on.
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Post by Alvar on Nov 21, 2015 18:02:11 GMT
It would be nice to meet some new people, as we really only have a handful of dedicated members at the moment. The biggest problem here is people that try the link in the back of the book and give up after seeing it doesn't work.
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Post by Merenwen Inglorion on Nov 24, 2015 6:47:52 GMT
Yeah. I tried going to the site given in the books, it didn’t work, and I thought, “Well shucks. I really wanted to check that out, it sounded like fun…” The only reason I’m here is because Leilani gave me the link in her blog when I asked about a UG mention in one of her posts. One way to attract might be to have more Berinphell fanfic. That’s actually what I was expecting and hoping for when I first came over to this site. I was disappointed in that avenue, but I found other things that interested me enough to join. And uh, just a quick side-note…you’re not supposed to be actively using AdblockPlus (or any adblocker) on Proboards if you have a Proboards account, according to the Terms of Use…*cough* Yes I read them, most of the time. *cough* The ads are two or three per page; two banner ads, one sticker add. And they’re geared towards whatever info they can get/you allow from your search history…and possibly can pinpoint you by state… XP
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Post by CNGoodhue on Nov 24, 2015 16:08:44 GMT
Yeah. I tried going to the site given in the books, it didn’t work, and I thought, “Well shucks. I really wanted to check that out, it sounded like fun…” The only reason I’m here is because Leilani gave me the link in her blog when I asked about a UG mention in one of her posts. :P One way to attract might be to have more Berinphell fanfic. That’s actually what I was expecting and hoping for when I first came over to this site. I was disappointed in that avenue, but I found other things that interested me enough to join. :) And uh, just a quick side-note…you’re not supposed to be actively using AdblockPlus (or any adblocker) on Proboards if you have a Proboards account, according to the Terms of Use…*cough* Yes I read them, most of the time. *cough* The ads are two or three per page; two banner ads, one sticker add. And they’re geared towards whatever info they can get/you allow from your search history…and possibly can pinpoint you by state… XP I'm too lazy to turn AdBlock off lol. Plus I like not seeing ads. XP
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Post by Jag Starblade on Dec 1, 2015 1:28:29 GMT
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Post by NightBlade on Dec 2, 2015 21:40:17 GMT
It has 15 members...dunno how much more active it would be than here, haha. But it could still help so why not?
Much later edit: In retrospect adding 15 members to our community sounds fantastic
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Post by WookieeElf on Dec 2, 2015 22:39:49 GMT
I checked the site. It kept opening new tabs every time I clicked something. XP
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Post by Jag Starblade on Dec 3, 2015 2:16:40 GMT
I wasn't suggesting that we should all move there, but maybe we could try to get Sir Batson to merge that one into this and advertise the UG on his blog instead of the new forum?
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Post by WookieeElf on Dec 3, 2015 2:18:55 GMT
That could work....but would the Elves over there want the change?
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Post by Alvar on Dec 3, 2015 4:19:26 GMT
It's like an unexplored foreign country, lol. They don't know we exist. I wonder what their reaction will be?
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Post by Ellron Silvertree on Dec 3, 2015 18:38:11 GMT
It's like, they're the newbies and we're the veterans? :P I mean, if he merged those forms into this one then we would effectively double the numbers. But we can't guarantee that everyone would want to discuss the same things. It seems like the threads there are directly involved with the books. This one is obviously more loose than that.
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Post by WookieeElf on Dec 3, 2015 21:52:16 GMT
Yeah, it would be kinda weird merging the forums. But, I dunno, it could work. I'm sure we'd learn to adapt, right? And we'd make new friends...
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