Sudden drop in posts

[joshuar]

We've already reduced some with our latest rule changes, we stuck to the trading and Bobba/Scam/Glitches forum this time! I'm definitely up for discussing more alternatives but without making it too difficult for people to find what they're looking for. Personally, I use New Posts the majority of the time so it's not such a huge deal for me but I do see where you're coming from. There are a LOT of aspects to this forum though so that's why it's as broken up as it is.

I'm not one to be scared of breaking tradition at all, however the feedback we got to splitting up even forums that I thought belonged more together was not great, didn't get much of a positive reaction (cries 5eva).

It's good to see that you've tried a few things, and looking back from 2009 there's actually been a lot of culling. But I feel (being an irregular visitor) that it needs to go further. You could have quite a good cull of overlapping forums and still get around okay, even making better use of tags to help organise content if necessary.

For me, I find the whole forum quite daunting to use. It's not as slick as it could be, with so many skins and bolt ons (so many name colours and icons etc). I know I'm quite old in that regard, but maybe simplifying things down a bit might actually not be so off putting to newer members? It used to be quite a bit more straight forward back in the day (and not at the same time).

I know I'm not really entitled to make comments on the way it's done around here anymore, but I know it can be useful for management (who see the site everyday) to receive feedback on it from someone who doesn't know what's going on around here!

[Matt]

I know I'm not really entitled to make comments on the way it's done around here anymore, but I know it can be useful for management (who see the site everyday) to receive feedback on it from someone who doesn't know what's going on around here!

You are a member of the forum and therefore entitled to provide feedback It's great to see what the older and more established users think and you've made some incredibly valid points. The refining of certain forums wasn't originally part of the rule change plan that happened over the past two months, however I do believe it has worked in our favour and does have the ability to make certain forums a little less daunting. Now that it's been raised I don't want to rule out any other merges of other (sub)forums in the future. We'd make it so that it's less confusing for members when posting in an attempt to make the forum easier to use.

It's funny that you should mention all of the coloured names and icons. The sale of VIP has dropped significantly (more so the VIP that is released for particular occasions such as HxSS and Halloween) and it has made me wonder about the real significance of releasing new VIPs (for seasonal events for example). Icons are just a little bit of fun and it's a good thing to incorporate into Forum competitions etc but I can see the point you are making.

Thanks for your feedback

Also in relation to FJ, i'll discuss those with Laura and look at having any changes ready for Stage 3.

[Zak]

Personally

Lack of thread topics that interest me

[rnix]

I see a lot of reasons why the forum has declined in popularity, resulting in a decline of posts.
For a start, the events team is very poor. Half the events rooms are very poor quality and I know it's better to have a EO with poor rooms rather than none but if the room looks a bit rushed or poor it doesn't look very inviting. If you look at ThisHabbos events rooms most of theirs are really good and I enjoy their events. The events that are ran are very boring in my opinion, and there is no hype about them.

Secondly, The Radio department. It would be nice to see the DJs out of sitting in the Helpdesk or the VIP bit of an event. I remember the days where you had to find the DJ around the hotel, It was actually fun. Now there is just DJs who play 5 songs say a few words and then play more songs. Other fansites Radios are farrrrr superior and there's no reason it can't be the same here.

If the Radio and Events arnt making the effort then I feel like there's no hope for improving the posts and activity around here.

[Triz]

For me, I find the whole forum quite daunting to use. It's not as slick as it could be, with so many skins and bolt ons (so many name colours and icons etc). I know I'm quite old in that regard, but maybe simplifying things down a bit might actually not be so off putting to newer members? It used to be quite a bit more straight forward back in the day (and not at the same time).

I have to agree with joshuar here. Obviously I haven't been active for the last few years, however I did pop by once in a while for nostalgic reasons, and noticed a lot of changes in the forum. I remember when I first purchased donator status... I mainly purchased it because I would be one of few people (aside from staff) whose posts stood out due to my 'elevated status' in being a VIP, along with the username color change. However looking at the usergroup colors now, it seems every Tom, Dick and Harry has a coloured username.. Which if people were like me and only donated for the benefits, then now-days it seems less appealing.. Of course I'm sure there are people out there who donate purely to help with the growth of Habbox, but in the end it has the same outcome, so shouldn't matter the reasoning.

I think if you reduce the flashy usernames and limit it to donators and staff, then you might just see an influx in people buying VIP/donating. As for the icons, I think they're a good touch, really spices up the forum, as long as they're subtle and not too in your face. However overall I think the changes are good ones, not too complex and not too basic. But generally I think the who hype of Habbo Fansites is wearing off, it's not like it used to be anymore. Habbo Fansites used to be a big thing back in the day, back when I saw Habbo more of a community than just a game. I think it's mainly because (To what I've witnessed) most of the Habbos these days are 'younglings' and have no desire to see Habbo as a community like I once did, they only see it as a game, therefore won't get stuck in with Fansites or other related things.

Just my 2 cents.

[FlyingJesus]

Radio's on the way up again with Gina at the helm, already seen massive increase in activity and all that from there since she got the manager's cushion under her bum. Long term plans going on there woopwoop party central (btw make my room the Habbox party place 4god stop scamming me Absently) and DJs interacting seems to be on the rise

Events definitely need to be pushed, don't even care about quality just have them and get people involved. You can run a game with like 20c of rank furni and it'll be a great time if you make it fun, the look of the room isn't the issue the attitude of people involved is. In HxSS I hosted a few events and my room was ugly as sin but we had a giggle and made sure everyone was feeling part of the game. You make it a personal thing, you speak to the contestants, you set people off against each other or whatever - keep the atmosphere up and people get interested. And for god's sake don't just sit in as a team and play tactics to keep your friends in: backstab them and make plays for outsiders to win, cheer for the norms and make them feel like coming back for more than 1c or w/e

[Tom]

Radio's on the way up again with Gina at the helm, already seen massive increase in activity and all that from there since she got the manager's cushion under her bum. Long term plans going on there woopwoop party central (btw make my room the Habbox party place 4god stop scamming me Absently) and DJs interacting seems to be on the rise

Events definitely need to be pushed, don't even care about quality just have them and get people involved. You can run a game with like 20c of rank furni and it'll be a great time if you make it fun, the look of the room isn't the issue the attitude of people involved is. In HxSS I hosted a few events and my room was ugly as sin but we had a giggle and made sure everyone was feeling part of the game. You make it a personal thing, you speak to the contestants, you set people off against each other or whatever - keep the atmosphere up and people get interested. And for god's sake don't just sit in as a team and play tactics to keep your friends in: backstab them and make plays for outsiders to win, cheer for the norms and make them feel like coming back for more than 1c or w/e

I have said this so many times about events. People just don't interact with their users anymore! They're less likely to come back if they have one round and it was just the host going "choose this. Choose this. Say this. Say this. What's this? What's this?". Stop being so bloody scripted. Talk to your users. It's not a lot to say "Hey, yourmum1000, welcome to the event!" and actually tell people to invite. Don't just say "Oh one more for the event to start" that's tedious. People are going to leave because they have to wait for that one person - that might never show. Instead, just say something like "starting in 2 minutes! Invite your friends!!!" or something I dunno.

TL;DR: STOP BEING ROBOTS, EVENTS STAFF.

Yeah as for posts - they have dropped yeah ;l (comes from gaining more community though).

[Sho]

I don't really post anymore because there's nothing that interests me, or they tend to be the same posts from a couple of years back just re-posted so I cba.

When Alex and Martin were management they held a week-long event where we would host old-school events and have them them hosted in old-school rooms and I just made a plain room with mode bars and a poster, but I still had 30-ish people coming, so it definitely isn't about the rooms. Make friends with the newcomers, add them to your friends list and invite them to future events. For events to be popular, you need people to actually want to go to them and there are plenty of people who want to. A lot just come in to a silent room and then leave (tbf even I do that because I think the event is over or something, then I find out that it wasn't about 30 mins later)

[Kyle]

from the perspective of an event host, it's actually quite hard to juggle ensuring the smooth running of an event with being welcoming and enthusiastic. That burden should not fall solely on hosts. I do think that there's a notable lack of quality in events though with a good number of hosts sticking to stale old events like don't get a carrot and pod racing.

Forum posting has very little to do with events though. All of you who have said you don't post anymore have clearly pointed towards somebody else. If there's nothing interesting to discuss, how about starting a discussion yourselves? That is the problem here - poor participating-creation ratio.

[Inseriousity.]

Forum posting has everything to do with events, HxL, HxHD etc. The community is getting older so it's natural they don't participate more as we stay out of habit, boredom, loyalty rather than because we're huge fans of Habbo. The whole natural life cycle of a community is that the older people that leave/don't participate much anymore are replaced by younger users who take over. Habbox needs a younger community which would eventually have the knock on effect of higher posting, more events, higher staff morale but sadly, there does not appear to be much effort at attracting them. Even the Habbox baby, Gina, is at college now! Where the hell has the time gone lol!

It's funny how once again this issue comes up and management's only response is to change the rules, which only really affects the oldies who are going to stay anyway (out of habit, boredom, loyalty) and highly unlikely to participate any more than they usually would.