Habbox is dying

[Cabl]

Could have written a bit more mate, come on put some effort in

Most important part of all that is "So what is the solution? Habbo, Habbo, Habbo" because it's absolutely bang on. I've been on the client a lot more recently and it's so easy to see the difference between people who really want to be actively pushing for community growth and those who seem to just grudgingly do a job for a bit in order to enjoy whatever perks they feel they get from the position and then sit back. We've got a few new faces recently who've flung themselves right in which is really great, but it does seem that there's a big disconnect in general between forum and client still

Anyway, bets on that you'll still be making these threads years down the line even if you don't hold an official position once a Habbo always a Habbo

Couldn't be said better Tom

[Empired]

HxSS may boost activity on Habbo, but only for a short period of time.

Perhaps. I think it could be planned much better and we must stop with this attitude that a number of people in this thread (and other threads) seem to have taken that "HxSS will make it all better". Debs is right that HxSS on its own is only a short term solution; we need to have plans AFTER HxSS to keep those new members active within the community. First we need to get them to see why Habbox is interesting on the client (basically Kelly's job) and once they've seen that and signed up, we need to show them why the forum's so great (basically Laura's job). I hate this idea that content and community are completely separate and shouldn't be involved with each other - they should be topping each other up in terms of popularity.

Understandably, some members of General Management might not seem to do a lot (which I do agree with), but how can you criticize them when you've had 1 member of staff in your department for God knows how long?

I will reply more in depth later after I have another read through, but your comment about not being able to revive a department on your own is ******** and that's coming from someone who has actually done it before (and a few others have to be fair, more recently). Also, yeah, it would be great to revive most departments at Habbox currently, yeah it can be hard to do it on your own - you are not on your own though, you have (well had if you're resigning) Shoned since she stepped down from AGM!

You may have revived a department recently but it really is impossible now. You said all content departments have been "revived" recently which is simply not true. Up until yesterday I was the only Articles Writer in my department and I advertise a helluva lot whenever I can because I'm desperate for more staff. It's just that if Habbos aren't interested in Habbox, they're not going to be interested taking up a Habbox job that only caters to a dwindling community. There is pretty much NOTHING I (or Alshya, Lauren or Tommy) can do about getting more staff because new users don't care. Even when I do have new members of staff (as in, new to the forum and new to the department), they leave or fail their trials because they apply to the department and are then never seen again.

I think it would help if you had an overhaul of General Management if I am honest.

I think this would be the final nail in the coffin for the site.

This has never in all of history been an issue. People do sign up in droves - but they don't stay, and that's the real problem

Exactly :/

There's nothing keeping them. Forums are slowly dying. Social media is the way forward and more convenient. Not forgetting Habbo has their own system of keeping people enticed. A fan site forum isn't enticing at all, nd never really will be. It doesn't help that the forum is a mess at the moment - people are not welcoming, staff just don't really get involved and members post mainly in the Spam forum for reasons unknown. It's not that surprising.

I hate to seem rude, and I know this'll sound rude because I don't know how else to say it even though I don't mean it to sound this way, but why are you still here with that attitude? What's the point in logging onto a dying forum where the people aren't welcoming, staff just don't really get involved and members post mainly in the Spam forum for reasons unknown? There must be something keeping you here (obviously - you're still here) and if that is the case then clearly the forum isn't dead yet and we still have time to do something about it. It's when members like you stop visiting that the forum is dead.

are trade rooms a thing anymore, they were popular right?

They are a thing but they are no longer popular. When I'm searching for shops on the client I'll see a maximum of five people on a good day in the ones that you had to wait in a queue to get into once. Auction rooms are on the rise though.

Then I thought of the Habbox Trade Team. This would be RV acting like shopkeepers for users and was one of the "services" that I trialed. When it worked, this actually worked like a charm. CaptainAce was particularly effective at it but a lot of the RV staff weren't really interested apart from a select few so it didn't have the effect I'd hoped for.

After that, I saw how auction rooms were taking off and thought Habbox could get involved with one of those but I didn't really get that far with it as I resigned shortly after that. I see welshcake has opened one now but I'm guessing it's not really popular (see my comment above about the Official Rooms policy). If I'm wrong, I'm sorry, I've never really looked.

The auction room opened?! I never knew about that. I had an idea to do with this but I need to set it out properly in my head first, plus I don't know who to talk to it about now

[Samantha]

@Empired; oh wow I didn't actually know it was that bad (apart from in Content Design, but as last month we had 2/3 staff members and we have more now I didn't really notice). I hear you with the people apply then never come on again and it's really disheartening as you believe they wanted to be staff and do the work.

[Empired]

@Empired; oh wow I didn't actually know it was that bad (apart from in Content Design, but as last month we had 2/3 staff members and we have more now I didn't really notice). I hear you with the people apply then never come on again and it's really disheartening as you believe they wanted to be staff and do the work.

It's so disheartening to see my department dwindling like this because I really do care for it. It does actually make me sad to see that no one else seems to be interested in writing for Habbox except me (and Laura obviously, but she has other commitments). Most people leave the department because they say they've run out of ideas to write about, and I tried to fix that with a long thread about a load of ideas/titles they could use in their articles for inspiration covering a load of different topics for different tastes but that has had no positive effect at all. I think when they say "no inspiration" they mean "no motivation" and that's really disappointing to see, and it's not something I can change. I think it's the same for all other content roles.

But I do have two brand-new trialists who will hopefully bring some fantastic articles that people are desperate to read

[Inseriousity.]

If it's any consolation, it's happening in every department. Even the ones that do have a fairly good number of staff seem to struggle to hang onto them. The responsibility is pointed at the department manager. Recruitment is a department manager's job, after all. It's got to a stage where managers can't do it alone (and this isn't exactly new, managers have had this issue for months now) because the issue isn't "what are you going to do to get new staff?" the issue is "what are we doing to get more members?"

Page 5 of this thread and no general management response so that says it all really.

[Empired]

If it's any consolation, it's happening in every department. Even the ones that do have a fairly good number of staff seem to struggle to hang onto them. The responsibility is pointed at the department manager. Recruitment is a department manager's job, after all. It's got to a stage where managers can't do it alone (and this isn't exactly new, managers have had this issue for months now) because the issue isn't "what are you going to do to get new staff?" the issue is "what are we doing to get more members?"

Page 5 of this thread and no general management response so that says it all really.

To be fair you posted this late-ish last night and it's now Monday during work hours. If I were them I would be waiting to see what discussion comes from this on its own, take it all into account, and then reply.

I agree that the responsibility is pointed entirely at the manager, and I honestly don't know what to do about increasing the number of staff in my department. At least with community departments like events you can say "hey, how much would you like to host events for an official fansite?!" and people might go "wow amazing!", but it sounds pretty lame to ask people whether they want to give up their time to write at least one/two article(s) a week that will probably get fifteen readers.

And whilst it's possible to keep Articles surviving on my own, I can't do anything else. I assume it was the same with you and comps

[Inseriousity.]

I typed that wrong lmao. I mean it's pointed at the department manager but there's very little they can actually do about the wider issues that Habbox faces so yes they can talk to people and get them to sign up but ultimately, you'll still be banging your head against a brick wall so perhaps the finger shouldn't really be pointed at them.

As for comps, luckily, the department only needs a peak of 5 staff (including mgmt) so while it was frustrating, it wasn't critical.

[Alysha]

Content departments will always struggle with recruitment nowadays, because there's less habbo fame attached to it. I find it really hard to get new members, because no one has an interest in making graphics. It's too time consuming for most. At the moment, I only have 2 graphic designers, both of which are posted away. Pixel Art is a little better. Other departments want graphics to heighten the interest in their department, on top of other requests for a multitude of things, but at the same time it is becoming harder and harder to fulfil the demand.
Like Empired said, it's really upsetting to see the lack of motivation from a lot of people at the moment. I take full responsibility for the downfalls of my own department, but there's nothing properly enticing new members in.
Kelly and myself attempted a mini revive of HabboxTV and for the most part it was successful, it got people involved, but it still lacked numbers. We need something unique that can draw people in again. HabboQuests get 50+ listeners most days because their badge guides are really popular. HFFM have their events. As RV is temporarily down, we've lost one of our selling points.

As for the auction room, I don't think Lauren properly opened it, it is just a part of the official room thing. There was probably more of a plan of an opening ceremony thing.

OT: my cat jumped in my bath AGAIN and now he's sulking

[Empired]

OT: my cat jumped in my bath AGAIN and now he's sulking

How was that the one thing that was on topic in your post

I was actually thinking that we could ignore the old RV because it was falling apart and was just a liability really; no one used it because of the MP and I just think it's another thing for people to be worrying about, yet the rewards for sorting it out will be minimal if anything at all.

If we were to bring back RV here's what I propose:

• It would no longer be the Rare Values department because I honestly do think valuing should be scrapped for the reason explained above.
• Instead, we focus on selling, trading and furni on-client. Habbox has a multi-owner shop where anyone in the RV department (I'm calling it RV because I don't have a new name and I need to call it SOMETHING) could sell their items. In addition to this, management (and general management?) could have a little area to sell stuff as well IF they wanted to to bring in funds to their own departments now that the lottery is definitely banned.
• The auction room that welshcake had set up would become a weekly/nightly/twice-weekly event where it's used for an hour or two hours. Basically just like a normal weekly event except there's no game.

The reason I'm proposing this is because rare VALUES is dead, but I think Habbox is missing a gap in the market on Habbo. Themed rooms such as armies, famous beaches and party rooms etc. aside what's the one area of Habbo that's always busy? Habbo shops. Yet Habbox has absolutely nothing in that area.

At the very least I think it's worth a try and if it fails we can look elsewhere. But I would ask that real time and thought is put into this. I wouldn't want general management rushing to push this out (if it's even implemented of course) ASAP. I would expect this to take time. Anyway, what have we got to lose?

[Danny]

Content departments will always struggle with recruitment nowadays, because there's less habbo fame attached to it. I find it really hard to get new members, because no one has an interest in making graphics. It's too time consuming for most. At the moment, I only have 2 graphic designers, both of which are posted away. Pixel Art is a little better. Other departments want graphics to heighten the interest in their department, on top of other requests for a multitude of things, but at the same time it is becoming harder and harder to fulfil the demand.
Like Empired said, it's really upsetting to see the lack of motivation from a lot of people at the moment. I take full responsibility for the downfalls of my own department, but there's nothing properly enticing new members in.
Kelly and myself attempted a mini revive of HabboxTV and for the most part it was successful, it got people involved, but it still lacked numbers. We need something unique that can draw people in again. HabboQuests get 50+ listeners most days because their badge guides are really popular. HFFM have their events. As RV is temporarily down, we've lost one of our selling points.

As for the auction room, I don't think Lauren properly opened it, it is just a part of the official room thing. There was probably more of a plan of an opening ceremony thing.

OT: my cat jumped in my bath AGAIN and now he's sulking

When Drew was manager, didn't she do an apprenticeship type thing, to rate peoples work before offering a position if the designer was good? Basically this might help people learn who might be interested but lack confidence or knowledge. People might be interested in being a graphics designer but know they don't have the relevant skills to apply.

Also Empired there is a marketplace but you are under estimating the amount of people who used the RV'S. Alot of people came to the Help Desk asking where it was, so the one thing that set Habbox apart from other fansites and some bright spark deleted the V6 one, I am sure it would of taken very little to add in the old one atleast, but no let's get rid of it.