Jo
Skunk
Forest Ranger
Posts: 2,024 
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Post by Jo on Apr 26, 2022 19:54:36 GMT
We've been evaluating how things at the Woods are going. We now have 485 members. BUT we only have 20 members who have 100 posts or more since the Woods opened and that includes admin staff. You know who you are, you chatty Kathys! That's just 4% of the total membership who are active posters. We're roughly averaging about 20-25 members per day but in excess of 90 guests. Guest are people who come on to read but never join/post or they're spider/bots (about 1/4 to 1/3 or the total guests). The bots aren't really anything to worry about it. Google sends out most of them and they do no harm to the forum. I'm in the process of figuring out which threads the human guests read the most and the most popular threads for our members whether they post or not. We are fully aware that some people will only ever be lurkers which is actually fine with us as long as their lurking experience is pleasant for them.
Now, none of this is really bad or alarming. Forums have somewhat fallen out of fashion as social media hot spots to be replaced by Twitter and Discord.Time marches on! Even 4% of strong member participation is respectable. But it's made us ask ourselves and each other what we can do to improve the Woods. What can we do to encourage more activity and increase the comfort level for everyone. We're pretty sure that the Woods is not a toxic environment or that people are being bullied or pushed to leave. If anyone is aware of any such situation, please let us know.
Because the Woods has a strong gaming core, we started with the polls about what genres members play and where they buy their games. Are we putting too much or too little emphasis on a particular genre or aspect of gaming? What do our members want? Are there areas that we're neglecting? How can we attract more members to our group plays?
Navigation is a critical factor. Can members find what they want easily?
Anyway, after tossing this all around, we've come up with some questions for members. Answer all of them or part of them, but , please, give us some feedback.
Because life should have a soundtrack, I'm posting a tune for you to listen to while you answer. It's by Weezer recorded as part of a game called Wave Break 
♫♪♫ "Tell us what you want. ♪♫♪ We're gonna get right on it!" ♫♪♫
We really do care about our members and want the Woods to be best place possible.
- How would you rate ease of navigation at the Woods?
- Can you easily find what you want at the Woods?
- What do you read on a regular basis at the Woods? Your favorite parts.
- What do you never read at the Woods? You least favorite parts.
- What topics would you add or increase?
- What topics would you decrease or delete?
- Are Admin staff receptive and responsive to your requests for help and/or information?
- Do you feel comfortable in responding to other's comments?
- Do you feel comfortable in starting your own thread on a topic?
- Do you feel intimidated by anyone at the Woods?
- What can we do to make your time spent at the Woods more fun?
- If you could change anything at the Woods, what would it be?
- Why do you visit the Woods?
- Would you consider joining a group play? What would sway you?
- Do you have enough information to navigate and use the Woods effectively?
- What can we do to change your behavior from a silent lurker to a full blown party animal?
 ! We'll get right on that!
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Post by lisabella on Apr 26, 2022 23:47:21 GMT
1. I find it easy to find my way around the Woods.
2. Yes, I make use of the Search function!
3. Honestly? The HOPA list!
4. Most of it, which is not the fault of the Woods but more my brain. :)
5. Due to the lack of time I spend on here, I don't feel qualified to answer!
6. See above!
7. YES! I love the Admins here.
8. Sometimes.
9. Not really, but that is on me. I find it easier to ask a question on the game thread-that's usually why I'm here.
10. Does myself count? Ha.
11. For me, nothing. I like the vibe here, I love the floaties, I love the fun of this forum.
12. Hmm...for me, it'd be all the negative talk about Big Fish or game developers. I get that there is going to be some and that's fine but at this point, I know how people feel about certain game sites/developers and it's just rehashing over and over.
13. I visit mostly for help on games I'm playing. The loss of the forums at Big Fish was a total blow and I'm hoping the Woods can help replace that. For the most part, people can help me or direct me where to go! If something else happens to catch my eye while I'm browsing game threads, I'll read/respond. I also like to see what games are coming down the pipeline.
14. No, it's not something I can see myself committing to and I don't think anything could sway me. Unless maybe there's a kitten prize at the end of the game!
15. Absolutely. The search function is easy to use and forum is set up well.
16. I'm a lifelong lurker. I'm very quiet in groups and while this isn't an in person group, I still view it as one!
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mooky
Hummingbird
Looking for the emergency exit
Posts: 204
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Post by mooky on Apr 27, 2022 6:57:55 GMT
How would you rate ease of navigation at the Woods? Very easy
Can you easily find what you want at the Woods? Yes searching function is easy to use
What do you read on a regular basis at the Woods? Your favorite parts. Shout box, Daily Game, Crazy people of Walmart, Steam favorites
What do you never read at the Woods? You least favorite parts. The games in General Discussion
What topics would you add or increase? -What topics would you decrease or delete?
-Are Admin staff receptive and responsive to your requests for help and/or information? yes I am very pleased with the Rangers
Do you feel comfortable in responding to other's comments? yes
Do you feel comfortable in starting your own thread on a topic? yes
Do you feel intimidated by anyone at the Woods?  no
What can we do to make your time spent at the Woods more fun? Make little movies of happy dances and post them
More pictures of gorgeous men 
If you could change anything at the Woods, what would it be? the background color Why do you visit the Woods? Life long habit of being an annoying Fishie
Would you consider joining a group play? What would sway you? Yes when I am retired and have more time
Do you have enough information to navigate and use the Woods effectively? yes and what I don't know I will ask
What can we do to change your behavior from a silent lurker to a full blown party animal? pay for my early retirement |
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Post by Valkara on Apr 27, 2022 7:45:31 GMT
We've been evaluating how things at the Woods are going. We now have 485 members. BUT we only have 20 members who have 100 posts or more since the Woods opened and that includes admin staff. You know who you are, you chatty Kathys! That's just 4% of the total membership who are active posters. We're roughly averaging about 20-25 members per day but in excess of 90 guests. Guest are people who come on to read but never join/post or they're spider/bots (about 1/4 to 1/3 or the total guests). The bots aren't really anything to worry about it. Google sends out most of them and they do no harm to the forum. I'm in the process of figuring out which threads the human guests read the most and the most popular threads for our members whether they post or not. We are fully aware that some people will only ever be lurkers which is actually fine with us as long as their lurking experience is pleasant for them.
Now, none of this is really bad or alarming. Forums have somewhat fallen out of fashion as social media hot spots to be replaced by Twitter and Discord.Time marches on! Even 4% of strong member participation is respectable. But it's made us ask ourselves and each other what we can do to improve the Woods. What can we do to encourage more activity and increase the comfort level for everyone. We're pretty sure that the Woods is not a toxic environment or that people are being bullied or pushed to leave. If anyone is aware of any such situation, please let us know.
Because the Woods has a strong gaming core, we started with the polls about what genres members play and where they buy their games. Are we putting too much or too little emphasis on a particular genre or aspect of gaming? What do our members want? Are there areas that we're neglecting? How can we attract more members to our group plays?
Navigation is a critical factor. Can members find what they want easily?
Anyway, after tossing this all around, we've come up with some questions for members. Answer all of them or part of them, but , please, give us some feedback.
Because life should have a soundtrack, I'm posting a tune for you to listen to while you answer. It's by Weezer recorded as part of a game called Wave Break
♫♪♫ "Tell us what you want. ♪♫♪ We're gonna get right on it!" ♫♪♫
We really do care about our members and want the Woods to be best place possible.
- How would you rate ease of navigation at the Woods?
- Can you easily find what you want at the Woods?
- What do you read on a regular basis at the Woods? Your favorite parts.
- What do you never read at the Woods? You least favorite parts.
- What topics would you add or increase?
- What topics would you decrease or delete?
- Are Admin staff receptive and responsive to your requests for help and/or information?
- Do you feel comfortable in responding to other's comments?
- Do you feel comfortable in starting your own thread on a topic?
- Do you feel intimidated by anyone at the Woods?
- What can we do to make your time spent at the Woods more fun?
- If you could change anything at the Woods, what would it be?
- Why do you visit the Woods?
- Would you consider joining a group play? What would sway you?
- Do you have enough information to navigate and use the Woods effectively?
- What can we do to change your behavior from a silent lurker to a full blown party animal?
! We'll get right on that!
As a forum owner/admin/moderator myself, I completely understand the need to ask these questions and evaluate the answers. Forums are not merely websites to me - they are places to go, for whatever reasons each person has. They become communities. I joined Pond Friends on the suggestion of one of the BFG customer service people who knew of it. I wanted to stay in contact with people who liked the same games I did, and were willing to help when people got stuck. Well and good... and forum politics is a thing. Sometimes people get into a particular niche they like, either because it's fun or because they become a useful source of information, and most of the times this isn't a problem. But in some cases it does become a problem. Sometimes it gets to the point where arguments and feuds break out and an US vs THEM develops. Feuds aren't fun. I rarely post at Pond Friends anymore due to this. I found a niche there where I'm comfortable, where I can joke with a few people and they encourage me in my writing (helps that a couple of them have played the game I've been working on for ... gosh, it'll be 4 years this summer). I leave most of the rest of that place alone. There's a lot I have to say to answer some of the above questions, but will have to think on how to put it. One of my concerns isn't even listed there. |
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Jo
Skunk
Forest Ranger
Posts: 2,024
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Post by Jo on Apr 27, 2022 13:44:46 GMT
Valkara, The Woods is not connected in any way with Pond Friends other than using the same forum hosting service. ProBoards hosts thousands of independent forums, two of which are PF and The Woods. There is no overlap or influence with administration, philosophy or mission. We are not responsible for anything that happens at PF any more than PF is responsible for what happens here and have no influence over anyone there including admin. We share some of the same members which is, of course, an individual choice and some of the same interests like BF games. That is where the similarities end.
I am sorry for the trouble you've had there and hope you never face the same situations here. That's the big reason we're evaluating our priorities, performance and offerings. We really do want to be the best place possible for our members.
Please tell us what your concern is and I'll add it to the list of questions.
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pennmom
Bear
Chief Ranger
[TI0] IT'S FIVE O'CLOCK AND ALL'S WELL
Posts: 16,570
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Post by pennmom on Apr 27, 2022 15:48:16 GMT
14. No, it's not something I can see myself committing to and I don't think anything could sway me. Unless maybe there's a kitten prize at the end of the game! It just so happens....  |
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Post by lisabella on Apr 27, 2022 15:51:07 GMT
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pennmom
Bear
Chief Ranger
[TI0] IT'S FIVE O'CLOCK AND ALL'S WELL
Posts: 16,570
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Post by pennmom on Apr 27, 2022 15:54:21 GMT
What can we do to make your time spent at the Woods more fun? Make little movies of happy dances and post them
More pictures of gorgeous men
If you could change anything at the Woods, what would it be? the background color
What can we do to change your behavior from a silent lurker to a full blown party animal? pay for my early retirement
Do you want me to film myself doing happy dances with a broken leg? OR will this do:  A gorgeous man:  Would you be okay with a lighter Tan color?
You can also change the Theme to a different color/design (PM and I can show you how)The Rangers are working on your last request  |
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Jo
Skunk
Forest Ranger
Posts: 2,024
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Post by Jo on Apr 27, 2022 16:09:22 GMT
The Rangers are working on your last request Is that your picture on all that lucre, pennmom?
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Post by SynthpopAddict on Apr 27, 2022 16:12:30 GMT
• How would you rate ease of navigation at the Woods?
This site is easy for me to navigate, but I’ve been on several different forums for 20 years. There are those who don’t even know what a “thread” is or not comfortable with using the internet overall.
• Can you easily find what you want at the Woods?
Yes, but this is a forum experience thing which one has to take the plunge and play around with to “get”.
• What do you read on a regular basis at the Woods? Your favorite parts.
The BF Daily Games releases since I am here mostly to help others with games and get feedback on new games.
• What do you never read at the Woods? You least favorite parts.
I am not into the politics section at all as I don’t believe it is possible in a forum to always be respectful whenever “hot button” topics are brought up.
• What topics would you add or increase?
With Steam becoming more and more popular, I think finding a way to consolidate the game forums so that new game releases in general could be viewed in one place instead of having to go to a bunch of different sub-forums might be nice.
• What topics would you decrease or delete?
See comments above.
• Are Admin staff receptive and responsive to your requests for help and/or information?
Yes, they’ve always been great here.
• Do you feel comfortable in responding to other's comments?
Yes.
• Do you feel comfortable in starting your own thread on a topic?
Yes.
• Do you feel intimidated by anyone at the Woods?
It’s happened before but I’m not going to go into it. I do not feel comfortable expressing opinions on anything other than games. Any forum has this issue because opinions are like a**holes…everybody has one, and most everyone thinks everyone else’s stinks.
• What can we do to make your time spent at the Woods more fun?
I’m not into the random small talk threads in the General Discussions, but that is just me as I’m an extreme introvert in RL who doesn’t enjoy small talk.
• If you could change anything at the Woods, what would it be?
Have an option to get rid of the floaties on the main page because they’re distracting to me.
• Why do you visit the Woods?
This has the best game-related discussion of casual games released on the casual portals.
• Would you consider joining a group play? What would sway you? I’m not an adventure gamer which is why I haven’t joined most of the group plays. My niche is M3 games.
• Do you have enough information to navigate and use the Woods effectively?
Yes.
• What can we do to change your behavior from a silent lurker to a full blown party animal?
N/A I’m here pretty much every day and post regularly. |
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pennmom
Bear
Chief Ranger
[TI0] IT'S FIVE O'CLOCK AND ALL'S WELL
Posts: 16,570
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Post by pennmom on Apr 27, 2022 16:28:05 GMT
• If you could change anything at the Woods, what would it be?
Have an option to get rid of the floaties on the main page because they’re distracting to me. If you select the Forum Tab at the top of the main Home Page, you will see a replica of the home page WITHOUT those floaties  |
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Post by Valkara on Apr 28, 2022 12:27:41 GMT
Valkara , The Woods is not connected in any way with Pond Friends other than using the same forum hosting service. ProBoards hosts thousands of independent forums, two of which are PF and The Woods. There is no overlap or influence with administration, philosophy or mission. We are not responsible for anything that happens at PF any more than PF is responsible for what happens here and have no influence over anyone there including admin. We share some of the same members which is, of course, an individual choice and some of the same interests like BF games. That is where the similarities end.
I am sorry for the trouble you've had there and hope you never face the same situations here. That's the big reason we're evaluating our priorities, performance and offerings. We really do want to be the best place possible for our members.
Please tell us what your concern is and I'll add it to the list of questions.
My concern that isn't listed is that there are themes that don't work. I mean they simply do not work. I have no idea what image is under my name because it's a star. I think it's supposed to be an animal of some sort, but am not sure. I've tried other themes, and either they're hard on the eyes or they literally don't fit my screen (I'm using a 15.6" screen, Windows laptop). Right now there are so many smileys I can't see because they're just text. Whatever the codes are, they don't work on all the themes. I see words in the middle of sentences and they make no sense. What am I supposed to see when the word "cheesing" comes along - a slice of cheese? Someone smiling like they're saying "cheese"? I literally have no idea. As for the rest of it... as mentioned, I found my niche at PF. I'm still looking for it here. In truth, I find navigating the non-game forums/subforums here to be confusing. |
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Jo
Skunk
Forest Ranger
Posts: 2,024
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Post by Jo on Apr 28, 2022 15:26:08 GMT
Oh, my goodness, Valkara . That's odd. We haven't received any other other complaint about emojis and avatars. Maybe you have them shut off in your profile settings.
I'm really glad you've found a place at Pond Friends that you like and where you're comfortable. Sorry the Woods is not your cup of tea. Every social media site is not for everyone. It's important to find a place where you can be you with other like minded people. Good for you. You've found your niche.
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pennmom
Bear
Chief Ranger
[TI0] IT'S FIVE O'CLOCK AND ALL'S WELL
Posts: 16,570
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Post by pennmom on Apr 28, 2022 15:55:51 GMT
You can also disable Smilies on individual posts by clicking on the "Insert Smilie" tab and scrolling down, then click "Disable Smilies" When you do this it won't insert smilies instead of words on individual posts if you don't want them disabled entirely (in your settings as Jo explained above)  |
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pennmom
Bear
Chief Ranger
[TI0] IT'S FIVE O'CLOCK AND ALL'S WELL
Posts: 16,570
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Post by pennmom on Apr 28, 2022 16:05:08 GMT
My concern that isn't listed is that there are themes that don't work. I mean they simply do not work. I have no idea what image is under my name because it's a star. I think it's supposed to be an animal of some sort, but am not sure. I've tried other themes, and either they're hard on the eyes or they literally don't fit my screen (I'm using a 15.6" screen, Windows laptop). I would try using a different browser and then try the themes again, it sounds like a browser incapability
and the only way to determine this is by seeing if they work on a different browser. This will narrow it down,
then we could investigate what settings you have on your browser that may be preventing them from loading correctly |
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Post by Valkara on Apr 28, 2022 19:02:23 GMT
Oh, my goodness, Valkara . That's odd. We haven't received any other other complaint about emojis and avatars. Maybe you have them shut off in your profile settings. I'm really glad you've found a place at Pond Friends that you like and where you're comfortable. Sorry the Woods is not your cup of tea. Every social media site is not for everyone. It's important to find a place where you can be you with other like minded people. Good for you. You've found your niche.
I know the difference between an avatar and whatever else is supposed to be in place of that little blue star under my name. I can see everyone's avatar just fine. I can't see the other thing. Kinda like at PF I see both my avatar (which is an old NaNoWriMo badge) AND some kind of purple frog (denotes rank of some kind? Usergroup title?). THAT is what I don't see here. I see a star. Apparently I should see a hummingbird. Did I say The Woods isn't my cup of tea? No. There are some areas I enjoy very much. I'm just saying parts of it are too confusing to enjoy, some parts don't work, and there are one or two things I will not discuss in public. And just because you've not received a complaint about a problem doesn't mean the problem doesn't exist. I'm not making this up. And... apparently I can't even attach screenshots to show what I'm talking about. |
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Post by Valkara on Apr 28, 2022 21:41:54 GMT
My concern that isn't listed is that there are themes that don't work. I mean they simply do not work. I have no idea what image is under my name because it's a star. I think it's supposed to be an animal of some sort, but am not sure. I've tried other themes, and either they're hard on the eyes or they literally don't fit my screen (I'm using a 15.6" screen, Windows laptop). I would try using a different browser and then try the themes again, it sounds like a browser incapability
and the only way to determine this is by seeing if they work on a different browser. This will narrow it down,
then we could investigate what settings you have on your browser that may be preventing them from loading correctly Sorry, but I'm not putting my computer through that. I use Opera. I never use Edge or Chrome. Opera and Firefox don't play well together. And as much as I enjoy this place, I'm not mucking up the settings I use for other sites, and I'm going to force my computer to play with both Opera and Firefox at the same time (assuming everything works here if one uses Firefox). I'm a member of another ProBoard forum called Fighting Fantazine and everything works fine there. As we found on some other types of forums (ie. Simple Machines), there are some themes that don't have all the bugs ironed out of them before they're released, or nobody thinks to test them on Opera. So it could be a theme issue. If I can see my purple frog on PF, I don't see why I shouldn't see the hummingbird here. |
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joybelle
Rabbit
Park Ranger
Posts: 1,688
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Post by joybelle on Apr 29, 2022 1:07:00 GMT
Valkara, It is very strange. I am pretty sure everyone else can see your hummingbird, your little orange owl (with bubble) and your beaver, owl and eagle on all your posts, and how many posts till next morph. Your moving fish across the screen..And down the bottom text saying 'Pinecreek Hills, picking up stuff' 'Griffinvale, chronicling the adventures of the Ulmer family... even has our standard replacement emoji for the word f amily.I am non techo so I have no idea why you can't see them?? I can always view the whole package. 
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Post by Valkara on Apr 29, 2022 2:27:22 GMT
I've used a number of different types of forum hosts over the years, and am most familiar with Invision and vBulletin (as in I've been a moderator or admin, have had access to the ACP and worked with the guts of them).
What I learned over the years is that themes need to be thoroughly tested to make sure EVERYTHING works. I've run into this problem on a Simple Machines forum, where smileys and formatting worked on some themes but not others. The theme I use on Civilization Fanatics has a problem of invisibility when people use the "code" tags. But since most of the rest of the theme works, I've lived with it (though one of the admins did say he'd try to fix that).
I've honestly tried different combinations here and the one I have now is the one that I've had to live with since I don't need to see a hummingbird under my name. And honestly, I had no idea that there's a "family" smiley in my sig. I would suggest recoding that one so it doesn't pop up in weird places and inappropriate ways.
But when random words pop up in sentences, I tend to assume they're smiley code and it must mean there's a picture there I can't see. Sometimes it renders the entire sentence unintelligible.
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Jo
Skunk
Forest Ranger
Posts: 2,024
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Post by Jo on Apr 29, 2022 2:31:37 GMT
I keep avatars and signatures shut off normally and I've got the page zoomed to 150% so I don't have to wear my glasses.
The only thing I can think of is that the Woods is running different forum software than the Pond and the other forums Valkara mentioned. Pennmom told me that the Woods has a later version than the Pond so some of the things they could do there via an earlier version were not available here now. PF was created in 2013 which could make a huge difference.
As to browser compatibility, I use Firefox and can see everything. I've never used Opera. Years ago, I was at a forum where I posted daily game releases. IE, pre-Edge days, and Firefox were not compatible with some of the editing functions so I had to use Chrome to post properly. I don't much like Chrome but I used it there exclusively.
Aside from two very sketchy and improbable ideas and the unlikely possibility that it's some conflict with Valkara's computer, I'm at a loss. I'm going to ask in Shoutbox if anyone else is having this problem.
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! We'll get right on that!
no
