War of the Pokemon forums

[Ho-Oh]

So basically PPN and I were just discussing how PC competes with the other big forum/sites, being Serebii and Bulbapedia. We started to wonder what would help push PC over the line so that PC is the more active one - has the more active members that want to stay, and so on.

What are your ideas to help kinda boost PC? I was thinking of something like, getting the trade mods and their regulars to offer a free "shiny" to all new users that make 5/10/15 posts in the same forum in the first 48 hours after they join, then sign up to a multitude of forums and advertise that. The catch? The shiny would be what we consider our mascot sorta, Stunfisk, lol.

But yeah, any ideas on how to make people stay/generate activity here?

 

[Legendary Silke]

Bulbapedia.

The forums part of Bulbagarden Networks is called Bulbagarden Forums.

That said, I'm not sure whether mass-scale advertising of forums is allowed in other forums. Most of them prohibit it.

It might work, but then again, it'd probably be something that quickly diminishes in uniqueness due to the ubiquity of that specific shiny.

 

[Ho-Oh]

I don't really care for formalities. :(

And it can work on random websites, things like neopets even etc, anything that allows you to have an identity basically. :x

People who join here do like shinies though, as seen by the shiny hunters club. Something like that would definitely create interest imo.

 

[Legendary Silke]

I don't really care for formalities. :(

And it can work on random websites, things like neopets even etc, anything that allows you to have an identity basically. :x

People who join here do like shinies though, as seen by the shiny hunters club. Something like that would definitely create interest imo.

So, let me guess, you're going to turn PokéCommunity into more of a trading paradise?

 

[Ho-Oh]

No, not at all. Just give people incentive to join. If it was me, I'd turn it into a battling paradise, but no, half the users don't join for battling.

Maybe make the current perks more known too?

 

[Archer]

While I can't offer more specific examples, because I don't roam the other forums, you really need to offer what they do - just better. Have a look at them and work out why they're successful and then take that onboard. It helps that both forums have a massive "info" side to draw people in. That might not be directly related to the forum, but I'm sure it plays a major part in getting people to join.

I don't think that giving away gimmick pokemon as an incentive for making posts of just any quality is the best idea. I personally think if gives off the wrong impression, especially if you try to advertise elsewhere.

"Join our forum and make 10 posts and get a free shiny!" Comes across as very spammy.

However, on the mascot side of things, while I don't know that Stunfisk would be best (again, doesn't give off the best impression nor is it well recognised), but I do think we need a little more forum spirit. Maybe a mascot would help, or maybe we get people laddering under [PC] banners on PO... not sure.

 

[Chikara]

What if we did some kind of monthly get together? It doesn't have to be gigantic, and we don't have to do everything every month. Just sometime during each month, plan a thing or two for the members to take part in. A free shiny for spamming around the forum isn't going to make people stay, it's going to make them join, spam, get their shiny and leave.

I know all I do is say movie nights, since that's all I can really help out with, but a monthly movie and general contest could end up being really fun and increase the member's interest in the forum.

Simply advertising isn't the thing PC needs, since there's a constant flow of members joining, but a lot of them just leave after making a few posts. We don't need more people to join. We need to give them incentive to stay.

 

[Overlord Drakow]

I dunno, doesn't PC already have more than enough members?

 

[Hybrid Trainer]

I agree with that Archer said, to a certain extent anyway. I don't know what a mascot would do to enhance PCs activity, but I don't see how it could hinder it either. But going off what he said about the info side. One of them is a wikipedia of Pokemon and the other is the main source for pretty much all Pokemon related news. So if we were to try and mimic them and get the edge on the info side, we'd need to fill a gap that they aren't covering right now.
Honestly, I think that one of the only things that PC could contribute to on an information side of things, is rom hacking. I know it's been brought up before about getting a hacking wiki attached to the site and that was shot down straight away. But I think that if the idea were refined a bit, and maybe shrunk down to a size that we could handle it could be something that could bring in members.

Another thing could be what Igiko said, but I assume that would be happening some time soon anyway if we were to follow the same pattern as last year and have a summer/winter get together.

I dunno, doesn't PC already have more than enough members?

I don't think it's the size of the member base that's the problem, it's the activity.

 

[marcc5m]

Just hack the SPPF or something.

 

[Cherrim]

I think it has more to do with the fact that all the other ridiculously active Pokemon forums? They aren't standalone. I imagine Bulbagarden gets most of its activity from the fact that it has pretty much the go-to wiki in the Pokemon fandom. There are others, but they generally aren't as good and well-maintained. This and Bulbanews probably brings them a TON of users. As for SPPf, they're attached to freaking Serebii.net which has been probably the biggest Pokemon website for nearly a decade. People probably get to the forum from the site, be it from looking up anime screenshots or searching information/news about the new games.

PC is just a forum, though. We have a few add-ons and side projects (that often never see the light of day or get forgotten about) but in the end, we are just a forum and that's all we'll ever really be. We don't have anything but forum culture to draw in members with which is why we may not get the same levels of activity as the other boards. But what brings people to those other forums isn't something we can really replicate.

Honestly, though, I think I prefer where PC is right now. Other forums may have more in sheer numbers, but I've always felt that the atmosphere at PC is a lot more laid-back and relaxed. It's easier to post here and not worry about rules and it's also a lot easier for people to fit in, generally. Maybe it's just that I've been here so long that I feel this way but I see people saying these things a LOT, and not even necessarily where they could be sucking up, either. If we got a sudden influx of members, or even any influx of members, we'd slowly have to tighten our rules and become a stricter community in order to let staff deal with everything without going insane. I'm not sure I'm ready for that kind of thing either way.

 

[Alexander Nicholi]

I think it has more to do with the fact that all the other ridiculously active Pokemon forums? They aren't standalone. I imagine Bulbagarden gets most of its activity from the fact that it has pretty much the go-to wiki in the Pokemon fandom. There are others, but they generally aren't as good and well-maintained. This and Bulbanews probably brings them a TON of users. As for SPPf, they're attached to freaking Serebii.net which has been probably the biggest Pokemon website for nearly a decade. People probably get to the forum from the site, be it from looking up anime screenshots or searching information/news about the new games.

PC is just a forum, though. We have a few add-ons and side projects (that often never see the light of day or get forgotten about) but in the end, we are just a forum and that's all we'll ever really be. We don't have anything but forum culture to draw in members with which is why we may not get the same levels of activity as the other boards. But what brings people to those other forums isn't something we can really replicate.

Honestly, though, I think I prefer where PC is right now. Other forums may have more in sheer numbers, but I've always felt that the atmosphere at PC is a lot more laid-back and relaxed. It's easier to post here and not worry about rules and it's also a lot easier for people to fit in, generally. Maybe it's just that I've been here so long that I feel this way but I see people saying these things a LOT, and not even necessarily where they could be sucking up, either. If we got a sudden influx of members, or even any influx of members, we'd slowly have to tighten our rules and become a stricter community in order to let staff deal with everything without going insane. I'm not sure I'm ready for that kind of thing either way.

I have to agree with you a lot on what you mentioned. At Bulbagarden, the wiki's staff are strict (obviously, its a wiki), in turn the forum staff are strict—All of it creating tension and turmoil between users and staff, and even between staff themselves.

As for SPPf, I think its similar to BMGf, but I can't really say much for it as I joined Bulbagarden two and a half years ago for 'shipping, and SPPf last March for the same reason; I prefer PC over both of them any day because of its quiteness and forum purity.

 

[Nina]

(Lightning seems to always say what I wanted to, but first.)

I don't think that PC needs to "compete" with other forums, which are attached to a different websites. There is a casual air here, and I think it's the main draw of PC. There are a lot of people I see here who are not actively "into" Pokemon anymore or it has fallen out of their immediate interest, yet they're still here. I don't get on a lot, but I'm still welcome here. And I think that's pretty cool. We have the common thread of interest that we like, or once did like pokemon, and know enough about it to start conversations with each other and then go from there.

To put it in different terms, our purposes are different. The other forums are made to work in conjunction with an outside source, one of information that is controlled by certain people. PokeCommunity is what it says on the tin, a community about pokemon, with less attachments, and I don't think it should become something else.

 

[Vrai]

Maybe it's just me, but part of the appeal with PC is that it isn't flooded with a bunch of obnoxious people like the other forums. I rather enjoy the fact that it's small in comparison. Why would we try to throw bones to steal people away from other popular forums like Serebii and Bulbawhatever? If we were to do something as silly as giving people free shinies they'd just show up, take it, and maybe post once or twice and never come back. I don't see the point in trying to compare PC to the other forums, either. They're all different, and many people joined PC because of the way it is: fairly laid-back, generally intelligent (being liberal with that "generally"), and really just much more of a community aspect that Lightning already pointed out. Let's not go out of our way to try to become another forum, thanks.

also you forgot smogon

 

[Archer]

I don't think that more members are the case (depends on the section you're in. Some NEED more people) What we need is quality of activity - something to make us stand out from the crowd. It would be nice for more people just to know about PC - it just adds a certain amount of pride to the place (it's getting kind of stale, lol)

It's already a huge forum considering we don't have anything attached to us, like Serebii and Bulbapedia or offer the exclusivity of being the central hub of an entire metagame, like Smogon. That's quite the feat and the staff/major contributors should be proud of that.

 

[Legendary Silke]

So, with these said, I think we shouldn't focus on what others don't have, but just work on improving forum member retention - that is, making sure that existing members stay active.

 

[Archer]

I think what's needed is incentive to post, because I was talking with a friend of mine, and he says that he doesn't like coming here because it's "too big". We're big, but not the biggest.

I sounds to me like he's having trouble feeling comfortable because there's so many people and everyone's just a name. Is there a way to solve this perhaps? Like team events to help people get to know each other more. Heck, I'm sure if I was teamed with a lot of the people I "know" here I'd get to know them better.

 

[Legendary Silke]

Perhaps we can allow more permissions to be unlocked via postcount. Perhaps it can be like "1000 posts can increase your avatar dimensions by 40 pixels!" or something. Perhaps if they stay active enough, they can get something. I think what's needed is incentive to post, because I was talking with a friend of mine, and he says that he doesn't like coming here because it's "too big". We're big, but not the biggest.

I think the preexisting permissions are already a bit too difficult, relatively speaking, to achieve. While I can understand why the amount of posts required to obtain blog permissions is very high, it's also rather, to put it mildly, pointless. 5000 posts can take forever to obtain, and we should look at post quality, not quantity. This limit should be abolished IMO, or at least relaxed by a large degree. Something like 500?

Or take styling. There's no real need to not give non-supporters the ability to use images in styles. It's probably something that someone came up with. Still, it's not like we can control someone's personal tastes when it comes to customization.

As for being too big, it might have the feeling of dilution, when it comes to the sheer amount of members and sub-forums in PC. How are we going to deal with it? Perhaps...um, I think some forum shuffling is in order.

 

[champagnepapi]

Well, I was thinking of a vBulletin games arcade, but many vB forums already have those.

Perhaps we can allow more permissions to be unlocked via postcount. Perhaps it can be like "1000 posts can increase your avatar dimensions by 40 pixels!" or something. Perhaps if they stay active enough, they can get something. I think what's needed is incentive to post, because I was talking with a friend of mine, and he says that he doesn't like coming here because it's "too big". We're big, but not the biggest.

that would be cool, so would a badge system similar to smogons, then people probably wouldnt care so much about mods lol

 

[Ooka]

Just to say, it's pretty well known among webmasters that content is what brings members. No matter how fun a site is, it's always content that brings members. That, imho, is why PC will never climb above Serebii, Bulbapedia, or Smogon, because they're massive resources of content.

Don't get me wrong, a forum counts as content as well in Search Engine rankings and all that good stuff, but you'll find on a subject like Pokemon, children / young adults are much more willing to go to the one with easy to find information over the one they have to sort through for a while.

Just my two cents.