Help Thread: Clubhouse Help

Hi all!

I've got hot chocolate, apple cider, tea, milk and cookies if you would like to come on down, sit by the fireside and chat about The Clubhouse. This is an informal thread like The Club Ideas Party, but for more general help and needs. Have you thought about hosting an event? If so would you like some help planning? We might be able to get you a volunteer.

Recruiting for new members to join your club? Questions about the rules? Did you make a club that you no longer have time or interest for, and want to look for another member to adopt/babysit it to keep it going? We can do that here too.

We welcome feedback, so hearing how your experience with The Clubhouse has been overall this year is something that Fairy and I will really take to heart. Do you basically like The Clubhouse as it is? Do you have any suggestions for improvements, anything brand new you'd like to see implemented or something here that you would like to aee done differently?

We're eager to liven up the activity around here so don't be shy. Also, instead of having all of the clubs gathered together in one place would anyone prefer to have clubs moved into different topics like Video Games, Anime & Manga, Pokemon General etc but with a prefix to mark it as club? Or should we just keep the format the way it is now without alteration?

I'd love to hear all of your input!

Enjoy ruling your kingdoms!

Hiii

I'm not feeling confident when it comes to being a club owner, mostly. What is expected from a club leader, really? And do you have good, simple enough ideas of things a leader can do to keep their members feeling like the thread is a cozy fun place to come back to often? :)


Maybe we could have post-off challenges between clubs! And art challenges? Each club could produce a piece of art related to their topic and showcase it at the end in a sticky (or even a daily article; we have a category there for "around the community" that isn't necessarily about pokemon things).

Generally it could be fun with events that motivate club participants to produce or do something for prestige and glory ;D doesn't at all have to be competitive! Since many people are part of several clubs.

Also, instead of having all of the clubs gathered together in one place would anyone prefer to have clubs moved into different topics like Video Games, Anime & Manga, Pokemon General etc but with a prefix to mark it as club? Or should we just keep the format the way it is now without alteration?

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Doing this would be repeating history, as spreading clubs out over the site with a club prefix is what we did when the previous Clubs section died. Now is not the time to do that again.

Which, speaking of history (and Rika did say to "be honest"): whether one thinks that the Clubhouse is struggling or is just looking to rise to even greater heights, something that is worth looking at would be why the old Clubs section died, both to prevent it from happening again, as well as to see if it could offer anything that could be used to improve the place (though I suppose those two things are sort of the same thing). Not trying to throw any shade here, but this is the conversation that should've been had when it was first proposed to revive the Clubs section instead of "oh i miss clubs let's bring them back!".

I can't personally help with this part though, as I was not an active enough presence in the old clubs section to be able to offer an insight on that, nor do I have access to PC's archives.

I decided to check out the old Community Headquarters thread from when Fan Clubs / Pokémon Clubs were retired in 2015, and I found this post from Janna:

- Too reliant on the thread OP. There is a vicious cycle in Pokémon Clubs where the club owner either loses interest in their club after a few months and it has to be remade. Of course, this means any members who signed up for the club have to sign up again only to have it die off in a few months' time. Rinse and repeat. It's become so tedious that I've given up on signing up for clubs since I know they will not last. This is remedied in social groups with the group transfer option since club mods don't seem to change OPs for threads and would rather remake.

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As a club owner, I have to agree with this 100% - I personally can think of only so many discussion topics for the LGBTQIA Alliance. Going forward, I definitely think there could more of an open "anyone can change the topic" rule.

- Discussions are too circular. There are only so many things you can discuss about grass type Pokémon before you're back at square one with your limited number of active members. This is especially rampant in Pokémon Clubs. With clubs constantly being remade (therefore causing some members to lose interest and go elsewhere) and the already dwindling number of regulars there really doesn't seem to be a light at the end of the tunnel. People are tired of rejoining the same club once it's remade and discussing the same topics so we need to keep a steady flow of new members, which doesn't happen. This causes people, its moderators included, to be put off.

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This is also a major issue. I'm not sure what could potentially remedy this issue, other than potentially making club threads more like DCCs in that they don't have to constantly on subject.

- Sign-up forms. They are required in the club forums and can be a deterrent to people who just want to dive into discussions from the get-go. Probably not as big a deal as other things and it's what makes the club environment a club environment to begin with but I don't think it's necessary. If it were removed, though, we wouldn't really have 'clubs' anymore. Was discussed in Pokémon Clubs and rejected at some point.

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I definitely think we should go ahead and just get rid of sign-up forms.

Doing this would be repeating history, as spreading clubs out over the site with a club prefix is what we did when the previous Clubs section died. Now is not the time to do that again.

Which, speaking of history (and Rika did say to "be honest"): whether one thinks that the Clubhouse is struggling or is just looking to rise to even greater heights, something that is worth looking at would be why the old Clubs section died, both to prevent it from happening again, as well as to see if it could offer anything that could be used to improve the place (though I suppose those two things are sort of the same thing). Not trying to throw any shade here, but this is the conversation that should've been had when it was first proposed to revive the Clubs section instead of "oh i miss clubs let's bring them back!".

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I have to say that I agree with this - when clubs were merged the last time and threads were sent to different sections on PC, they all eventually died off except for the ancient Shiny Hunters Club.

I love the idea of clubs, but don't think they're working too well in theory here on PC. Discussions are limited and feel forced due to the pressure of staying on-topic/discussing only the club topic, which imo is unnatural. There are only so many times you can ask 'what's your favorite episode?', 'who is your favorite character?', 'what's the hardest boss?' before it gets repetitive and feels forced, I think?

In real life when you join a club you don't always talk about Steven Universe or cats -- you take comfort in being with likeminded people and chat with them about pretty much anything, which feels a lot more natural. If it were up to me, I'd make clubs mini-DCCs for people to talk about whatever they wish. That way, conversation will flow better and the topic would shift to whatever the club is about more naturally.

My old fav PC clubs were just places where friends who all liked one same thing gathered and had fun together. Be it pokemon manga or chocolate.

So going off what's been said here, we could try to massively casualize the club phenomena? Instead of essentially being stricter versions of on-topic threads that would fit in some other forum of PC, they would be a place where you go and KNOW that everyone knows what you're on about when you nerd out about Homestuck 2 or shiny pokemon or dragqueens - but you don't always have to talk about it. It's fine to post to say "HIIII how are you? I saw She-Ra, it reminded me a lot about Steven Universe so maybe you guys would like it too, also I just had tacos" in the SU club.

It's not like we'd lose anything from doing this :) rather, if someone truly wanted to discuss the latest plot reveal in Homestuck 2 in detail, they could make a thread for it in Entertainment and rest assured that it wouldn't derail from the subject at hand.

Um, I have to say, be careful with the mini DCC approach. I do agree with improving casual nature of clubs, but in some ways, there still has to be a bit of order and purpose for them, otherwise they.. don't really seem like clubs imo.

Instead, I like to think each club can be like, a mini-board. We can casually socialize how we want, but there also has to be a bit of promotion and sustainability — that's why I would really encourage people within clubs to also make things like events or games sometimes. But that's just me; maybe clubs are different for everyone, and so they should accommodate something for different wants/needs within them.

Riffing off the "casually chatting with like-minded people" point, what's being described makes me think of a per-club Discord channel. You see a mix of on-topic and "hey, how are you?" messages in #fangame-hub, for example.

EDIT: I don't particularly like Discord channels, because it's very hard to have multiple topics at the same time, but at least it's easier to have a casual chat in one than a thread (where you have to constantly refresh, don't know if people are replying, etc etc).

Astronaut said:

Hiii

I'm not feeling confident when it comes to being a club owner, mostly. What is expected from a club leader, really? And do you have good, simple enough ideas of things a leader can do to keep their members feeling like the thread is a cozy fun place to come back to often? :)

Maybe we could have post-off challenges between clubs! And art challenges? Each club could produce a piece of art related to their topic and showcase it at the end in a sticky (or even a daily article; we have a category there for "around the community" that isn't necessarily about pokemon things).

Generally it could be fun with events that motivate club participants to produce or do something for prestige and glory ;D doesn't at all have to be competitive! Since many people are part of several clubs.

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Thank you for sharing your concerns. What I like about The Clubhouse is that it can offer members a lot of freedom to experiment and forge their own style.

Ideas for what an owner could do to keep their club an active and intimate exchange I think will vary depending on the theme of that club.

For example in The Fairy Type Club Jo has shared fan art for potential mega-evolutions and altered forms. Users have also been encouraged to create fairy fakemon with names and stats, dual typings and back stories. Recommendations are given for fairy type teammates and sets for competitive use, Jo has posted photos of fairy memorabilia purchased, they have tackled questions about who the cutest pokemon is, and I believe users battle with fairy theme teams on pokemon showdown. Someone else as leader of the fairy club might prefer to host a live stream of a relevant movie like Diancie and the Cocoon of Destruction, or a giveaway of fairy pokemon just to other examples.

A club with very different content may yield different activities. TheGhostHunter's has set down challenges for users like The Woman in White challenge, and worked with members to devise a horror-themed Dungeons and Dragons campaign for her supernatural club The Manor. This club includes videos listing spooky facts about horror-themed rides at Disney Land like The Haunted Mansion. She has also recounted urban legends, featured footage of alleged cryptid sightings like Bigfoot and more. Other things you could try as the owner of a club like this might be writing reviews for scary new movies and recommending it or not, giving out recipes for spooky Halloween dinner, or links to readings of creepy pastas. There are so many possibilities to explore.

If you are looking for some inspiration for new things to do in a particular club you own then you could tell us which club you have in mind, and Jo and I or any user can make a suggestion based on what your club is about.

I understand that having a blank canvas to work with may be daunting at times, but hopefully it can be fun too. I'll be coming back to this thread today to try to comment on as much as I can. I haven't forgotten anyone.

I also wanted to mention Rika that I LOVE your idea of a post-off challenge between threads, bringing users from different clubs together for a shared goal is something we need to do more of, and I agree our members deserve a chance to do something extra for the greater glory of their club. It's like winning points for your house Gryffindor. This is something I would totally be willing to implement.

Nah said:

Doing this would be repeating history, as spreading clubs out over the site with a club prefix is what we did when the previous Clubs section died. Now is not the time to do that again.

Which, speaking of history (and Rika did say to "be honest"): whether one thinks that the Clubhouse is struggling or is just looking to rise to even greater heights, something that is worth looking at would be why the old Clubs section died, both to prevent it from happening again, as well as to see if it could offer anything that could be used to improve the place (though I suppose those two things are sort of the same thing). Not trying to throw any shade here, but this is the conversation that should've been had when it was first proposed to revive the Clubs section instead of "oh i miss clubs let's bring them back!".

I can't personally help with this part though, as I was not an active enough presence in the old clubs section to be able to offer an insight on that, nor do I have access to PC's archives.

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I agree with you actually. I personally don't like the idea of separating the clubs we currently have, scattering them to different parts of the forum, marking them with a club prefix, and ending The Clubhouse as a place to contain all of these activities. Since it isn't just my decision to make I have throw the suggestion I received out here so that I have the opportunity to weigh how strongly the community feels about phasing out The Clubhouse in it's current form. Based on what I am reading so far it would seem there is a variety of opinion, and it isn't black and white.

My hope is that we can use this thread to come up with ways to renovate our house if it needs improving, rather than demolish the home completely and pass around the furniture that's leftover, unless that's what members are mostly really want to do move on from here.

If wanting to see more activity is our primary goal then I think we would be ultimately undermining our own efforts. There is no reason to think that closing this part of the forum will result in a surge of new activity for the clubs we have. As you wisely pointed out past efforts would if anything indicate the opposite will happen, and clubs would go somewhere else to be buried. I think that is just as true today, especially because while certain clubs would be shuffled into places like video games, pokemon general and entertainment & media, many of the existing clubs here would probably be moved into Off-Topic, which is already extremely crowded with serious, news and debates prefixes being added, and is an overall very fast-paced part of the forum with dozens of updates every day. It quickly sinks threads unless they are extremely popular with frequent updates and lots of users posting, and since making clubs more and more vibrant is a concern of staff I think that would actually hurt many clubs rather than help them. Because we have lots of different clubs I don't think we can use a one-size-fits-all approach by sending every club we have somewhere else, and seeing what survives and what doesn't.

I think it would be better to continue to cultivate what we have here, than give up on it. Nobody is injured if we put some more work into the clubhouse. It may not be precious to everyone, but the clubs we have are worthwhile to me at least to justify continuing to operate this place. We still created more than 40 new clubs, and plenty of them would not otherwise have been made, and if they had been who can say that they would have had way more activity than they have now, perhaps they would have had less. So don't want to devalue what members have contributed here, I think we have potential to keep growing and I don't want to uproot everyone here unless this is something that users here and staffers all feel really comfortable with.

Those who own clubs in this section I would also encourage to update your clubs, and discuss with your members possible changes to The Clubhouse or even message them privately to see if this is something they would like because what we decide will affect the users who joined the club. We must be as conscientious of them as prospective new members. Any club owner who is personally tired of participating is also able to offer their club for adoption to anyone interested if you feel overwhelmed, perhaps a trusted club member.

So, a lot of what I'm going to say here is more or less going to be parroting Tyler's points, but I wanted to get my own thoughts out there, as well. 002c and whatnot.

I'll be rather honest: I'm not exactly sure what can be done at this point. That's not me being a downer or a defeatist. I support any endeavour that's in the spirit of bringing activity back to this forum. But I feel like we have to dig to the root of the problem for any solutions to really be effective in the long-term and to not have just a temporary boost, only to fade away a short time later. :c So basically, imo, here are clubs' biggest issues:

a) The majority, if not all of the activity falls on the OP to create: I think this is one of the biggest achilles' heel of clubs as it stands. One individual can only come up with so many topics before they just... don't have anything to bring up, anymore? I dislike the notion of a "club owner" and "co-owner" in the sense that one or two people are responsible for carrying the thread along and everyone else just follows through with it. So what if the owner and/or co-owner is afk/busy? Why can't anyone else bring up interesting things to talk about? Why can't any of the other club members think of fun events to try out and suggest? It really does seem like, as soon as the club owner/co-owner vanishes, the club dies. It shouldn't be like that. The owner(s) shouldn't have to continuously bump their club(s) when any club member can do that, as well. But the problem is that, for as long as anyone was used to clubs being around, only the owner/co-owner have total direction over conversation and that no one else can bring up conversational topics, for some odd reason.

b) There's no actual events in this forum to make participating fun - I think the idea of Club of the Month is cute, but a sticky and a mention might not go far enough. Being in a club should build some camaraderie among participants. This was touched upon earlier so I won't go too much in-depth about this here, but inter-club competitions could definitely help. It'd require some creativity of course, but it's probably doable. Intraclub events would also be really fun for club members to get to know each other. Why not introduce a cute little club discord for everyone to get to know each other? I suppose it can be argued that the existence of a club discord would hurt the activity of a thread, but I'd argue that making new friends and getting to know new people would cause them to potentially post more often in the club thread. Worth a shot, who knows?

c) Don't rely on novelty as a selling point - This is more of a general thing than a "Sam and Jo" thing. Novelty can only move a section so far, and as soon as that nice section smell wears off, activity is going to slow down unless you (general "you") come up with a long-term plan to convince people to post/make your section fun and interesting. The issue here is that a what initially got this board going was nostalgia for the good ol' days of clubs in the hopes that alone would be enough to make it active, but it could only do so much. We're at a point where, imo, we'd pretty much have to rework the culture of clubs to fit the more modern PC era rather than trying to bring 2006-7 era clubs back. Although I admit this is easier said than done.

I look forward to seeing what you have planned. o:

I may not have the past to look back on to fully understand what works and what doesn't, but I suppose I can still say my piece.

A lot of ideas here are really good. I like what the Fairy and TheGhostHunter clubs have done; they seem very active with lots of ideas -- things like hosting Fakemon contests and posting videos of alleged cryptids. That's really cool but clearly the issue is getting traction in this forum.

That being said, maybe putting some of these clubs with the [Club] tag in their specific forums would be good. But then we have plenty of other clubs that don't really fit a specific forum. So like an Anime club would be best in the Anime & Manga forum because it may reach more people who enjoy that specific niche. Whereas a club like the Bishies club would alienate people like me if it were put in the Anime and Manga forum because I tend to prefer Western animation and other people tend to prefer live-action; all of which can be put under the Bishie tag (despite the Japanese-style name). Places like the Dog Lovers and Litterbox clubs wouldn't be able to go anywhere except maybe Off-Topic. So perhaps we'd still need an Other Clubs forum? It's hard to say if this would even help at all. It's already been said that this style didn't work in the past.

I think the issues stem from 1) PC being a place where most people come for the Pokemon and the ROM hacking (and judging by the views, Off-Topic stuff) and 2) many people on here being socially introverted or anxious. That makes it tough for clubs outside of these topics to get the traction they need. I've been considering starting a Vegan, Vegetarian, and Veg-Curious club, but I've been held back because I feel there would be no interactivity and a lack of interest, especially from reasons 1 & 2.

I do love the clubs because I love seeing like-minded individuals with whom I can interact. I agree that we should be far less strict about the topics (and with what Dragon said, that going TOO far off-topic might defeat the purpose of the club, but it may not. There's some sort of middle-ground here, I just don't know what it is). I also agree with Erik (and Janna by proxy) that having to sign-up is more of a hindrance. We should be able to go off-topic and chat with people about whatever, since the point of a club is to find people with similar interests. Might as well build friendships with other topics, too! And we should let people just jump into the conversation regardless of if they've signed up or not, and the more active people can offer to have their names on the list of members when they feel comfortable.

But between my above reasons 1 & 2, people having their own lives off the Internet, and the general slowness of these forums that I've noticed in my half a year of being here, I think problems with the clubs could continue without some real investment from club members.

I like the idea of having DMs sent to club members. Otherwise, people like me would never have seen the discussion, and others may feel like they're input doesn't matter. It's a way to be more inclusive to club members and encourage them to post. I love the idea of letting ANY club member start an activity; so 'club leader' becomes obsolete, but it helps make members more confident and feel equal to everyone else (no "oh, I can't start this activity I've been thinking about because I'm not the leader" to hold people back).

And I love the inter-club activities idea. I don't have too many ideas for that myself, but I know others do and it seems like a great way to get more interactivity with the clubs.

So some of the take-aways from me in a shorter list:

• There are difficulties due to the niche nature of PC as a whole
• Maybe having certain clubs go into other forums with the [Club] tag so more eyes can see your niche; with that, maybe have an Other Clubs forum rather than shoving the rest into Off-Topic*
• Direct messages for events and activities within the club
• Do-away with the Club Leader and have everyone listed as Members (with perhaps the Club Starter/Club Maker being used instead and having them more manage the list of club members, so DMs will be possible)
• Lots of people here are socially introverted or anxious and we need to keep in mind that some people are too nervous/feel too awkward to start conversations; we need some way to make these people more comfortable
• Don't be afraid to go off-topic! Just chat with friends as though it's a Discord server and have the activities and events throughout
• No more obligatory sign-ups; if someone is active enough, they can state whether or not they want to be on the Members list. Otherwise, they can test the waters and leave if they don't feel it's a good fit
• Any club member can start an activity or event, which can then be managed/overseen by the Club Maker/Club Starter

*I don't have the past to rely on with this one so if what's been said, that this is a bad idea, is true, then just ignore me :P

Now that the word 'club' has lost all meaning... I hope something I said here helps, but I feel like I said mostly what other people are saying. Real original, CiCi. xP

erik destler said:

As a club owner, I have to agree with this 100% - I personally can think of only so many discussion topics for the LGBTQIA Alliance. Going forward, I definitely think there could more of an open "anyone can change the topic" rule

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I think that would be just fine Tyler. I would be willing to implement that for The Clubhouse. In fact one of our user CiCi Sama suggested something similar to me for The Bishoujo/Bishonen club. She proposed that any member of the club be allowed to post a question of the month, not just the club owner. She told me that she felt it would allow for more participation and variety of ideas, and I could not agree with her more. I thought it was a good idea, and I have mentioned casually during conversation in the club rhat users can provide a new topic at any time they feel up to it. I would be more than willing to formally update The Clubhouse rules to establish more flexibility for members to take the lead and bring in new topics to any club they participate in.

erik destler said:

I definitely think we should go ahead and just get rid of sign-up forms.

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As for sign-up forms I like them because they do I think provide that sense structure to distinguish a club from any thread, it is after all meant to be more than just a discussion to get to. Asking the permission of the club owner to sign up and maybe answering a question is a pretty small requirement at the end if the day for a club I would say. If someone doesn't want to be bothered with signing up it is also I think worth considering if this is a member likely to remain involved for very long.

I think signing up is also a good opportunity for the Club Owner to get to know who is joining their club.

Perhaps there could be a compromise position. A sign-up form could be not required, but an option for club owners rather than banned across the board. If the owner decides they want to skip this process for their club club then that would be okay with me, but I do want to still allow users the freedom to create one if they want as well.

I thought I'd add in my few cents in aswell due to being (or at least trying to) a bit active in 1-2 clubs in here.

I think CiCi pretty much well explained why clubs aren't doing as well as we'd like them to:

1) PC being a place where most people come for the Pokemon and the ROM hacking (and judging by the views, Off-Topic stuff)

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That being said there is only a few clubs that really do thrive atm, the rest is just straight up dead or never really had a lot of members to begin with and conversation ends up dying whenever a member just isn't around for quite some time. I personally am in two clubs as a member, one of them is safe to say is quite dead (RIP YGO Club). I do not think that splitting clubs in other subforums would help since I personally believe it wouldn't change activity at all, plus the aformentioned "where does this club belong, where does that one belong, etc."

EDIT: Mind aswell that PC isn't as active as it once was, this also might contribute greatly to inactivity

As a club owner and as someone who frequents the clubhouse often, I feel that I should give my opinion on the matter. Personally, I think that Club owners can only do so much. At the end of the day, regardless of their creative ideas or efforts to generate discussion it truly depends on the members of said club to continue discussion, or to participate in club-related activities in order to keep a club afloat. If members of a given club are busy, disinterested, or no longer active, the club itself will suffer. Therefore, I think the solution doesn't just lie with club owners solely trying to generate activity, I think members of the clubs themselves need to take initiative as well and perhaps responsibility should be shared when "operating" a club.

For instance, if one particular club owner is busy for an extended period of time for whatever reason, perhaps members of that club could continue discussion themselves. Moreover, as previously mentioned, I think clubs would benefit if the discussion was more abstract at times and was not so heavily constrained by specific topics. In real life conversations, people tend to jump all over the place or tend to stray from one topic and move onto another. Why does it need to be different online?

I also think that club owners need to discuss with members and let them know about activities, discussions, or events within clubs. I think communication is lacking in some regard, again, if an owner is going on vacation or if they know that they will be under a time constraint, to communicate that with members of their club so that the club doesn't fade into oblivion while the owner is preoccupied offline.

In regards to sign-up sheets, I personally find them somewhat beneficial as they can provide an owner insight on what their members are interested in and thus they can tailor discussions, activities, or events to suit those interests. (Although it depends on the club) I do suppose though sign-up sheets are not necessary and if the general consensus is that they should be abolished, so be it.

Finally, I think clubs should be kept in the clubhouse. If they were to be moved all over PC, I find that this may cause confusion as to where a particular club discussion is or what category it falls under. I don't think we need to uproot the entire tree that is the clubhouse, but perhaps we can utilize resources that we already have to help the clubhouse and clubs themselves flourish, perhaps we just need to see things through a different lens.

I think everyone has a lot of good ideas and I see the passion that so many have put into clubs and I'm hopeful that we will be able to reach a solution.

I tried this out, but it's kind of hard to manage on my end.

I've been reading the rules and looking at how this clubs thing works, because I was thinking 'bout making one, and I came with an idea; The actual clubs are just threads, people reply in them to talk, that's ok, but the major problem ocurrs when an owner change s needed, and here's is where my idea cames into play: Why not, instead of a thread, clubs ar allocated in an account?
I mean, the leader gets a new discard e-mail for the club, like [email protected], registers a new account with the club's e-mail. Ok, now we have a place to chat: the public messages for that account. Wanna make an advice? The Owner/Mod of the club could use a blog entry for an advice, or a club event, like a drawing contest, and the members can discuss in the blog replies. If the club is getting new management and/or owner, they'll just give the acc to the new staff members. I'm pretty sure that it'll work ok, it will prevent flooding the pages of PC as the old put-a-club-tag model did, and also will let owners and founders of new clubs express more about what their club is for in the Club Thread, just showcasing without having to care about starting the conversation.
This new club model, I pray, will make a more organized club thing, leaders can just put a link to the profile -or post from the club's profile- and a description!

I'll patiently wait your answer, and hope that this model actually becomes a thing. If not, I guess I'll just stick to the actual model to create my club.

Respectfully, Jen.

I really hope The Clubhouse isn't taken down so soon, because that would be a terrible shame! I know activity has come down to a few regulars, but this place has a lot of untapped potential, I just know it, and needs more time to get on its feet. We also have to keep in mind that it's not just The Clubhouse that's lacking considerable activity. PC has been very quiet lately all around. Sections like Anime & Manga, Internet and Technology, Entertainment & Media, and even Pokémon Anime see precious little engagement nowadays, yet despite that, they aren't threatened to be closed down. Which is of course because they are staples—you can't take them away, especially not when they're as important as Pokémon Anime and the like. I want The Clubhouse to become a staple part of the forum, too! Not just another short-lived trial. It seems when clubs are brought back, they aren't given a chance to be properly established. If you ask me, The Clubhouse could use another year. A lot could happen in that year—maybe PC will have some kind of new breakthrough and activity will speed up! We may get new regulars. Perhaps a new Clubhouse mod, or some cool events.

To the staff expressing concerns about The Clubhouse's activity (and arguing for its disbandment as a result), well, why not help Milotic and Fairy out by instead supporting the section with your own activity? :) As staff, I think it's important we support each other's sections when they're in need, if such is asked of us! Especially the mod leads. That's part of what their position is for, right? And there are plenty of staff, so if we all got together to help out, it could be a fun way to get to know each other better, as well as other members that aren't regulars in our own sections! And if lack of interest leaves you hesitant, then... just create a club that interests you! 😉 Isn't that what's so great about The Clubhouse? :)

I don't quite agree with the mini DCC approach to clubs because that seems to defeat their purpose. However, I do promote leaving that up to the creator of the club themselves! If they want to omit sign-ups and make casual, everyday discussions in their club, or even more "exclusive" clubs where you have to be active/partake in a game or a topic to get in, then I think that's fine. Stylise your club whichever way you like it. :D

Actually, this has me thinking... what do you guys say about a pinned DCC for The Clubhouse? A place where people can talk casually, but also discuss ideas/events, tell how their club is doing, promote their clubs, etc.

For example, someone brings up the latest movie they watched, the discussion spirals into movies, and then someone recommends a type of movie club! And I come in and advertise Studio Ghibli to everyone. 😇

Sadly I can't offer ideas for events at this point in time, but if the creativity ever strikes, I'll discuss it with everyone here. ^__^

All in all, I think VisionofMilotic has dedicated so much heart and soul into this place, even during the quietest times. She does her very best to revitalise clubs wherever possible, often carrying it on her shoulders alone. Milotic, Fairy and the regulars here have not given up on The Clubhouse, and we owe it to their effort and dedication not to give up either.

Hyzenthlay said:

I really hope The Clubhouse isn't taken down so soon, because that would be a terrible shame! I know activity has come down to a few regulars, but this place has a lot of untapped potential, I just know it, and needs more time to get on its feet. We also have to keep in mind that it's not just The Clubhouse that's lacking considerable activity. PC has been very quiet lately all around. Sections like Anime & Manga, Internet and Technology, Entertainment & Media, and even Pokémon Anime see precious little engagement nowadays, yet despite that, they aren't threatened to be closed down. Which is of course because they are staples—you can't take them away, especially not when they're as important as Pokémon Anime and the like. I want The Clubhouse to become a staple part of the forum, too! Not just another short-lived trial. It seems when clubs are brought back, they aren't given a chance to be properly established. If you ask me, The Clubhouse could use another year. A lot could happen in that year—maybe PC will have some kind of new breakthrough and activity will speed up! We may get new regulars. Perhaps a new Clubhouse mod, or some cool events.

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not to be blunt or harsh, but this section will only survive so long as there's a long-term vision or goal to it. cute and fuzzy club feeling and nostalgia clearly is not doing this section any favours. i've already mentioned my personal suggestions, so it's up to the mod(s) to incorporate whichever suggestion they see fit in the best manner they feel would benefit the forum.

don't get me wrong i want the best for this forum! but it also should move past the 2006-2007-era club mindset and perhaps more into what 2019-2020 clubs could be like, instead.

To the staff expressing concerns about The Clubhouse's activity (and arguing for its disbandment as a result), well, why not help Milotic and Fairy out by instead supporting the section with your own activity? :) As staff, I think it's important we support each other's sections when they're in need, if such is asked of us! Especially the mod leads. That's part of what their position is for, right? And there are plenty of staff, so if we all got together to help out, it could be a fun way to get to know each other better, as well as other members that aren't regulars in our own sections! And if lack of interest leaves you hesitant, then... just create a club that interests you! 😉 Isn't that what's so great about The Clubhouse? :)

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the staff here have supported the section with their activity. im part of the LGBT club, the Dragalia Lost Club and the Mental Health club. tyler/erik destler created the LGBT club and iirc Janna/Sheep frequents the Mental Health club. it's really not for a lack of effort or anything like that. there are things that can very well be improved upon and i don't think it's wise to dismiss criticism or suggestions and just say "post more!". if people aren't posting as much as they should or used to, then perhaps it's worth examining why that is and why there's such an disinterest instead of redirecting the blame towards the users for not posting as much.

Actually, this has me thinking... what do you guys say about a pinned DCC for The Clubhouse? A place where people can talk casually, but also discuss ideas/events, tell how their club is doing, promote their clubs, etc.

For example, someone brings up the latest movie they watched, the discussion spirals into movies, and then someone recommends a type of movie club! And I come in and advertise Studio Ghibli to everyone. 😇

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probably worth a shot! but i will say that in the past, non-Off-Topic DCCs don't tend to have great activity (heck, even off-topic's own DCC can be pretty shaky which probably says something about the state of DCCs overall).

All in all, I think VisionofMilotic has dedicated so much heart and soul into this place, even during the quietest times. She does her very best to revitalise clubs wherever possible, often carrying it on her shoulders alone. Milotic, Fairy and the regulars here have not given up on The Clubhouse, and we owe it to their effort and dedication not to give up either.

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agreed. i think sam and jo should be given a fair shot to come up with as many ideas as possible and try them out, and see if it works. im looking forward to seeing what kind of ideas they come up with based on the suggestions in this thread. ^^

Do club owners feel like they could benefit from a basic outline of suggestions for their individual clubs? Like a pool of topics to choose from when there's not much to be discussed?