Are you happy with GL's activity?

Yohan Modric wrote:When people say 'we need x amount of new users', is it even certain that GL can actually attract new users? You can't just get new users out of thin air, I don't think it's that easy. What is it that GL isn't doing right now that's stopping the forum from getting those new users? Lack of promotion/advertising?

Have more bots in this forum?

Yohan Modric wrote:When people say 'we need x amount of new users', is it even certain that GL can actually attract new users? You can't just get new users out of thin air, I don't think it's that easy. What is it that GL isn't doing right now that's stopping the forum from getting those new users? Lack of promotion/advertising?

We could try to increase our presence in social media, like, have a GL Twitter account, we could have a thread for that, what to post in that account, in the forum. Maybe do something on Facebook and on other forums. There are football fans out there who are active in social media, I think they could be reached in some extent if we gave it a shot.

However, personally I would give it some more time, like, until the end of the season, monitor the situation until May and then do something in the summer if we think that's needed.

That said, if we never do nothing and keep being a random forum on the Internet, GL will eventually die. I joined when this was Goal.com's forum and that was an obvious attraction, a rather well-known footy site that had a forum. We are just a forum. I'm quite convinced that sooner or later we are going to need something to promote us or wither away.

I have been very busy with work and I miss every game that happens during the week due to my job, so I have rarely been posting. Things are not helped by the fact that my club is doing poorly - I would rather not come back just to take part in the venting in the Arsenal section.

I'll be back in a few weeks when my co-op term ends and I head back to school though. Hopefully others also return.

Busby Babe wrote:United section improved because of Moyes tbh

and because of Liverpool's demise


I like the United section over RedCafe and Reddit forums, all us guys in there get along well and debate civilly on matters, I don't think outsider United fans would be intimidated to stay active in our section...but it seems like it's just myself, BB, Red, Lumiere in there....and new recruit hala

I do like the way GL currently is, feels like a family...everyone sort of knows how to push each others buttons or make each other laugh but I can see how it is a problem in keeping new users.

I mean I really didn't start to stay active until almost a year after I signed up...now I'm here daily although I have gone on a few hiatuses due to working some wack hours.

Art Morte wrote:

Yohan Modric wrote:When people say 'we need x amount of new users', is it even certain that GL can actually attract new users? You can't just get new users out of thin air, I don't think it's that easy. What is it that GL isn't doing right now that's stopping the forum from getting those new users? Lack of promotion/advertising?

We could try to increase our presence in social media, like, have a GL Twitter account, we could have a thread for that, what to post in that account, in the forum. Maybe do something on Facebook and on other forums. There are football fans out there who are active in social media, I think they could be reached in some extent if we gave it a shot.

However, personally I would give it some more time, like, until the end of the season, monitor the situation until May and then do something in the summer if we think that's needed.

That said, if we never do nothing and keep being a random forum on the Internet, GL will eventually die. I joined when this was Goal.com's forum and that was an obvious attraction, a rather well-known footy site that had a forum. We are just a forum. I'm quite convinced that sooner or later we are going to need something to promote us or wither away.

Quoted for truth (especially the last paragraph!).

I've also felt recently that the activity of the forum has been declining steadily. Admittedly, I'm one of those who stopped posting as much (I now spend my days shitposting on other forums ). Evidence of this would be at the bottom of the front page, where you can see that GL's peak of activity was back in April 2013! I remember a few years ago when this forum used to have a higher peak of user activity almost every month.

So I would like to +1 what Art Morte said. If something isn't done in an attempt to increase the forum's activity it will eventually die.

It's still not active enough, compared to a few years ago. I'd log in in the morning, post a comment, then come back in the evening and sometimes my post will still be the last comment.

Even right now with the season in it's most busiest and pivotal period, there is hardly any discussions.

Many topics from the gen section, from maybe the 6th thread down haven't been active since a day or so ago. I know many people have things going in their lives, different circumstances (myself included) but compared to when we first started, we're not getting many new registered users who remain active along with the older members of the forum.

these threads seem to get bumped a lot during international weekend / summer etc.

although i do agree more activity would be nice, but hard.
the issue i see with new members lately is that most feel intimidated to comment.. idk or maybe just not interested.

Activity is definitely too low, no idea how that could be fixed though.

7amood11 wrote:

Evidence of this would be at the bottom of the front page, where you can see that GL's peak of activity was back in April 2013!

Yeah, the peak was 5187 users online (members & lurkers) in April 2013, I doubt we're hitting 10% of that this April.

Tomwin Lannister wrote:Activity is definitely too low, no idea how that could be fixed though.

Yeah, it is too low, I find myself coming to the forum at times and see there are so few new replies & can expect few new replies that it puts me off posting. Gives this 'why bother' feeling.

It's difficult to do anything drastic about it when it's just a random, not well-known forum without anything else to it. Some promotion on social media & on other forums is the only thing I can think of, but that's not exactly easy, either, and don't know who would want to do that and would there be notable benefit.

But I gotta say that since I made this thread in November 2014, it's only gotten worse and I fear for the future of this place

TBF we only hit 5187 because a poster made a thread that Pirlo's son had died. GL sorta blew up, but was then deleted by the moderators shortly afterwards since it was a hoax.

Didn't know that. In any case, that's not the main point. The activity situation is pretty bad, imo.

There was another incident when Sam2749304 of Arsenal made an excellent thread, Was very popular on twitter.

For me the issue, is quality, not quantity. That is one of the main reasons I stopped posting. It just seemed like the forum was going in the wrong direction, and while the traffic and activity was nice, I think it caused some of the better posters to stop posting.

lately the forum seems very hostile i can see why most newcomers wouldn't want to post.
i guess to post here you need more backbone.

Some of the people that are on social media that we could attract are better left on social media because if some of those idiots got on GL, a lot of us would get tired of them. I would love quality additions but not quantity. I don't want idiots like Badger who didn't contribute anything but got everyone riled up.

Donuts wrote:lately the forum seems very hostile i can see why most newcomers wouldn't want to post.
i guess to post here you need more backbone.

I think the forum is hostile to a lack of common sense.

This isn't the comments section at the bottom of an article so stupid stuff said is going to get called out quickly here. If some new users can't handle that, then frankly they won't add much to our community and as such, can kick rocks.

Personally, I think many of you who have joined us over the years (pre and post-GL's creation) understand this perfectly. Not surprising that you've fit in seamlessly with how we do things here.

Donuts wrote:these threads seem to get bumped a lot during international weekend / summer etc.

McLewis wrote:

Donuts wrote:lately the forum seems very hostile i can see why most newcomers wouldn't want to post.
i guess to post here you need more backbone.

I think the forum is hostile to a lack of common sense.

This isn't the comments section at the bottom of an article so stupid stuff said is going to get called out quickly here. If some new users can't handle that, then frankly they won't add much to our community and as such, can kick rocks.

Personally, I think many of you who have joined us over the years (pre and post-GL's creation) understand this perfectly. Not surprising that you've fit in seamlessly with how we do things here.

Agreed with the above posts

I'd like to add that activity/traffic can be beneficial/detrimental depending on how you look at it, it's all relative in the context of the quality of posts, at least thats how i see it. I think McLewis did a good job of elaborating this in his post

Donuts wrote:lately the forum seems very hostile i can see why most newcomers wouldn't want to post.
i guess to post here you need more backbone.

I'm partly to blame for this tbh, i say things very honestly and it sometimes it comes across a bit aggressive. Some people are ok with it but some feel intimidated lol. I suppose most of the people here realise that and know what i'm like so it's ok.

I guess i could mail it in a little bit with regards to newer posters.

Mole pls,you are the greatest attraction of this forum ever since I went semi-retired

The problem is your nickname change,you seemed more approachable as an Immaculate_Mole.That way people would see you just as some idiot with opinions.You seem condescending this way and it's frightening people.

I've noticed too  the fact we have difficulites to get new posters writing daily.
I saw new posters writing recently ( and  besdes they look like good posters ) but then they stopped to do it . I hope they will be back .
I don't know if it depends on being "hostile " by some , personally I felt at home immediately also because I felt the fanbase as hospitable and yes this is  a fundamental thing for a poster who logs in for the first time in a forum . A new poster usually doesn't think just to write, the forum often is not rated just as a space to write comments but it wants to be also a place of friends .. I logged in on other forums before of GL and I left some ones exactly because I had trouble settling in, while as I said I was soon fine on GL .
Of course every posters has different sensations so I don't exclude the fact that others felt intimitated, to remove all doubt it's advisable  to be make them feel at home at once,surely we are not right lol
Basically everytime I saw a new poster I tried to do it.
p.s. I remind when durinhg my first days on GL I sent a PM in Italian language to ES because I thought he was Italian lmao
I tried to sette  in me better immediately , indeed , considering English is not my  native language.
Luckily it was much easier.

If its anything, i lived in Italy for a year after i was born

Its been 20 days since someone posted in the Roma section, 5 for inter and 3 for Bayern.

I thought the Roma section was somewhat active earlier in the season, no? I guess their really disappointing 2015 has left their fans depressed..

Yeah there's not many of us left here anyway. Most Romanisti post on Chiesa di Totti these days.

chiesa di totti lmao what a name
the results don't encourage to write, I haven't posted there recently too when I 've always done, I support this team since 97 and this is definitely the worst league seen as fan for placement and points ( I don't even remind if we get 2 or 3 points after a victory ) so the frustration is normal and anyway it is not just frustration , tbh I 've not really idea what I must add on this season , because we have 9 friendly matches now we can't even go in Europa League . what do I really have to write ? I don't know
Extending the matter on results, I am sure many Inter fans would be on GL if the team would be back old times , when I 've logged on GL I 've seen old posts and the number of Inter fans is not comparable to current who is  similar to Roma fans ' number ( and tbf  for me Italian this looked like weird to me considering we're the 2nd team most supported in Italy )