Why Dhammawheel is not growing?

[SarathW]

Why Dhammawheel is not growing?

I am visiting Dhamma Wheel for almost two years .
The users on line in a given time is less than 100 most of the time.
This is less than 0.5% of the registered users.
I expect that should be around 10.0%
I think we should aim for 5.0%
We should investigate why new comers leave the forum.
I suggest we make a voting type questioner for member who leave the forum.
Every new comer should be alerted to this questioner at the introduction or at the time of joining.

Suggested questions:
a) Just lost the initial interest in Buddhism.
b) I am intimidated by the advance discussions . I have nothing to contribute
c) I felt Buddhism is as bad as any other religion.

etc

[DNS]

The users on line in a given time is less than 100 most of the time.

This is normal. It is measured by who has been online in only the last 30 minutes, not the entire day. There are members in almost every time zone, some need to go to work, school, or get some sleep sometimes.

This is less than 0.5% of the registered users.

This is normal. Some members just read, not all actively participate with posts.

Everyday about 4 to 10 new members join.

[SarathW]

Sorry I got my calculations wrong!
Currently 82/8565*100=0.95%

[Dan74]

I think offering an optional questionnaire at the time of joining (what one is looking for? what are the expectations? etc) and also asking for feedback (optional of course) from members is a good idea to gauge where the forum is succeeding and where it is not. Of course all such needed to be taken with a grain of salt but could be useful.

[Spiny Norman]

Why Dhammawheel is not growing?

Dhamma Wheel is a lot busier than some other forums.

[Modus.Ponens]

I think offering an optional questionnaire at the time of joining (what one is looking for? what are the expectations? etc) and also asking for feedback (optional of course) from members is a good idea to gauge where the forum is succeeding and where it is not. Of course all such needed to be taken with a grain of salt but could be useful.

This is a good idea, SarathW and Dan74.

Feedback would be good to improve things. As long as these changes do not go against the principles of the forum, I don't see any significant disadvantage.

[Kim OHara]

I think offering an optional questionnaire at the time of joining (what one is looking for? what are the expectations? etc) and also asking for feedback (optional of course) from members is a good idea to gauge where the forum is succeeding and where it is not. Of course all such needed to be taken with a grain of salt but could be useful.

This is a good idea, SarathW and Dan74.

Feedback would be good to improve things. As long as these changes do not go against the principles of the forum, I don't see any significant disadvantage.

So long as we take the results as only a very weak hint of what people might want, I'm with you.
New members will generally not know enough about the forum to make informed comments, after all, and long-term members are generally going to be happy with the way the forum works or they wouldn't have stayed long enough to be long-term members.


Kim

[Modus.Ponens]

I think offering an optional questionnaire at the time of joining (what one is looking for? what are the expectations? etc) and also asking for feedback (optional of course) from members is a good idea to gauge where the forum is succeeding and where it is not. Of course all such needed to be taken with a grain of salt but could be useful.

This is a good idea, SarathW and Dan74.

Feedback would be good to improve things. As long as these changes do not go against the principles of the forum, I don't see any significant disadvantage.

So long as we take the results as only a very weak hint of what people might want, I'm with you.
New members will generally not know enough about the forum to make informed comments, after all, and long-term members are generally going to be happy with the way the forum works or they wouldn't have stayed long enough to be long-term members.


Kim

I agree. An equilibrium has to be found in order that (eventualy) new suggestions work. And the fact that there are a lot of newcomers would make it difficult to distinguish the results of a poll. Maybe that's why SarathW suggested in the OP that newcomers fill a questionaire.
I don't know if polls can distinguish new members from old members. If they can't, SarathW's suggestion would be the best.

[daverupa]

The question to answer is: what would such a questionnaire accomplish that the Suggestion Box does not?

[TheNoBSBuddhist]

I don't see the point of the question, if I may say so. From my PoV such membership traffic is par for the course. People can come here with an open mind, take what they need and come and go as they please. For all the fluctuations in the forum, I see little or no effect on the overall purpose of the forum. Like a river, it is largely unaffected by the number of boats floating on it....

[Modus.Ponens]

The question to answer is: what would such a questionnaire accomplish that the Suggestion Box does not?

I think two things:

1- It's better to have a statisticaly good idea of what annonymous people want, instead of the occasional public suggestion in this part of the forum. Organising the numbers into statistical data can be very useful.

2- If the case that some kind of questionaire was (optionaly) done at the begining of the membership on DW, people would be encouraged to participate more actively in shaping the forum they want. As long as what new members want doesn't go against the present main principles of the forum.

This forum was created 5 or 6 years ago. Since all things are impermanent and the companies that survive the longest are the ones that innovate, I think this is a good idea.

Plus, the information doesn't have to be public. It can be just for moderators to know.

[acinteyyo]

I don't see the point of the question, if I may say so. From my PoV such membership traffic is par for the course. People can come here with an open mind, take what they need and come and go as they please. For all the fluctuations in the forum, I see little or no effect on the overall purpose of the forum. Like a river, it is largely unaffected by the number of boats floating on it....

Seconded. Besides I don't think there is any need for growth. I don't want to say that growth isn't welcomed but I just don't see any necessity for it.

[Kim OHara]

I think two things:

1- It's better to have a statisticaly good idea of what annonymous people want, instead of the occasional public suggestion in this part of the forum. Organising the numbers into statistical data can be very useful.

That's fine if we have enough data to be representative, but I doubt that we will get it. That's why I said earlier that I'm only in favour so long as we don't rely too much on the responses.


Kim

[SarathW]

A typical exit interview question for a large corporation.

http://www.exitinterviews.com.au/exampl ... stions.htm

[Mkoll]

I don't see the point of the question, if I may say so. From my PoV such membership traffic is par for the course. People can come here with an open mind, take what they need and come and go as they please. For all the fluctuations in the forum, I see little or no effect on the overall purpose of the forum. Like a river, it is largely unaffected by the number of boats floating on it....

Seconded. Besides I don't think there is any need for growth. I don't want to say that growth isn't welcomed but I just don't see any necessity for it.

I agree. Intervention to spur growth is unnecessary.