Some tough decisions now need to be made

[tor lives]

OK folks.....our FB page now has over 400 members, while our A/CAM forum Site membership languishes at around 130, (despite my constant pleading to new A/CAM FB members to join our A/CAM Site Forum). Quiet frankly this is not sustainable. As many of you will know, I was looking to make some significant changes and improvements to the Site this year including moving it to a new Site host for better technical reliability and resilience. These changes however will cost me a couple of grand, (in addition to the approx $100.00 a month I am currently paying for Site up-keep and maintenance), however I am not willing to spend that money if we are averaging just one new site member every fortnight, (as opposed to 2-3 new members a day on our FB page). In the coming weeks I will be giving some serious consideration as to my next step where A/CAM is concerned, and making some tough decisions accordingly ....but I must be honest, at 130 members, I fear the A/CAM Site is simply not viable, despite my best efforts to make it a going concern .
TOR

[Adam the Akrodude]

Make FB A/CAM membership conditional - want to join the FB page, you must become a A/CAM member - simple. Any FB members that don't want to become A/CAM members - give the flick.

[oz rb fan]

i can understand where your coming from Ray..i hope it doesn't come to that,but you have put alot of hard earned into this place and i fully understand where you are coming from{fuck its hard to type whilst holding a cat )
ill do what i can to try and get people to move over here

[RayS]

Make FB A/CAM membership conditional - want to join the FB page, you must become a A/CAM member - simple. Any FB members that don't want to become A/CAM members - give the flick.

You will find a lot of the FB users probably don't know what forums are. FB is so much easier. And if you make it conditional who is to say they will actually contribute? Do you make that a condition as well?

How many active members of the 130 registered are there? Probably a dozen or so I would say. That is not to say that many of that non active ( or should I say non contributing) visit, have look at the goings on and just don't comment.

[tor lives]

Yeah.....I take your point Ray, but membership numbers is what the sponsors need to see to justify weather their investment and contributon is worthwhile or not. It's also what I need to see to judge weather sinking additional money into the site is worth my while.
I note that while membership remains steady at around about 130, my stats indicate that we do have a healthy number of "guests" transiting the Site....,in fact, in recent months, more than ever before. So at least that's encouraging, (come on all you AMI "visitors", you know you wanna sign up......just do it, we play nice here ).
Even though we were never going to have the huge membership numbers of the larger model sites like AMI, Britmodeller or Hyperscale, especially given that we are essentially a specific SIG, I would like to see our membership grow to at least match our FB page
TOR
PS: the irony here is however that while our FB page has more than twice the members than that of the Site Forum, the routine and regular rate of postings on the Forum is higher.....go figure

[Adam the Akrodude]

We've got to highlight and "sell the benefits" of the forum on the FB page. The FB page is a great way of advertising the website as flag waving. Overall, whilst say only 10% of members may be active at any one time (actually posting), there is a wealth of info here - in progress models, completed models, news, photos and of course some amusing total B/S! The forum offers a great deal more than the FB page and it is structured. Whilst actual posts can be down at times, we get a lot of views on some topics. Most like to read, but not post for whatever reason. For those of us that like to post, it's important to keep posting content - hopefully of interest to those who frequent this site. We're getting some great new members and it does appear that A/CAM does have global reach with some members from all around the world. The more we put in, the more A/CAM will be of interest and continue to grow.

[DesTROYer]

I've said it before, the Facebook page should only be a hint of what can be found here. Limit the posts there to yourself and your moderators. Regularly post links to Facebook on posts on this forum of what work and discussions are going on. You have 400+ members on the Facebook page, start advertising the forum to them. Make them want to join.

[Adam the Akrodude]

Totally agree Troy.

[hrtpaul]

Holy shit. I hope you lot are sitting down cos I have to agree with Adam Don't worry I'll rectify that in the future
Ok this is a bit long (Adam will be proud )
FB is easy to post to etc but is a bitch to find a specific post or reference on. The forum, like all forums is totally opposite. Unfortunately that's just the way it is. I too have noticed the larger number of guests lurking. That isn't necessarily a bad thing as some are probably just looking to see what goes on. I'm sure the sites like AMI, Britmodeller etc also have a large number of lurkers as well. Sometimes peeps just want the info without having to post and that's fine. I like Troy's idea about posting forum links for builds, discussions etc on FB to get peeps to actually visit the forum. Once here they might have a look around and then join up. It's always great to get new faces on board with fresh perspectives and ideas. This is what we need to concentrate on. One other thing that might be putting peeps off is the home page. I've just clicked on it and it's still trying to load after 30 secs. Now if people are trying to join up and it takes that long to load a page then peeps won't be bothered wasting their time waiting. Another 30 secs and it still hasn't loaded. I think this could be a major contributing factor with the lack of membership. I log straight into the forum and not through the home page. Ok after about 1 min 20secs it finally finished loading just the home page. The "register" page is the same and still has the $25 fee thing on there. That part of the site is incredibly slow and hard to navigate. I'm now having to wait again just to get back to the home page after the gallery page was taking ages to load. I know a lot of work has gone into the home page but I see it as a hindrance to growing numbers. This is my cunning plan. Personally I think we should have a simplified home page with all the sponsors logos on it, a quick rundown of what we are about and 1 clickable link that goes straight to the forum. Then once in the forum, have a "please read before joining" pinned post above "model talk" stating in more detail what we're about, site rules, how to join etc. That way peeps are directed straight to the forum, tempting them to have a look around and then maybe join. I'd keep all the sections in the forum before deleting them for a while yet as these might be utilised when numbers grow. That's just my take on it. I'll definity start adding forum links to the FB page to whet the appetite of potential members. This is a cracker site and my first stop when the computer gets turned on. It'd be a shame to see it disappear especially after all the hard work of everyone and all the $$$ invested by Ray. As I've said before, once I am gainfully employed I WILL be contributing to the running of the site. I consider it a modelling expense which will pay for itself in more than a new kit would. So Ray, when that time comes, shut up and take my money got it ya muppet

[Adam the Akrodude]

Now I'm worried - Paul and I agree on something. This could be one of the 7 signs of the coming apocalypse - AARRRGGGHHHHH! I like the idea of the FB page being used to advertise the A/CAM site and not be a alternative. The idea of posting links to interesting posts - new builds, in-progress builds, kit reviews, etc on the FB page I think is great. This then should draw more traffic to the site. In general, I think there is generally a lot more activity on the A/CAM site from posts than on the FB page. I think it's also fair to say many of us are not that into the FB "thing". It does not remotely offer the same experience when compared to a forum. If we "sell the benefits" of the web site, those that are really interested will come over. So, how about when posting say a new interesting topic in the forum, we then post the link on the FB page - not repeat the same post, just the link on the FB page?

And yes Paul, I'm both shocked and proud of your post! You sir are a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma!