pfft. i can only post if there's feedback.
i don't like posting just for the sake of posting.. it's usually a response to something ... posting is on forums are like extended conversations... or at least it is much more fun if it's treated that way

Excellent point Bob. In your opinion what kind of a post elicits a response from a reader? I would love to see more interaction, rather than just people viewing.

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Just my humble opinion!

I like this group because it seems people have various backgrounds and usually offer what appears to be useful and civil advice or information. We can agree to disagree, and I don't see name calling and one-up-manship and stuff like that. I'm for more schoolteachers too- al pope will be up soon, he's teaching in Inchon and emailed me that he is just enjoying the heck out of it!
He is a good writer, and we will enjoy his stories of adapting to a new world!

The USFK forums main page just updated as a Google Page rank of 5. That is a 5 out of 10. What does that mean? We will get a lot more traffic from Google. Most websites are lucky to get a 2-3 for their page rank. Page rank shows how relevant you are to Google and how high in the search results you show up. Hopefully, this will mean more members.

I agree with Joe. I would say we have 10 solid posters and another 20 regular posters. I would say we should have a solid 100 posters by the end of the year. I really don't care if we don't have a million members if we have a solid community of contributors.

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I'm not certain there's a magic bullet for having a popular forum.

I've noticed throughout the years that you can never predict exactly what post will elicit a hundred responses versus one that will just sit and be read by a hundred people with no responses whatsoever.

For the most part, a thread has to be open ended. If someone comes in and writes a post that offers no discussion points... then well people are not likely to respond.

Demographics is a factor, I would venture to guess the majority of the readers here are males... probably white males. I could be completely wrong on this, but that's the nature of most forums, newsgroups and blogs. Differing demographics tends to give differences in opinions and trains of thought... that usually leads to discussions and more vibrant forums.

I mentioned this before, but the forums are really too subforum heavy. Given a general forum where you can talk about anything gives rise to everyone frequenting that forum... and thus reading everything that's posted there. With all the different subforums, while it sorts everything out neatly, it tends to make it a hassle trying to go to each and every subforum to see if there's a post that's noteworthy. Honestly, I generally stick to the lounge... and some of the other subforums but sometimes I just can't be bothered to snoop in every single subforum. I tend to believe this is the case for a lot of people.

The nature of this message board tends to be more on the 'information dissemination' side more so than a community affair.

To be honest, the message board I post on goes back about 5 years, with a bunch of us knowing each other for 7 or so. I've seen kids grow up and finish college on it :) It makes for a really tightnit group in general.. and there's a lot of diversity on it. Everyone on it is fairly intelligent and it gives rise to a lot of good discussions. Of course a lot of it is just puerile fun. Lots of jokes.. lots of random rants.

I think whenever someone posts something that's controversial be it life, sex, politics, religion... it tends to draw out strong opinions from various sides.. those kinds of posts will elicit responses and are usually the ones that have a lot of activity. The drawback is if the tone turns to rancor and a part gets offended and ceases to post at all.

Anonymity. Due to the nature of the work that military members do, a lot of people are tight lipped and probably wary of getting too personal on here. That's a good thing and a bad thing. OPSEC being important.. as well as PERSEC. Loose lips and all... but all things being equal, the longer the forums stay around, the more users will log on... and eventually people well get the bug to post. Once there's a feeling of community, people will feel more comfortable about posting.

That was a slightly long ramble, hope that answers your question.

It did answer the question and it was not really a yes or no kind of question.
I agree to a point there are certian areas that I go to, but I like the fact that they are subtopics as that way I can read what interests me the most and do not have to sort through some of the other topics.
That is also a bad thing because I may miss getting in a discussion that might introduce me to something new.

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Just my humble opinion!