Members to the north and across the pond:

I just finished defending Americans by saying that I don't think we are as arrogant as others might think, and yet, we, including me, have pretty much hogged the chatterbox, if not other parts of the forum, for some time now, as though our current political problem is all that matters.

You guys are becoming more and more silent.

We miss you.

Maybe we have said enough about the issue and ought to back off and let the forum get back to normal (except we already decided that it doesn't exist. )

David, write us a poem. Shelagh, find a funny way to tell us off. Pam, are you still there? Harry, how is your summer doing?

Any and everybody I left out - how are things going for you?

Ann

Part of the problem is that we are a world economy, interconnected and interdependent. They, the Canadians and English, can't even write to anyone, they just have to sit back and watch in horror as we self- destruct and take them down with us.

The Republicans are being irresponsible.

There is a current events board for all the political discussions but members prefer to post on the Chatterbox. Newcomers come and go because there is not enough social interaction to keep them here. DK tries to encourage new members to be more pro-active but most of the regulars stay on the Chatterbox. E-books are changing the way that books are read but this is not reflected on the forum. This is an exciting time for all new authors but it seems to be passing everyone by here.

I am speechless!

I joined so I could talk to writers and learn, but I don't post much. not to much about writing, more of a social group. I went to a different group but stop by here sometimes.

I am as guilty as everyone about the chatterbox. In fact, I never have ever considered the current events place. I just come here like it is coming home after a long day and see people and friends and try to join the conversation, add a little of my thought, read a little of other's thought, smile and go to bed feeling that I have connected with people that I read every day. I am glad to meet people that just came in.

People are so shy. Well, I am, too. When I first posted on the message board, I looked for response to my post like a child who has sent a valentine. I still do that. My need for love is strong. I imagine that every one is a little like me.

So many people here read the valentines that people send out.

I love that.

Love,
Betty

Shelagh wrote:

There is a current events board for all the political discussions but members prefer to post on the Chatterbox.

Do you think having 34 categories, most of which are repetitious, vaguely named, or irrelevant, has anything to do with that?

Quote :

Newcomers come and go because there is not enough social interaction to
keep them here.

Newcomers come and go because their only purpose is to drop a self-promotion. Other writing sites don't even allow such links until the member has 50 posts. I see why now.

Quote :

DK tries to encourage new members to be more pro-active
but most of the regulars stay on the Chatterbox.

DK is eternally optimistic; she thinks the new members are here to interact, not just to spam.

Quote :

E-books are changing
the way that books are read but this is not reflected on the forum. This
is an exciting time for all new authors but it seems to be passing
everyone by here

My guess is that most here lack the skills and interest in loading their books on every e-pub site around. I know I do.

I loaded an ebook that still has format errors that I cannot fix.

Hi LC,

Is the house all fixed now, or did you take a vacation? Good to see you back. The forum is the way it is; I'm not going to change it. Take a look at Kindleboards. Everyone says it's a nightmare to navigate, and it is -- but, as I type this, the forum has 986 Guests, and 341 Users browsing the boards. Google loves it. This place gets a great deal of traffic from Google --I think we've been there before?

DK, you can always remove the file and replace it.

I didn't mean you should change it. I was responding to your comment that people prefer the Chatterbox. I gave my opinion why.

I will admit to surprise at the numbers you just quoted. Not sure why so many people are browsing here, are they looking at old posts? Because there is very little new activity here.

I don't know anything about the Kindle boards, but I suspect the users are far more numerous and motivated than here, so Amazon can get away with them being difficult to navigate.

My post wasn't as clear as it could have been. "Kindleboards" is a forum for Kindle owners. The stats were for the visitors to Kindleboards, not here. The forum is not owned by Amazon. It is an independent board and allows links to Nook and Smashwords despite the forum name.

http://www.kindleboards.com/index.php

Oh, ok, my misunderstanding. But I'm not sure what Kindleboards has to do with this board.

It is set up for the bots to find easily (all the recent posts on front pages instead of being hidden pages deep on a few boards). The revenue for the running of the board comes from the ads. The board is set up to attract as many visitors as possible to the forum (3:1 visitors to members). I have said before that most of the forum traffic comes from search engines. It doesn't really matter if members post on the Chatter Box or anywhere else, the bots will pick up the latest posts on the forum. However, browsing visitors tend to browse the threads that provide information about writing and publishing, not the general conversations.

Color me slow -are you basically saying that the board's purpose is to bring traffic from search engines and click on ads? Just asking because that seems at odds with your post above:

"There is a current events board for all the political discussions
but members prefer to post on the Chatterbox. Newcomers come and go
because there is not enough social interaction to keep them here. DK
tries to encourage new members to be more pro-active but most of the
regulars stay on the Chatterbox. E-books are changing the way that books
are read but this is not reflected on the forum. This is an exciting
time for all new authors but it seems to be passing everyone by here."

I interpreted this as you being disappointed with the current action on this board. But if you're happy with just generating bot traffic to old posts, then carry on!