| BookTalk.org News |
| • We need FICTION suggestions right away so we can put the fiction poll up in the next few days. We're deciding on our Feb. & March 2009 FICTION book. Enter the Fiction Suggestion forum to suggest a book or two ONLY if you will actually participate. |
| • Regular casual chats are back on the menu! Check out the calendar for the schedule. |
| Show us where you live! |
 |
|
| Author |
Message |
Niall001 
Stupendously Brilliant
Usergroups: None
Joined: 18 Sep 2003
Posts: 770
Thanks
Given: 0
Received: 0 in 0 Posts
Gender: 
|
 Posted: Sun Oct 07, 2007 8:34 am Post subject: A Change of direction?
|
 |
|
So Chris, I was just thinking about the similarities between Gmail and Facebook. Both have been very successful, even though they don't offer much more than their competitors. In fact, the only real difference they had from their competitors was that they were elitist.
Originally, Facebook was only available to a certain type of Harvard student. Then it became available to all students, before being opened to students across the US, before becoming open to the public. Gmail originally charged people to get an address, but allowed them to a certain number of people along once they'd paid.
If anybody watches South Park, Cartman, accidentally had a similar amount of success with this business model when he bought an amusement park. Though that really wasn't what he wanted.
What if instead of attempting to get everybody to join the site, Booktalk only accepted members who were invited or who made an application? I know that Chris already wanders message boards, blogs and websites leaving links to the site, so what of instead of posting links, private/semi-private messages were directed at specific individuals?
Sure, less people would hear about Booktalk initially, but those who did would feel a little special, be more likely to visit and post. An invite would become a sort of badge of honour. Perhaps then by allowing new members to then invite 2 other people to join every month.
I'd also suggest that you start a Booktalk blog (focusing on atheist issues and reviews of current book selections) using Wordpress or Blogspot, but without comments, or perhaps allowing comments for a limited period, say for two days after a blog entry was posted. After this, people should be directed to the forum. I'd suggest that blog entries should come with a healthy selection of links to other websites and blogs where a commentator has written on the subject of the post. People check where their incoming traffic is coming from and since a link is a little like a compliment, they'll probably repay the compliment. The effect of this tactic should be to push Booktalk to the center of the atheist online community.
Just a thought I decide to share. The new board and chatroom are impressive and the layout is starting to look a lot better, but no doubt there's been a cost and funds for advertising might not be what they once were. So why not try to get other people to do your work for you? |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
Chris OConnor
Rhodes Scholar
BookTalk.org Owner
Usergroups: None
Joined: 05 May 2002
Posts: 7346
Thanks
Given: 53
Received: 20 in 16 Posts
Gender:
Location: Florida
|
| Posted: Sun Oct 07, 2007 11:09 am Post subject:
|
|
|
Niall
Thanks for such a detailed suggestion/comment post!
| Quote: |
| What if instead of attempting to get everybody to join the site, Booktalk only accepted members who were invited or who made an application? I know that Chris already wanders message boards, blogs and websites leaving links to the site, so what of instead of posting links, private/semi-private messages were directed at specific individuals? |
There may be a way of doing a little of what you're suggesting without closing the entire community to unapproved visitors. Right now we're focusing on all sorts of edits and modifications to the features and cosmetic appeal of the forums, but soon the focus will turn to the real meat and potatos of what we have to offer.
My mind is currently thinking of a 3 stage campaign...
Stage 1 - Make BookTalk presentable fast!
Quickly get the forums looking as much like a completed product as possible so that visitors arrive and don't see any sign of our recent move from ezboard to phpBB2. I'd like them to jump into the discussion threads and live chat sessions immediately and not lurk as they try to figure out what we're doing with the forum construction and constant chaos. We're about to complete this first major step.
Stage 2 - Advertise BookTalk
Advertise BookTalk wherever possible attracting as many people as possible as quickly as possible. Quantity over quality - but just at first. Maybe a month or two of banner ads and iPod ads to draw in some new traffic and put a new spark back into the forums. The ads could even say, "Visit the new BookTalk forums!" Who knows? This is open for discussion. We want traffic. That will be the goal.
I am well aware that we want quality over quantity around here, but quality posts by 8 active members are just not going to cut it. We need a wave of fresh faces and ideas around here. The same active 8 members will hopefully still make posts, reply to posts, and not change their routines much at all. But we will have new people - some that will quickly drift away and others that will hopefully stick around as new regulars.
Stage 3 - Get our forums and overall mission established
Concurrently with the above advertising campaign I'd like to put a great deal of thought into the mission of the site, names and descriptions of the forums, and possibly add new forums, combine existing forums, and structure/schedule a variety of regular chat sessions.
All of the comments about my last post where I suggested sports forums and other less academic forums will be taken heavily into consideration. Nothing crazy will happen where we dramatically change the tone of BookTalk. But we do need to work on making the forum names and descriptions more keyword rich so that we increase our search engine pull.
Part of Stage 3 will be the creating of certain “Member's Only” forums and content. And this is where your elitist idea will fit in. PhpBB2 allows us all sorts of opportunities to create areas of the community that are not open to visitors or less active members. We can have forums that are only open to members with X-number of posts. Or we can set forums open only to members who apply and are accepted.
There are also "usergroups," which I believe are explained in the FAQ. We can have usergroups for any subject or project imaginable. And I don't have to be involved either. A member can be the group leader where they get to approve or reject membership.
But do you see how Stage 2 is essential to even think about a Member's Only area? Being able to create usergroups is a cool feature too, but not if we don't have enough total active members to break down into unique groups.
| Quote: |
| Sure, less people would hear about Booktalk initially, but those who did would feel a little special, be more likely to visit and post. An invite would become a sort of badge of honour. Perhaps then by allowing new members to then invite 2 other people to join every month. |
This is an exciting concept and one we should probably explore. I don't want to attempt it with the entire board, but a variation of the idea sounds good. We could have an "Author Interviews" forum that is by invite only. The invite can be extended to people that are not current members - so there is that "badge of honor." The Author Interviews forum (or usergroup) could/would have direct access to authors in live private chat sessions where only members of this special "elitist" group participate. The chat transcript would be posted, naturally, but the actual chat session could be limited to a select few that have been approved based on some sort of qualification.
I'm not referring to our "Current Book Discussions" here. Those Author Chats will always be open to the entire community. But what if we had an "Author Interviews" forum where we target all sorts of authors. Members of this elite group of BookTalk members can invite authors for private chats in our chat room. I can create a chat room that is password protected. Only members of the Author Interview usergroup will have access to this chat room.
Does an idea like this mesh with your thoughts on having at least some aspects of BookTalk elitist? Or are you pretty convinced the entire site should be closed to all but approved members?
Oh, and the Blog idea is already in the works. I believe Indie will be setting it up with Wordpress. We can discuss this new project in more detail soon. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Niall001
Stupendously Brilliant
Usergroups: None
Joined: 18 Sep 2003
Posts: 770
Thanks
Given: 0
Received: 0 in 0 Posts
Gender:
|
| Posted: Sun Oct 07, 2007 11:44 am Post subject:
|
|
|
| Quote: |
| Does an idea like this mesh with your thoughts on having at least some aspects of BookTalk elitist? Or are you pretty convinced the entire site should be closed to all but approved members? |
Actually most of what you're saying sounds good. In general, I'm actually opposed to elitism but I figure that it seems to work as a marketing tactic. Tell somebody that they can't do something and they'll want to do it! The author interview members only sections sounds like a good idea, provided we can track down enough authors! That's always the hard part.
Perhaps in addition to the chat room, we could also have a sub-forum for authors who don't like the chat-room format? The same user-group would be able to access the forum in addition to authors (perhaps politicians, journalists, academics etc.) This format is little more like email so certain authors might feel more comfortable using it, but it would also allow multiple users to communicate with the author in an orderly fashion. This is difficult in the case of email interviews. It also allows for edits.
| Quote: |
| Oh, and the Blog idea is already in the works. I believe Indie will be setting it up with Wordpress. We can discuss this new project in more detail soon. |
Sounds good! |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Chris OConnor
Rhodes Scholar
BookTalk.org Owner
Usergroups: None
Joined: 05 May 2002
Posts: 7346
Thanks
Given: 53
Received: 20 in 16 Posts
Gender:
Location: Florida
|
| Posted: Sun Oct 07, 2007 12:09 pm Post subject:
|
|
|
Very good idea, Niall. Yes, we could easily have a private...
1. Interview Forum (we might not want to use the word "author" if we interview other professions.
2. Interview Chatroom
3. Interview Usergroup |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Chris OConnor
Rhodes Scholar
BookTalk.org Owner
Usergroups: None
Joined: 05 May 2002
Posts: 7346
Thanks
Given: 53
Received: 20 in 16 Posts
Gender:
Location: Florida
|
| Posted: Sun Oct 07, 2007 12:10 pm Post subject:
|
|
|
| I created our first usergroup so we can test how this feature works. Feel free to click on the Usergroups link up top and join the Test Group. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Niall001
Stupendously Brilliant
Usergroups: None
Joined: 18 Sep 2003
Posts: 770
Thanks
Given: 0
Received: 0 in 0 Posts
Gender:
|
| Posted: Sun Oct 07, 2007 12:28 pm Post subject:
|
|
|
| Well I joined, and it seems to be working. One slight problem is that the page that comes up when you click on usergroups is not aligned in the same way as the main Booktalk page. To see the whole screen I had to scroll over, but that just may be my settings. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
indie
Experienced
Usergroups: None
Joined: 20 Sep 2007
Posts: 114
Thanks
Given: 2
Received: 0 in 0 Posts
Gender:
|
| Posted: Sun Oct 07, 2007 2:58 pm Post subject:
|
|
|
| Niall001 wrote: |
| Well I joined, and it seems to be working. One slight problem is that the page that comes up when you click on usergroups is not aligned in the same way as the main Booktalk page. To see the whole screen I had to scroll over, but that just may be my settings. |
I see why that is, and I'll fix it shortly. Thanks for pointing it out.  |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
| Recent Topics |
|
|
|
