So the forums have had less activity

[Joeno]

Ehmm... usually the name rater rates 200 names in a weekend rush of things. Those get filled up in a few hours.

The only name rater problem there is, is that so many names get submitted, that it's impossible to get on top of it - rate fifty and they're put back in half an hour, rate 100 and it's an hour. And they deserve some consideration - it takes time to rate these things

Sorry - doing the best we can, but considering this is volunteer work and we have a lot to keep up with, this is the best name rater service we can offer.

[Earth Traveler]

Okay, Joeno, you say this is mostly volunteer work, meaning you are doing it for the love of Pokemon, and I thank you.

But forget the name rater and remember this decrease in forum activity. As for us users, we need to be proactive. Sitting around talking about the fact forums activities are down is probably not going to help their activity go up. I have an idea that might help if we can muster the motivation. Yesterday I put up a pro-SMP (Standard Movesets Project) revival post (which had not had anything posted on it for the previous 426 days) and was told that we had neither the manpower nor the motivation to revive it. Well, the fact is we definitely have the manpower, but we need to get motivated. Why is forum activity down? Because sites like Smogon are taking over. Why? Because we here at pkmn.net aren't coming up with anything original and just letting Smogon do everything like new movesets, strategies, etc. The solution is to revive the SMP and actually coming up with original movesets, which will in turn lead to new strategies, which will lead to an increase in forum activity because people will want their teams rated. There have 2 posts in the Team Building forum since October 24, and one of those was a new topic! Unless we as users do can make something happen, not necessarily the SMP revival but just anything, nothing will happen!

To Richard's point back on page 1, the higher-ups on this site need to get some motivation too. Do THEY want pkmn.net to go defunct?! Do THEY?!?! Because if they do, they'd better start caring! Because unless they start caring articles like Richard's will KEEP getting rejected and people will KEEP continue to not care.

Thank you for reading this post, which may lead to an increase in this forum's activity.

[sylar]

i suggest a weekly virgin sacrifice to spice things up a little

[f3raligatr]

Okay, Joeno, you say this is mostly volunteer work, meaning you are doing it for the love of Pokemon, and I thank you.

But forget the name rater and remember this decrease in forum activity. As for us users, we need to be proactive. Sitting around talking about the fact forums activities are down is probably not going to help their activity go up. I have an idea that might help if we can muster the motivation. Yesterday I put up a pro-SMP (Standard Movesets Project) revival post (which had not had anything posted on it for the previous 426 days) and was told that we had neither the manpower nor the motivation to revive it. Well, the fact is we definitely have the manpower, but we need to get motivated. Why is forum activity down? Because sites like Smogon are taking over. Why? Because we here at pkmn.net aren't coming up with anything original and just letting Smogon do everything like new movesets, strategies, etc. The solution is to revive the SMP and actually coming up with original movesets, which will in turn lead to new strategies, which will lead to an increase in forum activity because people will want their teams rated. There have 2 posts in the Team Building forum since October 24, and one of those was a new topic! Unless we as users do can make something happen, not necessarily the SMP revival but just anything, nothing will happen!

To Richard's point back on page 1, the higher-ups on this site need to get some motivation too. Do THEY want pkmn.net to go defunct?! Do THEY?!?! Because if they do, they'd better start caring! Because unless they start caring articles like Richard's will KEEP getting rejected and people will KEEP continue to not care.

Thank you for reading this post, which may lead to an increase in this forum's activity.

Hmm.

Before I elaborate further, I'll just make a few points in regards to the Standard Moveset's Project, which you are indeed correct in that it has unfortunately been unactive for far too long. The Project was created when we had more competitive players and since, a lot of them have faced what this (and many other Pokémon forums face) forum suffered in that a lot of people simply grew out of it and into their own lives. As more and more competitive people (I'm talking back of the time before I became an Admin) started being swallowed up in their own lives, the SMP just started to collapse in itself unfortunately. It is a great shame, but we've never advertised ourselves (nor will we as it's not a direction we've ever wanted to take the website in) as a competitive playing forum. To even consider competing with other designated websites is simply out of the question. As far as I am aware, and concerned, the SMP is simply a failed project.

However, in it's evolution, (and in regards to Richard's article which was a grave and unfortunate oversight that was only corrected very recently and his article has now been published) Richard has been given his own berth and a chance to shine with articles too which I see as being the evolution of the SMP where he talks about a Pokémon of the Week which integrates both competitive aspects and in-game aspects.

We do not have the manpower nor the motivation or desire to do what you are suggesting with the SMP. For what it would require, our target audience doesn't allow it. Basically, there are more pressing concerns that the Site Staff have to aim their focuses towards. That isn't being defeatist, it's being realistic and honest, rather than kidding ourselves into doing something that many, many other websites and forums have tried to do and being the ones who somehow make it work.

I for one, and I'm sure the other admins, do not appreciate your tone when it comes to caring about the website. The honest truth, whether you want to accept it or not, is that we all have our own lives and that whilst this remains our project and our plaything, it is no longer as high up our priorities as it used to be, or as high as we would like it to be. We are in the process of constantly updating certain pages, such as our Black & White 2 section, but there is only so much we can do. We are not simply making excuses, we have jobs, careers and life-goals we are all working towards which dictate how much time we can spend. But, despite all of that, it pains us that we cannot spend the time we want to on the website, so do not tell us that we do not care.

[lugia95]

I'm not so sure our whole problem is that we're not attracting enough new members. We have over 40,000 members at the moment, which is more than enough to build a strong community. The problem is that we have only about two dozen active members. Any new members that join usually seem to disappear within a couple of weeks and then are never seen again. I think that, while it is important to attract new members, we need to find a way to keep our current members interested in the forum. Whether we place further emphasis on non-pokemon related things is up to the higher-ups, given this is, primarily, a pokemon forum.

Also, although I think that the Acid Reflux is a great website, and an excellent place for the people of this forum who are losing their interest in Pokemon to go, it is a different forum, and we should try to build up the activity on both the forums, rather than just moving the community onto another site.

[Joeno]

Do THEY want pkmn.net to go defunct?! Do THEY?!?! Because if they do, they'd better start caring! Because unless they start caring articles like Richard's will KEEP getting rejected and people will KEEP continue to not care.

I don't want to make much more of a point out of this... but it's this sort of attitude that saps the willingness to do anything.

Yes, we do care. If nothing else, why do you think I keep paying every month to keep the server running? (Advertising covers at most half the monthly costs). Why do you think we spend time updating the site - aside from B2W2 work, I keep updating the code, currently focusing on a proper Pokedex update.

True, I don't do much about SMP. That's because I don't care as much about competitive battling. But not caring about an aspect of Pokemon is very different from not caring about the site. If that's the only aspect you joined the site for, then maybe this isn't the site for you. If there's other things... we don't focus on everything. Our choice, that, and one that keeps us sane and interested.

Also, although I think that the Acid Reflux is a great website, and an excellent place for the people of this forum who are losing their interest in Pokemon to go, it is a different forum, and we should try to build up the activity on both the forums, rather than just moving the community onto another site.

Building up two sites/communities is double the work, double the time, which we don't necessarily have. That's why there's the thought of moving the community onto another site - because a number of us will have more interest and time in building the content that helps support that community.

Time and energy is limited. We can't do everything.

[lugia95]

Fair enough, guess I didn't think of that. So, now what? Obviously, as the admins and moderators get older, they'll have less and less spare time, which is inevitable. So, wouldn't it help if we could get more people to work on the forum (not necessarily as admins or mods, just writing articles and such) while the older members of the site (the one's who are losing their interest in Pokemon) could help with the Acid Reflux? The more people helping out, the less time it'll take.

[Joeno]

If you read the thread, that's partially what we've been doing, partially what's been planned, and partially what we've been saying but didn't really go beyond people saying so.

[lugia95]

Well then let me go beyond saying so. If you need more articles, I'd be happy to help out.

[Green Apple]

The problem is that we have only about two dozen active members. Any new members that join usually seem to disappear within a couple of weeks and then are never seen again.

ive tried not to disappear
its hard with school and other stuff

[Inferna]

Maybe there could be a set limit on how many posts people need to have to access some features on the site? Yes I know this would probably encourage a lot of spam or w/e. Like say you need 20 posts before you can submit a nickname to the name rater, this could mean more people would stick around rather than just making an account purely for submitting nicknames.
This would also lighten the load of the name rater as well.
I've seen it used on another pokemon forum, you need at least 15 posts before you can post links/images. This made me want to post there and doing that I got a good feel for the community and liked it. It also prevents a lot of spambots and the like.
I don't know if/how it would work but just throwing an idea out there. I suppose though it may be unfair to limit stuff to new members idk?

[Kpyna]

i don't know about the name rater thing, inferna. the only reason why i got an account was because of the name rater. being an impatient 9 year old, where my parents originally didn't even let me post things online, i never would have even come here.

[Inferna]

Yeah I guess some people would be impatient. I suppose its one of the sites main hooks so it probably wouldn't work. Ignore my post :u

[Joeno]

Maybe there could be a set limit on how many posts people need to have to access some features on the site? Yes I know this would probably encourage a lot of spam or w/e. Like say you need 20 posts before you can submit a nickname to the name rater, this could mean more people would stick around rather than just making an account purely for submitting nicknames.

Accounts aren't just meant for the forums. Yeah, that's what they're based on (for technical reasons) and you do see those numbers. But accounts are used for a lot of different features, and limiting it to only those with a certain amount of posts would run counter to that point. People sign up for the name rater and stick around after that, or they might want to use other features, all without wanting to post initially.

I don't want to hold other features hostage to force forum activity. It would increase spam and lower participation in other features a lot. The forums aren't the only part of the site and we don't want to make other parts worse just to get a few more forum posts.

[Turner]

I think with the forum it's just natural, I mean the main centre of activity with the forums have been a large circle of friends of roughly similar ages mainly from the same country, it's only natural that they're all moving on and getting on with their life at a similar time. When you couple that with the fact that facebook is pretty much a cause for lack of activity on almost every forum out there, it's normal that people would rather converse on facebook and check pokemon related things on bigger sites.

IMO what will happen is that the novelty of facebook will wear off and slowly activity will trickle back and things will go back to what they were again, it's just about keeping things ticking over in the meantime.