Increasing membership of GS

[LONDONER]

Has anyone any bright ideas how we can recruit more members?  At the moment we have less that 1,000 which is a bit pathetic wnen you think about it.  I'm sure Andy would appreciate it because of more possible donation to the running cost of the site.

The "problem" is encouraging people to sign up to a site that is not principally a dating/pickup site.  Those of us who are already here appreciate the site for the uniqueness of what it is so, how can we encourage others to join?

[CellarDweller]

Are members here on any other groups, like facebook groups, that they could post a link to this site on? that's a possibility.

[LONDONER]

Are members here on any other groups, like facebook groups, that they could post a link to this site on?  that's a possibility.

Good idea @CellarDweller.  Unfortunately, I can't do that since I dont use any social media (Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram etc.) apart from this one.

[InbetweenDreams]

I do have a few groups but the catch 22 most Facebook groups and even other sites do not want people posting links to other sites or any sort of soliciting. You can tell friends though, especially if they're online friends.

[JoelR]

Attracting new members is always going to be an uphill battle unless you have an attraction that is unique on the web - whether it be content, a service, an existing audience, etc. Running a forum is not the same as it was 10 years ago; you can't just open a forum for discussion, and hope and pray that members will come. Forums have significantly decreased in popularity as other platforms have popped up for general, lifestyle, and social conversation. The web is becoming more crowded, and it's going to require legacy forums to more sharply define what they can offer better than other sites.

Some points for consideration:
1. Posting to sites with links that contain adult content is a violation of most mainstream platforms, so you need to be very careful of where you link.
2. Users on Facebook, Twitter, Discord and other social or chat platforms like those platforms. Asking them to move to a traditional forum is a very difficult switch. The principles of interaction and navigation are significantly different between the two.

[LONDONER]

I notice than on the Board Statistics, that gives the number of people logged in, that it also gives the number of "guests" who have visited and are not members.  That number of guests was 4,998!  So, I'm wondering; what's stopping those people from actually joining?  We're not exactly a scary bunch on here are we?

[InbetweenDreams]

@LONDONER Unfortunately the majority of the 4,998 visitors are what are called web crawlers or bots, there can be quite a lot at times. I've had the same thing go on with my blog although not so much lately since I'm too cheap to do SSL...although I should. Anyway, it is hard to say how many real people are visiting the site over bots. @andy could probably shed some light, afterall I could be wrong and there are nearly 5,000 people browsing around the site...

[LJay]

Being blunt about it--and I have thought about this for some time--I think that the lack of posts of a certain sort discourages a visitor to the site to come back for more. For example, here we are in the midst of a major election campaign in the USA and there is very little posting related to it. Covid 19 is another such example.

In other words, until there is something of substance to rouse interest, visitors to the site will not stay to explore and join.

Please consider posting something about your interests that will encourage dialogue and discussion.

[InbetweenDreams]

Being blunt about it--and I have thought about this for some time--I think that the lack of posts of a certain sort discourages a visitor to the site to come back for more.  For example, here we are in the midst of a major election campaign in the USA and there is very little posting related to it.  Covid 19 is another such example.

In other words, until there is something of substance to rouse interest, visitors to the site will not stay to explore and join.

Please consider posting something about your interests that will encourage dialogue and discussion.

I don't know that the lack of posts about covid-19 or the election is necessarily a bad thing. I do think some political threads are not in good for GS and not to pick at it but the 5 or 6 threads about mail-in ballots, really there should be like 2 at most. I do think that too much posting on certain subjects might be bad for GS. Used to we would see a lot of transient users who would post, ask for advice about coming out, about their relationship...something along those lines. I suspect that's stopped due to Google and all the search engines having to reindex the site and getting the reach you had takes time.

I do agree, I think what we post should encourage conversations. I do try to share a lot of stuff and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes I legitimately need advice about something as it can be difficult to talk to people about certain things and I do like helping people, if I am able.