14 replies to this topic

[MaximilianKohler]

I learned about this forum when I first searched for cryonics information a decade or so ago. Since then, large social media platforms have come to dominate, and independent forums have been dying out. I see that you briefly discussed this phenomenon in this thread.

 

I believe this is an incredibly problematic phenomenon (Eg: reddit is dangerous, as is allowing single entities to control so much public information, discord and email groups are private and hard to find, facebook is a horrible company and enshittified platform). I've been recommending that other people ditch these large social media platforms and go back to independent forums like this one.

 

The problem in this case seems to be that the owners of this forum appear to be content with their forum dying out and are not taking steps to improve/update the forum and keep it working well and attractive to new users.

 

Examples:

 

* Email notifications have not been working for months, and there has been no response on why https://www.longecit...ations-stopped/

* The software being used is quite old and has lots of room for improvement. An admin agreed, but there's been no further word or development for the past year https://www.longecit...ver-to-xenforo/

 

These are two other major improvements that could be implemented:

 

* https://www.longecit...crease-traffic/

* https://www.longecit...-subscriptions/

 

Two others that bother me are how much unnecessary whitespace there is, and I'm not a fan of how URLs are not fully shown.

 

It's already much more convenient for people to use one big social media platform vs multiple independent forums. So it's absolutely vital that your user experience/interface is not ALSO worse than those big platforms. You must make it as easy and appealing as possible for people to switch over. Deficits with your forum UX are hindering my efforts to get people to use it over the big social media platforms.

 

It is not difficult. I set up my own small forum for another topic while having no expertise and little money to spend on it. It costs me $5/mo. I shared how here. And here is the result in action. I think it's a good example of a compact, modern forum layout and appealing design.

 

[Mind]

Thank you for the comments and critique. We could use some new directors/volunteers/programmers. The organization could be more vibrant if more people were willing to pitch in.

[MaximilianKohler]

I tried to help with the email issue but there was no response. Similarly for the "updating the forum" thread.

 

When looking for "ways to pitch in", I looked at the main forum page https://www.longecity.org/forum/ and I don't see anything other than the "Forum Issues" section, which I did previously look through and posted in. Then I looked at the top nav bar -- under "collaborate" nothing stands out to me, under "support us" I see monetary contributions. I generally look for non-monetary ways to contribute since I'm not wealthy. But I would also be hesitant to send money to a forum/website that seems like it might be dying out; especially if there is no specific reason the donation is being requested.

 

IE: If you made a post asking for donations to hire someone to upgrade the forum software, that would be different.

 

I would not have the expertise to update the forum software myself, but I know of people who offer the service and charge a few hundred dollars.

 

It looks like the last donation was in 2022 https://www.longecity.org/forum/donate, which is one more sign that this is dying out.

[Mind]

We have plenty of donations and enough funds to pay developers, however, it is best to have someone trustworthy from within the community do a lot of the work.

 

Perhaps we can schedule a zoom call with several active members and outline a plan to rejuvenate the org.

[MaximilianKohler]

Cool! I'm happy to help however I can. I've done a lot of learning about email and forums recently.

[Mind]

Great. I will try to set up a virtual meet-n-greet up for early September

[adamh]

Now you are talking, Mind. I made many of the same points in my thread a few days ago. I'm glad to see there is more discussion on the topic.

 

MaximillianKohler you brought up some good ideas about fixing the look of the forum. That is the first thing people see when they come here unless they follow a link to a thread but they see it and it makes a good or bad first impression. I would suggest a few more things. On the first page there are forums listed and next to each forum is the last thread replied to. But, in the science and health section, the topics replied to can't be seen, they are cut off at the right. Its a small thing but it looks sloppy. There are many more things that can be done to make it more intuitive and easy to use, easy to find a topic you are looking for. 

 

"The problem in this case seems to be that the owners of this forum appear to be content with their forum dying out and are not taking steps to improve/update the forum and keep it working well and attractive to new users."

 

I figure its more a factor of being used to seeing it the way it is and not having any immediate thoughts about improving it. You are so used to seeing it that you don't really see it. A first time visitor sees all those things, gets an immediate impression and it may be 'ho hum'. There are lots of kooky sites out there promoting one thing or another and they often look disorganized. We don't want to be put in the same category by a bad first impression. Maybe we can get some action? 

 

I've been a member, mod, or admin at quite a few websites so I had a chance to see the dynamics in action. In each case it was dynamic, lots of interest, loads of posts... much the way longecity was a couple years ago. Then, there was a steady decline, people quit posting, even mods quit posting and left. Eventually it was a ghost town with rare posts or it just went dark. I have run a website also for a few years but it was not a social discussion site. Those are more complicated.

 

Its not too late, make it look more modern, place a few ads carefully and have promotions. When it gets down to 1 post every few days its usually too late or takes major surgery and money. It could be boosted on the cheap right now

[Mind]

Is there a preferred calendar/meeting APP I should use for scheduling the confab?

[MaximilianKohler]

I don't really use any. I tend to look for FOSS (free, open-source software). I did a search and I'm not too familiar with the ones that are listed.

 

I would pick something other than Zoom, since I've read bad things about them:

 

* Federal prosecutors accuse Zoom executive of working with Chinese government to surveil users and suppress video calls (Dec 2020)
 https://www.washingt...a-surveillance/

* Zoom to pay $85M for lying about encryption and sending data to Facebook and Google (Aug 2021) https://arstechnica....ook-and-google/

* Zoom Deleted Events Discussing Zoom “Censorship” https://www.buzzfeed...ents-censorship
* Facebook, YouTube and Zoom are facing accusations of censorship after the platforms blocked the streaming of an online seminar at San Francisco State University featuring Palestinian activist Leila Khaled (Sep 2020) https://www.democrac...tinian_activist

If you use something like Google Meet or Microsoft Teams, they have their own invitation system.

 

If you want something more secure, Jitsi Meet looks good: https://meet.jit.si/ -- it can also be self-hosted for even more privacy https://jitsi.org/jitsi-meet/.

 

Or you could just start a group PM here on the forum with everyone and ask what days/times they're available.

Edited by MaximilianKohler, 09 September 2024 - 08:45 PM.

[Mind]

Jitsi is okay for the meeting. I was thinking about something like Calendy for scheduling.

[MaximilianKohler]

The free version of Calendly is locked to 1-on-1 meetings https://calendly.com/pricing. I've never used software like this.

 

Alternatives: https://alternativet...tware/calendly/

 

Cal.com is an open-source alternative: https://cal.com/pricing - they say their free version is equal to Calendly's pro plan.

 

Notion might be an option https://www.notion.so/product/calendar.

 

BTW, if you update the forum software, one good thing to do is to clean up the URLs. I've heard that it improves SEO. For example, your current About page is longecity.org/forum/page/index2.html/_/feature/about instead of longecity.org/about. Redirects can be set up so the old URLs still work.

 

Edited by MaximilianKohler, 10 September 2024 - 07:11 PM.

[Mind]

I will have a good amount of time on my hands from September 18th through the 22nd to have a meet-up. Just a heads up. Check your schedules. I am on Central time US.

[MaximilianKohler]

For those days, late in the day or very early morning would probably be best for me.

[Mind]

On Wednesday, Thursday and/or Friday (18th/19th/20th) I could meet up around 7pm central time or around 7am, whichever works best.

[MaximilianKohler]

7pm central on the 18th should be fine. Are you going to create the Jitsi Meet link and share it via PM?

 

BTW, Google recently added a "forums" tab at the top of their search, So it appears that they don't want forums dying out either.