Why So Few People On Lit Net?

[LitNetIsGreat]

I'm registered on a primal/paleo forum where there are around 900+ people reading just one section at any one time. When I look at the 'general literature' section here there is usually something like 28 people on average. What's going on? I mean surely there are more people in the world who read books who are interested in discussing stuff about it than there are people who eat, and want to talk about, the palaeolithic diet? Just a thought. What am I missing?

I just did a search for 'reading forum' and found 11 whole users online right now. Am I missing something really obvious but where are all the book readers? :conehead:







...The first person to respond with 'reading books' gets a slap.

[Delta40]

Ok. There are more fat people sitting in front of their computers looking for answers than readers wanting to discuss literature....

[Charles Darnay]

Where are all the readers? Off reading. Look, call me elitist if you must, but I've always been a fan of the small communities of people who actually care. How many of those 900+ are just sitting around making dino-penis jokes? We have a very small amount of that here.

[Calidore]

General Literature is still only one small part. As I type this, that section has 33 viewing of 234 total users online. The Authors section has 70. At any rate, I'm not sure you're going to get any kind of accurate comparison by picking one section at random from each of two completely unrelated forums.

[Varenne Rodin]

I really was reading books, and working, and packing boxes for a move. I read over 5,000 pages in the last couple of months. I hope everyone comes back, though, if there really is a shortage of people here.

I had about a dozen really intelligent, book reading friends back when AOL was happening. When its popularity went away, I lost touch with all of them. I searched all over the internet trying to find them again. I found one here, but he had already been banned by the time I found him. Still, that search led me to a bunch of new bookish people to become pals with. I hope Litnet won't die. I hope that if it does I will find people again. Good post, Neely.

[JCamilo]

The mods here may have lost a bit of sensibility reggarding some issues, but to be fair with them, this is probally not the cause of any (if any) reduction of activity. Forums such as this are some of oldest internet communities, now they are pretty much losing space to other communities, where you can be more selective of our interaction such facebook, goodreads, etc. It is a bit like wondering why mIRC lost room with all IM that appeared. And finally, the activity depends more on regular members than Mods, who are a handful, often busy with something else than regular posting, to carry on alone enough activity to keep new and old members posting. (Well, Cacian will probally open 10 new threads tomorrow, one asking what new idea we can have for the forum, but Cacian is an exception despite being a one woman army :D )

[cacian]

The mods here may have lost a bit of sensibility reggarding some issues, but to be fair with them, this is probally not the cause of any (if any) reduction of activity. Forums such as this are some of oldest internet communities, now they are pretty much losing space to other communities, where you can be more selective of our interaction such facebook, goodreads, etc. It is a bit like wondering why mIRC lost room with all IM that appeared. And finally, the activity depends more on regular members than Mods, who are a handful, often busy with something else than regular posting, to carry on alone enough activity to keep new and old members posting. (Well, Cacian will probally open 10 new threads tomorrow, one asking what new idea we can have for the forum, but Cacian is an exception despite being a one woman army :D )

A one woman army!! LOL
:D

[Scheherazade]

I doubt Neely means that there is a drop in the Forum activities here (which there isn't as the Forum statistics indicate) but that in comparison to the Paleo Forum he attends, there is less activity here.

I feel he could stop spending so much time on the Paleo Forum and begin posting more often on this one. Those who agree, please raise your hands!

As for moderation being a cause for any drops in activity levels, considering that Logos and I have been the moderators on this Forum since its early days, I cannot see how this would change. This has always been a heavily moderated Forum. We started with 10 posts a day and now we get hundreds. However, it is true during the year, depending on holidays and exams, the post numbers fluctuate.

[LitNetIsGreat]

General Literature is still only one small part. As I type this, that section has 33 viewing of 234 total users online. The Authors section has 70. At any rate, I'm not sure you're going to get any kind of accurate comparison by picking one section at random from each of two completely unrelated forums.

It was just an example but I would have thought a forum about the 'Paleolithic diet' would have more of a niche potential audience than a literature forum!

Total users currently online:

Paleo forum: 1775
Sheffield forum: 996
Lit Net: 173

I hardly frequent the Sheffield forum because of it is largely full of morons, but anyway even that has loads more viewing and that also has an obvious niche market. One chess forum I'm on also has massive thread turnover, there are no viewing figures for that, but I would guess that is in the 1000s judging by that alone.

You know, when you talk about the whole of the internet and the fact that this forum covers a wide range of literature and art and music, I really don't think these numbers are that high at all. In fact they are woefully low. Consider also that this is THE biggest forum of its type on the internet. This is my point.

Charles gets the slap for mentioning 'reading' - I myself have been reading much more and not on here as a result but even so I think 173 and such like is extremely low. (Also how many of those are just trolling around for homework answers?)

The points about any recent changes may be well said but I wasn't specifically talking about this or a decline in numbers, I was talking about numbers in general - most users online ever 1197. That's only a shade more people than who are currently 'active' in the Sheffield forum and let's face it most of that potential audience are currently still in bed nursing a hangover and this is blasted away by the good people currently discussing the carb content of a banana over on the other. Are 'book readers' such a minority audience? I think not considering book sales, so where are they?

[cacian]

I doubt Neely means that there is a drop in the Forum activities here (which there isn't as the Forum statistics indicate) but that in comparison to the Paleo Forum he attends, there is less activity here.

I feel he could stop spending so much time on the Paleo Forum and begin posting more often on this one. Those who agree, please raise your hands!

As for moderation being a cause for any drops in activity levels, considering that Logos and I have been the moderators on this Forum since its early days, I cannot see how this would change. This has always been a heavily moderated Forum. We started with 10 posts a day and now we get hundreds. However, it is true during the year, depending on holidays and exams, the post numbers fluctuate.

Point raised indeed.

[JBI]

Which has more people, McDonalds or a book store. The same applies on the internet. Some places attract larger crowds. Literature is hardly a popular enterprise.

[kiki1982]

I would suggest that there are many more people in the world who would like to talk about trivial stuff or nothing (look at the popularity of facebook) rather than about interesting things. When they get home from work they want to watch nonsense on TV and not interesting stuff. OK, there are lighter sections on this forum and heavier ones, but it is still interestig stuff. Even the general chat has got some deep topics when compared to facebook, for example. Hence one of the reasons why I am not on facebook. I couldn't stand the stream of nonsense. Although I am sometimes tempted in order to keep contact with my few (almost ex-) friends in Belgium.

Look at this topic! We are asking ourselves the question why there are so few members compared to other sites! That's somethig most of facebook couldn't master.

In my search for a French lit forum, I have found half a decent one, but it is still less frequented and not by far as well managed as this one. Their structure is also a mess. Most of the things they discuss is about school and pretty shallow opinions about novels instead of good stuff, like we do here. Same for the Dutch ones. 'Oh, this novel is wonderful, isn't it.' 'Yes, I liked it.' 'Me too'. And that's where it literally ends.

I would suggest that the ability of people to have a serious conversation is woefuly lacking. Even discussions amogt professional people on LinkedIn are a disaster!

That's me, I'm a cynic. :D

[cacian]

Which has more people, McDonalds or a book store. The same applies on the internet. Some places attract larger crowds. Literature is hardly a popular enterprise.

Star Trek is. :D

[Emil Miller]

One of the problems inherent in literary forums is that they actually militate against reading, so that numerous readers are loathe to spend time talking about books they would rather be reading. How often have you read about the book pile that members have? I seldom have more than two at any given time but it takes me much longer to read them now than before I had a computer. Reading is still a major pastime for millions of people and it's possible that some of them, who might be prepared to discuss their hobby, don't know of LitNet's existence; I came upon it by accident, not because I was specifically looking for such a site.
As for the primal/paleo diet forum, nothing about it would induce me to join such a website as I find discussions about food tedious in the extreme but I'm fully aware that diets are an inexhaustible subject of interest for many women whose figure is of primary consideration regardless of any health benefits that may apply.

[LitNetIsGreat]

As for the primal/paleo diet forum, nothing about it would induce me to join such a website as I find discussions about food tedious in the extreme but I'm fully aware that diets are an inexhaustible subject of interest for many women whose figure is of primary consideration regardless of any health benefits that may apply.

Ha, ha, like it. You don't know what you're missing.

[Delta40]

Oh it's just women is it? You men are burning up the cals on porn sites. I forgot. :lol:

[Emil Miller]

Oh it's just women is it? You men are burning up the cals on porn sites. I forgot. :lol:

Looking at some of the beer bellies that blight the landscape, I don't think the porn sites are doing much good.

[Calidore]

Looking at some of the beer bellies that blight the landscape, I don't think the porn sites are doing much good.

It's not the bellies that are being exercised. I wouldn't arm-wrestle those guys.

[Admin]

Getting forum populations up is something I've struggled with.

This website gets massive traffic, 2 million unique people per month read the main site. The forums get a mere fraction of that. Why?

I blame myself largely because the forum has been slow in the past because of server issues. Though I do try to heavily integrate the forums with the main site and draw people in.

I think some of it is the difficulty in registering with email confirmations - this server's emails are often blocked by spam filters, people never get the confirmation email, and give up.

But also, a lot of the people are just looking for help on a specific (homework) issue, and when that is done, they're done. Or they visit the forums for a number of years but interests naturally progress to other things. I personally used to be active playing certain video games, in online communities for them, etc. I'm not anymore, also in webmaster forums, I'm not anymore. Life moves on.

But yes, I want more people using the forums, so stop talking about dinosaurs and talk more about books.

[Delta40]

I think you should blame yourself too Admin :toetap05:

[tonywalt]

I thought with the Facebook link that the membership and traffic would shoot up, and I do notice the introdutions thread is much busier - new members. The ratio of contributers/members to surfers is much higher on litnet.

Does the Admin have any stats or idea on how if any effect on new memberships affected by facebook link?

[AuntShecky]

If the LitNet lacks quantity, it makes up for it in quality.

[cacian]

All forums are like a wave they come and go, but I think Litnet will always have a niche of people who will always post regardless.
I have came across forums who have gone completely blank and even close down.
Lot of members of Litnet have been here since 1997/94 and still going strong. So yeah I think as AuntShecky says it is quality over quantity that matters. Size does not matter in this instance haha:D

[Emil Miller]

Despite literature being an esoteric subject for the general public, I have had over 14,000 visits to my forum site. Who are these people and why do they come here? Obviously they are not all from within the forum but is it a handful of Lit Net groupies waiting to see what's going to be written next, or is it an ongoing stream of visitors that latch on to the forum by chance before abandoning it for the next episode of Family Guy or whatever the current tele fad may be?

[Calidore]

All this time, and until Admin's post above, I never knew there was a a main site that this was part of. I thought the forum was the whole thing.

What keeps me here is the people and the variety of conversations and willingness to have fun. If this site was only for talking about serious literature seriously, I wouldn't have hung around either.

[Delta40]

I'm going to visit you now Emil to see what all the fuss is about!

[Emil Miller]

I'm going to visit you now Emil to see what all the fuss is about!

That's just it, there isn't any fuss. Unlike some members, I don't frequent much of the site except for General Literature, the Classical Music thread and some threads in the Serious Comments or General Chat sections. I do occasionally contribute a review of a novel but there are whole areas that I very rarely get involved in such as Forum Games, Philosophy, Religion , Poetry etc., although I do look in the Personal Poetry section from time to time because it's absolutely hilarious. Given that I use a relatively small part of the entire site, I don't know why those outside of the LitNet go to my home page as they do.