Why Can't This Board Attract New Members....

[My Looh]

It is not that site cannot attract new members. The real scandal is the jamaicans.com has lost so many members.

I would argue the opposite. Web forums lose members all the time. It's expected, people's interest change they move on. But the fact that no one can name a single board member that has joined in the last month, six months, year, two years that post regulah speaks volumes. This is not a place people want to come to chat, be they Jamaican or otherwise. It is either because the topics discussed are not of interest to many or we (as a group) are socially dysfunctional and inept. We certainly seem to suck at welcoming people to join us.

Just being honest!

[accompong]

I agree respect should be shown, but I observe the same suss suss happening on the site you are apart of of too

Contrary to your opinion, I am not a "part" of any site except my own. I post on another site because tourists are looking for help in making a good vacation happen. I used to do that here as well but it seems that no tourists want to come here to ask. That is why I left here some 5 years ago.

There are rules on that other site where I post and, in my opinion, very few of anyone's posts here would pass the smell test there.

You can all just keep doing what you are doing oblivious to what My Looh pointed out or you can post snarky answers to comments intended to help. That, my dear, is strictly up to you.

Peace and Guidance

[Xavier]

Love the feedback and honesty in this post. Please keep it coming. I know I am ultimately accountable and not blameless. I have made some mistakes and am always open to learn. As the discussion continues I want to explain the forum change and also make a comment about a change.

The new forum/design - I know it takes a while getting use to this and I resisted this for years. I loved the old forum software we used but the support and updated were not coming. The company was sold a few times and the last owner dropped support and everything else. We had been waiting 5 years for a software update that never came. The software needed to be updated as it had bugs that used alot of resources on a server. There were crashes on the database and just multiple technical issues I don't won't to bore many of you with. The new forum had many features that allow it to interact with social media that the old forum does not. There is even a plugin for mobile phones in the new version which I have resisted to upgrade to because it will be a new learning curve for everyone including me. The bottom line is I had to make this forum software change as my biggest fear was the database getting corrupted and losing everything on the forum.

Changes - This discussion is timely as I had a few changes I have been contemplating for the last 2 months. Before I mentioned the one of the changes I would like to make I want to go back to the past. The first generation of forums we had on Jamaicans.com were 2 board. One for Tourists and One for General Public. It worked well because let me honest, we Jamaicans speak our minds and can be very abrasive. I am not saying this is a bad thing it is just how we are and it has taken us to great heights around the world. On the other hand it can scare people away. That was the main reason I had 2 separate forums. It some point the interaction between the people on both board began to happen. The software we used back then also had some issues and you had thread crossing and errors. I made a decision to consolidate the board with new forum software. One of the things I believed was that Jamaicans.com could be different and give the true experience of people who travel to Jamaica hear from real Jamaicans. Maybe that was a mistake but it worked for while. There were some great friendships formed but there were also some great enemies. Bottom-line is the Travel/Tourist board are now dead because visitors and lovers of Jamaica are scared to say anything. Also the way people discuss things online has now changed due to social media and mobile phones. The segregation of topics which we have done no longer works in today's world. Even though on the forums you are username (not your real name) many of us are used to social media where I post a topic and not search for a relevant folders to post (like the first forums). Yes there are special groups in social media but the discussions turn into just about anything as people form relationships. With that said I will be doing some more consolidations of forums. We have too many.

I have some other ideas but want to see how this discussion continues. Again I love the feedback.

[accompong]

Thanks Xavier for coming in on this. I think it is timely as well.

There was a time when Xavier and I sat down and we laughed that a lot of tourists know more about Jamaica than a lot of Jamaicans do. Many have been to more places and experienced more of the diversity than the locals who do only a little traveling for pleasure and those who have since went affaren and only return once in a while and then mostly back to their hometown area.

Tourists, on the other hand, love the interaction with the locals and a good number of them also desire to experience all that Jamaica has to offer. These were a lot of the people who used to first come to the Tourist Board here and many went on to become somewhat regulars here. A good number of the people who used to post then were Jamaicans who became Moderators. I couldn't name all the fabulous Moderators but a few.... Wendy, Jazz, Ensome, etc. were participating in making tourists feel like they were part of the experience here.

But as time goes by, Moderators had to leave for one reason or another and new Moderators came aboard and had some big shoes to fill. In my opinion, many of those shoes were just too big to fill and the finely-tuned dynamic of Jamaican-Tourist interaction fell by the wayside.

Now, there are dynamic people posting on this site but as Xavier said "let me honest, we Jamaicans speak our minds and can be very abrasive." Other terms might be "opinionated", "misogynous", "racist" at different times and that coupled with the Patois, intimidates people outside the clique to join the posting. Some who do are then "talked down to" and made to feel as if they were not part of the party.

Please don't take this as an indictment on the Board or any of it's members. I am only trying, as Xavier wants, to add to the discussion. Perhaps this could be looked upon as an autopsy of sorts.

Xavier and a few others here are my friends and I don't want to ever hurt my friends. I only want what is best for them. Maybe no one has all the solutions but, perhaps, some of them might be somewhere in this post.

Peace and Guidance

[Peasie]

There is a lot of content in this thread and, to be honest, I have not read all of them in any depth

Just wanted to offer one point to consider. Traffic in Ja.com community is not limited to the Forums. There can be a whole lot of traffic in the ChatBox or Shoutbox or, fondly, SB.

SB is quick, jokes abound, issues resolved, some serious, some doan have a drap a sense Over the past four years since I have been a regular, I have seen folks in SB do the following:

1. Advise a young mother to take her baby to the ER immediately. She did and she reported back to the SB.
2. Offered career advice.
3. Advise what to wear on a first date.
4. Give out recipes. Comment on food choices.
5. Discuss breaking news, live TV shows
6. Welcome drop-ins
7. Feel up, hug up, bax dung, one annedda on a regular basis.
8. Etc. etc. if unno only know

So much goes on in SB. It is a fast and furious kind of place. And then, all the discussions are deleted in a short time so SB doesn't allow a boardite to think too deeply or stew on a topic. I reckon that's what the forums are for.

[Xavier]

There is a lot of content in this thread and, to be honest, I have not read all of them in any depth

Just wanted to offer one point to consider. Traffic in Ja.com community is not limited to the Forums. There can be a whole lot of traffic in the ChatBox or Shoutbox or, fondly, SB.

Great points. I follow the SB too and love it...it is a little fast at times but it is great. One of the reasons I think it is successful is because people are not limited to a specify forum to post a topic which is basically how we use the different forms of communication right now.

There are new members registering on the forums as I have to manually approved them. However many are not posting. There are quite a few lurkers...I mean alot of lurkers. Again this is a great discussion as it is giving me the feedback to try different things...

[Tropicana]

When you have a moment, look forward to your input on some issues here too Xavier:

http://www.jamaicans.com/forums/showthread.php?72895-What-is-the-purpose-of-a-discussion-board

[My Looh]

I'll second when I say thanks to X for entering the discussion. I think you are right, Maybe Jamaica's colonial past makes it difficult for tourist and Jamaicans to cross over to form friendships. We almost need three sections to this forum. One for Jamaicans and others to speak their minds freely and openly about anything and everything ( with a Jamaican feel), one section purely and stristly for IN-DEPTH tourist related talk and another section for both tourist and Jamaicans who want to discuss topics respectfully with the goal to encourage the development of relationships.

[Tuff Gong]

I would argue the opposite. Web forums lose members all the time. It's expected, people's interest change they move on. But the fact that no one can name a single board member that has joined in the last month, six months, year, two years that post regulah speaks volumes. This is not a place people want to come to chat, be they Jamaican or otherwise. It is either because the topics discussed are not of interest to many or we (as a group) are socially dysfunctional and inept. We certainly seem to suck at welcoming people to join us.

Just being honest!

No it was not so here.
The Mods and their gangs systematically. weeded out members, even following them to other boards, their workplaces, their homes and other places.

I can cite many specific examples, but I will just keep it broad.
There were three themes + crazy, running through this board.
The Brand Jamaica Police
The Religion Police
The Race Police
Then there were the crazy, unstable mods that clearly needed help.

Social Media Forums such a Facebook and Twitter actually made it easier to by pass this Board that has developed a reputation for ruining the lives of members

[Tropicana]

Well said Tuff Gong especially this part.I have cited 3 specific examples over the past couple of days and blu shared another.

The Mods and their gangs systematically. weeded out members, even following them to other boards, their workplaces, their homes and other places.

Some people have no life. This place is their life and when they feel threatened....they lash out and become highly vindictive.

[Xavier]

When you have a moment, look forward to your input on some issues here too Xavier:

http://www.jamaicans.com/forums/show...scussion-board

Been following the discussion there but did not see a specific question for me to respond to. The question about rss feeds and search engines seemed to be answered by others. Let me know.

[Tropicana]

Been following the discussion there but did not see a specific question for me to respond to. The question about rss feeds and search engines seemed to be answered by others. Let me know.

The question about posting people's private information has been answered. I had wanted your input on the protocol for involving individuals discussed in news stories in discussions. We have had 2 examples recently of vindictive board members alerting people involved in news stories or their relatives of discussions here strictly to spark a confrontation and stir up trouble. The cases are described in detail in the other discussion.

http://www.jamaicans.com/forums/showthread.php?72895-What-is-the-purpose-of-a-discussion-board

My feedback is that we need a protocol. While it is great to have guests, I do think these should be cleared and approved through an admin. Parameters and boundaries need to be clear up front at the beginning of a discussion. If it is a dialogue with a guest, boardites need to know this up front. Lonewolf admitted that he contacted a private citizen to spark a confrontation and he even posted her contact information without permission. He was wrong on both counts and this should not be taken as acceptable behaviour. To drag the subject of a news story into a discussion because a boardite is losing an argument or their nose is out of joint by views expressed is childish, vindictive and potentially dangerous. We know that the number of killings in our community is high and this could end up making someone a target because of views they have expressed.

[Xavier]

I'll second when I say thanks to X for entering the discussion. I think you are right, Maybe Jamaica's colonial past makes it difficult for tourist and Jamaicans to cross over to form friendships. We almost need three sections to this forum. One for Jamaicans and others to speak their minds freely and openly about anything and everything ( with a Jamaican feel), one section purely and stristly for IN-DEPTH tourist related talk and another section for both tourist and Jamaicans who want to discuss topics respectfully with the goal to encourage the development of relationships.

There is a time we actually considering doing that. In fact I have felt like putting a warning "Enter at your own risk" disclaimer on GD on many occasions so as not to scare people off when they see the "heated discussions" by the different users. Then I think if I do that it will draw attention to GD and people will only want to look. But when you see how many lurkers are watching the "heated" discussions ...

[accompong]

I'll second when I say thanks to X for entering the discussion. I think you are right, Maybe Jamaica's colonial past makes it difficult for tourist and Jamaicans to cross over to form friendships. We almost need three sections to this forum. One for Jamaicans and others to speak their minds freely and openly about the anything and everything ( with a Jamaican feel), one section purely and stristly for IN-DEPTH tourist related talk and another section for both tourist and Jamaicans who want to discuss topics respectfully with the goal to encourage the development of relationships.

I think this is a viable option. Somehow you have to allow the Tourist and Jamaicans room to express themselves without contamination. By that I mean, if a Jamaican wants to help a tourist then they can post information and leave the "expression their emotions" to a spot where others of the same ilk reside (i.e. Tourist, Jamaicans). Then the third would be a hybrid of sorts where some sort of moderation could be in place to keep it from degrading to the Jamaican Board. Perhaps threads could be transferred to and from these boards when the need arises to maintain civility.

In the "old days", j.com was noted for the best trip reports and advice for travelers. That, in my opinion, is what any modification of the present board system should strive to attain.

Peace and Guidance

[mountaingal]

The new forum/design - I know it takes a while getting use to this and I resisted this for years. I loved the old forum software we used but the support and updated were not coming. The company was sold a few times and the last owner dropped support and everything else. We had been waiting 5 years for a software update that never came. The software needed to be updated as it had bugs that used alot of resources on a server. There were crashes on the database and just multiple technical issues I don't won't to bore many of you with. The new forum had many features that allow it to interact with social media that the old forum does not. There is even a plugin for mobile phones in the new version which I have resisted to upgrade to because it will be a new learning curve for everyone including me. The bottom line is I had to make this forum software change as my biggest fear was the database getting corrupted and losing everything on the forum.

In the context of the question "why cant the board attract new members?" I sincerely think the design is a legitimate cause, specifically the listing of every post in a discussion. When you click on "What's new", it seems most of the time that there are only three posters on the board: Tropicana, Blugiant and admin, because they are the most prolific, and the listing of their individual posts for one or two discussions take up an entire page. So if I'm new here, i think the board doesn't have a lot of people on it, and they are only talking about a couple of things. Not appealing.

The value of the old design was that when you click on what's new or recent activity, you saw a greater variety of active discussions to pique your curiosity and tempt you into participation. If there's a way that this can be brought back in the current software (latest active discussions, not latest post), i think we may get somewhere.

Not that all the other points folks raise don't have a role to play as well.