Newcomers Welcome! Here is my Gift to You

[Dobber]

Trying something new here.

But if you are a member of another baseball forum community, I will give you +50 Rep AND I will give you full credit for each of your posts in the other forum community.

Here is what you need to do:

1. Post something in this forum. Anywhere, about anything (preferably baseball).
2. PM me and tell me your user name at the other site and tell me which other site.

I will then go take a look at your user name there, confirm that it is indeed you, and then change your post count here to match that of the other forum. AND give you +50 Rep points to get you on your way.

Happy posting! And thank you for giving this a shot.

[beaker]

It's a nice gesture, and appreciate your efforts to get people on here.

Is it that there are a lot of people not posting, or not even registered? What's the traffic like? Also, will this encourage people to keep active on here? I think that is the key - not only getting new people on here but getting more new/partially new/more regular members more active on the site. To be a devil's advocate, I'm skeptical that rep and post count will make much of a difference.

Have you had any feedback from new users in general about the site? Could it be lack of awareness? Could it be paying for a guide that can be obtained for free elsewhere? I don't question the quality, I just wonder the combination of a new-ish site, a site more associated with hockey and paying for something might not be the more enticing way to bring people in. Maybe some kind of discount on the guide for some new users over a period of time? To get them in and check out the quality?

Anyway, just a few thoughts. Keep up the good work. Looking forward to becoming more active once the baseball season starts to draw near.

EDIT: I realise that the forum and guide are different things, and that they could use the site for free. But I wonder if people are sticking to more established sites with more traffic and information. But if you offer a quality guide at a discount (or even free for a short time), it might get a few more people in and in realising the quality, will use the forums more often.

If I can think of anything else, will post it here.

[Dobber]

We get people rolling in here, but it turns out to be eight or nine - and then as soon as two or three of them get busy, then the other five or six start losing interest...and then when the season ended it stopped. Now with fastdogz, Bleed Cub Blue, Hootie and Mike Schmidt going, I'm doing what I can to get five or six more. At that point, when the forum is fresh and active, then any newcomers who come by will be more inclined to post. That's the theory, anyway.

Not after guide sales. I'm after forum activity. If this forum had a base of a dozen hardcore users, it will snowball and in a year's time that number will be 100+. After that, 1000+. And once there are 1000+ active members I can worry about things like guide sales. I don't want to shut down DobberBaseball - not after all the time and money and work put into it by myself, Snyder, Ang, Status and Schmidt.

[beaker]

Ok thanks. Perhaps use 'The Lounge' on the hockey forum to promote articles/subjects being discussed here? So, if there is something topical going on, or perhaps fantasy based articles (e.g. the 'who should be #1 next season' thread) that might get people interested. Or instead of just the twitter updates, but the writers could promote their new articles there as well?

Also, do you know where new people find out about this site? Do they mostly come from the Dobber brand, or elsewhere? Maybe when people join you have them tell you where they heard about it?

I'll keep brainstorming.

[Dobber]

It's dobberhockey, and those guys have already seen this site and made their judgment, or Google ad words

[charlesf3]

I just found out about your site this a.m. and looked around and joined. Looks like a very informative and sharing forum. Happy to be here!

[Jersey Girl]

I just found out about your site this a.m. and looked around and joined. Looks like a very informative and sharing forum. Happy to be here!

Welcome aboard!!