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Doesn't Anybody Cook?

K

KYHeirloomer

Guest
Since joining a short while ago, one thing has struck me about this forum: the relative silence.

There are currently 239 members. But, based on the activity, there may as well be only what? Six of us?

And it's not like the rest of you aren't listening. If you look at the number of views each thread gets, then compare that to the number of responses, it's kind of scary.

In one case there are more than 300 views of a thread with only three comments. Typical numbers are 150+ views to a half dozen posts.

I belong to several forums and message boards, and have never run into this sort of activity before. Sure, there are always lurkers. But not in the ratio of this forum. So I'm really curious about it.

Do most of you not cook? Or are there other reasons why you are reading the posts, but not participating?
 
Don't forget - too many "guests" that just sit back and do nothing - no participation from any of them and for some reason - will not join a site. Sometimes I feel that guests should not be able to view recipes - this way they can join and hopefully participate as well. It is frustrating that there aren't more participating.
 
Mama, I'm sure you're right that many of those views come from guests, who are merely gleaning information and stealing recipes.

But even so. With 239 registered members I would expect a little activity other than the half dozen of us who seem to be posting regularly.

On most forums I'm familiar with, 7-10 percent of members post regularly, along with those who post from time to time. The rest, obviously, are lurkers. Which means we should be seeing from 15-25 regular posters, plus the occasional others.

What we're seeing is about 2% regular posters.

That's why I'm so puzzled. The folks who do post seem to be interesting, enjoyable people with a passion for food and cookery. So my problem isn't with what gets posted. It's that there aren't enough posters sharing their thoughts, views, recipes and ideas.

Maybe some of the others will see this thread and explain it to me.
 
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Lets not forget some of these views are from spiders (i.e. google, yahoo) indexing the page, they use many different IP's. Other views may be results in a search engine where someone is looking for a specific topic and for whatever reason ends them here even if they are not looking for cooking information.

Also, some people just quick look up recipes, grab them, and go on their way making dinner.
 
BTW - many are intimidated when the forum is really active with very knowledgable cooks expressing different things. They really shouldn't be - everyone has their own degree of cooking knowledge and it is nothing to be ashamed of. The recipes offered on this site are relatively easy and very good - and more participation is expected. Many of us have been cooking forever and have much to share and enjoy doing so - too bad they won't join in. But then again - you can't force them. I still say lurkers should have to join and also - before they can view a recipe they should contribute one!
 
I too find it odd. The recipe of the week post for Oatmeal Bran Muffins had more than 3000 views in the week it was the recipe of the week. That's huge and can't be just spiders.

Between the three of the most skilled active cooks here, there is experience to answer just about any question on cooking.

The user base too is clean, I watch it and delete the russian and philippine spammers often.

Matt
 
just a thought - why join when they can get what they want for nothing??

think about it - the active members are feeding these leeches!

if they had to join - they would spend time here - and if they had to post a recipe in order to join - one that the active members would comment about - they would come back to see - curiosity killed the cat!

just my 2 cents

(off the soap box Mama.........)
 
No offense. I like the original blue look of the forum and had set that in the user cp to be my style.
 
I came in after the change, so can't really comment. Except that I'm familiar with the V-Bulletin format from other forums. I think it's six of one, half a dozen of another, frankly.

Let me ask this. Were there proportionately more people posting in the old format? My guess would be no. But only the Admin knows for sure.

As to the join-to-view. I'm at best semi-literate with these things. But I know at yahoogroups you can set things up so that potential members can view only the last X posts. A teaser, as it were. Maybe you could do the same here.

But that, I believe, isn't the main problem. We have a solid membership base, in terms of numbers. The question is, why aren't they participating?
 
Matt,

Is it possible for you to send an email survey to the members? Set up up in the form of a poll, to find out why they aren't participating; what they'd like to see added to the forum; what they'd like to see dropped.

Maybe that, at least, would provide a clue?
 
I can send an email survey out. I've never done that so will need to learn a couple things. Would someone want to volunteer to receive a test email so I don't do something dumber then normal the first time?

Matt
 
There is one issue when blocking content to unregistered users and that is the hit you take in the search engine. I do not remember the particular recipe, but I found this site via a search engine. Had that data not been there, would I be here now?

I do not think it is a good idea to withhold content.

You could do other things, like making registration required before they could use the Vbulletin search form, or to view attachments/pictures.
 
I like the blue look - but I figured the old eyes found more comfort with the blue - but it doesn't matter - it's blue now and I am quite content!
 
Maybe I need a little help in what I should be asking!

I'm thinking it could start out:

<snip>
Hi, You're a registered user of the Spice Place Cooking Forum and we'd a like a moment of your time to ask you some questions about your experience with our forum.
</snip>

Now, here's where I get stuck. Do I imbed questions in the email and read responses. Or should we set up a survey somewhere so it gets tabulated automatically?

I can think of some basic questions like:
Is the forum easy to use?
Is the community friendly?
Dod you find a recipe you like?
Why did you join?
How often do you stop by?
Do you often check in but don't participate? If so, why not?


Anyone have any other suggestions?

Matt
 
Matt, ever been to a presentation where the speaker says, "I'm not really the best qualified person to discuss this topic."

Your suggested opening is as off-putting.

You're not conducting a scientific study. What you're trying to do is find out why your friends haven't written to you lately. And lawd, do they owe you a letter. So keep it light. And get right to the point; otherwise they'll think you're trying to sell them something.

Off the top of my head, something like:

"Dear Spice Place member,

When you joined our community of nearly 250 kitchen enthusiasts we thought we'd be hearing from you a lot. Turns out, we hardly hear from you at all.

We know you have something to contributute; everybody does. So we're wondering if, perhaps, your lack of participation has something to do with the forum design?

Could you take a minute and let us know why you don't post on the various forums and threads?

Some possible reasons:

You feel you have no knowledge on the subject.
You just want to collect recipes.
The "experts" who post are intimidating to you.
The forums are hard to navigate.
Topics aren't interesting.
Lack of time.

Lot's of other reasons, I'm sure. But if there's a problem, we want to fix it. But, mostly, we want you as an active member. So tell us how we can get you more involved.

In addition to explaining why you don't post, could you answer these specific questions:

Is the forum easy to use?
Is the community friendly?
Did you find a recipe you like?
Why did you join?
How often do you stop by?

I appreciate you taking the time to help us make Spice Talk Cooking Forum a better place.

(signed)"
 
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Thank you! That's great. Let's see if there are any other comments. If there aren't I'll send this out around 3pm EDT today.

Matt
 
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