Recovering/recruiting old experienced members

[The_Traveler]

TPF used to have its share or more of real jerks and the place was certainly less welcoming and way less fun.

Subsequently a great many experienced and useful members left.

Now there seems to be a new good ambiance but these older, 'left' members have no way of knowing this,

Individuals can't run a bring-back-the-good-guys campaign because we can't sort the database and send a mass mailing - but the ADMINs can.


I suggest this:

The admins/mods designate a small committee to write a welcome-back post, including testimonials from some current members

Then the admins/mods do one of the following"

1) Sort the member database to generate a list of those who have >1000 posts, haven't been active for 6 months and haven't been banned (or similar criteria of your choice) and send them this welcome back email.

or if 1) isn't possible

2) send email to everyone on the member list.


People left for reasons; lots of those reasons are gone.
Let's tell them about that and welcome them back.

Lew

 

[pixmedic]

if the plan hinges on the admin/mods sending out emails to all those people....I don't think it is likely to happen. good idea though.

TPF, now with a kinder, gentler machine gun hand

 

[The_Traveler]

if the plan hinges on the admin/mods sending out emails to all those people....I don't think it is likely to happen. good idea though.

Depends on their software setup.
It could be as easy as sending a single email or as much as requiring a SQL sort, etc.

I think it's worth an ask.

 

[pixmedic]

if the plan hinges on the admin/mods sending out emails to all those people....I don't think it is likely to happen. good idea though.

Depends on their software setup.
It could be as easy as sending a single email or as much as requiring a SQL sort, etc.

I think it's worth an ask.

if they could set up as a mass-mail, then yea, it wouldn't be too bad. definitely worth an ask anyway.

 

[Overread]

I'm pretty certain we can send a mass email - I've no idea however if its possible to only send it to users who haven't been logged on within X amount of time and with Y posts to their name or more.


Furthermore I'm not even sure if this would have the reaction you expect it to - I'd be hard pressed to word a mass email which says "we are better now - please come back" without it sounding begging (even if it didn't sound begging I'm sure many would interpret it as such). Though we could likely do a typical "You've not been logged in in ages, why not come back" type of approach - but honestly most people that get an email like that tend to think of it more as spam than anything else.

I think if users want to bring back some old members of the site then its best that they try to approach those they remember themselves - member to member. I suspect that it would have a much better reception than a mass spam email being sent by the admin.

Also lets not forget that for all the members we have lost over the years we've also gained a great many new ones - and there are many more we can still attract. If users are keen to attract more higher grade photographers then please suggest ideas and start up threads/concepts to promote this. We've an easy time promoting the site for new photographers, though a harder time retaining more advanced shooters; even though we have many established and highly skilled photographers (heck half the time its trouble enough just to get some of those high profile photographers to show their pictures on the site ).

 

[terri]

It's possible, but our mass email settings don't look current to me. It also takes time to set up criteria so the server doesn't become overwhelmed, plus where to direct failed/bounced addresses, etc. If you are thinking of people who left because they were that unhappy, they could have just as easily put some bogus address in their account precisely to ward off such an endeavor. By and large, it's a big undertaking just to try to scare up a dozen or so folks.

Lew, I appreciate your thought process. You may want to think of specific folks you're missing and see if you can find them on FB or another photography forum. Or chat with others still here and see who remembers whom. It could prove to be a worthy project, plus one with a potentially more realistic outcome.

 

[The_Traveler]

I'm a little surprised, and disappointed, by the responses from the Mods.

Rather than postulating ideas why things won't/might not work, I would have hoped that the response would be to have a little more detailed look at what it would take to do it and then make a cost/benefit analysis.

There doesn't seem to be much downside to investigate.

 

[480sparky]

I think terri listed a lot of 'downsides'.

 

[The_Traveler]

I think terri listed a lot of 'downsides'.

No, those are 'possible' downsides, right off the top.

It may not be difficult to set up or do.
It might be easy to output a list to a mail server and feed the emails 1000/hours and have them bounce to email account.
When I had a company and someone came to me with an idea to make the company better, I actually respected their interest and intent and looked into it before responding.
What I didn't do was immediately list all the reasons the idea might not work, until I actually has investigated, because knee-jerk pessimism is a slap in the face to any urges to improve.

 

[480sparky]

So you're volunteering?

 

[The_Traveler]

I said I'd help to work in any way; writing PMs to individual members isn't time effective and has no authority.

 

[Tee]

I like to lurk in the film forum and when I go way back in threads I'm always amazed that there were members with 4-6,000 posts and then suddenly vanished (looking at previous posts there doesn't seem to be any indicators of leaving). There were two time periods of mass exodus that stood out the most: 2007 and late 2009. What caused the big leave in 2007? Was that when the site was bought out or was it because that was the year that digital DSLR's really shot up in sales?

 

[pixmedic]

its like archeology...digging through layers...looking back through history..
long active members suddenly vanishing without warning (or at least a flounce thread)
mass exodus of 2007 and 2009...its a mystery!

 

[bentcountershaft]

First Roanoke Island. Then TPF. Time to dig out my tin foil hat.

 

[Overread]

I've no idea about the 2007 "event" (even if there was one) but the site did change sometime around 2009 to the new owners. That said most of the confusion then was a lack of proper communication going on; somewhere along the lines the communication broke down between the new admin and the members and a good few took it as the last nail to leave. That said a good few who did leave were also having other problems or teething troubles on the site (or just feeling that they'd reached intermediate and learnt all that TPF could teach them). So it wasn't so much a full rebellion as just the last in a series of viewpoints that was as good as any a trigger for some to move on.


That said quite a few still poke their heads in from time to time; TPF just isn't their main site anymore. It's a sad fact, but honestly even with the general improvement in tolerances and manners the site still needs that special "something" to more strongly promote intermediate to advanced discussions.