Recovering/recruiting old experienced members

[John27]

I came back after an extended break. I joined in 2010, had some good experiences, had some bad. Didn't 'leave' so much as, kind of lost interest, didn't get any value out of posting pictures for C&C, and it was difficult to post any questions because if they were any way similar to something that has been asked before, I'd get flamed for it. The problem is, if you don't know exactly what you are looking for, you aren't likely to find it in the sea of threads! Anyway, over time I just stopped coming around, and figured I could get just as much out of 'lurking' and using other forums. But, I did notice a change of attitude in recent months, and decided to come back. Glad I did, got a lot of great info. Still a few useless comments, but whatever, I don't mind that at all as long as there is SOME value in posting. That's really what it came down to; is there anything I could give, and is there anything I could get out of these forums? The answer used to be no to both, now it's yes to both.

For what it's worth, I think others will come back too if the environment continues to move in a positive direction. I don't think you necessarily need to send a mass e-mail or anything, just keep cultivating and culminating a positive, growth-encouraging environment.

On the subject of intermediate, I don't know... I mean I feel like being an advanced-beginner (not quite intermediate, not quite beginner), makes me fit in MUCH better than when I was a newbie asking questions about my first DSLR. I learn a lot more now, AND, I actually have SOME knowledge to give back to other brand-new beginners who hop on. I certainly can't comment on how those with more experience feel, but when I first came around, I felt like this wasn't a beginner friendly place. When I look at it now, I see an improvement, but I don't quite yet see it as 'beginner friendly'. It's certainly not new-professional friendly, but, that's to be understood with the competition in the photography field. I wouldn't expect any less. The problem is, sometimes those attitudes from the pro-level competition leak out onto ANY beginner, even those with no professional aspirations.

If it means anything, in my first several months on this forum I had about 30ish posts. Now, here, in the last 6 weeks(?) or so, I'm up to 250. There's a lot more for me to talk about now. I don't know if it's me, or the forum, but I think it's a little of both.

-John

Edit: In re-reading some of the other responses- you know, I really am not surprised by large groups leaving without a word. It was that way with me. Nothing ever upset me or made me mad, nothing ever made me say 'I quit' or made me want to give someone a piece of my mind. It's just, the environment wasn't really positive, and there wasn't much for me. So it kind of makes sense, you eventually just kind of 'lose interest' in the forum. Not that you get angry and leave, it's just... you fade away I guess? Certainly what happened with me!

 

[Derrel]

I think that much of the improvement in the "feel" around here is precisely BECAUSE so many people left. Many of the personalities that I can recall were quite abrasive, and caused a lot of friction. I think that this forum benefitted through the process of subtraction.

 

[terri]

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.

Oh Lew - I did look before I replied! That's how I found out that the email setup was outdated and perhaps not of much interest to the current ownership. There is a new plugin that has not been activated, and the embedded vB email still has Chase's TPF email as the admin contact. I showed "respect for your interest" by checking into the setup before I replied, and duly noted that the email situation would require some work before we could think of moving ahead. Your attacks are not very nice, as I managed several small businesses myself for over 20 years, had many staff, and was highly successful with low employee turnover - I know what I'm doing. I'm trying to explain that it's a bit much to ask for something on such a large scale that actually could be handled by a few interested members, especially if you had some folks in mind. You are the one who had a knee-jerk response by claiming your own effort wouldn't "have authority" (although why that would be needed isn't clear) and that it wasn't time effective. Yet, you can send out an email to several folks at once, so why wouldn't it work just as well? A forum email system that's not up to date could suffer from a mass mailing to 137,000 users. Please don't take a simple fact as a personal "slap in the face", or use it as a reason to bash the moderators.

The forum email system is there if you want to regularly send out newsletters, product updates to customers, etc. We're not that business model. I do encourage you to come up with a list of people and I will be glad to help you craft an email if you'd like. I'm not trying to squash your enthusiasm for this project, I promise - just find a smaller scale method to do it. Okay?

 

[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.

Oh Lew - I did look before I replied! That's how I found out that the email setup was outdated and perhaps not of much interest to the current ownership. There is a new plugin that has not been activated, and the embedded vB email still has Chase's TPF email as the admin contact. I showed "respect for your interest" by checking into the setup before I replied, and duly noted that the email situation would require some work before we could think of moving ahead. Your attacks are not very nice, as I managed several small businesses myself for over 20 years, had many staff, and was highly successful with low employee turnover - I know what I'm doing. I'm trying to explain that it's a bit much to ask for something on such a large scale that actually could be handled by a few interested members, especially if you had some folks in mind. You are the one who had a knee-jerk response by claiming your own effort wouldn't "have authority" (although why that would be needed isn't clear) and that it wasn't time effective. Yet, you can send out an email to several folks at once, so why wouldn't it work just as well? A forum email system that's not up to date could suffer from a mass mailing to 137,000 users. Please don't take a simple fact as a personal "slap in the face", or use it as a reason to bash the moderators.

The forum email system is there if you want to regularly send out newsletters, product updates to customers, etc. We're not that business model. I do encourage you to come up with a list of people and I will be glad to help you craft an email if you'd like. I'm not trying to squash your enthusiasm for this project, I promise - just find a smaller scale method to do it. Okay?

Perhaps if you had mentioned that the system didn't easily allow this, I would Have understood that.
It doesn't seem feasible for me or a group of people to go through a member list of 180,000 people, looking for people who have a bunch of posts, then look them up and see if they haven't been active for a while and then send them an email and then track this effort. That certainly seems an effort with no fair return.
That's why databases were created, to automate difficult, repetitive tasks with low response rate.

If the system doesn't allow it, I understand.

 

[terri]

As you wish. My offer stands if there is anyone you can think of you'd like to reach out to.

 

[KmH]

Actually, I've noticed several members that have returned recently after having been inactive for quite some time.

 

[The_Traveler]

perhaps an organized effort would energize more.

 

[panblue]

I suggest this:

a small committee

Presiding over a two-tier community of VIP 'returnees' and others?

 

[panblue]

The debate is entirely academic from my own POV; I'm leaving anyway. There are some nice people here and I wish you all success. Cheers!

 

[KmH]

perhaps an organized effort would energize more.

Terri already covered that issue for you.

 

[kathyt]

Oh, I know, the girls of TPF could all meet up, on the dime of the "guys of TPF", in NYC and put together a special video medley to recruit old members! There will be singing, dancing, and pillow fighting. So we need 7 days total. 6 days for shopping and prepping for the shoot and 1 day for the actual shoot! Sound fair? Great idea traveler.

 

[DannyLewis]

You just looking for a free vacation!!

Oh, I know, the girls of TPF could all meet up, on the dime of the "guys of TPF", in NYC and put together a special video medley to recruit old members! There will be singing, dancing, and pillow fighting. So we need 7 days total. 6 days for shopping and prepping for the shoot and 1 day for the actual shoot! Sound fair? Great idea traveler.

 

[dewey]

As someone who "left"... and then recently "returned" I can say sure - it's a good idea. I "left" the forum for several years because I had had enough of what was going on, and I realized how much time I was wasting on the forum. I was learning a lot, but at the same time I was spending time I should have been building my business arguing with strangers. I didn't post one of the "cry me a river/look at me threads I'm leaving" threads that the cool kids leave, I just stopped participating. The choice was mine, and it was one I was happy with.

Fast forward to a few weeks back. I was googling something, and the thread took me to the TPF site. I thought - damn this looks familiar. I think I'm a member here. Sure enough I found my password, logged in, and BAM. Truth be told after being gone for a few months I forgot all about TPF. It's been fun getting back into the forums. For me the time off was necessary, but it wasn't due to any one event. I think all forums are like that. you can only discuss the same things with the same people for so long before you kind of cycle.

From an opinion perspective - sure - a mass email would be a nice way to remind people who have strayed about TPF. Member retention is forums 101, and I'm sure the fine folks who run TPF know all about it. I'm sure they have analytics to tell them in detail who is doing what, for how long, when and google is even pretty good at the why LOL.

VBulletin is integrated with a mass mail setup now, but it's not free. You can also 3rd party blast people with spam, err a "newsletter" but it's not free either. So basically you're asking TPF to spend money to reach out to these "orphaned" members. As I said I think it's a good idea, but then again it's spending money on something that may or may not have a reasonable ROI for the company. This is, after all, a business.

Interesting topic, but it's not as clear cut as it first appears.

 

[kathyt]

You just looking for a free vacation!!

Oh, I know, the girls of TPF could all meet up, on the dime of the "guys of TPF", in NYC and put together a special video medley to recruit old members! There will be singing, dancing, and pillow fighting. So we need 7 days total. 6 days for shopping and prepping for the shoot and 1 day for the actual shoot! Sound fair? Great idea traveler.

Oh no, of coarse not. I would never do that. Did I forget to mention to add one day in there for wine tasting?

 

[Tee]

Oh no, of coarse not. I would never do that. Did I forget to mention to add one day in there for wine tasting?

I stopped reading at pillow fight.