20-05-2004 08:19									#1
	Is Apolyton Retaining New Members? Browse Apolyton AD-FREE

Is Apolyton Retaining New Members?

It seems Apolyton is recruiting new members at an amazingly fast pace, faster than ever. And yet, the same 20-100 people seem to be the ones doing the vast majority of the posting.

Are many of these newbies remaining with the site? Or are they being intimidated away by an ever increasingly self-referential group of 'quasi-elites?'

I don't know the exact data numbers of remaining registerees who came in January, etc. but as far as I can see, with a few notable exceptions such as HongHu, they are posting quite seldomly.

The trend seems to be 1 or 2 posters posting in the 1000's and the vast majority posting in the 0's and 1's as opposed to the elder days when 1 or 2 posted in the 1000's, and 20 posted in the 100's and 150 posted in the 50's and the rest posted in the 1's and 0's

Now, of course, I might be mistaken, and the newbies might just be buried in the morass of 10-20 posters posting 20 times in every thread, but if anyone has any experiential or quantifiable data to oppose my statements with, I would please ask people to think about the possible reprecussions resulting from my claim.

Thank You,
DarkCloud

	20-05-2004 08:28									#2
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n00bs sux!



---

Eh... I'd say part of it is the lack of Civ stuff (even though we got RoN, this IS a Civ site first). The newbies came in droves during Civ3. And yes, it may also be a quasi-elite culture where any new person to the OT is 'welcomed' with:

DL! DL!

Which can't be all that welcoming.

	20-05-2004 08:31									#3
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How new do you mean? I have only been here for one year....

	20-05-2004 08:32									#4
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DL's rock by the way

	20-05-2004 08:50									#5
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I've only been an active member in the last couple months...

...although I did join a year ago and I've lurked here occasionally since... 1999?

Wow. I guess I'm not that new here, afterall!

	20-05-2004 09:30									#6
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You will find any major sites will have roughly a third of their "members" having never posted even once, regardless of the culture of the place or friendliness of welcoming.

And remember when you were new here? For me, the thought of posing was intimidating. I didn't post very much at all. My ppd after 5 days was 0.2

Some of the new people will stay, many will leave. It is the nature of things.

	20-05-2004 09:40									#7
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quote: Originally posted by Skanky Burns You will find any major sites will have roughly a third of their "members" having never posted even once, regardless of the culture of the place or friendliness of welcoming. And remember when you were new here? For me, the thought of posing was intimidating. I didn't post very much at all. My ppd after 5 days was 0.2 Some of the new people will stay, many will leave. It is the nature of things.

The thought of posing was intimidating for me too

	20-05-2004 11:39									#8
	Increase the size of your Attachments

some newbies just aren't qualified to be master spammers.

But their opinion is welcome anytime. I think we retain some of them.

The retention rate is probably the same as it has always been. Around 5% I'd say.

	20-05-2004 12:36									#9
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When I register some place new, I register to post

Last time I got to a 'new' forum (Which works ), I posted about 100 posts within the first 24 hours... slowly my PPD went down, and now I don't visit the site anymore...

	20-05-2004 15:08									#10
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I would love it to see the number of people that has joined since, say january 2004.........

	20-05-2004 15:09									#11
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I mean: logged in, not joined in.

	20-05-2004 15:45									#12
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Last I checked, 58% of CFC members have zero posts ...

Oddly, it was weeks from I started posting on OT and the first time anyone accused me of being a DL ...

	20-05-2004 15:53									#13
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Most of them are DLs to boost referral counts.

	20-05-2004 16:47									#14
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lots of ways to encourage people to get involved

Attachment: meetings.jpg
This has been downloaded 231 time(s).

	20-05-2004 17:08									#15
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I think it was Locutus who had a nice chart on new members..........maybe he'll post it again.

I think you are right there may be less people joining now, but it's to be expected as the release of Civ3 was 2 and a half years ago now, and expansions don't bring as many new members.

Civ4 will bring many new members to the site.

I don't think there is evidence of what new posters there are having a lower chance of staying though.

	20-05-2004 17:13									#16
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quote: Originally posted by Paddy the Scot lots of ways to encourage people to get involved

From our friends at www.despair.com:

	20-05-2004 17:32									#17
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Excuse my ignorance, but what's a "DL"?

But surely frequency of posting is not a particularly telling statistic? Doesn't it depend more on what and where you post? I've recently started playing PBEM, which of course increases posting rates quite considerably through the tracking threads. This doesn't necessarily mean you are contributing more to the community.

Back to topic - if the consensus of opinion is that newer members are being scared off by a perceived "quasi-elite", perhaps Apolyton should look at opening a new forum specifically for newbs to get acquainted with things.

	20-05-2004 17:34									#18
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You'll find the answer and more here: http://apolyton.net/forums/showthre...threadid=115142

	20-05-2004 18:19									#19
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Ah I see, thanks. So basically it's an excuse for poly elitists to form a little club to get their post tallies up

	20-05-2004 18:22									#20
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not quite sure how a DL would get someones post count up

also a bit lost on the poly elitists bit?
there are lots of great forums here, lots of different threads, and a vaste array of opinions, games, stories, and community all over the shop... am I missing the point

	20-05-2004 18:22									#21
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Well, the DL dance has become a tradition, and posts don't count in the OTF, so it doesn't really matter.

	20-05-2004 18:31									#22
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quote: Originally posted by Aqualung71 Ah I see, thanks. So basically it's an excuse for poly elitists to form a little club to get their post tallies up

Its an elitist club, but doesn't serve to boost post counts. Alas.

	20-05-2004 18:32									#23
	Avatar Enlargement: We've got the solution

I think the "Elitism" is pretty much confined to the OTF. And the only thing you need to get accepted down there is a bit of perserverance and a high ego/brains ratio.

	20-05-2004 18:42									#24
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quote: Originally posted by Zopperoni From our friends at www.despair.com:

	20-05-2004 18:44									#25
	Remove this text

I never got the DL dance when i first posted in OT.


But then I think I was a prince when I first posted there.

Cause I actually joined poly to post about Civ, wonder of wonders.

	20-05-2004 18:48									#26
	Increase Your PM Length

quote: Originally posted by lord of the mark I never got the DL dance when i first posted in OT. But then I think I was a prince when I first posted there. Cause I actually joined poly to post about Civ, wonder of wonders.

Civ - what is civ

* Paddy the Scot pours a cold beer

	20-05-2004 22:21									#27
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quote: is a bit of perserverance and a high ego/brains ratio.

Ego: sure, need lots of it

Brains :

	20-05-2004 22:30									#28
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Post counts went out way back but I still think they should count.

	20-05-2004 22:30									#29
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Brains definately help. See MtG in a debate if you want to see how effective intelligence can be. But ego is nice to have there too.

	20-05-2004 23:36									#30
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Do I count as a n00b?

Yes, Honghu might be a n00b, but I still have close to 2.3K posts in a little over a year.

Plus I post mainly OT now, so my ppd would be far higher if I did not.