This is actually getting kind of critical.

So I know we more or less have an archive of info/knowledge here as well as a place for the residual members of the constellation chamber to chat, and this place will hang around even if it falls totally silent (I'm not going to ever delete it/close it off), but the fact that we're not getting any new members whatsoever means that the place will die for sure.

This troubles me somewhat, as the forum has decent traffic -- about 10 ~ 20 entirely new IPs look here daily. Googlebot keeps this place indexed. This forum is listed in several forum listings. But one of two things happen:

1) The visitors don't register.

2) The visitors register but never post, and seem to forget about the accounts in their entirety.

And I'm not sure why this is the case. Are we such a old and close-knit group that it intimidates new people and drives them off?

One thing that really bothers me is how everyone found the forum through Nova's site in the first place and she completely got rid of the link to it. I don't give a shit that the forum has nothing to do with her anymore -- shouldn't that disclaimer page saying "This forum is a mirror that is not connected to Nova in any way shape or form" that replaces the old forum be enough? I mean, she's single-handedly doomed whatever chance it had of growing. Beheaded the creature.

Enough bitching and moaning from me though, how do you guys feel about this? Are you fine with the occasional exchange of posts, or are you wanting fresh blood and new faces? And if the latter, do you have any suggestions? I'm thinking of looking into actually getting some affiliates and forking out some money if demand is high enough.

Dinny wrote:So I know we more or less have an archive of info/knowledge here as well as a place for the residual members of the constellation chamber to chat, and this place will hang around even if it falls totally silent (I'm not going to ever delete it/close it off), but the fact that we're not getting any new members whatsoever means that the place will die for sure.

This troubles me somewhat, as the forum has decent traffic -- about 10 ~ 20 entirely new IPs look here daily. Googlebot keeps this place indexed. This forum is listed in several forum listings. But one of two things happen:

1) The visitors don't register.

2) The visitors register but never post, and seem to forget about the accounts in their entirety.

And I'm not sure why this is the case. Are we such a old and close-knit group that it intimidates new people and drives them off?

One thing that really bothers me is how everyone found the forum through Nova's site in the first place and she completely got rid of the link to it. I don't give a shit that the forum has nothing to do with her anymore -- shouldn't that disclaimer page saying "This forum is a mirror that is not connected to Nova in any way shape or form" that replaces the old forum be enough? I mean, she's single-handedly doomed whatever chance it had of growing. Beheaded the creature.

Enough bitching and moaning from me though, how do you guys feel about this? Are you fine with the occasional exchange of posts, or are you wanting fresh blood and new faces? And if the latter, do you have any suggestions? I'm thinking of looking into actually getting some affiliates and forking out some money if demand is high enough.

We need an actual theme for the forum. The old forum had AZZtrology. What's a common interest that people can band together to talk about?

A first time visitor would see nothing but LEON and Dinny's World. They aren't our friends, and they don't know us. Why would they care about what goes on in our lives?

It's like a neighborhood. You don't go to a neighborhood unless you know someone that lives there, or you have business there. What kind of business, crap to talk about, can we offer? We're all very different neighbors:

LEON likes boxing, apparel, and AZZtrology
dinny likes to draw weird shit, play video games, and act nerdy
josh likes to eat and loves music
mking likes to talk about black people
claire likes to be a grandma
who knows what arm and argentfang likes?

PapiChuloLeon wrote:
LEON likes boxing, apparel, and AZZtrology
dinny likes to draw weird shit, play video games, and act nerdy
josh likes to eat and loves music
mking likes to talk about black people
claire likes to be an aunt
who knows what arm and argentfang likes?

And yeah, I think it's because everyone seems close, especially with calling each other by first names and not IDs.

I don't really mind, I'm not even really focused on astrology anymore. I just like the close knit community and the people, that's how I usually stick around with forums. Be kind to yourself and at least take some sort of comfort in the fact we're diverse in the subjects we speak, we're not sticking religiously with any particular subject here. I'd rather be on a forum that covers everything and anything as opposed to something that stays on one topic and anything that deviates from that set topic is considered a rip on the moral fibre.

Personally, I don't really check this place too often. Probably about two times a week but when I do get time, it'd be nice for all of us to catch up, I doubt we've had our finest hour in terms of our collective history is concerned. Dinny, what are the other options for this forum? Diversification into other subjects and turn it into a general forum or is this place staying as is?

DICKSLOLI'MSOINTELLIGENT.

Sorry, I felt the need to balance out, I don't wanting people thinking that I can form a coherent idea and suggestions. Derp.

I offer a wealth of advice about improving the system but not a single response. It's like no one cares. Maybe it was nothing but a thread to rant.

PapiChuloLeon wrote:I offer a wealth of advice about improving the system but not a single response. It's like no one cares. Maybe it was nothing but a thread to rant.

Yeah... I've been doing stuff virtually nonstop and haven't made any posts here recently. If it makes you feel any better, the fact that I didn't reply to you literally kept me up with worry last night even though I was trying to force my eyes shut because I needed an early start. Fuck. That sounded neurotic, but then again, you all know that I am, I don't need to hide it.

As an actual and direct response to your earlier post, I thought we did have an astrology theme. It's bizarre because we have a page full of sub-forums, and only one of them is non-Astrology. Did people suddenly become less interested in astrology or something?

I definitely agree that a first-timer -- at least upon looking at the general discussion/round table -- would be kind of like "Well, this doesn't concern me", and I've had that same feeling about sites and forums before, but I don't think there's that much that can be done about that. We've had new members come in and we absorbed them into the group. People like Mking and ArgentFang came about later and still hang around, and we treat them like we've known them from the start.

Bottom line is, you guys seem happy enough and that's good, but if there's demand for it, I'll dig into my wallet and see what I can do about putting this place in the spotlight for a while.

Dinny wrote:

PapiChuloLeon wrote:I offer a wealth of advice about improving the system but not a single response. It's like no one cares. Maybe it was nothing but a thread to rant.

Yeah... I've been doing stuff virtually nonstop and haven't made any posts here recently. If it makes you feel any better, the fact that I didn't reply to you literally kept me up with worry last night even though I was trying to force my eyes shut because I needed an early start. Fuck. That sounded neurotic, but then again, you all know that I am, I don't need to hide it.

As an actual and direct response to your earlier post, I thought we did have an astrology theme. It's bizarre because we have a page full of sub-forums, and only one of them is non-Astrology. Did people suddenly become less interested in astrology or something?

I definitely agree that a first-timer -- at least upon looking at the general discussion/round table -- would be kind of like "Well, this doesn't concern me", and I've had that same feeling about sites and forums before, but I don't think there's that much that can be done about that. We've had new members come in and we absorbed them into the group. People like Mking and ArgentFang came about later and still hang around, and we treat them like we've known them from the start.

Bottom line is, you guys seem happy enough and that's good, but if there's demand for it, I'll dig into my wallet and see what I can do about putting this place in the spotlight for a while.

You see the old board was able to ADVERTISE our common theme and focus on AZZtrology. We had that big AZZ front page that was a compilation of all the basic AZZtrological work found on other websites. All it took was for someone to google AZZtrology, and then they could easily find our page. If you saw our front page back then, it would CLEARLY suggest that we offer a goldmine of AZZtrological interest within our forum.

You can think of us as tattoo artists without a tattoo parlor right now. The advertising front page is our tattoo shop. Our varying interests we speak of are our different styles of art, no two tattoo artists produce the exact same kind of art. What we indefinitely have in common is that we create tattoos or use AZZtrology. You're the tattoo shop owner, so you get back what you put into your business. Once the shop or forum becomes great enough, you can sell it and pocket a decent amount of money for yourself. Right now, we're just a bunch of artists without our tools and unable to put in any work for our boss.

Compare meurglys forum to the original constellation chamber. The main difference was the front page. One board had it the other didn't. meurglys' forum was much better, but it didn't thrive as well. The navy color theme looked prettier than the bland greyish white of old CC, it's like her business was in a nicer location. The artists produced better work, and there was more variety of what they were willing to draw. Mind didn't have a "tattoo shop" though.

When we're naked without a strong front page, it's like trying to do tattoos inside of our home instead of a shop. We can give a better service, but clients don't feel secure about our system and won't go to us. Who knows? The ink needle might have blood infected with AIDSpussy.

Your tattoo business can become anything you want it to be. The only person who can stop you is yourself.

IMO, there isn't a lot of astrology discussion here...for an "astrology forum". I mean, the most popular section is the off-topic one. Most of the actual astrology discussion is leftovers from the old forum as is the main group so very little new content is added. This forum needs more layers, more depth. It seems a little stale to me.

Of course, I rarely read the actual astrology stuff so I don't have a clue really. I come here because...hell, why do I come here? I have so little in common with most of you it is ridiculous. Hmmm.

Not completely sure what I can add to this conversation but fresh faces that keep coming back is really what any sort of club needs to keep it going. Leon used the tattoo parlor analogy but I think of this place more as a coffee shop. Come for the coffee (astrology), stay for the colorful people and the myriad of topics that they can bring to the table. Are you going to like all the regulars? Not right away, especially if you're completely unaware of the idiosyncrasies surrounding them.

It's still ingrained within our genes to be somewhat tribal and xenophobic about outsiders that try to come in, no matter how inclusive we present ourselves, so I guess the question would be this: what is the solution? An easy one would be to affiliate with other astrology-themed websites to try and draw in our designated demographic, but most of the people that come to astrology forums are really only after an interpretation of their own chart or a relationship chart. Once they get what they're after, the odds of them returning are very small, but that's the nature of a business - you never know who is going to come back for more.

It could simply be because after discussing astrology for so long, what else can we really cover? Leon is really good about digging up new angles on the subject, especially with his analysis of prize fighter's charts in correlation to their particular styles of combat. The as above, so below thread could be broken down into two separate threads: one for beginning material and another for the more advanced stuff - no doubt it's been suggested before and if I recall Meurglys did the same thing with her place. That change alone would make the information you seek easier to locate and it won't intimidate a newcomer as much since we have no way of knowing off the bat how much previous knowledge they have on the matter.

Perhaps this: Since Astrology is merely an ancient form of psychology, perhaps we dedicate a thread section to some of the more mundane and scientific matters of psychology? I know said topics often come up in the Round Table because let's face it, we're all just trying to understand ourselves better through the use of such tools and by extension, understand the people surrounding us in our everyday lives.

Argent Fang wrote:Not completely sure what I can add to this conversation but fresh faces that keep coming back is really what any sort of club needs to keep it going. Leon used the tattoo parlor analogy but I think of this place more as a coffee shop. Come for the coffee (astrology), stay for the colorful people and the myriad of topics that they can bring to the table. Are you going to like all the regulars? Not right away, especially if you're completely unaware of the idiosyncrasies surrounding them.

It's still ingrained within our genes to be somewhat tribal and xenophobic about outsiders that try to come in, no matter how inclusive we present ourselves, so I guess the question would be this: what is the solution? An easy one would be to affiliate with other astrology-themed websites to try and draw in our designated demographic, but most of the people that come to astrology forums are really only after an interpretation of their own chart or a relationship chart. Once they get what they're after, the odds of them returning are very small, but that's the nature of a business - you never know who is going to come back for more.

It could simply be because after discussing astrology for so long, what else can we really cover? Leon is really good about digging up new angles on the subject, especially with his analysis of prize fighter's charts in correlation to their particular styles of combat. The as above, so below thread could be broken down into two separate threads: one for beginning material and another for the more advanced stuff - no doubt it's been suggested before and if I recall Meurglys did the same thing with her place. That change alone would make the information you seek easier to locate and it won't intimidate a newcomer as much since we have no way of knowing off the bat how much previous knowledge they have on the matter.

Perhaps this: Since Astrology is merely an ancient form of psychology, perhaps we dedicate a thread section to some of the more mundane and scientific matters of psychology? I know said topics often come up in the Round Table because let's face it, we're all just trying to understand ourselves better through the use of such tools and by extension, understand the people surrounding us in our everyday lives.

I don't know why it took me so long to get back to you on this, but the last paragraph of what you've put forward is particularly compelling.