A controversial way of increasing contributing members

[steve]

Hello again Mr Wetset/Paul & (Nikki? I'm sorry I have no idea who's behind WetSet, I don't want to offend anyone),

I know you're extremely busy sorting out other matters, so I've tried rattling my brain for suggestions on how to increase the posting. It's such a shame that only about 1% of registered users are actually contributing.

I then asked myself, why would people register here, but not post anything at all? Answer: To access the photoboard. Why should non contributing members have access to images that some people have donated, and spent their time finding (in the form of requests)?

My suggestion is that you limit access to the photo board to those with a post count over 10. I know from experience that this can be done.

Ok, so I know what you might be thinking. People will register, post 10 useless comments, just so they can access the board. It is true that some may take this action, but your moderators would be able to oversee this, and find people abusing the system. Also, once they have posted for a bit, hopefully with some useful input, they may be more inclined to post further.

Consider this: You have approximately 1600 registered members (Did you know before you had this many? I'm astonished). If each one posted 10 comments, you would have 16,000 (hopefully contributing) posts. If only 5% of all of these actually carried on contributing, you would still have gained 80 loyal members. As for the others, they are just leeching your precious bandwidth! My knowledge is Vbulletin eats your bandwidth.

Any good?

[PERVasive]

That's the way PeeSearch used to do it. The trouble is that takes a lot of trouble for moderators, to weed out the shitty (pardon the pun) posts. I don't think you need to worry so much. The new format is already bringing about better content than there was before. I think that will snowball as people realize it's more worth it to contribute.

I do think a general discussion forum would help create a sense of community though. I don't like how fragmented it feels between the different subfora.

[DeltaFoxtrot]

Nonono... you don't want to do that.

If you require people to post in order to see the photos you are going to end up with a lot of spam and really shitty posts.

Let's face it... a significant portion of the members come here for a quick wank then they are on their way. They don't say anything because they've got nothing to say.

If we attempt to force them to say something, we are going to end up with a lot of garbage and unintelligent drivel.

[Apemantus]

Nonono... you don't want to do that.

If you require people to post in order to see the photos you are going to end up with a lot of spam and really shitty posts.

Let's face it... a significant portion of the members come here for a quick wank then they are on their way. They don't say anything because they've got nothing to say.

If we attempt to force them to say something, we are going to end up with a lot of garbage and unintelligent drivel.

Couldn't have put it better myself!

[monkeypee]

Nonono... you don't want to do that.

If you require people to post in order to see the photos you are going to end up with a lot of spam and really shitty posts.

Let's face it... a significant portion of the members come here for a quick wank then they are on their way. They don't say anything because they've got nothing to say.

If we attempt to force them to say something, we are going to end up with a lot of garbage and unintelligent drivel.

Hear, hear! This is not PS. As excited as I am to see this site adopt a more modern bit of software, one of the things that first encouraged me to post on these boards (around 2003, for my fellow members) was the lack of registration and the promise of total anonymity, aside from IP. My earlier days were shyer days. I hope it is still possible to read and post anonymously.

Yet, the older way of thinking may actually have hindered the development of the community, and certainly resulted in a lot of bickering about spoofed accounts and double personalities. Perhaps it is best that those days are behind us.

This is a big change, but I feel it will only strengthen the whole site. At last, I'm a member for the first time. *blush* Thank you Paul, for your tolerance of us broke peeverts. You helped me become comfortable with who I am and what turns me on, which landed me the girl of my dreams.

To anyone who hasn't actually paid to become a member, I promise you that you won't regret it. The content is quality, convenient and often novel. You can trust Paul not to be a dick about it either.

-monkeypee

[Creepymouse]

The major issue is that, on the old board, you didn't HAVE to register, you just typed your post and that was it. There were probably a lot of poseurs, but there was activity. One didn't need to put in a valid e-mail, or wait for an activation code, or anything.

There are literally a dozen websites I visit, where I often see something I'd like to comment on, until I remember that they require a login or registration, in which case I say "never mind."

Add a guest posting system and you'll get a lot of the activity back. Not everyone has the sense to use a mailinator.com address to sign up, and some people don't care enough to take the time.

Finally, when I used to visit the old forum, I'd use the link on the front page of wetset.net, but that was changed. Then there used to be a link at the bottom of the second page. Then that went away. Some people may think the forum is gone altogether.

[DeltaFoxtrot]

There are literally a dozen websites I visit, where I often see something I'd like to comment on, until I remember that they require a login or registration, in which case I say "never mind."

Add a guest posting system and you'll get a lot of the activity back. Not everyone has the sense to use a mailinator.com address to sign up, and some people don't care enough to take the time.

It's relatively simple to have ANY modern browser remember your login details once you have registered... and registering takes a whole 2 minutes. Stop being a lazy ass. But wait, you're already registered here... guess you fail that argument.

This board now is just as active as it was back then, we just ditched the spam and the 5 or 6 people that commented over and over using the different user names, some even replying to their own posts as someone else.

Add a guest posting system and we'll get a lot of the SPAM back. If you don't care enough to take the time to register (like you have to do with 99% of the other forums on the internet) then we don't need your bullshit issues here anyways.

[NJDiaperGuy81]

Don't think requirements work...

Hey all! Thought I'd jump in on this discussion!

First off, I think forcing people to contribute is a bad road to go down and a previous poster mentioned PeeSearch which is a valid point.

Once you start forcing people to contribute you are going to encounter a LOT of really substandard posts and pics and I personally would rather see a couple people contribute a few really nice pics than everyone contributing a bunch of garbage. The problem you also encounter with forced contribution is people just walking away from the site which is what happened to me with PeeSearch.

Listen, a majority of us do not and can not produce our own original pictures, which is why we come here, so in order to be a "Contributing Member" I would post public pics which, inevitably, you would get people flaming you for because they were all ready posted or they were too old. After a while the whole mess became so much of a bother that I just don't visit the site anymore ... I didn't stop visiting the site out of protest and I didn't post some kind of nasty little note to the mods ... I just slowly stopped visiting the site until my visits became so infrequent that at this point I cannot even remember the last time I was there.

Which brings me to my next point. Below I had written a post on my feelings about the new board system ... I don't completely dismiss the idea that I am the only person that feels that the boards have been negatively affected by the change but ... eh, I don't know.

Look, before the change I used to visit the site and check my 6 boards (Wetting, Diaper, Poop, and the 3 Photo boards that went with each) EVERY DAY and now I think I MIGHT be here once a week ... maybe twice but that is rare. Something changed for me. When the new boards came in I perceived a very sharp decline in both written posts and picture posts. Actually, it seems like the only people who regularly post on the picture boards are advertisers looking for buyers ... HDWetting, WellPadded, & Dirty Nikki ... just to name a few ... nothing personal I just wanted examples.

I understand WetSet wanting to rid the boards of spammers and the like but placing more restrictions and requirements just isn't the way to go. Doing stuff like that only serves to discourage more people from posting.

Please understand that this post and the one I made before it are NOT intended as any type of threat or slam or flame ... they reflect my TRUE feelings on the issue. I have been a fan of WetSet for a LONG time! I remember logging onto Prodigy, connecting at 28.8K, and visiting WetSet all those many many years ago and I am really saddened by the fact that I rarely visit anymore.

Take Care all!

NJDiaperGuy81