All these guests lurking....

[a completely inoffensive name]

Just took a quick peak at the forum stats at the bottom of the main page and saw this:
There are currently 235 users online. 27 members and 208 guests

Now, if only we could somehow reach those 208 guests, and turn them into posting members... I see this every time I log in. We have quite a crowd, yet none of them are participating.

[Husar]

Well, I don't bite, normally.

[johnhughthom]

A lot of people lurk for a while before signing up, I lurked for about a year before I actually had a question to ask in the EB forum and signed up. Another internet account name and password is too much hassle for many.

[TinCow]

A lot of lurkers are also random people who google for one-off information on the various TW games. I don't know about you, but I regularly view websites when I want some brief bit of info on a game that I am playing, but I pretty much never actually register and post. All I want is the answer to a specific question, I dont have any interest in discussing the game reading about other things.

[therother]

Some will also be bots of one type or another.

[Hamata]

Some are also twc members as well

[Tratorix]

Some are also twc members as well

Not this again. But yeah, I lurked here for at least 6 months before I actually started posting. I mainly signed up to play mafia games since you can easily find TW guides and strategy here without the hassle of creating an account.

[phantom]

I'd better be careful what I post considering my last post on this topic was censored because apparently referring to the total war center as 'embarrassing and juvenile' is somehow against the rules and warrants the immediate deletion of the post and a warning issued.

Lurkers mean nothing though except that you've got content that people or search bots want to look at, plus there are always more lurkers than logged in users on every forum. Some are people that haven't logged in, others are bots, others are people googling for tips. 200 lurkers does not equal 200 lost members it's quite the opposite.

[Scienter]

Sometimes I don't log in because I'm lazy and am only checking one thread. Then I'll log in if I want to reply. I wouldn't be surprised if other people did this too.

[Drunk Clown]

Sometimes I don't log in because I'm lazy and am only checking one thread. Then I'll log in if I want to reply. I wouldn't be surprised if other people did this too.

Why not just auto log in?

[Louis VI the Fat]

Why not just auto log in?

I think this is because this site is also visited by his wife, Tincow.

[Centurion1]

I think this is because this site is also visited by his wife, Tincow.

Louis go back the kitchen. Did I say you could use the computer!!!!!!

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

damn men these days don't know their places

[TinCow]

We don't share computers, she's just lazy.

[edyzmedieval]

Any way we can entice them to sign up for the forum?

[Husar]

We could offer a signup bonus of 10$, you guys could start a fund and once you've paid in enough to cover the first 500 signups, we can start.

[Ludens]

Any way we can entice them to sign up for the forum?

Why would we want to? The majority of lurkers lurks because they either don't want or don't have anything to say. Encouraging them to sign up will enlarge the member list, but it won't necessarily increase the amount or quality of discussion much.

[edyzmedieval]

Why would we want to? The majority of lurkers lurks because they either don't want or don't have anything to say. Encouraging them to sign up will enlarge the member list, but it won't necessarily increase the amount or quality of discussion much.

Very good point but at the same time, people who lurk can be encouraged to join and that way some will stay and contribute to the discussion.

[Drunk Clown]

Very good point but at the same time, people who lurk can be encouraged to join and that way some will stay and contribute to the discussion.

But at the same time, some people who lurk may be unwilling to follow the rules. Thus more work for the moderators. Let them lurk, I don't miss something I don't know.

[Andres]

Why would we want to? The majority of lurkers lurks because they either don't want or don't have anything to say. Encouraging them to sign up will enlarge the member list, but it won't necessarily increase the amount or quality of discussion much.

Yes and no. A lurker will never contribute. A lurker who signed up, might contribute. 5 meaningful posts from a member who then disappears afterwards is still better than 0 posts from a lurker

Any way we can entice them to sign up for the forum?

Perhaps by organising community events where they can participate in.

I'm think mafia games, writing contest, screenshot contest, etc.

If there are other ideas or suggestions, feel free to make them.

[Populus Romanus]

EB is one of the largest providers of new members, including myself. They have a screenshot contest that they run, perhaps adding the official blessing of the .Org staff would give EB lurkers a better image of what the rest of the forum is like.

[Andres]

EB is one of the largest providers of new members, including myself. They have a screenshot contest that they run, perhaps adding the official blessing of the .Org staff would give EB lurkers a better image of what the rest of the forum is like.

Sounds like an excellent idea

[a completely inoffensive name]

You know, some people who join the forums can be a pain in the ***, but they could also just give up after a year of fooling around and decide to start contributing after that for years to come. I wouldn't write out those that join and are not particularly helpful with good conversation in threads at first.

But you banned AP, so no luck there anymore.

[Ludens]

Just to be clear: all I wrote was that lurkers chose not to post for a reason. Even if we could get them to register, that doesn't mean they would start contributing, meaningfully or otherwise.

I am not particularly worried about them causing trouble. Rather, I think we'll be seeing many one-post members. And a forum stands or falls with its community. One-post wonders do not contribute to that, no matter how wonderful their post. That doesn't mean they're bad, just that they aren't necessarily good either.

[Tuuvi]

Personally I think our membership is fine as it is, there's no need to attract tons of new members and get all those lurkers posting. Maybe we could use a few here and there but I worry if we got dozens of people signed up and posting the forum would get too crowded and I wouldn't have time to keep up on the threads I'm interested in. I hate it when I go to a forum and the newest day old threads are 20 pages long already.

[classical_hero]

Any way we can entice them to sign up for the forum?

It is pretty simple. Most of them I am sure would be guys and since they play a computer game I sure they would need help in this, so why not offer them boobs to look at?