Org Promotion

[ghostofxmaspast]

Gah... that's my point - all the "content" such as Gahzette and contests has been tried. It didn't make a jot of difference and the people involved just burnt out. Do you simply intend to repeat the same process all over again?

You can't build traffic and interest out of something that volatile. Any effort where a few designated people fuss about doing all the legwork to generate "content" is doomed to failure - sorry but it's been tried and it failed.

One of the reasons it failed was because staff and members were posting in here (or in the private staff forum) about running a board and generating 'content' and designing new themes to increase traffic, instead of posting in the main forum about the games, which this site is supposed to be about.

The .org simply needs to go back to it's roots, it doesn't need to have people running it as a hobby website and trying to put it on the map. .org will be niche and low traffic because that's what it is.

Be the traffic and the activity and the "content" will appear naturally...

[edyzmedieval]

No, not in that way.

Refreshing content doesn't necessarily mean redoing old things. Producing content is done by the members, not by the Org itself. We do not act as content producers - because there is no point in doing that and there are plenty of people producing quality content. I propose that the Org acts as content promoters, which is a different game than producing the content. Promote the content, people want to see content, and we have the platform. Encourage the discussion and promote the relevant, quality content.

[Monk]

Gah... that's my point - all the "content" such as Gahzette and contests has been tried. It didn't make a jot of difference and the people involved just burnt out. Do you simply intend to repeat the same process all over again?

You can't build traffic and interest out of something that volatile. Any effort where a few designated people fuss about doing all the legwork to generate "content" is doomed to failure - sorry but it's been tried and it failed.

One of the reasons it failed was because staff and members were posting in here (or in the private staff forum) about running a board and generating 'content' and designing new themes to increase traffic, instead of posting in the main forum about the games, which this site is supposed to be about.

I have a feeling i knew you under a different name, in a different time, because you're spot on. Thank you for continuing to contribute to this discussion. I am pretty much in full agreement with you, ghost.

The .org simply needs to go back to it's roots, it doesn't need to have people running it as a hobby website and trying to put it on the map. .org will be niche and low traffic because that's what it is.

Be the traffic and the activity and the "content" will appear naturally...

This is not about the front page, or any other page apart from the forum in itself. The detail where the content is going to come from - we have members who offered themselves to provide content, just above, in this thread. And that's just one example. We still have TW players - myself included, who can provide content. There's hundreds of YouTubers who only require an invitation to come here and post their videos and encourage discussion, alongside them becoming members and actively participating. Why would they do that? Free promotion. We have members, we have guests, we have lurkers - we can provide the views they need. We want their content, they want the views. It's a win-win situation for both sides, if done correctly.

i think you are severely overestimating this site's digital footprint.

[ghostofxmaspast]

This is not about the front page, or any other page apart from the forum in itself.

Really, I thought this thread was about "org promotion"?

There's hundreds of YouTubers

Who are on youtube and can post on youtube, or if they follow the latest games, can even go to the TWC which has the highest traffic. You're suggesting yet another desperate attempt to capture a market which already has a well established venue. TWC is not a new forum any more, for many players it's a well established site with a rich history. It all started with RTW and for many TW players that's where it all started anyway...

The .org won't succeed in competition it needs to offer something different - and especially something to those have supported it for 15+ years - not just another clone of popular sites.

If that has to be radical, 'elitist', quirky or just different then so be it. If the .org has to hang a sign over the door which says "this might not be for you", then so be it.

I have a feeling i knew you under a different name, in a different time, because you're spot on. Thank you for continuing to contribute to this discussion. I am pretty much in full agreement with you, ghost.

Thanks, it's a refreshing change to be able to post an opinion here without being regarded with suspicion / as a troll.

[edyzmedieval]

Really, I thought this thread was about "org promotion"?

It is about Org Promotion...? The front page is the front page, there's not much to do with that unless it suffers a total redesign. I'm talking about the forum here. We're promoting the forum, the Org forum, hence Org Promotion.

Who are on youtube and can post on youtube, or if they follow the latest games, can even go to the TWC which has the highest traffic. You're suggesting yet another desperate attempt to capture a market which already has a well established venue. TWC is not a new forum any more, for many players it's a well established site with a rich history. It all started with RTW and for many TW players that's where it all started anyway...

Posting videos on YouTube won't magically garner views for you as a content producer. Those viewers have to come from somwhere, correct?

The .org won't succeed in competition it needs to offer something different - and especially something to those have supported it for 15+ years - not just another clone of popular sites.

Never a clone, this is the Org we're talking about. I'm proposing different avenues to explore, different ideas, coming up with suggestions to get back the traffic to at least good levels (not like 2005 - 2006, that will be quite hard to do).

Thanks, it's a refreshing change to be able to post an opinion here without being regarded with suspicion / as a troll.

All suggestions welcome Ghost, no suspicion or trolling.

[ghostofxmaspast]

It is about Org Promotion...? The front page is the front page, there's not much to do with that unless it suffers a total redesign. I'm talking about the forum here. We're promoting the forum, the Org forum, hence Org Promotion.

I mentioned getting rid of the front page and having forums.totalwar.org redirect to the index, your response was "this is not about the front page".

Posting videos on YouTube won't magically garner views for you as a content producer. Those viewers have to come from somwhere, correct?

I was under the impression that search engines or just searching youtube would find such 'content'? I'm failing to see how relevant total war videos on youtube are however? If someone wants to post their video, they do that, either at .com the .org or TWC. I doubt they see themselves as "content producers"...

Never a clone, this is the Org we're talking about. I'm proposing different avenues to explore, different ideas, coming up with suggestions to get back the traffic to at least good levels (not like 2005 - 2006, that will be quite hard to do).

Unfortunately so far as I can tell, you have no ideas except that people need to produce 'content' and that will increase traffic. Sounds familiar...

Sorry to be blunt, but your posts just come across as empty "business speak".

[edyzmedieval]

I mentioned getting rid of the front page and having forums.totalwar.org redirect to the index, your response was "this is not about the front page".

Org never used the front page like other websites did. We have the front page to occasionally promote articles, different events and similar contests but other than that, it was not used like let's say TWC did to constantly promote mods and articles and other things. So the front page in the whole scheme of TW Org is not really that important.

Getting rid of it would probably suffice and do good - I'm neutral on this aspect.

I was under the impression that search engines or just searching youtube would find such 'content'? I'm failing to see how relevant total war videos on youtube are however? If someone wants to post their video, they do that, either at .com the .org or TWC. I doubt they see themselves as "content producers"...

Yes, and no. Yes, search engines and searching would bring you the content. No - that is not enough. There's hundreds of YouTube videos on popular games, and you'd be surprised to see some quality gameplay videos or walkthroughs that have under 1000 views.

Unfortunately so far as I can tell, you have no ideas except that people need to produce 'content' and that will increase traffic. Sounds familiar...

They don't need to. They already do. It's already there. And people produce content anyhow.

And that doesn't magically increase traffic just because it's there.

I'm trying to explain here that getting more members, after this restructuring is done, would require the Org to have discussions. Getting them to sign up will happen only if people see that we are active. It's a snowball effect. The more active this place is, the more members you get. And those discussions are on TW games, on off topics, on modding, on everything that has a subforum and place in this whole TW Org website. Getting people to stay engaged is to make sure the discussions are active, stimulating and interesting pretty much. One of the ideas - one, not the whole thing, just one - would be to have more discussions on content produced by either Orgahs or people from outside.

[ghostofxmaspast]

Org never used the front page like other websites did. We have the front page to occasionally promote articles, different events and similar contests but other than that, it was not used like let's say TWC did to constantly promote mods and articles and other things. So the front page in the whole scheme of TW Org is not really that important.

It's important if it exists, it's the first page users see and if it's out of date.

As for the rest you seem to be stating that we need activity to get more activity? I think most have worked that out already.

I accept that I'm not offering a solution to low traffic, but neither are you.

Talk is still just talk.

//edit: -

Threads like this stimulate debate and discussion:

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showt...p?152117-Craig

Closing them, slowly but surely kills the forums off. Excessive moderator intervention damages any forum - pre-emptive moderation because someone was slightly negative goes way overboard and drives people away.

Criticise CA or fawn all over them - it's irrelevant, This medium is obsolete in the eyes of the industry and social networking groups are a better medium for promoting their products.