Richard Slipper
Although David raises a matter he finds mysterious. I find the lack of activity on the existing platform mysterious too
I suspect there are several reasons.
Using all three forums David mentions from time to time I identify three main types of user. First, there is avid forum user seeking engagement on any topic, opining left right and centre. Secondly there are those who are dead serious and have an obsessional interest in their subject. Thirdly, there are those looking for moderate levels of engagement with moderate levels of intensity of interest.
Groups one and two can highjack a forum and for me this makes it incredibly boring & tedious. The same applies to Western Thunder, S4S Forum and others I find.
Those in the ‘moderate group’ soon feel lost and probably withdraw from activity.
The point I am making (yes at last) is that to run a successful forum it must meet the users’ needs and to decide what it’s format should be you have to understand those needs. Not predict, or guess. Know.
EMGS seems to me to be a quite conservative (small C) organisation. Being 20 years older than that whippersnapper the S4S and despite I suspect a considerable overlap in membership the culture seems to me to be more 1950s than 1970s. Just my perception.
There is a fairly active Facebook Group – EM Gauge Modellers Group – which has 420 odd members and there are daily posts.
There are other Finescale groups too.
For all its problems Facebook Groups and Pages – both of which can be isolated from the tripe by using ‘feeds’ is overall my preferred medium these days.
Perhaps EMGS doesn’t actually need a bespoke web forum if other platforms are already fulfilling its role. Why create more duplication and yet more social media. It would never become the only forum used by EM Modellers anyway. The ship has sailed on that.
Perhaps what is actually needed is a better bulk email service like Mailchimp whereby the society cancan inform members as necessary of events and such like and leave the forums to others better fitted to run them.
Just thoughts.
Finally, an observation, while typing this on my phone I cannot see the full script as the ‘form’ is wider than can be displayed. (I can aee it in landscape mode) Standard Pixel 6 Standard Android latest.
Websites must be optimised for mobile devices nowadays. If not engagement will be lost.
I’m still getting the two log in screens as well. Once on the EMGS splash page and a WordPress sign in. This is the only website I have ever encountered this on. I use many websites daily through all sorts of browsers, with VPNs, and password vaults etc. It’s weird.
If others experience these sort of functional frustrations, they probably give up which may be one of the reasons for low engagement.