Quotations and Literature Forum

By the way, mgm and everyone, I noticed that in two months the Quotations Page Forum has gained 150-odd members. If we continue at this rate, in 8 months we'll have the membership it took a few years to build on the old forum. I think that's a healthy sign . . .

I'm pretty happy with the forum, it's nearly reached the level of use the old one had and I'd love to see it leave that far behind.

It's not membership numbers that count, it's active members - for some reason I seem to have 2-3 people sign up per day, never post a message, and are never seen again. The old forum had lots of registered members but few regular visitors...

I put links to the forums on the main page of the site, and that seems to help encourage traffic.

Of course, right now page 3 of the Subject page for "Love" gets more traffic than the entire forum, but that's life I suppose.

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Michael Moncur
Owner and maintainer, The Quotations Page

As part of my job, I'm constantly studying message board dynamics and find it takes about 6-10 regular posters to attract steady traffic of one-timers or some-timers. However, in cases where one or more of the regular posters is negative or abrasive (which, fortunately, this forum hasn't had), the serious posters disappear and only those who enjoy name-calling stay in the game. (I was shocked to find this kind of traffic dominated the message board of a reputedly intellectual magazine.) Board traffic can be too overwhelming--too voluminous to keep up with the different threads, with too much going on at once. Less is often more.

This forum is the most comfortable I've found, with posters who are courteous, friendly, and helpful. I think if we doubled our current number of regulars, that would be just about right.

Interesting job you must have! I've noticed similar things on the message boards I visit. I think you're right, we don't want too much traffic, forums with lots of traffic turn into neverending FAQ arguments as one newcomer after another posts the same questions and the regulars race to be the first to chew them out and link to the FAQ file...

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Michael Moncur
Owner and maintainer, The Quotations Page

. . . exactly.