New Member Recruitment

[Distracted]

I've been watching our active members move on for some time now. This is a perfectly normal process. People lose interest after a while and move on to other things, but it's disappointing to see the site become so quiet.

The recent Facebook link is an attempt to connect with new members. It was a good idea, but it doesn't seem to be working as well as we'd hoped. So I thought I'd open a thread for discussion of ways to recruit new members so as to keep the site vibrant and active.

My first thought is to encourage our current active members to solicit interested parties from other sites that they frequent, like fanfiction.net... not to be obnoxious about it, but to put in an encouraging and welcoming word about us on their profiles. Another option (which would totally be up to Elessar, since this is his baby) might be to open our fanfiction archive to fics that feature characters that Jolene and Connor have played outside of Star Trek, such as their respective characters on Stargate and The Legend of the Seeker.

Anybody else have any other ideas for things that might attract new members?

[Silverbullet]

Dis, I was a member of another board, Senior Net, we tried to recruit new members. I would speak to people of the Senior Net Age group. they would express interest in our board. But that was it. Never heard from them. I would go around and ask when they might at least take a look. The erson would again express interestand agree to look at the site.Never showed uup.

It is very difficult to recruit. Itis easier if someone aproaches you or another member of this board expressing interst. That person will want to look and probably join. However, Our types are a rather rare breed.

I agree with you dis, the best ground would be on other boards that are like ours.There may bemembers on those boards who are bored and would want to join a new group if only for a while.

Care must be taken though. don't want AinTers or porn types. Slash lovers.

Of course there is stll the membershp list. Certainly some on that list must still be around. could they be contacted to see if there is still any interest in our board.

SB

[putaro]

Well, the first question is what does the site want to be?

Is it a writing site? Is it a discussion site?
Is it only Enterprise?
Is it all Star Trek?
Is it Fan Fiction in general?

I think the approach to take depends on how the group wants to assimilate.

[Distracted]

I personally would like to stay TnT focused, but I'm willing to expand to the rest of Jolene's and Connor's work if that's what it takes to keep the site alive, in the same way that I have had no objection to adding the other sections on the main page for non-TnT fics. I'd just as soon not become a generic "all of Star Trek" site, though. There are plenty of those.

Active writers tend to be active readers and vice-versa, so I personally think the distinction between a "discussion site" and a "fanfiction site" is meaningless.

[Alelou]

Personally, I think the most important thing that is needed is to recruit some new fic-posting admins who are still genuinely interested in TnT and TnT fic. Also, and it doesn't have to be an admin, we need just one person who enjoys stirring up conversations, preferably someone who won't suffer from too many flashbacks and deja-vu episodes during them. (SB got quite a flurry going awhile back simply by posing questions.)

No, I'm not either of those persons. For fic, it has to be someone with way more patience and tact than me (and some basic editing skills too, preferably).

I do point TnT writers I regard highly this way quite often, but whether they show up is another question, and then whether they stick with it is another. (Maybe it's just me, but it seems to me Ent is in a bit of a lull at the moment.)

Personally I don't see any point in trying to widen the audience to include other fandoms. People flock together in sites like this because they share a passion, and I really think it's more for the characters than the actors here. I also don't think this group is good enough at playing well with others to be as inclusive of other groups (witness SB's comment). And that's okay. Personally, I prefer this relative free-for-all to rigidly enforced sweetness and light -- probably since I'm just not capable of that anyway.

Someday this site may just die out. And that's okay, though it would be nice if the archive stays up.

[putaro]

I think Enterprise fan fiction is a viable niche. Looking at the Den of Voles (ff - I love that name though) there's a lot of Enterprise fan fiction that's not appearing here and could be.

The great thing about the Den of Voles is that there are very few barriers to entry. You want to post something, up it goes. The bad thing is that the amount of feedback you get is limited and support (like a beta reader for example) is kind of limited. FF allows you to look for a beta reader but the idea of having someone completely random (or worse, crazy) critiquing my work wasn't very appealing.

There have been proposals for technical improvements to the site that could make commenting/reviewing easier. I'd also propose that the discussion board, make a new thread automatically whenever anything is posted.

[Cogito]

I'd also propose that the discussion board, make a new thread automatically whenever anything is posted.

Have the content of that thread be the comments section for the story (shown underneath the story) and you could be onto a winner.

[Distracted]

These are good ideas, but for now major technical revisions to the site are off the table. I'm looking for suggestions that we as members are capable of implementing ourselves.

[Cogito]

These are good ideas, but for now major technical revisions to the site are off the table. I'm looking for suggestions that we as members are capable of implementing ourselves.

I know they're off the table, but I do want to emphasize that ease of posting/maintaining stories and being able to get notification of feedback and interact with reviewers is IMO one of the most important aspects of fanfiction writing and is one of our weakest points currently. I no expert in fanfiction sites but I don't know of any other sites that get it completely right either, although some places do get it (IMO) better than we do. If we got it right, I believe this would give us a 'unique selling point' for fanfic authors by making story publication a rewarding and enjoyable experience for them.

The forums are the most valuable part of the site (they are the only reason you still see me here) but IMO are quite well hidden from casual site browsers/readers so are not used to full effect. The capabilities of the forums in letting people post new threads, modify them, be notified of responses is so close to what I think we need for managing stories and reviews that I think we are missing a big opportunity to get it right here, so I think it is a great shame that this type of proposal is 'off the table'.

If we don't have website admins willing and able to evolve the site's implementation then I don't see that we have much to offer readers and writers other than a big archive of TnT fiction and a small core of die-hards who want to read and write more. That's a shame; I want this to be the best place to post fanfiction, not an afterthought. That's what I think will bring writers here, and readers will (I believe) follow active writers.

[putaro]

These are good ideas, but for now major technical revisions to the site are off the table. I'm looking for suggestions that we as members are capable of implementing ourselves.

If any changes to the site are off the table then the discussion is pointless. If there's a thinking that there's a lack of technical expertise to implement changes, I beg to differ.

[Distracted]

So the theme I'm seeing here is that no one can think of anything that the regular members could do to recruit other members? C'mon guys. Get creative. I'm trying to encourage brainstorming here. We've got dozens of registered members. Are we seriously going to sit back and expect our one remaining regular tech volunteer to do all the work?

BTW... Any techies out there with bright ideas can always pm Elessar and volunteer to do the changes themselves. I have a poor understanding of the complexities involved, so I'm not the one to talk to about tech changes to the site. That's all I meant about "off the table"... that suggesting tech changes is not the purpose of this thread.

[WarpGirl]

IDK there seems to be an announcement of people joining quite regularly but then they don't post anything anywhere. I hate to be a negative Nelly but this is what happens to privately run fanfic/fansites. Because the communities tend to be "small" people leave as time passes.

The forums at www.kotorfanmedia.net are all but dead. Right now, only 3 people use them regularly. One of them is your's truly. As for fanfic submissions those are way down too. At least here submitting fanfiction is still a pretty hot business.

Bottom line is I don't have a clue how to fix things here or at my old haunting grounds. But don't dispare TriaxianSilk is nowhere near as bad as it seems. Trust me.

[panyasan]

I think there is a market for a site for TnT. We have about 200 members and many stories gets around 200-400 readers and I see on other sites TnT stories having a lot of readers. So how to attract more people?

I think the most simple way to get people to come to TRIS is to invite them or invite them back.

But if people come to this site, the site must offer them something so they can stay.
There are three things the site can offer, one which we already have, two that can be created.

1. Be unique and use your strenght: the stories. People come here because they have a passion for TnT and their stories. So make sure that you post stories on a regular basic and that your stories are checked before posting. The stories must have a certain quality on the most elementair level (correct lay-out, no weird spaces or strange lettertype, no weird symbols, correct grammar, no weird A/N, correct use of names etc). You can invite writers to post at TRIS. Writers must feel they and their stories are welcome and please no favoritism. I think more excellent suggestions for this part have been offered by Alelou and Cogito.

2. Be supportive: as a writer you would like some support. So why not a thread for story bunnies, a workshop thread for work in progress (that you have trouble with), workshopthreads about elements of writing, threads about stories that are posted.

3. Be creative: have threads that simulate stories: threads discussing the episodes one by one, discussing threads about elements of ENT, threads about stories, reviewthreads (write your own review about a certain episode - that would be fun), game threads like the haiku thread to stimulate your writing.

I have to add that you can created all the above and attract new people, but it wouldn't work and people wouldn't stay if they are not given the respect and space to express other view or opinions. That has been a problem in the past and sometimes still is.

Other ways to create creativity is like threads with art/drawings and vid's about TnT (a picture can give you loads of inspiration), threads with pictures of TnT, a thread with news and pictures of CT and the same for JB. I don't think people are interested in other characters that CT and JB played besides Trip and T'Pol (except maybe that great cross story with SG1 Micheal - Ent Trip) - but pictures and news - I think people really liked that. I would.

Just my two cents.

[Silverbullet]

I have already posted my suggestions. As noted, in the past I have tried to stir up this board with some small succcess.

I still believe we can mine our membership list. There are a lot of people listed there. I think that some of them may be on Ff Net or one of the the other Sites. I know it would take some time and effort but could oe of our members troll some ofthese other sites to see if any of our registerd, although non performiing, members are anywhere else.

There is one site whose title I cannot remember that is quite active and has a number of writers posting stories on that board. Damn memory

SB

[Alelou]

Are we seriously going to sit back and expect our one remaining regular tech volunteer to do all the work?

BTW... Any techies out there with bright ideas can always pm Elessar and volunteer to do the changes themselves. I have a poor understanding of the complexities involved, so I'm not the one to talk to about tech changes to the site. That's all I meant about "off the table"... that suggesting tech changes is not the purpose of this thread.

Do people who have joined this group in the last year or so even know who Elessar is and how receptive he would be to new volunteers? And would Elessar know, among them, who is truly active and what skills or temperament they might have? (Not everyone is a good candidate.) Right now, Distracted, you are the only admin with a regular presence here. Maybe it's time for the old leadership to pause from their many other pursuits for a moment and think seriously about bringing in a new generation to help manage the place on a day to day basis, before it's too late. Ideally, this would happen while the old guard is still available enough to answer questions and resolve conflicts.

Some slowing down for the site may be inevitable as the show ages and fans move on to the next thing or form their own little lunch tables. Still, with a new Trek movie on the way, I would assume this site could continue to gain some new blood -- but only if it's still an active site at that point.