Insomniac, you are most correct. Oh and, Gaia also boomed because of its personals (my bad if someone already said it). There were SO many people (and possible pedo's as well) looking to get their freak on with other geeks online, and the rest is history.

But I didn't come to comment on that, Inso, I see that you clearly know about the situation going on. The niche. Its dead. Its been dead for a while. And the constant appearings of multiple Avatar Community Sites do not help, dispersing people everywhere around.

You might want to consider the fact that most people that get attached to these types of forums become obsessive and sensitive. For example, Bob loves Menewsha. He's been here 2 years. One day, Moderator Jane tells Bob: "Hey, quit fucking posting that shit its already been said twice." Since Bob has been a member for so long, he's ultra sensitive to these types of approach. He gets angry/sad, he leaves, he never comes back. Problem is that there are thousands of people around like this. A diplomatic and calm approach is always respected.

In reality this is a business, and even though you can call a Subway clerk a bastard, he isn't going to respond "YO MAMMA IS A BASTARD!". No. Its just isn't going to happen. You're the paying customer, and if the clerk messes up, Subway loses money. Bad move clerk.

Same with Mods and Admins. Always respect the user, EVEN if it is a troll. The troll may be a troll now, but suppose the troll were a millionaire, Moderator Jenny sweet talks him into calming down and respecting the rules, troll donates 500,00 dollars to the site. See where I'm going with this?

But actually I have no idea how Moderators and Admins are behaving lately. I only know Coco, CK, Jelly and a few others are good, mature, and respectful. Last time I was here the new mods were weird, but thats ok.

--

In response to the Niche, Inso. I'm pretty sure you know most of this, but I'll put in my advice for helps sake.

Consider the following:

1. Keyword research - What are people searching these days and how can we apply it to Menewsha.
2. Ad Campaigns - StumbleUpon, Twitter, Facebook. Pretty basic stuff.
3. New/Modified business model - Maybe donations ain't cutting it anymore. Consider approaching a new or modified business model, do some research online, see what is new, what works, what doesn't, and so on.
4. Social Media - This one is pretty much crucial. Do some contest on Social Media to keep spreading the word. Such as in Twitter wit "ReTweets", and so on.

As you yourself said, we can't cater to adults anymore. They've grown up, married, children, debts, rent, etc. You gotta find your new audience. The first generation will keep going away. This is normal.

Time to evolve.

I don't think a niche community should cost 8k a month. I hope that with increased revenue we can also limit spending a bit. I don't mind having less updates and new items. It's more important to keep what we already have.

I bet that's been said before given the 47 pages, but that's my thoughts on this subject.

Also, I hate being 17 and unemployed, I only donated once and it was my lunch money. ;_;

Motion, I just want to comment on your last statement, about not catering to adults anymore.

Maybe it's just me, but most of my good friends here on Menewsha are all twenty or over. I will grant you the fact that I don't venture out in to the bigger world of Menewsha too much, so I can't say how old the majority of the population is, but I for one would be super duper pissed if Menewsha suddenly became driven to draw in a crowd that's ten years younger.

They can't donate any more than someone will bills and a job can.

I would just like to comment on squid as well.

Its absolutely true that mene needs to evolve, I get that and I understand that. But you cant completely cut out its heart and distance those of us who are still here. Those of us donateing currently are adults, so you cant completely stop catering to adults either. It comes down to compromise. Cater to everyone or your going to lose those you have and be left with even less then you started.

Seeing as our largest active age group is the 18-21 year olds, if we went down a generation it would be people who aren't even old enough to use the site, let alone be able to financially support it :)

Our highest donating age bracket is those between 18-27, so despite that being entirely the people who have far more financial responsibilities than they might have had a few years ago, it is the bill-paying adults who are supporting Menewsha :yes:

So then it is safe to say that Menewsha is going to not going to switching it's focus to a younger age group?

Absolutely not, that wouldn't accomplish a single beneficial thing. How would turning this into a children's site keep it going?

Good. Good.

That's precisely my thought, but sometimes... it's just nice to make sure the staff aren't insane xD

All the talk of evolution can be unsettling, yes.

These are sad times.

Lol, I also agree that its good to know mene isn't insane. Good thing indeed.

Children and their parents' credit cards.

...I am glad Menewsha is not encouraging that. xD

Parents' credit cards open up a huge, huge issue. :lol:
Much easier to keep tabs on people who use their OWN credit cards (or those of a spouse, etc.) than it is a minor using their parents'. :P Plus, you're guaranteed to actually PROFIT from such transactions... If a kid "borrows" their parents' card without them knowing, that can lead to unprofitable charge-backs, or whatever they're called. D:

Anyway, figured this was an appropriate (if a bit "out there") video to post. :lol:


Something I imagine Captain Howdy: would appreciate. ;)

Yes, please re-release some items. I don't think anyone would be too terribly upset. I think the only people who would really be bothered by this would be those who are off-site trading.

Honestly, I have every old EI and I WOULD NOT CARE if we released a hundred or more hairpins. It's stupid to lose people over a free item and I think we're a really nice community. Are we really going to have a bunch of people bitch and moan over giving away a few more free items? If they spent so much time questing, they'd understand what it feels like and would be HAPPY to give others a chance at those same rares.

--------------------------

On another note, are you still considering adding a pictionary game to our site? I know you mentioned an oekaki feature, but most people don't even know what that is... :sweat:

I'm sure it would be fun and it would be great for this niche. But if you want to expand, I would stay away from those kinds of features. Just add a "free-style drawing" part to the pictionary game and have those posted around instead. It'll be the same thing, but you won't alienate people because of a name.

Also, if you do release a pictionary game, I think it might be nice to release it EVERYONE at first, even those who do not have an account, if possible. Then, when you suck a bunch of people in with pictionary, you could close its doors to only members of the site. I know a lot of people are hesitant to sign up for games sites and love to play their games without signing in. I think that if you want pictionary to help you bring in new members, you'd have to let people play it by trail first. I don't think I would sign up for an avatar community just to play pictionary (if I didn't like anime/manga, I would never have signed up for gaiaonline).

Anyway, that's just something that occurred to me. Normally, I wouldn't even suggest this--I doubt you guys would want to provide support and bandwidth to people who didn't even join Menewsha. But to draw in a new demographic, you might have to be more flexible for a few months. If you get people addicted to pictionary, they'll be more willing to sign up for the site later so that they can play it again. And they'd bring all their friends, because who likes to play pictionary alone?

I'm sorry to say I don't donate to this site, because it is a very nice site. Everyone is nice, and the items and games are fabulous. I don't donate because I, being a teenager, do not have a credit card or Paypal, and I hardly ever have any money anyway. I will say that I do donate to Gaia every once in a while, but that's only when I buy their cards because that's easiest for me.

Thanks to those who do donate though! <3

I've donated at some points. I wish I could donate more but tuition is expensive and I'm not very good at finding a job, apparently. I don't want this site to disappear :(

Hello everyone, I'm an old Gaia user, I spent years on the site, but it's declining, not because of less hype, but because of bad service. I spent 5 years on the site and hundreds of dollars, and got banned for something I never did.

Truthfully, if I had any money I would donate as much as I could to this site, because I have a feeling it's going to be my new 'home' much like I thought Gaia always would be before it became corrupted.

As soon as I have the money I'll definitely start donating whenever I can.


Also, I think ads would be a great thing temporarily, as long as they aren't a forever thing (Like gaia has now [eww!])

Re-releasing would be good too, it's something gaia refuses to do, but I'm sure would bring some attention back to Mene.

I see the anime population going down and I'm sad, I love anime, it's my life.


My idea is to bring a gaming aspect to it, like zOMG but better (Cause zOMG kinda sucks), I'm not saying this is a 'now' project, and in fact, in a year or so I can help with developing it since digital animation and design is my major.

I'm just throwing this out as an idea.

Of course, since this is my first day on the site, I know that perhaps I shouldn't get to involved. But I have a good feeling about Mene. Better than the feeling I had about gaia in 2005.

I'm going to recommend this to my friends, I'm going to try and pull people in and hopefully I can do my part in helping Mene live on.

I think any idea is appreciated, especially since you seem like the kind of person we like on this site <'3. Gaia just doesn't do it for me anymore and I regret ever spending money in that place. It had great potential, it just didn't go the way I was hoping. I wish more of the mature Gaians would try this place out. I guess the having to earn your gold instead of spamming for it really turns some people off, but it's one of the things I appreciate about this place.

@Rikku- there is how you know mene must be doing at least something right. If people on their first day are not afraid yet to claim they like the place. I like to think we are a welcoming bunch ^.^

Yay! :)
Good to hear.

Honestly, I'd donate more often if Mene actually kept my interest these days.

Incorrect. Us users who own the items obviously value them because of their rarity, not because how they look. Because I can guarantee you, 70% of the items now kick the shit out of Yumehayla's pixels. TwoStar and ChibiTotoro were amazing pixelists, but Yumehayla was the Head Pixelist, so I impose she got the reputation for making the rare items at said time.

It's not stupid for users to leave over a free item because it's the user's choice. The staff can't always give the users what they want on a silver platter.

They can make low brand remakes with better quality and I can assure you people would still l want this 'meh' looking hairpin. Why? Because of it's rarity.

Sadly, that's how it works. Users 'quitting' over an item they can't get? IMO, that's an excuse. You can simply look at it, sigh, and continue exchanging, doing art or other methods to acquire gold. Lack of sellers? Sure. But why do you think they're rare sellers? Because anyone who actually owns the item treasures it.

The new pixels are beautiful, and they're multi-pose. What else could you possibly want? Obviously, the users want it because of it's rarity and it should always remain that way.

I agree. ^

And i think the solution is for everyone, to RUN to the FOUNTAIN of YOUTH!
just kidding.

This issue is very sad. It's sad because it's true. :(
Ignorance is Bliss after all.

I think what would help is more active forums. They're fairly active already but sometimes my subscribed threads die out a little bit, even when I have a lot. Perhaps a small boost to the gold that posts give from time to time, if possible, to encourage people to post more. I think that when threads slow down, people get bored, uninterested, and then don't really feel like staying.

What I said sounded better in my head 8D.

Haha, that's why I want them too. I don't know about how everyone works. I'm sure some people DO only want things because they look cool, but for me, if I don't like it, I'm never going to bother questing after it. I had a Queen's Crown I got from doing an art auction, but it wasn't really what I'm into so I sold it off for cheaper stuff I actually wanted. I also don't really hoard. If I have duplicates of something, I'll sell it for something I don't have.