I recently saw yet another thread about how mene is going downhill. I thought it a good idea to bring up a thread about possible ways that we could remedy that.

Some of the biggest complaints I see:

- Shops are too difficult to navigate.
- Users don't leave their niche.
- Not enough people are posting.
- Not enough new users are joining.
- Too many older users are leaving or going on hiatus.

So menewsha has knowingly had a money issue for quite some time. The question and the ultimate goal, is how do we remedy our major issues WITHOUT spending money?

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Personally I think the shops should be reverted back to the old list view. There is an option for it, and it should be a relatively simple switch as list view is already an option.

Users staying in their threads is likely do to lack of incentive to go to other threads. Possible solutions would be to vary the amount of gold a user earns by the thread location (I think this is already an option?). Say in hangouts it would be less than GD/Meneverse. This would encourage users to chat outside of their exclusive hangouts, and thus interact with our newer users.

Not enough people posting. I think the vast number of forums highly discourages newer users and older users alike. As much as I like the idea of having so much variety, it doesn't have a positive effect on a small userbase. At the time of making this thread there are 16 users online at 9am PST. There are over 20 threads in which users can actively chat and interact in. More than we have online. Even with the currently active users (including mules) is 321 users. Remove the mules and you have a maximum of 15 users per forum. That's not much, and if a majority are sticking to their threads or simply not online at the same time, that spreads us very thin.
I think a smaller forum is ideal for a smaller userbase, which can be expanded if/when we get an increase in users.

Not enough new users. This usually requires money, but there are always ways to spread the word about menewsha. Especially things like social media which are free. Menewsha needs to develop a selling point it can offer to entice newer users. Is it the art? The roleplay? Possible the community itself somehow?

Too many older users leaving. This is where things get painful. When an older user leaves, a whole niche can leave with them, reducing multiple threads they used to chat in to silence. The best way to do this would be to encourage posting by some means. Posting events (like double gold which is now once a month I think?) may give the feeling of activity.

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Does anyone have any ideas, feedback, or thoughts on what I've posted?

Lack of new users could be caused by lack of advertising. Whether it be free or not. I heard about Mene through Gaia on a thread, but I've never seen ads for this site. Anywhere. Either I missed them or they never existed. That's the biggest thing they have to do honestly. Ads can get expensive but it depends on the site and what traffic that site gets. Even doing ads on facebook is only $5 a day and it can be really good if you're trying to reach an audience.

$5 a day is a lot for a site that doesn't make money though. It only leads to us costing more money for the owner.
Likely if that were to happen a user would have to foot the bill for it.

Also, where the ad goes is very important, because if we bring in a bunch of people who conflict with our current userbase, it'll end up a waste of money.

advertisements probably not good at this time, social media campaigns would be a good start for us (we're already working on a plan for this), we first need to deal with uping site activity and trapping new people into join the community so if anyone here has torture closets or something of the sort, get em ready for when new meat start flooding in

Users don't leave their niche.

this has been a long standing problem, and imo there's no other way to convince people to leave their threads and check out other areas, other than asking them to

A wild yanyan appears! -tosses pokeball-

Ooh a social media plan in the works? That sounds exciting. I do feel we would need to work on the complaints many new users have though. Of course, can't get them into the torture chamber if they catch on.

Nothing useful to add, but I just wanted to say that I'm glad this has become a topic in the Site Feedback forum! The first step to change is talking about it, right?

Very true, there is also a thread in the GD that is what inspired a Feedback thread.

Originally Posted by The Wandering Poet

A wild yanyan appears! -tosses pokeball-

Ooh a social media plan in the works? That sounds exciting. I do feel we would need to work on the complaints many new users have though. Of course, can't get them into the torture chamber if they catch on.

i read this as "new users complain, lets toss them in the torture chamber. and then toss yan in there too. pokeball."

but yeah changes *3thumbsup*

If there's ever changes we can help with, I'm sure some of us would love to help ^^ (Even if it's just sniffing around for specific types of issues)
I've used your panty stealing mode ever since I knew it was available to constantly check for issues.

Maybe I did mean torture yan maybe I didnt. Maybe you are what tortures them.

my being in there with them is torture enough

oh and i think iforgot to mention that yes the shops would most likely be reverted back into how it was, maybe a few tweaks, for better navigation

Oh that is delightful to hear ^^
That would definitely knock out one of the major complaints I hear about from new users.

Perhaps... though some people might enjoy that...

I think the problem of item circulation is something that needs to be addressed or at least explained to me

There's lots of nice nice items being held by users who aren't active anymore, and that leaves the marketplace with very few items compared to the long list of CI, EI, etc.

The pricing on items is also kind of too much. Even in stores. And because there aren't enough people posting, it takes forever to make gold.

Item circulation is an issue they can not solve because in the end poor circulation is out fault.

As for inactive items, if the user bought those items and is inactive they can't take them because you can imaging the shitshow that would take place if after say 4-5 years they decide to come back and all their stuff got looted. That would give staff a VERY bad reputation.

Of course, there was the banned users, but with limited time and resources who's going to recirculate them? Who's going to sift through all of those users?

I do think the prices on the shops could be a bit lower (at least for newer items) but you can make a decent amount through the games.

Honestly I'm probably one of those users that has a lot of items people want, but I just honestly don't get around to selling any of it. Not enough people are willing to pay what a rare item is worth.

I think i'm saying why are there limited items in the first place? If people are saving so much money to buy expensive items why can't they just go buy it in an item store?
I know a lot of people who were newbies and tried getting gold but couldn't make enough to buy anything they actually wanted.
I'm not saying to take items from inactive users. I'm saying some people want to keep them and not be active that's fine. But what about the new people or everyone else who hasn't seen the item in a year or so because there is limited items and they aren't available in stores.

I don't think people should be forced to sell their items either. I'm just saying theres high demand (even with the few people that come on here, and potential new members) and not a lot of supply to meet that.

Because if the site didn't have any limited items, it'd never make any money at all.
Say the item is put into the item store. That user that saved up and bought it or paid real money just wasted an investment they made.

Like say the Oriental Fan, which is a pretty rare item. Throw it into a shop and it becomes worthless. People wont ever pay more than the existing value in the shop and it ceases to have any tradability, and it insults anyone who paid real money for it so they could sell it later.
Even if it were a cash shop, that 100k+ value item ends up being worth 5k forever and whoever owns it loses 95k+

I understand now! Thank you! I've been waiting for someone to explain that to me. It makes a lot of sense.

I understand that this is how mene makes money. But I think what i have a problem with is that the majority of the CI items are what everyone wants. Commons are good. But many of the complete avatars on this site need at least 1 EI or 1 CI. However, with the competitiveness of the avatar contests and more intricate outfits. You need like 5 CI's to look nice. lmao

My point is that there should be items LIKE CI available in the stores so people don't feel like they need to pay for nice items. All the background items are CI/EI usually.
YES. I know that mene needs money. But if there were cooler attractive items in the shops i think it would attract more people because then new members won't feel like they 'need' to donate. They should continue to have special items for members who pay though, I agree with this. But it just feels like an awful lot of items are only available by donating. What about EI's? those aren't available in the stores either. I know that members need to be here for the events to get those. But there is such a long list of special items and you can't find most of them.
I remember when i joined this site and I barely had money to buy a shirt and hat. Luckily back then there were more members who didn't mind helping me clothe myself, and there were more forums to post in. But now? There isn't many people here and new members can easily go away because it's not very comforting only being able to buy 1 shirt or such common things. Then seeing everyone who donates with nice items and earning gold seems like a far away thing.

I guess there's just many things that need to be changed.

You really don't need CIs for complete avis. I've seen a lot of wonderful avis and many of them had no CIs and EIs. In fact, a lot of the older items are pixeled differently, and are colors that aren't readily available much of the time. Sometimes they're just slightly a shade off and it breaks the avi.

I would love to have more beautiful items, but of course our pixel artist we can probably only afford to get the monthlies, which we get half as much as we used to. It used to be twice a month. There's simply not enough money going into the site for more.

We did at one time have contests run by staff to encourage user driven art, but the contests ended and people got too busy. I still have to finish mine, but sadly it's still not good enough and it's just a pair of pants. I'm far too inexperienced to make something fabulous.

I do think some shop background would be pretty cool though.

As for finding the EIs, they are at the very end of the shop. Usually the gold to token ratio is higher to discourage someone from simply buying it with gold and hiking the price later.

All places have a curve though. In videogames you start as a weak thing can't afford anything, and eventually you work hard and you get it. Part of the issue is that the world is moving toward instant gratification. But there's little gratification in doing next to nothing for good things.

Take my current avi for example. Zero CIs or EIs, this avi is exclusively with shop items I've acquired. And it's one of my favorites. (The dress part at least)

I know you don't /need/ them to complete avis, but let's face it, everyone quests CI's and most of those quest threads are dead now because of price, availability and so forth.

I think it just comes down to everything being out of date. This site has a very early 2000s feel to it.
The shop sections is a mess i think. There's too many shops and not enough organization in each of them.
I know there's instant gratification. But there are sites that still have more activity than here and they make gaining currency far easy.
It has to do with freedom to post what you want. Loose rules. I hate to bring up recolor again but it's a site that has done very well in maintaining an easy way to reply to people and organize their item system.

I go on there, not even for the items, just because the General discussion there moves fast. And even their hangout threads are decent. I've meet some nice people there- not everyone is a troll. lmao

They also don't have a 'questing' or 'charity' forum. People don't go there for the items. I mean the customization is nice there don't get me wrong. I love it because you can adjust to color to all the items so they match. But the fact that they don't need quest threads and are still active says a lot.

I think by bringing in more prizes and nice items is just to attract more people to join. I was attracted by the other sites because of their unique colors and styles of avi. It has a more 'hip' feel. I think mene just needs to revamp big time and try to make a comeback.

The reason my quest thread died was because nobody posted in it. If more users are around the quest forum will likely revive as well.
Also being on mene for 9 1/2 years having a quest thread feels kinda pointless.

Menewsha definitely is out of date, with the lack of funds to keep up with the times it's fallen behind a little. But what sort of forums are "hip and cool" now we can observe?

I do quite like mene's drawer system. It's the best way to organize in my opinion.

The questing forum is more of a "place to keep a list of what we want". Sometimes people have gotten a surprise donation because of those threads. As for the charity forum... I think that was likely made because people tend to join and immediately start begging, because mene does not have starter clothing, one thing I love about mene, none of that ugly useless starter clothing.

As for events and prizes. Do you think small contests here and there would suffice for that?
I know mene used to have coded events back when it was more active, and they were wonderful.

I have a quest thread. But it's kind of pointless now because i don't pay much attention to it. I don't look at it because i already know i don't have enough money
And then i just stopped caring about items. I'm of course bringing about the issue of item availability because that's what attracts new users who don't have friends. Most people look at the art and items before making the decision to join a site. If they don't like the avatars, then they don't join. Another interesting thing that someone has brought up before is the wishlist. A public wish list can easily cancel out the quest forum. Updating a quest thread is a lot of work for new people who are questing many items. I believe making a thread is nice to keep track of everything. But i only think very expensive items should be listed. It gets ridiculous when people have to list every item in the entire site. If making gold was easier then maybe people wouldn't feel they had to list all those skirts or socks lol

I don't really like that i have to go to the second page in my inventory just to see the rest of my items. I prefer that everything be in one page. There's already too much page flipping on this site. And i think having mene be simple and easier to navigate would make it easy on mobile. Many are on their phones and since there's a lot of people that claim to be too busy and thats why they aren't active. maybe if mene wasn't so cluttered it would be easy. I don't use mene on my phone becasue it just feels uncomfortable.

With a wishlist, there could be an option to easily click on the item and then choose to donate.
No one wants ugly clothes. But no one wants to be naked either. People like to have more customization to their avatars. I understand having to work hard for it. But i feel that you have to work real hard just to look okay.
There's not a lot of customization available when you first start out. That's why many people beg. But if it were easier to gain money and not have available charity/quest threads. People would have no choice but to post and get their items themselves. And even focus more on posting than begging.

Small events would be nice. Or surprise boxes that appear when you post a lot in one day. I think small incentives can go a long way. because even when the forums aren't active, you're excited to see something new pop on the screen randomly. Just as a reward system for staying active.

True a wishlist would be nice, but that would also require quite a bit of coding wouldn't it? We're definitely not ready for that kind of step yet.

I've had no issues with mene on my phone personally, but I do like the idea of "everything on one page" instead of tons of pages, but that's also a lot of small images to load.

Surprise boxes would be more coding though. =/
All the things that would be delightful to have are coded it seems.

It just comes down to a big revamping of the site. All these ideas are based off other avatar sites and things that users enjoy.
I love mene. I just wish that it were updated. I love the style of the avatars. I love the items and such. But many of the core aspects are out of date. I'm not the only person who has suggested a smaller forum page. With our smaller community i think it would be easier if the forum page were small because we would see everything better. The same goes for the shops page. There has been removal of threads lately because they are very old threads. Why not remove some forum sections that aren't active either?
A lot of ideas involve coding and i don't know if it will ever happen. But I know there are many people who care about mene and want it to survive. The only way for that to happen is for lots of things to change/ improve.

Well in order to do that though requires money mene doesn't have.
We have to build revenue before we can spend it to improve the site. Until then we have to do free or super cheap changes.

I don't even know what the progress on the small changes are? Are there threads about how the staff is doing or what they are currently working on? I feel like i don't know much about what is needed or what is currently being done.
Haven't seen an update about anything yet.

Threads telling us about what they are working on would be cool, but it may make people more impatient if they take too long.