|
Well, for one thing - The staff is not that active. And many of the older staff members have disappeared. Many/most of the moderators that were active when I first joined are gone and haven't logged in in well.. forever.
New staff should replace them. If new users see more active staff members, then perhaps new users will feel more welcomed. And if more people had access to NPC accounts then I think they could do wonders to make this site active again. Everyone loves the NPCs and enjoy chatting with them the seldom times they do pop up. I am going to post about this in the site feedback forum and see what is said. |
That is something that definitely bothered me... the NPCs have all but gone extinct. They conveniently rid themselves of the mayor and vicktoria, and none of the others seem to come outside now. Where did that little ball of furry trouble go?
|
Exactly. The NPCs are important to this site and I feel they should be more active and NOT just during events.
|
Even being scratched by yumeh was an honor
|
TBH, I do see some of the mods pop up, and occasionally someone on the art staff -- but it's nothing like a few years ago when there was more of a staff presence.
|
I have an idea on how we can get new members. Some of us that frequent the local library (It is a bonus if you know the young adults' librarian.), we could recommend Menewsha as a site for the teens to visit. As far as promoting Menewsha at a local public library, it might be hard and difficult depending on the rules of your local library system.
I wouldn't be able to promote Menewsha officially without getting approval from the Young Adults' librarian and whoever else is in charge. I can talk about the site and 'recommend' it to the teens and young adults, although I can't leave flyers about the site in the teen section. I might post about this suggestion more in depth in the feedback forum. My concern is the legality of promoting Menewsha at your local library. Especially if you're in a county/town/city with a HUGE library system. It might work for smaller library systems although there might some issues of legality. I'll talk to the Young Adults' librarian I know and see what they say. |
Interesting... that would definitely appeal to the kids who like to read.
|
Quote:
I think Nephie is one of our most treasured resources she has always stayed the same as a member as a mod and now as a pixelist But I do see what you mean about some of the other staff I think a lot of people just have a lot doing their jobs and having a real life and family and maybe switching some people up would be a good thing and I also think a lot of active members have also decided that maybe their activity isn't appreciated ---------- Post added 04-24-2017 at 06:15 PM ---------- The point about the count 'em thread is to give people that don't want to have conversation with people but still kind of want to feel involved in the event and then hopefully eventually they will come out into the hangout threads and chat with us or do role play or something like that that's why I do them I'm sorry you don't like them it's not for the gold it's simply away for people that aren't as chatty to still feel involved without just playing chance to get the items I hope that at least gives you an insight into me I used to always try and be a really really active all the time and I felt that I was just spinning my wheels and I think a lot of people feel that way and that's where the downfall of activity has come from in my opinion And the bell jelly you weren't lied to you were given what information jelly felt was for our general population to know her stuff is personal if she wants to come online when she can and tell everybody that's totally up to her absolutely no one is lying to you we all hope someday she can come back and at least part-time or temporarily or now and then be our jelly again and like Maria's said we'll never count her out ever she is much beloved by everyone |
I would be happy just to have jelly back as a user even.
|
I think this is a really good question, and I'm not really sure of the answer to be honest.
I first joined Menewsha in 2008 as a 10 year old (I know, I know) and I think I first started frequenting the forums in late 2009. I remember it being just this magical place where people were always posting and there were always people online, and I made a significant number of real friends on here, some of whom I still keep in touch with now, albeit sporadically. Now, however, I log back in and the threads that used to be the most active and updating multiple times per minute are quite literally dead. I think a main reason for Menewsha's decline, which has already been addressed by others, is the aging userbase. Very rarely are entirely new users joining due to the lack of advertising, and as such you have a userbase that used to be largely a lot younger and with a lot more free time but is now busy with other things, like family, work, and education. I know that for me, personally, I would love to spend more time on here, but I'm currently in my second year of university and I've got so many other things on my plate, and for online socialising I've moved to other, faster platforms, like Discord or Tumblr. It's certainly a vicious cycle, because one of the main reasons I'm not as active on here even when I have the time is because of how inactive everyone else is. I go and check in on my old haunts and no one's posted in over a week, and even when I do post I usually won't get a response back for ~24 hours if ever. Part of this is likely due to time-zones, which is frustrating but not really negotiable, but I think it's also because Menewsha's kind of just hit a point where people expect it to be dead. The speed at which communication happens on here, at least in my experience, tends to be very unnaturally slow, which makes it very hard to have normal conversations. Whereas in the past I'd be able to effectively chat and make replies that were only a sentence long and the conversation was moving quickly and naturally à la the real world, now I'll reply to what someone's said in paragraphs because it feels much more like an email service than an IM, where since we're replying every few hours or in even longer increments I have to put in more content which can get exhausting. This might just be a 'me' issue, but it's one of the main problems I've encountered. Another issue which others have brought up and I would agree with is the general stagnation of the site itself: Menewsha sometimes feels like a time capsule from how avatar forums used to be. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but sometimes I'll log in for the first time in months and literally nothing will have changed: the site looks exactly the same, the same issues are still present, the stores are the same, and even the userbase is the same. It can feel very stale at times. I feel like I've essentially written a thesis here so I'll leave it there, but I look forward to seeing a Menewsha in the future that is hopefully more active and inclusive. EDIT: I've been thinking about this a lot today, and another thing I just thought of is games. Whilst games (as in the arcade, not forum games) aren't really the main draw or social hub for Menewsha, I think they could certainly add to the enjoyment. Even if the daily gold cap is kept at 500 I think it would be interesting and potentially beneficial to add a few more games to the roster. One site that's been mentioned here frequently, Recolor.me, I think does a good job of handling this. The games there are pretty diverse, and even though I don't participate in the community there I'll log in almost daily just to play some of the word games on there because I feel both incentivised to do so (earning currency), but also because some of them feel at least a little bit educational. Would it be possible for Menewsha to do something like that? I'm pretty sure that a few of our games are already sourced from third parties (Tetris, helicopter attack, asteroids... etc.), so could we add a few more third party ones of the word-game variety or just generally more thought-based? I just know that, personally, I would be more likely to log in every day to play a wider variety of games, and in doing so would probably also by extension post more. This might just be a me thing, though, because I find that playing Tetris (my personal gold-making choice) can get tiring, and is also very attention consuming as opposed to a randomly generated word search which I can take my time with. |
Well, I went on a hiatus for 3 years. Except for a bunch of new (may I say beautiful) items, the site really hasn't evolved much. I honestly think a big part is how the way people use technology. There are a lot of opportunities Mene will, if not carefully, miss out completely. I mean the mene experience on for example my mobile phone is like a horror. And I think there in lies the opportunity: mene is a way to connect to people, to play fun games (not playable on my phone), dress up, etc. And of course the beautiful avatars and items But I can imagine new people accidently coming to this site checking it out (chances are it is on a phone) and see this text-based site where you really have to find your way, to see there is nothing really going on. I wrote this on my phone and took me ages m. So yes, I would definitely like to see Menewsha making this whole site/app more user and mobile friendly.
And yes, Mene could use a facebook ad or something. But that will only work if there is actually some animation or fun event going on here. And as I said, the site itself (the use of inventory, marketplace, etc) could use some work too. |
Quote:
|
Quote:
Some library systems have gaming computers in their young adults' department. The teens and young adults' that like gaming might like Menewsha. [heart] I haven't forgot to ask the YA librarian, I'll ask when I run into them again. |
Maria - I know all too well why she is on hiatus. I'm just wishful. I miss that old lady sometimes.
Lizzy - Seriously? I never knew libraries had evolved like that. Hime - That is a very big point. Mobile access. I personally don't mind having to constantly zoom in and out, as I am a recurring resident, but to any other user not having a mobile version (or a mobile way to donate) may greatly deter new users from joining. If Menewsha was mobile friendly users could more easily log on during breaks, take 5 minutes to catch up with friends while the kids devour their meal, or a hard at work employee during their 15 minute break. It gives the older busier users easier access during their busy schedules. |
A mobile-friendly site would be nice. Not that I'd use it, mind; I've got a Tracfone, and I'm sort of stingy when it comes to my data, so I try and use it sparingly.
An app would be nice, too, but unfeasible; Plus look at Gaia's app(at least, the one on Android) -- well, it's kind of meh, and hasn't been updated since 2013. Still, it's an idea, but I don't see Mene having an app for the forseeable future. On jelly: well, it's not my place to pry, so I won't. But she is missed. [yes] |
In regards to jelly, you can always email her. I can't offer guarantees of replies, but I'm sure she will read them.
The mentioned email was supplied by her last year. Not sure if anyone ever emailed her. I also know she does read the "♥JELLY YOU ARE LOVED♥" thread too. Another thing that may relate to Menewsha being slow is that I very often end up waiting 10-15 seconds for a page to load every time, and no other site hangs that long. |
Ya know, I think a big thing is that a lot of users only post in the Hangout forums. I dont see them post outside those threads except during events.
|
I think that is because there are so many forums and so few people. I personally skip a lot of the forums because people just overall don't even go to them. Often times entire forums waiting a week or more for a post isn't worth actively checking.
|
That is true, but if more people came out of their cliques, then maybe more activity could be started?
|
Maybe, but that's a lot of forums that are essentially dead. People would need a reason to go to them.
I mean we have 36 forums (not including subforums of which we have 39 making a total of 75?) and there are 24 people online at 3pm PST. That's way more than the site can handle. We would need fresh people with fresh ideas to bother going to those areas. 24 people can easily fit in 2-3 forums |
Yeah, it is just difficult to get new users to actually stick around because of the lack of activity around the site.
|
It may be possible for us to get some of them back though. I do remember there being an option to mass email people who've been gone a long time right? Like a "We miss you, come see what's changed" (when something actually changes)
|
Yeah, wouldn't want to draw them back to an uneventful site.. Wouldn't make a good impression.
|
Quote:
|
Quote:
|
| All times are GMT. The time now is 10:08 AM. |