So I sent that email out a couple of days ago to the less than 5 posts people. At the time the active users was sitting at 834.

Look at it now

977 Active Members

It went up by over 100 on the day I sent the email out, but it's still climbing.

Wouldn't it be great if it went back up to over 1k and stayed there? Maybe I could try an email to people with between 5 and 10 posts...The thing is, this last email only had a positive effect because I made a point of mentioning Gaia in the title, so it got people who have previously always ignored our emails, to actually read it.

We're all a lot better informed about the Gaia situation now, thanks to people coming on here and letting us know, so I'd not use that method again. But I'd need some kind of compelling email title to get people to actually open it rather than just have the, "oh, Menewsha mail -tosses-" reaction.

If you got an email from a site you'd signed up for years ago, but never got into. What would make you open it?

Then actually read the mail too! really doesn't help that there's no means to prettify our mail. Hmm, that's not entirely accurate. Ok, really doesn't help that I don't know how to make our mail look more visually appealing, and work for all email providers!

When I was still using AOL I spent all day working out how to add an attractive background colour, and images, hyperlinking to relevant threads, and giving text a nice font/colour and so on. It worked just fine when I tested it on my own email, and for people on several other providers. But for at least one other big email provider (I suspect it was Yahoo >.>) all people got was a whole bunch of code showing.

URGH!!

I just so want activity to increase on here! We've met some great new people because of the email, and I sincerely hope they like us and continue to stick around. I'm going to embarrass some of them now!

frenchtoasted: Maxipuff: Latigua: Rgoodermote: [RFIM]: Kvatheo: StrawberryZ0mbie:

This is the way to do things right? A nice new person joins, so you publicly mortify them and make them afraid to ever log in again. Oh, wait...

I seem to have gone into ramble mode here, not that that's anything unusual, as most people should know by now. ><.

Hmmm, tum-ti-tum...not sure what to say to wrap this up...

-posts-

That would be fantastic! :D

*waves at pinged people*

978 Active Members

I noticed that! It was kind of humbling to see the number above 800. I'm sure it will keep increasing over the course of time due to.. other forum site's circumstances. >.>
I'm so glad to see that that email is brought some people back. (Well, even if they hadn't posted in the first place but looked around for a bit and left essentially) They sound like really great people! I hope they stay~

Jelly, your ramblings are so entertaining.
I'm aware that some people thought your email was
unprofessional and weird, but that really stood out to me and pulled me in.
Your personality is just the bee's knees. I love how personal it felt,
like a secret note to a friend, haha.

Nephila: *waves back*

I wish I could help more with suggestions, but I can't really think of anything.
I'm usually just attracted by cute art.
Good luck though! I hope mene keeps growing at an accelerated pace.

You'd be hard pressed to find a way to mortify me. :p Spend three years looking at the worst humanity has to offer, you'll react like a Russian reacts to a meteorite.

That said, I take joy in the tears of others. You have provided me with a fresh source of these tears. >D

(Actually, it surprisingly wasn't that it was related to Gaia. For the longest time I had never gotten your mail and then suddenly I got something. I had been bored and figured, "Yeah, why not?" so I jumped in to see what the commotion was about. Looked at my clock and realized I didn't have anything for a few hours and I was the person with the most knowledge of the situation. So I figured I would hop in and dispel any possible lies/rumours/falsities. Also acted as an outlet besides my usual victims, I'm pretty heavily restricted and most people wouldn't really give me the time of day to ramble on. Those that do generally get bored quickly as I'm prone to lengthy rambles. Also I missed avatar sites and not many still exist. I miss them so much I've been making my own for the last three months. >_>; Granted I'd been working on it in secret for the last three years, but still. xD; In short, you sorta happened to send that at the right time, on the right day and at the exact moment required to get my attention.xD; Oh and that Google Mail happened to be nice that day and deliver your mail. xD; Doesn't diminish the fact that it got my attention though!)

(There is likely some rule that says I should use these for anything outside of minor notes, but I say "Screw the rules!" and I'm doing it anyway.)

Originally Posted by Rgoodermote

You'd be hard pressed to find a way to mortify me. :p

Lol, hellooo, red flag to a bull :P

Oh and that Google Mail happened to be nice that day and deliver your mail. xD;

Ha! Google plays mail roulette with every batch I send out. I quite often don't get it myself when the bulk mail is sent. >.>

More active users!
Me, if I get an email notification I sometimes look at it, but most of the times I just don't care I always get emails from spinchat, saying that if I don't get on quickly then my account will get disconnected, and I used to go there a few times but now I don't feel like going :< but if I get an email from me I'll be sure to come back =D

And here I was thinking I was the only one sad when we went from 950+ active users all throughout the Winter Festival back down to the 800 range. I should have talked in more forums! but I was so obsessed with winter foods and stories about Christmas pickles...

o________________o

Ohboy


Hi guys


uhmm jelly, I think what really did it for me was the mention that it was a real person in the email, I always delete automated messages ha

Originally Posted by frenchtoasted

o________________o

Ohboy


Hi guys


uhmm jelly, I think what really did it for me was the mention that it was a real person in the email, I always delete automated messages ha

O 3O Where, can I ask, did you buy your mustache?

979 Active Members

You know I was wondering if I could use the "this is from a real person!" angle to get people to open the mail ><


Alex, are you calling me sad!

Alex I can't remember ;-; I'll have to search around ! For now I'm off to work( very very reluctantly)

lol I have some ideas for things that we could do in the community... but I'm still kind of thinking about them. I should have a thread up in a day or two. Maybe in that Mene improvement/'get the word out' forum.

But I think I'm here to stay. And what do Menewshians call themselves? Menians? Menewshians? "I'm on Mene"ians? 'Cuz I'm beginning to feel less identity as a Gaian.

An email from Mene is actually what got me to come back. I had signed up, but I wasn't sure about the site way back then, and I kind of forgot about it. Then I got a random email inviting me back for Celes Paradi about a year later, and I just stayed.

It's split between Menewshan and Menewshian, theo. I don't add an I myself, I think it looks weird ><

Really pleased at least one got through to you then, Mage!

LoL. I'm glad I'm not easily embarrassed. ;)

Btw. I opened the email because I'm just sort of a curious person. I might not have opened it if it not for the fact that someone on skype had told me about it already, which just heightened my curiosity. I think it's a bit unusual to send an email asking about another site--especially one that is currently going through a lot of turmoil. And one where uses are frustrated by the deaf ear being turned by admin.

Initially I was not actually going to join reply or pop in here but then I decided there was nothing wrong with you guys being curious about what is really going on at Gaia. And I ended up joining the conversation here about Gaia....and then ran into someone I know from Gaia as well.

And here I am. =3 (I also think the assurance that there was a real person behind the email did help encourage me to reply--even if I actually didn't think it was true until you replied.)

Oh yes - that helps too, Jelly I hate automated e-mails myself You add a touch of your personality (I don't think I can call it a 'touch' - it's huge! ) and people (like myself and so many others) like to read it Just don't send some pictures that look like though

Originally Posted by Kvatheo

lol I have some ideas for things that we could do in the community... but I'm still kind of thinking about them. I should have a thread up in a day or two. Maybe in that Mene improvement/'get the word out' forum.

But I think I'm here to stay. And what do Menewshians call themselves? Menians? Menewshians? "I'm on Mene"ians? 'Cuz I'm beginning to feel less identity as a Gaian.

As long as no one uses "Meneies". *facepalm*

Well well well!
c:
I must say, the warm and welcome environment of Menewsha did keep me sticking around.
As one may notice, I actually joined in 2009. I think I didn't have any time, signed up for an account, then TOTALLY forgot about the site.
I am pretty sure that I've gotten a handful of emails about Menewsha, and every time I did, I at least came back to poke my head in.
I'm not positive what changed this time, but I wanted to check it out further. I don't put it fully on Gaia though, as I abandoned that site before I made this account.

Anywho!
I think sending out e-mails is perfectly rad. I have no reason not to at least look at an email if I recognize where it originated from.
I think that one could definitely send out emails to users who:
Have less than 15 posts AND/OR
Have not logged in for over 30 days (I imagine that ya'll could code in some setting that allows a user to not receive emails, if they decide to go on hiatus? If not then bump it to 90 days)
Also if:
There is a big site event under way
Its the users birthday
A big change has been made - new layout, new game, new content, etc
Personally, I don't see why the site shouldn't email it's users. A "opt out" option is needed in the long run, though (unless you run off of a system of last login time).

A site I once played, Subeta, would send out a newsletter sometimes. If you read the newsletter, at the bottom was a link to collect some free stuff. The items were good enough to want, but nothing ~legacy~ status. If someone took the time to develop a newsletter once a month or maybe four times a year or so and there was also an artist who could make +/- 3 items to go with it, I think it would go well. In this scenario, I see a well-written email with a nice graphic (have a fun contest for active members to design this, they can win a nice prize and have their art featured) with updates about the site, just a friendly hello, new topics to discuss, top users posts - honestly, shove anything Mene related in there and it will work - and at the bottom a link to the site to grab a few little basic items and maybe 50 gold?

Even if one doesn't remember/loooove a site, one is likely to revisit if free stuff is offered. And for oldbies, it's a great way to make new friends, get a few new items, and earn some gold with one click.

Sorry, I kind dipped off into an idea. I'm open to discuss it more, but I'll stop here! c:

But yes, I'm glad I got the email, glad I came back, and glad to say Hello to all of you! :3

-Gasp- I have been noticed! My cloaking device, why have you failed me so? D:

Now that that is out of the way. Hello. I have to say that it was the Gaia thing that brought me back. I had a few emails before hand but just shrugged them off. I forgot this site had existed really. Sorry. The email looked fine on my end. I even responded which isn't really something I often do with emails from random sites. My school's emails to be barely get a glance.

It can be a little daunting to find a place to fit in here, I've been lurking in the Role Play forum trying to build the confidence to post somewhere. >.> Other than that I have no idea what you can do to get more people active.

-sneaks back to reading in Role Play and Word Games.-

[RFIM]: There is an (admittedly automated) email that goes out to people on their birthday, so you should have got 5 of those over the years. So I guess none of them actually got through. -.-

I'll tell you a very strange phenomena about the birthday email. I get responses to that, on Support, and (apart from Pistachio_Moustache: :P) the people who reply to it are always people who've never once posted and very few are of the "?????who are you?" variety. They're normally just things like, "thanks". So far not managed to cajole any of them into activity though. ><

I have offered people bribes for logging on before, lol. Well no, the free item was for replying to the email, actually, but of course they had to log in to collect it. I did that because our email rating drops if there's no 2 way activity going on. If somewhere sends out bulk mail and never gets replies service providers sensibly assume you're sending out spam, and punish you accordingly. So I offered people a cookie if they replied. =3

Latigua:

Yeah, it really makes no difference how nice and friendly a place is, at first, you've still got to get over that feeling of being new, haven't you. At least here, when people reply it's unlikely to be with things like, "GTFO noob" etc. It's just getting them to reply that's the problem sometimes. ><

---------- Post added 04-14-2014 at 03:25 PM ----------

Also!!

992 Active Members

-hyperventilates-

Hey, hey, hey.
I'm special, you should know this.
xDD

I made a promise to myself and you, jellysundae:, that I would respond to every single email sent to me.

"special", yup

//has "special" painted on forehead

:D