I'm not sure of the solution, but I'd like some suggestions.  I check out this site two or three times a day.  What I usually find is that there are only two or three people on at any given time.  We get new members and they post a couple of times, then they are gone.  Sometimes there has been no change at all on the index page.  So my questions are these: Where does everyone go? Why don't folks stay?  What can we do to get people more involved?   When I post on another long hair site, I often have to search to find my thread again.  But here, I rarely even get a response other than from moderators.  (Thanks Bikerbraid, Curlsgirl, and Sakina!) Please don't take this as criticism, I am genuinely looking for ways to help this site.

Perhaps a question of the day or week?  

I guess, for me, hair isn't interesting enough in and of itself to keep me yaking.  People love to talk about their passions, their points of view.  Unfortunately, to me it really feels like no one wants to hear it here. ..it's just so hair-centric.  I generally come here to check out new 'stick styles and to jumpstart my memory on hairstyles...unfortunately there aren't very many of those.  I think that if it wasn't for the email with the new hairsticks listed, I wouldn't be here very often at all.  :'(

Quizzes, games, all could help.  And just like IRL, small-talk topics such as "what do you do?" fall flat fast.  But a question like "What personality qualities do you think are necessary to grow rapunzel-length hair?  Why?  Do you think you have these qualities?" stimulates discussion.

Also like IRL, I've noticed that if you put someone in charge of something, they have a better chance of showing up.  Kind of like serving in ministry guarantees that you'll be in church on Sunday (and usually on time, lol).  Perhaps it owuld help to put people "in charge" of fostering discussion on different days, or make certain people the "host" of a board where they are responsible for encouraging discussion and eventually, if it gets big enough, reporting (but not necessarily acting upon) abuse or questionable posts.  

Hmm.  I'd like to see more action here, too...like you, I can check back several times a day.  After a few days of not seeing much change, though, I drop back to nearly never.  Anyway...HTH.

PS As I go to sign this, I realized that another reason it seems impersonal around here is the lack of names in sig lines.  I'm certain we're all concerned about security.  But let me be the first to throw caution to the wind and introduce myself.  Hi, I'm....

Krystal

Not a mod, but been around for a long time.

Compared to some other boards, this is a small place. A very small place- and that means there will be fewer posts. On the other hand, this being a small place has its advantages too. The people who hang out here for a longer time get to know each other pretty well, and there's always attention to newcomers too. Big boards often have difficulties with both of these issues.

But yeah, I have noticed too that lately it's been unusually quiet in here. It seems that some people who were long-time regulars have stopped visiting, and on the other hand, many of the newbies haven't become active posters. I don't know why...but it seems to happen every now and then.

I won't post my first name publicly- I realize it might be a different thing for you USA:ns, but I live in a much smaller place and by posting my first name on top of all the other personal info I've shared...that would be tempting my fortune too much. You'll find it out if I'm assigned to your pair in Secret Santa or some other gift exchange.  :)

This is an interesting question.  I don't frequent any other boards, so my only experience is here.  Like Krystal, I don't find hair all that interesting as a topic,  although it is what brings us all here and what we all have in common.  Personally, I find it difficult to jump into the conversations here because there does seem to be a core of people who know each other and I feel like I'm "butting in".  It's my own problem, I'm not implying that anyone has done anything to make me feel unwelcome.  

I have a suggestion, let's ask each other questions -here's mine --  do you drink tea, :-? and if so, what is your favorite kind and do you use lemon or milk, honey or sugar?  

Here's my answer - I drink Lipton tea.  At home I use honey and soy milk, at work I use sugar and cow's milk.  I also like peppermint tea once in a while to settle my stomach.

Have a nice day!! ;D

Thanks for your replies, ladies.  Silvermane, I do drink tea occasionally, although water is my beverage of choice.  In my cupboard I have Lipton green tea and cold water ice tea, Luzianne tea, ceylon breakfast tea, and orange tea.  I take mine plain without milk or sugar, but sometimes like a slice of lemon.  I have a number of beautiful teapots and enjoy a tea party with my Red Hat friends.

I guess I am a hair fanatic, as I come to the boards quite often.  I try to vary my hair style frequently, and am always looking for something new and fun to try.  

In case you haven't guessed, my name is Kathy.

As a long time member here, I "hear you".  This is a quiet board, partly because it is associated with the retailing of the upscale hairsticks.  I visit other boards as well, but have always liked the smaller, homey feel of LongLocks over the big, fast moving hair sites.

However, I agree, things have been overyly quiet lately and I have been trying to think of what we can do to liven things up a bit.  The mods here have been planning a Secret Santa exchange, which I'll be posting more info on soon.  We would love to have more postings.... and they DON'T have to be about hair.  Any and all suggestions will be considered.  

Thank you, OldKathy, for opening the subject.

robin

As a newbie here, I can agree with silvermayne in that it can be a bit initimidating to simply join in a conversation since there does seem to be the core of people who have known each other for so long.  I do come everday though, to read posts and get suggestions for my hair.

Concerning tea:  I drink Celestial Seasonings teas.  I just finished my box of Honey Vanilla Chamomile, so yesterday I picked up Red Zinger, for iced tea, and Safari Red, for hot.  I add one packet of Splenda sweetener for each tea bag, but I may try milk sometime too.

yes i agree it is very quite, rather than checking daily i now check every week because there are so few updates.

I feel one of the things that restrictspeople posting is that there are too many catergories, when i often just want to rant about anything i always struggle to find which section i need to post in or how i can modify what i want to say so that it fits a topic, which restricts posting.

Dont get me wrong i lovew the topics but i feel they would flow naturally from a hair disscussion anyway so a section is uneeded.

Please i am not trying to offend anyone but with so many topics it takes forever to keep going in and out of every single topic when flly exploring the boards.

I just find it restricting. There are people posting but it looks like so few because the topics are so many. There should be a main board for hair no matter what length not just for long hair where u can talk about everuthing and everything about hair not just certain topics. This may bring some new interesting concepts and discussions to the board.

Please dont feel offended i love u guys here but it would better with less restricting and time consuming topics thats all. Most of the other boards i go on have a maximun of 5 topics and they are thriving in discussion because it is not restricted to topics.

If i wanted to chat about bsl hair or dirty blond hair or hair goals or a million and one other things i would have to modify everything to fit in to any of these topics.

The more topics the more a disscussion is broken up however the less topics the more you get to meet others. For example if i only posted in the blond hair board i would get few results because there are few people with blond hair who wouldnt even go into that topic but if i posted something grnerally in one board ill disscuss with everyone. as a blonde i would feel loanly on tha board.

No one wants to come see the same topics everyday. When i go to other boards there are millions of topics because they are not restricted to certain discussions. You want to long on and see new disscussions/different topics about hair you know something different but with topics the discussion never expands outside the topic.

Hope you know what ia ma trying to say

sorry for the rant

Don't worry about your ranting! :)  We are here to listen to your opinions,thoughts,suggestions or whatever you want to say as long as you do not attack anyone.  :)

thanks curlgirl, like i said i love u guys here because you genuinly care.

Rainbow--

I have to agree with you on the overabundance of sections.  I was thinking the same thing but wasn't brave enough to say it  :-[ so thanks for biting that bullet for me.  

And while we're being honest, thank you so much for whatever you did that made it so there weren't periods between each word of your last post.  I'm an auditory learner, so while I read I "hear" the words in my head.  Trying to read something with a "stop" in between each word was painful.    :-[  (I'm pretty sure it was your posts that were hard to read, at least!  If not, just ignore me.)


And, while I'm posting...
I don't drink tea unless it's Chai, made with milk.  Hot water is just really yucky to me for some reason.

Krystal

Thank you all for your comments about the number of topics.  We will do some thinking on that.  In the meantime - go ahead and post "where ever".  We are not that fussy about where you post.  If it really does belong somewhere else, one of the moderators will make the adjustment, but it would have to be really off the topic for us to do that.

Keep the suggestions coming.... we are listening!

This is a great place!  Not to worry!  Tea eh?  I'm a self professed tea tottler! I drink all differnet types of tea...orange peoko to start the day, fennel for belly aches, lemon balm to sooth the nerves, nettle for vitamin C, Matcha for tea ceremony, Japanese seaweed and mushroom,bush stick tea you name it!  My fav is green tea with roasted brown rice! I gather the herbal ones wild or from my garden.  I use to be a coffee freak but I found tea to be better for me.  Tea is my other hobby as well as Bonsai and Poetry. 8-)

Wow it's great to see so many replies.  I'm not sure if your question about tea was a bit tongue in cheek or not.  But questions do get more replies, especially if they apply to most everyone.  It's great to get to know each other by our posts.  Keep em coming.

Yes i am happy too, as my keyboard broke hence the full stops everywhere lol

oh forgot to mention tea. Well let me see i only drink it occassionally say maybe when i buy some yummy biscuits. So its plain tea with milk no sugar.

Off topic replies have been moved to This Thread

I've moved the tea/breakfast comments over to the the new thread.

I was wondering where is OldKathy??

Meanwhile I've got a couple more ideas about topics to try to liven things up a bit, here.
I hope people like them and that the moderators don't get angry at me! :D ::)

I think we all(moderators) welcome your thoughts and ideas,greek_lady!! ;)

Of course we welcome your ideas!  Bring 'em on!  ;D

I know I have been MIA myself but I am preparing for the arrival of a new baby boy in late Aug/early Sept.  Also Hubby and I have a bet going on as to how much my hair will grow thru the pregnancy so I dont want to be tempted to measure and possible jinx myself! ;D  The prize for the winner is the loser has to do all the daily chores and a massage.  I can try to stop everyday until the baby comes thou.  

Congratulations, Bluberri! I hope your new son is healthy and perfect, and that you win that bet!

How exciting, Bluberri!  You must keep us up to date on everything!

Its so hard not to pull out my tape measure! Last night my mom came over while I was brushing my hair and she said it was to my mid thigh ;D What a temptation!!

Wow, mid-thigh...I can't imagine my hair ever being that long.  Good for you.  And good luck with the new little one!!!

JD

oldkathy wrote on Oct 21^st, 2006 at 2:33pm:

I'm not sure of the solution, but I'd like some suggestions.  I check out this site two or three times a day.  What I usually find is that there are only two or three people on at any given time.  We get new members and they post a couple of times, then they are gone.  Sometimes there has been no change at all on the index page.  So my questions are these: Where does everyone go? Why don't folks stay?  What can we do to get people more involved?   When I post on another long hair site, I often have to search to find my thread again.  But here, I rarely even get a response other than from moderators.  (Thanks Bikerbraid, Curlsgirl, and Sakina!) Please don't take this as criticism, I am genuinely looking for ways to help this site.

I know how you feel ::)

I am a moderator at another forum and I start threads hoping people will reply but nothing happens.  What frustrates me is that a topic might have 500 hits but no replies :o

But what really bothers me is all the lurkers who join and never say as much as 'hi' or 'hello'.
I can understand where some might be shy or afraid but a simple 'hello' might get the ball rolling.

I am very thankful for forums and message boards dealing with long hair but I really enjoy the sites that allow off-topic discussions.

I have noticed since I joined here the messages are pretty steady so far.

But, I would rather have a board  with steady messages rather than messages going so fast they are hard to keep up with.

Jerry

Jerry, most message boards have lots of registrants that never post.  Here, probably only 1% of the members have ever made a post.  Not only do most of the members not post - a significant number never even return!  :o  I've never figured out why someone would go thru the trouble of registering (and using a nonsense user name) to never return again.  :-?  

This board is well moderated, which eliminates the rif-raf pretty quickly and also helps to keep things moving.  

Some people are just lurkers.  I mean, I've been reading for months and only just hit ruby.  Think of it like a party.  You drift from conversation to conversation, except here nobody gets insulted if you stay for the equivalent of one sentence.  For some people, to immediately insert yourself into a conversation seems...obtrusive.  

Oh darn!  That was me finding an earring.  I have a horrible habit of taking of my earrings whenever they start bothering me, which means I have earrings here, earrings there, earrings pretty much everywhere.  And all single because of course I only find one.  And I told myself I was going to take care of this pair...  

:D  Off Topic!   :D

I don't mind the lurkers.  People who are rude and inconsiderate I would prefer stay away.  I look at message boards as places for information and entertainment.  We share lots of info about hair care.  The off topic stuff just adds personality and makes it more interesting.  We get to know the whole person, not just their hair!   ;)

well oldkathy, i do see your point, especially about people just posting on a few journals, as it's hard to keep up with everyone's journal, so i know i read usually about three or four and have a little time to reply to them. so i will try to read more journals if i can. i'd like to get to know more folks.
as for it being a small place, i looked at other hair boards and got a bit shy. i like how cozy longlocks is.

I don't usually read anyone's journals. My computer time is limited, and I usually pretty much use it all up just updating my own journal.  :-[
    Lately (well, ok, after I moved to country and someone stole several hours of my days) I haven't written much at all anywhere but my journal.

I love it though when someone visits my journal and leaves a little note. Makes me feel all warm and social. :D

I guess I fit the lurker description.  Well, no more!  I'm going to try to post a little more ofter now, as work permits.  I myself like how the topics are organized, because it makes finding info a little easier if you're looking for something in particular.  

Hm, I must be in the minority, then. I try to read everyone's journal(well, at least the new entries, I wish I had the time to go back and read say, all 60-odd pages of certain people's journals, but .. well. I don't...) I mean, I don't get to them every day, and I don't always say anything, but I'm always checking up on people I consider friends. And that's all 'y'all.

As a newbie, I have to say that I am always checking the forum and have been for a while now, but I often don't know what to contribute.  I like this forum because it is very personal and keeps me motivated to grow my hair, but I would probably have more to say about other topics.

I love tea! Weening myself off coffee, so I've been drinking more of it. Especially herbal.  Yay, Irish breakfast and Chamomile!

Josiegirl;
You are not alone.  Newbie's are typically here to learn new things about their hair care and ask more questions than answer.  Feel free to jump in on any topic (or start your own!)