Good post, LORD_EC 😀
One thing i have noticed about the forum is that- forum is quite heavy and takes a lot of time to load (mine is 256Kbps flat).I dont know either its a server fault or faulty system software.
I agree with you on that. There are few reasons to it. We make heavy use of images for the look of the forum, which we shouldn't do. Probably, in future, we'll adopt a newer look that won't use lots of images. I've tested the site on a dial-up connection and the response time was 'Ok'. I agree that the site should load faster. There is no issue with the server or the software, please be assured.
Plus again the content in the forum wil be good only if members are participating.Its not 5k or 6K that makes a difference.Its about no of members who are active.
Agree again! Any suggestions on how to get active members? 😀 Usually, the forum sites follow the 1% rule. That is, out of every 100 visitors, 1 will care to register and post. Our existing members can do a great job in bringing new & exciting stuff - after all, we are Crazy Engineers!
I have noticed (my internet career) that people who like to participate in online discussions/comm are really different unike those who only surf internet for orkut.Its these kinds of members that makes a difference.
Well, social networking is different and it has its own audience. We are trying to build a professional community that will make a difference to the world. You will agree that posting anything on CE, requires you to think (Exception: Chit Chat section). That's why we have a small set of active members who are bringing in lot of good stuff. These active members are the ones who are responsible for growing the forum and making it popular. Hats off to them!
We can make this an international comm with investors investing in it.Think about pagalguy,.com.It was started like this only.Today they get lakhs pf rps for advertisement.I dont say that main aim shud be earning but just gave an example of sucess.
Success of PG has been tremendous, during past 5 years. We won't compare ourselves with PG because we are into a totally different domain. Forums usually follow geometric progression for growth. I can tell you this from my own experience. From zero member for 4 days to 15-20 members everyday, all without any active advertising/publicity. I'll reiterate that we aren't into the 'Number' game. We are almost ready to end our 'take-off' stage and start gliding. Expect more activity in coming days! 😀
About advertising & investing, I prefer to keep my mouth shut. We have already received interests from advertisers because of unique nature of CE. But they all were turned down. CE will generate wealth & distribute it among its contributors, but things have to wait for some more time.
We have to spread the word.We have to include it in all search engines and wil have to optimise every single page for search engine.Im ready for it,but i want this forum to touch new heights as the forum has a purpose and its different from those purposeless timepass sites.
Man, I'm happy that you said this! First of all, a little update. We didn't SEO our forum for a long time, because of some technical issues (sssh!). All said, many have told me that our site showed up on search engines when they were searching for some or the other thing. That's great. We'll probably do SEO stuff starting next month & CE will be more visible on search engines.
All said & done, its the members of community who are the real screw turners! CE is blessed with few, but really crazy engineers from around the world! Brace yourself for some exciting stuff on CE in coming days (and I'm not saying this for the heck of it! ).
-The Big K-
