How do we get more members?

[drcollie]

We're gaining ground slowly on the new forum, adding a few new members each week, but we don't seem to have enough trade experts here AND we don't have enough member participation in posting to really build the interest level where it should be.

Forums live and die by the membership base, and perhaps its hard to find 'enthusiasts' for a furniture forum in the same manner as one would find it for sports cars, tennis players, horse owners and the like.

I'd like to see this forum become a community, rather than simply a consumer question and answer resource but that all depends on the members as a whole and how they wish to interact with one another.

In any case, if anyone has any ideas how to bring in more members and trade experts, I'm all ears. And if you want to see a new forum category, that's not hard to develop either.

[McCall]

I wish I had an answer for you. I keep referring people on Garden way over here whenever possible. I hope this forum does not just die as so many you see.

[drcollie]

I wish I had an answer for you. I keep referring people on Garden way over here whenever possible. I hope this forum does not just die as so many you see.

Keep posting away! That's one thing ALL our members can do to keep it growing. Feel free to go entirely off-topic in the 'fluff' section as well. As you may have noticed, there are little "NEW" signs that pop up when a fresh post is made and I know that's what I look for on my daily visits to the site. Fresh topics mean more members......

[fixerupper]

I find the forum a bit difficult to navigate (or maybe I haven't figured out the right option yet). I'd like to be able to see at least the title heads of all threads instead of having to open up each folder. Another way is to list the most recent posts.

I also find it helpful to have a clue as to whether there was anything new added to a thread since my last visit.

Maybe I just don't know the options to select, so feel free to clue me in.

[drcollie]

I find the forum a bit difficult to navigate (or maybe I haven't figured out the right option yet). I'd like to be able to see at least the title heads of all threads instead of having to open up each folder. Another way is to list the most recent posts.

I also find it helpful to have a clue as to whether there was anything new added to a thread since my last visit.

Maybe I just don't know the options to select, so feel free to clue me in.

This v.Bulletin format is very versatile, and has a complex feature set that can be tweaked and made to do most anything one wants. It does take a bit of time to get used to one, but once you do you can really zip around them, and the search function is excellent.

Right now its in a standard format, though we have what is known as a 'skin' on the board that Bobby put up, which changes the colors and the way some of the features display. You can change the skin on the board yourself by scrolling to the very bottom of any page and looking at the far left lower drop-down box. Click it on and look at the two other styles (This one is called Greenstar, and there is Sepia, and Default). You may like the formatting a bit better on the other styles.

In the Greenstar format, there are little 'flags' in white to the left of each sub-forum that will say "NEW" if there is a new post in the category, and stay at "HI" if there has been nothing new since your last visit. If you want to stay up-to-date on a specific thread, you can SUBSCRIBE to an individual thread and any posts on it will be delivered to you promptly via the email address you used to sign up with. Just look at the top of the page and click on THREAD TOOLS, and then select SUBSCIBE. Pretty cool, eh?

If you just want to read new posts, look up at the header menu and you will see in the middle of the page NEW POSTS, click that on and it shows you all the recent new posts made.

V.Bulletin is feature-rich (and expensive - but I figured we all deserved it!) and if you can spend a little time reading the FAQ's to learn your way around the features it will enable you to enjoy using it even more.

[Sarah]

I love V.Bulletin!

[Bobby]

You can also "subscribe" to a forum or thread (default subscription if you post in a thread) and then just bookmark your Control Panel and it will all show up there. You can also opt to have an e-mail sent to you if someone posts in a thread you're subscribed to or even a sub-forum.

Let me know if you need more tips.