28 replies to this topic

[Diego]

It's sad realizing that this forum is slowly declining.
We followed its statistics and there is definitely a negative trend.  For instance, one year ago we had 192 new posts per month, but last september the total number of new posts was just 39 (!!).
We know that many of you migrated towards other forums that seem now very active. They are well made and they surely deserve their huge traffic. But we'd like to keep this forum online. After all, it was the first one devoted to megalithomaniacs to appear online, so it would be very sad closing it down just because nobody is using it.
So, if you think that there is something wrong with this forum, or if you have any suggestion to make it a better place for the community of megalithomaniacs, please let us hear your voice, posting a message on this thread.

Your help would be most appreciated!

Diego & Paola

[Arran and Emma]

Well, after a bit of trouble with British Telecom, we’re finally back online.

I think that in some respects this forum has always gone through phases of rampant posting mixed with weeks of silence. Maybe we’re all just too nice to each other now. In the good old days (I refer to the time when we had first joined) we’d have passionate banters concerning our ancient past. Not so much now. Perhaps you could start playing the devil’s advocate with us, it worked in the past!

We feel slightly responsible in a way. New jobs and new houses take up so much of our time, but as the winter months close in on us and the dark evenings begin to fall, we won’t be able to trek outside to marvel at these places so hopefully things will pick up a bit.

Please, we say this with all sincerity, do not think about closing this forum. It is much too valuable a tool to be lost. Yes, there are other forums out there, but of the whole bunch of them we prefer this one due to its usability and pace of conversation. We don’t have personal internet access at work so the speed of discussion here is good.  There is nothing more frustrating in seeing a topic started, discussed and then finished all in the space of a few hours – all missed because we had to work!

Keep it up Diego and Paola, you’ve done a great job!

[megalithic.co.uk]

I think it's a shame too. Everyone has certainly not defected to our forums as they are just as quiet.
This is somewhere relaxed and intelligent to discuss things, we'll try and use it a bit more.

A good way to liven things up would be to add a list of 'Latest forum posts' to your home page. This would give your site some dynamic content. If you can get an RSS feed working I'd do the same from our home page side bars as we do for some other sites.
Cheers,
Andy

[Rico Oxide]

Hi Diego & Paola,

Maybe the number of message boards could be reduced and different topics posted as we go along. Just a suggestion!

Bye for now.

[galician]

I hope that winter will take the Forum back to the old days... But don't close it! Perhaps the lack of activity is only a temporal condition. I've been very busy with my job, as A&E, so I couldn't post very often (although I checked the forums at least once a week).

[Amirelle]

Hello Megalithoes !
I just wanted to say hello to everyone. I am new to this forum and am trying to learn how to navigate about it as best I can. I am a prehistory junkie as well as a part-time archaeology student.
I just sent a message to Alex, also, asking him about what books there might be available that specialize in Prehistoric Brittany. I can read French, and Italian (but not so well---) as well as English. Any suggestions? The reason why I found this forum was through searching for information, and I can't help but think what a stroke of luck this is.
I hope to meet up with lots of like-mindedness here. I was just reading the previous messages and there seems to be some cause for concern about the number of postings going down. I hope that I can contribute to a more growing number of postings to make this forum more active again too.
Hoping to hear from someone soon
regards,
Amirelle

[Nigel]

I agree with A&E it's a very nice leisurely pace here, and I agree with everyone else it would be a great shame if it was closed.

Personally I would be just as happy if it was a single forum with lots of different threads. I think Rockart in the British Landscape and others work well that way. Most of us will be interested to read most of the topics anyway, even if they wander off-topic.

[Diego]

Dear friends,
Thanks very much for your encouraging words: after all this forum wasn't dead yet. We are still working hard on improving this website and whenever something seems not working as expected, we feel sad. That's why we complained about the lack of new postings on the forum.
Anyway, thanks for your input. We are looking forward to slimming the categories a bit. Probably the two sections labelled "Archaeo News" and "Not only megaliths" will be closed down. The first one because now we have greatly expanded and upgraded the Archaeo News section (did you have a look at it recently?) and the second one because it's the least-visited section of the forums.

Please let us know if you have any other suggestion or idea on how to improve this forum; and thanks again for your messages!

Diego & Paola

[megalithic.co.uk]

Diego,
I think the suggestion about thinning the number of forums is a good one. Your archeo news is now on the left-column of all Megalthic Portal pages, that's a lot of page views. Don't be suprised if we steal some of your news stories now we can see them so clearly :-)
Cheers,
Andy

[Shropshire Traveller]

Hello Paola & Diego, et al

I'm glad you haven't closed the forums, either; admittedly, I don't come here *that* often, but I have been doing so for near 4 years now.

My main thing with stones and people is trying to build the community that enjoys and visits thers places (hence why I have focussed on meets a lot).

As I now have a job whereby I can (hopefully) browse the net in quieter times, I'll try to post more here, as indeed I have tried to do primarily on my main sphere of activity - which is the Portal, as well as at TMA.

I am keen to try to build the community (as in coming together - comm*unity*) of megaraks, and perhaps a little more cross fertilisation of posters might just do the trick.

Ciao

Tim

[GordonP]

Will this help?

http://education.gua...1361976,00.html

[Diego]

Thank you Gordon for the link, it is an interesting theory indeed. By the way, we already published that news four days ago into our "Archaeo News" section. Have you ever visited it?  

[Robert Henvell]

You might try introducing a few new topics[Ie,prehistory].

[Mailander]

Hello, registering today and making my best whishes to Paola & Diego and to all megaforumisths .....!

Maybe useful: link more "names" (domain names) to first page of the FORUM and more "names" in the META Tags.

So more users can know this Forum, and Site, like in exemple: try to register known names of some "prehistoric sites" and link it to Site or to Forum first page.

So long.

[Shropshire Traveller]

What's the current usage like Paola & Diego?

Still quiet, or what?

cheers

Tim