Drawing Users To Forums

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tjpeople

Site Administrator
Staff member
Now with a few quick google/msn/yahoo search in both UK and US you get malcolminthemiddle.co.uk with in the first 3/4 results. Which is good, now the main site is great i not knocking it but its gunna become a little redundant soon, and will be come less popular. I know we have discussed things like this before, about combining the two sites, but im not sure if we have discussed this idea seriously. Why not make www.malcolminthemiddle.co.uk go to the mainportal page, makes ense, it has news, which is a typical front page. It will then have clear links as we do now for the episode guide.

In the previous version people could easily not notice the forum, but if they are taken here, its pretty obvious, and this becomes the main site, and the episode guide becomes a faeture.

This would be very easly for david to implament, just redirect malcolminthemiddle.co.uk to the portal page and setup the main page of the episdoe guides, to something like malcolminthemiddle.co.uk/episodes. WE should then get alot more users joining, if not and we dont like the new system we can quite easily go back.

I think these small changes will make a big difference.

(one exception is msn search http://www.live.com/#q=malcolm in the middle&offset=1 which gives both malcolminthemiddle.co.uk and the forums link. but still it woul be nice if the more obvious website name took you to the forums. I know we have malcolminthemiddle.co.uk/forums, but the malcolminthemiddle.co.uk link is allready established in search engines.
 

Wildcat

Retired Moderator
Excellent idea TJ! I agree, after the finale the episode guide won't change anymore so people may find it redundant (like you said) so we should encourage people to come to the forums, which are always changing with new topics and stuff. New (active) members are always good to keep the forums fresh. I'm hoping that not much changes around here after the finale, but I have a feeling things will start to slow down significantly in a couple months. With new people joining and posting, hopefully that won't happen anytime soon! :D
 

han_keep_smilin

New member
Sounds like a great idea to me it will draw more people to the forums and stop the whole site from comlptely going downhill from when the season stops. I think it should start from hen the last ep has been shown. a few weeks after it has been shown though. it sounds a really good idea! i hope it is put into action too.:)
 

tony_montana

Semper Fidelis
We need to take a page out of corporate America's book and ADVERTISE ourselves all over the internet, particulary to tv websites and such where MITM fans may be lurking around.
And yes, the new layout seems like a great idea to me!:) And if the site gets alot bigger and more mods are needed...well..'cough' Ill 'cough' always be here!:D
 
With reference to getting people visiting the site to actually join, become members and contribute to discussion I was wandering about the posibility of providing something that moderate & avid fans of the show would want, by means of an incentive, i.e. Alfista Junior's behind the scenes clips. They're exclusive and cannot be found anywhere else. I thought, if we possibly put these on a sort of welcome page, allow visitors to sample one of the clips, if they join they are able to view the other five. Once they join and watch them, they'll feel compelled to post (hopefully).

I know this may raise certian questions of legality, but we're young and innocent ;). Based on what I've read, I'm not sure if I'm completely right, but is the intention to utilise the malcolminthemiddle.co.uk url to direct to the forums, if so, I think I form of title page should be added, to make it more friendly to new people- I personally always find entry into a new forum a bit overwhelming with varitey of posts and threads, wean them in. :d
 

yardgames

Retired Administrator
As to whether or not we could use Alfista's clips would really be up to Alfista, and I don't know that she (?) would approve of that because the legality is, of course, questionable. The idea is a good one but we tried it with spoilers and it doesn't really work well. People join to see the content, but never end up posting--they just eat bandwidth.
 

Wildcat

Retired Moderator
Yeah it sucks when people just join so they can view attachments (pictures, transcripts,clips, ect.) that you can't view unless you're a member. I don't know why some people don't want to participate in the discussions. We're all nice people...really we are! :D Nice idea though.
 

tony_montana

Semper Fidelis
Not ALL of us are nice(see J;) ).
I have to agree with Wildcat on this one, people will just join to see the stuff and then they will never post and they just eat up bandwidth. Still, it's a interesting idea to get people on.:)
 

tjpeople

Site Administrator
Staff member
Well as long as Alfista doesnt mind us using them, I can host them and therefore bandwidth and legal should be an issue. When im less busy with exams I am up for expanding the site. Im thinking a Media section like we used to have with extra stuff, all the fans vids, behind the scences etc..... and to build a really god FAQ section.
 

Wildcat

Retired Moderator
tjpeople said:
Well as long as Alfista doesnt mind us using them, I can host them and therefore bandwidth and legal should be an issue. When im less busy with exams I am up for expanding the site. Im thinking a Media section like we used to have with extra stuff, all the fans vids, behind the scences etc..... and to build a really god FAQ section.

That would be awesome TJ! It would be great to have a place where we can group all the videos, fanfics, etc. together. The idea was brought up a few months ago, but I don't think David had the space or the time.
 

simon_4420

New member
TJ those ideas are pretty good:D I think they might help draw-in new members.

I really like the idea of putting all the stuff together like the photos, media clips etc for members to view.
 
I think it's just to try and maintain a healthy level of posting and discussion in the forums. The proposed changes sound like they'll be benefitial to us anyway :D
 

tjpeople

Site Administrator
Staff member
Just thought id bring this up again, as i feel its still an issues, if people could encourage friends/family to join the forum (obviously it helps if they like MITM :p)

You could even go round putting posters in your neighbours doors :D

But seriously, im sure if you post here alot your are embers of other forums about the internet, so why not advertise MITMVC in your signiture or even website. On that note we could creater small banner adds people could put on there site.

we could even do spreadmitm.com, inspired by spreadfirefox.com :D :p
 

yardgames

Retired Administrator
LOL spreadmitm.com! LOVE IT! Actually, just for the record, this is the only board I post on reguarly. As a matter of fact, it's the only website I visit daily save for Gmail. That ought to tell you how much I love the show. :D
 

yardgames

Retired Administrator
True, but perhaps the newsletter that went out as a result is. :) Certainly doesn't seem like we've had less posts since the site came back online.

Christina is trying to think of some contests...do you have any ideas Tony? Or anyone else for that matter. :D
 
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