What can we do to reverse the slump in DU registrations?

[kentuck]

It seems that we hit some kind of wall at about 90,000. I can recall times when we might have a hundred or more new registrations in one day. Do you think we have peaked already? Is there more growth potential in DU?

I suppose that many people do not look at those numbers at the top but some of us here recall the celebration when we broke 10,000 new registrations. But we seem to be in a slump? What would you suggest we need to do to get out of that "slump"?

Is it becasue there are a lot of new "bloggers", such as huffingpost.com and others, that are taking readers from DU? What could or should we do to get them to DU? What type of information are people looking for? And that's what they are usually looking for, don't you think?

[Pale Blue Dot]

1. Umm... it isn't our concern?

nt

[kentuck]

2. Uh...ok?

:shrug:

[Democrat 4 Ever]

8. Just a thought - summer, vacations, getting ready to go back to school?

Think we will seeing a renewed interest in all things political after Labor Day when we are truly in combat mode for the mid-terms. I hate to think we could fail in getting these asswipes out of office by nothing more than voter apathy.

We have our own shock and awe campaign coming up and we need to be rested to take on the mother of all battles - defeating the repug/neocon crazies.

[bryant69]

18. Why wouldn't it be our concern?

If we are members of a community don't we want that community to do well?

[marmar]

3. Summer haze...

I suspect they'll pick up in the fall, particularly if U.S. and world events continue on their current track.

[spinbaby]

4. Don't worry about it

The new crowd will show up for the elections.

[blogslut]

5. I would rather

have the page view feature enabled. I would like to know how many times a thread has been viewed.

But it ain't my board. :)

[grasswire]

34. I appreciated that feature, too (eom)

[snappyturtle]

6. Oh please don't tell me I'm nuts!

Actually, I've been watching the number of registered members and it's been going up! Is your point that it's just slower than normal?

[Zensea]

7. I'd be more concerned about keeping the ones who are here

& as anyone who pays any attention to these things knows, there are a lot of folk who have left, not all of them from being banned or being pushed out.
& some who have been banned or pushed out were quite productive members and gave this place character.
& some of those who have left just got bored or disillusioned with the place.

I'm speaking as someone who has been registered here for quite some time but who rarely posts anymore.

[madokie]

16. maybe you need to start posting more often, just thinking

[Zensea]

22. I have been actually

for what it's worth

[madokie]

27. to me it is worth a lot. btw Welcome to DU

the more the merrier

[notadmblnd]

9. honestly? it's not the bloggers taking readers from du

I still come here to read the news and occasionaly post something lighthearted. But DU has changed over the last couple years and many of us feel they we can no longer engage in serious debate or controversial discussion. I know many good people have left. DU is still the best place for the news, but if membership has declined, there's no one to blame for it but ourselves.

[Warren Stupidity]

10. I'm more concerned about the small number of folks who donate.

Almost 95,000 registered, but each quarterly cycle only around 1500 ante up. What is this, NPR?

[kentuck]

12. Good point...

It seems there was more enthusiasm for donating when we were half the present size? I don't know that the people who arrived after 2004 have the same passion as the early folks? Interesting point.

[porphyrian]

15. Don't blame the victims of the bush economy.

We're fucking broke, dude. Even so, I manage to toss a few bucks in frequently enough to keep my star, anyway. But don't blame people for not paying what they can't pay.

[chibi]

26. i'll NEVER donate somewhere i can get kicked off of

for speaking my mind, considering this boards main function it really seems quite absurd, to me.

[Warren Stupidity]

28. buh bye

Thanks for dropping in. Do come again.

[chibi]

30. exactly

thanks for illustrating the point :toast:

[SidDithers]

31. I guess if you're worried about getting banned...

then you're probably not mature enough to engage in civil debate.

If you can present your ideas without resorting to personal attacks on other posters, you've got no reason to fear being banned. All progressives are free to "speak their minds" here.

Sid

[chibi]

36. i have seen a lot of contributers get the boot over the years

are we really try'n to recreate the US senate here?

that may be part of the problem... i wish there was NO censorship here - the www at it's best - that the community could vote for their favorite posts - like /. - and we collectively help separate the wheat from the chafe.

we need a DU-UNCUT version, imho.

:hi:

11. I think it rose steeply for a while because of students

and summer break. They are going back to school pretty soon.

[citizen snips]

23. NO

Please don't remind me of school. :banghead:

[TheFriedPiper]

13. I think it's an unfortunate byproduct of the rules to 'tame' the forums

I'm not offering a judgement, because I have no idea how they should deal with 'problem' posters.

I think at least a few people have become frustrated with blocked/locked threads.

Like I said, I'm not saying it's wrong, just that the unintended consequence of tightening the rules is the collateral damage of losing some decent posters.

[Minnesota Libra]

14. I think there are two reasons for the recent slump.........

.....in new numbers.

Number one reason I think numbers have dropped off, especially recently, is the same reason I and at least three other people I know of haven't spent near as much time at DU as we used to. With the recent military issues between Israel and Lebanon it seems that anyone who has even the slightest good thing to say about Israel is flamed unmercifully. Just a few terms that I had thrown at me was to accuse me of being "unfairly pro Israel", "racist", "rag head hater". Those were just a few of the nicer terms used. I wish there were a few more politically independent message boards.

The second reason I think numbers have fallen off is it's summer time. People are out and about as much as possible so I would say just wait until the end of September when the kids are back in school and numbers might pick up again. If the military issues between Israel and Lebanon is still going on at that time we may experience another spike of the above.

[TahitiNut]

32. There is no "recent slump"

See Post #29.

[Minnesota Libra]

35. We could discuss the use of the word "slump" but the point..........

....is some people are noticing "new registrations" are down (check Feb 06 on) and why some "old timers" aren't don't visit as many forums other than LBN as they used to.

[Lilith Velkor]

17. I don't see how new registrations are significant

The number does not accurately reflect the number of active users, anyway. And every time it goes up, there are more trolls and shills, so why on Earth would it be cause for celebration?

[lonestarnot]

19. How bout end a couple of wars, so people don't feel forced to take sides?

[porphyrian]

20. You want to advertise? Proselytise? What?

All we have to do is be here. People will find us, like all of us did. Do you really think this is a problem?

[Sammy Pepys]

21. I think we need to focus more on getting more registrants active...

We've got 90,000+ registrations, but we clearly don't have 90,000+ regular participants here. Obviously, some of those registrations are no longer with us or have malicious purposes, but if even a third of those registrations were done in good faith and still have access, that's pretty significant.

[NewJeffCT]

24. 2 years ago, we had the election to run up membership...

The primaries & the run-up to the election and the finger-pointing kept up membership for most of 2004.

Last Spring, the Downing Street Memo, and then in the summer, Hurricane Katrina, had people looking here for 2005.

This year, the big event so far has been the events in Israel & Lebanon, which has degenerated into a lot of viciousness. In the past, when a "big event" happened, the mods created a special forum for discussion of just that big event. This year, Israel has basically taken over GD and anything not related to the events there has sunk like a stone.

We have also lost some of our better contributors in the past few years. As somebody pointed out in the past month or two, if a big news event happens and it is posted on DU and on DailyKos, on Kos you will soon have several experts on the issue chime in on the big news event. We don't have that same type of reach of expertise here at DU.

[chibi]

25. I think it is because we sound more & more like an echo chamber

or worse a bunch of hot heads who just scream at each other trying to get the other to be more inside the beltway in terms of 'analysis' or even opinions... and there is plenty of that already on the www and main stream media.

I've been reading DU since spring 2001 and i, for one, miss the days when there were a LOT more outside the beltway opinions here & that is what made this place special, imho.

ah, but what else should we expect when and org becomes politicized :shrug:

LBN ain't bad, and that is what keeps me coming back, DAILY ;-)

:hi:

[kentuck]

33. You don't have many posts...

but you make some excellent points, in my opinion. People came to DU to get viewpoints they did not find elsewhere. If we quoted M$M, it was usually because we disagreed with them. Nowadays, we seem to agree with them more than before.

People came here for the "DU analysis" because it was different. But sometimes, perception is truth. Many people perceived we were closer to the truth on what was happening with our government than almost any other place on the Net.

In other words, we were more "anti-establishment". For the old timers, perhaps more analysis of the LBN issues might be the best outlet for their opinions. After all, you have to read between the lines of the news in order to get closer to the truth. And that is the type of information people are looking for, imo..

[chibi]

38. always the perceptive one ;-)

thank you kentuck :hi:

[kentuck]

41. When I first came here...

I came here with the sole intent of filling a vacuum that was needed. People needed the truth, not just about the election of 2000, but 9/11, the cover-ups, the lies, the incompetence. I knew they were not going to get it in the mainstream media. I felt a passion to put out as much information as possible, but information that factual and true, even at times, extremely opinionated. I made a few "enemies" along the way, I suppose. Sometimes the truth is very hard to swallow, no matter who we are. We all have our biases. Personally, I think we sacrificed a lot when we threw our weight behind the Democratic Party 100%. Although most of us are hard-core Democrats, how could we ever expect them to change for the better if we supported them 100% no matter what? I think we were more effective when we were "democratic" - rather than "Democratic". We were hurting the Democratic Party by supporting them in such a way, in my opinion.

[TahitiNut]

29. Huh? Rarely has DU peaked over 100/day. Look ...

[Name removed]

37. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Gold Metal Flake]

39. Is DU Dying?

Can Democratic Underground survive this massive shortfall of new members?

How can DU prevent it's imminent collapse?

The Death of DU, And How You Can Protect Yourself. We'll Show You At 11.

Meetups In Black: How The Death Of DU Has Destroyed A Political Movement.

Hand Wringing 101: Former DU Members Homeless, Hungry.

[Sir Jeffrey]

40. Conscription nt

[Parrcrow]

42. locking

we don't engage in navel-gazing