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Why aren't many people using the site ?
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Message
Posted
It seems that the number of postings to this forum are falling. I'd guess they average a couple a day.
I've looked at the Society of Amateur Artists forum, which hasn't had a posting since the end of October. The Artist and Illustrator magazine doesn't have a forum. By comparison the American site, Wet Canvas, has 800,000 members and I wouldn't like to count the number of postings it receives in a day. It must be in the hundreds. It's a huge site, and I'm a member, although I've not posted there for a while.
Has anybody any views on the lack of postings, and what might be done by us, the members, to make the forum more attractive?
Posted
I do agree Keora this site isn't used as much as it could be which is sad. I have looked at Wet Canvas and just found it too big. I suppose we are a bit cliquey here andI can understand why people looking in might be putt off .
I do think we are a bit like a group of old friends sitting around a table and chuddering on. Actually I quite like it. But it would be good to have an injection of fresh blood .
I do wonder how easy or otherwise it is to actually find the "forum" .
Posted
I think it needs flagging up somewhere on the gallery, a bit like 'teaser' ads in a newspaper which are designed to get your interest, and they do work believe me. There could be a new topic each day and a catch line like 'Do you agree' or 'Have your say'. etc etc...
There does only appear to be a large handful of contributors to the forum which is a pity of course, but many of the topics of late have been fairly mundane stuff and will not attract people to participate, I know we have to have mundane as well. When you get a subject which is controversial, and I've been personally involved in some of these topics, then these attract lots of interest and response, albeit from the usual throng of members.
There was a new chap who used to post regularly, simple questions about technique and things, but he's now disappeared, unless I've missed it.
Posted
There are over 16,000 members, 85 of whom are online as of this moment - and of course we have our generous contingent of spammers, a tranche of whose offerings I cleared out yesterday: some 25 of them before I lost count. People post when they have something to say or to ask, and if they're not doing so perhaps the answers to their questions can be found here - in which case they have no need to post ... I don't find this discouraging, really; in these days of Facebook and Twitter, people have many options as to where they might express themselves; and I don't know that you'd want too much of the idle chit-chat element - and certainly not pictures of people's dogs, babies, or what they're about to have for dinner. That leaves questions or comments about arty subjects, and there seems to be a finite number of those.
The Wet Canvas site is enormous - it's broader than this one, and it can get a great deal nastier: it's just that it's so huge it's like a swamp: things get sucked into it and are never seen again. Personally, I find it almost impossible to navigate - and when I have found a subject of interest, there is, I fear, a great deal of sheer nonsense among the occasional gems: I don't think you'll find actively misleading advice on this forum; you will, now and then, on Wet Canvas. I wouldn't want this site to echo the SAA's, either - especially, as you say, since its comment section is even more sparsely populated than this one. Daler Rowney has a forum - I don't know if they still have; there was almost nothing there last time I looked.
So the broad picture suggests that all UK-based forums are struggling, and that might reflect the art market in general. But it goes up and down - I have offered this incentive before: if others post more, I'll post less! How can anyone resist that?
Seriously, I don't know how you can make people comment if they have no particular inclination to, other than by saying something controversial as Alan suggests: I think the forum's existence is pretty well signposted on the site. But having been around for a few years now, I can tell you this question crops up regularly - I doubt that there's anything new going on, or not going on.
Posted
Every club/group/organisation I have been in suffers from the same thing either forum wise or at regular meetings I find.
I have been in WetCanvas for many years and find it useful....when I want it!!! I post my new stuff in there as it fits the abstract/contemporary gallery/forums. It was a great help to me when serious problems cropped up about my earlier work. Things like mixing colours, composition, effects, texture etc.
Posted
I've just been over to take a look at Wet Canvas, to remind myself how it compares: now, I admit I'm quite easily irritated and put off by silliness, but I went to the acrylic forum, clicked randomly on a topic - and they were talking about the weather... the WEATHER? This is the trouble with that site in one fleeting visit - there's a lot of good stuff there, but there's also a lot of drivelling gossip between people who are clearly long-term subscribers who have simply run out of anything to say and so engage in small-talk. What a waste of bandwidth....
61 degrees in Florida, apparently.... Thrilling.
What's it doing in Hemel Hempstead at the moment, I wonder.....
(Excuse sarcasm, it's Monday and I hate Mondays even though I don't have to go into an office any more.)
Posted
I have never been to WC Forums, I only post in the Content channels, where I post my pics, view and comment in others, just like in here. It opens up a much larger viewing and being new in the Contemporary/Abstract world I have received a lot of encouragement, crits and comments. Always have done.
I once went on a weeks watercolour painting holiday they organised here in Dorset and some yanks were attending too. Great fun. In fact I received the new handle of Tripod there, having made a fool of myself.
Posted
I wonder what benefits the management of the Artist and Leisure Painter magazines get from the forum? Not much I would imagine. They don't want to use it as a way of selling advertising space, so perhaps they think it's useful to keep subscribers in contact with each other.
To me the forum layout is elegant, although it could be more compact.
I know there's a gallery for reader's paintings but I never look at it. If somebody writes in to the forum, asking for views on a painting which she's posted on the gallery, I never seem able to find it. I think the Wet Canvas approach, where you post a small photo of the picture next within the forum posting is better.
Posted
Alan, the practicality of achieving things may be the problem - websites are not my speciality at all, and I don't know what's feasible: I doubt that Dawn gets to see every single entry on the forum, though, so if you have a suggestion for improving the website I would suggest emailing it directly to her. If you're feeling touchy, a word with the dog always used to work for me - once you've explained things to your hound, they seem to assume their proper perspective. It would be worrying if you got a direct reply from the dog, of course.
I confess to being surprised by keora's revelation that he or she never looks at the Gallery, which I would have thought was the most attractive and interesting part of the site. It is now possible to post picture files on the forum, of course, but personally I would hope not everyone did that, or we shall all be highly confused and overwhelmed with images in different places.
I think there is a slight issue with the site, in that you have - in some situations at least - to click on Art Community in order to find the forum and blog pages. All the same - I don't think it's THAT difficult, and I speak as one whose stupidity appears to know few bounds, since I thought I'd unblock a pigment ink pen the other day by shaking it, with predictable consequences for my shirt... all it needs is a touch of persistence; more than can be said for the shirt, now permanently blackheaded.
The ******** spammers appear to be able to find their way around the site with distressing ease.
Edited
by Robert Jones
Posted
As a newcomer to the site with few postings, maybe I can add my honest thoughts...
Generally speaking across all forums that I know of, across a variety of subject matters, posts are declining. People seem to prefer setting up groups on facebook and the ease of posting both photos and messages, wins them over.
Most people lurk around in the background and suss things out before posting, and if people are posting sharp messages then it will put them off. I have not experienced that on this forum personally, but I have seen posts that have made me cringe. Asking for controversy within posts is probably not a great thing if you are trying to attract new posters, controversy can bring out strong personalities and the posts sometimes start to descend to personal critisism of people's views. Again I have not seen this since I have joined, but on other forums I have been on, all hell has broken loose in some instances and although it does good for traffic (as everyone wants to know what the cat-fight is about), going forwards posts involving those people stay quiet for a good while as people don't want to end up in another "controversial" situation.
A further observation is that the majority of the main posters appear to be experienced artists (which is amazing for the knowledge base of the site), but for newcomers who are still trying to figure out the difference between all the blasted paints and brushes, and still needing to ask "noddy" questions, it can be a little intimidating. One doesn't want to look like a complete idiot when asking questions, but at the same time, if you don't ask and get some helpful, non-judgemental answers, then you will never progress.
The basic thread on acrylics was useful for me the other day. Maybe look at doing some more basic posts for people starting out and you will encourage more newbies to post?
Generally speaking I check the forum each day for inspiration and find it very useful, keep up the good work.
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