know your users

[IAHH1562627749]

the members of this site are also users of this site. you need to think in terms of users who become 'members'. you need to know what the wants and needs of all the different users and potential users are. most users have completely different needs & uses of anyone reading this thread right now (apart from the ones just like you )

 

ctw CAN be all things to all people with a lot of hardwork at the risk of ending up as a few things to few people. to find out who you members are try this:

 

1) add 4 new fields to members profiles to answer these questions

 

"what do you want from CTW?"

"what do you like most about CTW?"

"what do you like least about CTW?"

"HOW can CTW be improved?"

 

2)send a pm to ALL members requesting they fill in those details

 

3) understand that what some people like, others dislike. the smut forum is an excellent example of being all things to all people. if u don't like offensive smutty humour, don't go there. if you can't help but be rude say your rude things there!

 

4) all this is on your database which you should be able to intergate directly - just read through the lot and you will have a much clearer view of your userbase and you can perhaps start creating a few steretypes that you can market and target your site towards. like supermarkets have 6 'typical shopper' types...

 

 

THEN

 

have some mechanism which regularly saves those fields - this will then allow you to track how your user's experience develops through the site and how people who typically want "ctw to make them new friends" can become "ctw to talk to new friends" to "make different-m,usic friends". i don't know how useful this knowledge really is - but you can get it!!!

[LiquidEyes]

ctw CAN be all things to all people

Just a thought:

 

Is there anything wrong with specifically targetting the site at certain sorts of people? (Rather than being "something for everyone"?)

 

The whole attraction for me is that there are a substantial number of like-minded people on here. From what I've heard about many other message boards, then I'm not sure I'd want CTW to pander to the masses, if that meant (for example) getting more drug-obsessed people on here who are less into the music and socialising...?

 

Besides, without a specific direction or target user, the site would just spiral into a vicious circle of conforming to what the existing users wanted, and in turn attracting more people like that, and in turn conforming...

[IAHH1562627749]

its not quite what i mean. i mean targetting the site at lots of different people and understanding that they *are* different. i don't want "ctw to be one thing to all people and hope it keeps everyone slightly happy", but that it has lots of different aspects each one realised to its fullest potenital. maybe there should be champions of the different bits (ie a champion for getting the dj part of the site to be the best out there)

 

an example of how it meeds opposing needs. this site caters for people who like smut and also people who don't like smut. it meets 2 very different needs. havin the smut forum keeps both people happy. its a smutty place for smutty people and a clean place for clean people.

 

having a forum called 'sing about how great drugs are' would meet the needs of these people without spoiling 'your ctw' and keep such topics away from other forums....

 

the best reason for not tending to a particular type of persons need is sheer effort. theres a lot of hardwork required for a site like this, and i can't imagine anyone wanting to dedicate time and effort to support something they don't have a major interest in.

 

its a self-serving ever-evolving kinda thing - but it would be a shame to miss on opportunities for total inclusion. i like ctw because there are people here that i wouldn't normally think to talk to, but end up feeling glad i did.

 

in your terms, the drug obsessed person who is less interested in the music and the people could turn out to have very interesting views on life, and could help some new people deal with drug addiction or some other thing.

 

i don't like football, but if some of the things came up from searching through peoples wants listed a football chattin forum, then it would be a good thing to have in my opinion. same kinda logic to the Big brother forum, cos i don't follow that either and i've not had to see any posts in the other forums about it....

 

cub-land is an amazing cross section of life. where else will you find so many people from so many different back grounds. inclusion is definately the way forward in my opion - you never know, you might be missing out ;-)

Edited June 23, 2003 by iamhardhouse

[Spunkmonkey]

are liquideyes & iamhardhouse moderator/admin' wannabees or summink?!?!?

[CreamyC]

You know the users by

 

a) going to the users list

 

or

 

by the posting.

 

Simple.

[Littlemissclubbindiva]

spunkmonkey said:

are liquideyes & iamhardhouse moderator/admin' wannabees or summink?!?!?

[Spunkmonkey]

CreamyC said:

You know the users by

 

a) going to the users list

 

or

 

by the posting.

 

Simple.

 

So true, dozy bastards

[Mr_Happy]

spunkmonkey said:

are liquideyes & iamhardhouse moderator/admin' wannabees or summink?!?!?

 

theres nowt wronge with a few suggestions

[Ian Cashman]

spunkmonkey said:

are liquideyes & iamhardhouse moderator/admin' wannabees or summink?!?!?

 

is spunkmonkey an intersting 'character' wannabe then?

[IAHH1562627749]

i'm not bein dozy, just not explaining it right. you could ask around and get the general feel - but what i'm suggesting is a way for everyone to be part of the ongoing development of the site by always having it in their profile. use the system to help you.

 

its worth a go, if it don't work fair enough but i reckon you'll get a damnsite more input into where ctw should go than this site develpopment forum (in something like a week anyway) and it will be done all at once. surely that could show you a lot of what is going on right now of what people are wanting to say all at once.

 

nah i don't want to be a moderator!!! christ this thing is killing me, i just can't stop posting. i need a little forum somewhere just for me where i can just post shamelessly for sake of it.

 

i think people moderate emselves pretty damn well on this site - i was on about champions anyways - you know people who get overly excited / involved about something and make it work. i don't want to do that either, sounds like far too much hard work. suggestin it is good enough for me ;-)

[Spunkmonkey]

modular1 said:

is spunkmonkey an intersting 'character' wannabe then?

 

eh?