Should Devbest advertise more?

[Blasteh]

I was recently bored scrolling threw old threads and seen stuff like "Is Devbest dying?" and all this crap. I personally don't think Devbest is dying, all the loyal, old, common users are still using it. If anything, I think it's on the rise, obviously not exponentially. Although back in 2013-2014 there was more active people, if you look at the statistics today, there's still a fair amount of people coming to the forum. One question I think the community should answer is, should DevBest do more advertising to get more active users? For us veterans - if you wish of Devbest - who have been here for a while, probably wouldn't like new people coming to the forum as much as new users would as we're kind of all really connected together. The forum as it sits is more-so like a closed in neighborhood as we know everyone active/liked/hated on the forum.

In my opinion, a little bit of advertisement couldn't hurt. If you've ever owned a forum, you know advertising a forum isn't easy like advertising your Minecraft Server . But, the line kind of crosses whenever we start getting new users who have zero clue what they're talking about 90% of the time just shit posting. Not to mention, the most active section on Devbest is Habbo, which is dying out - sorta.

Should Devbest do some more advertising to the public?
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as it's not free to advertise, dipshit.

 

[Weasel]

That would require a change in attitude for a lot of our "veteran" users. But - it's not just DevBest. In general, forums are dying. So I wonder what kind of advertisement would actually work.

 

[Benden]

That would require a change in attitude for a lot of our "veteran" users. But - it's not just DevBest. In general, fora are dying. So I wonder what kind of advertisement would actually work.

Agreed, when new users do join everyone is kind of a dick to them until they leave. It's not sustainable.

 

[Blasteh]

That would require a change in attitude for a lot of our "veteran" users. But - it's not just DevBest. In general, fora are dying. So I wonder what kind of advertisement would actually work.

Agreed, new users don't want to come to us dickhead users. I think you meant forums, but, some forums are dying, but there's also a shit ton of forums that are huge and still growing. It's not like Minecraft, where there's popular Youtubers you can pay to advertise your server. DevBest has a development theme to it, if you were to go advertise with a popular youtuber that into Development (or whatever) they're gonna expect a pure development forum, not a Habbo driven forum

 

[treebeard]

Honestly, all the advertising in the world won't help this site.

I predict that a large percentage of the incoming traffic for Devbest is through people googling terms that have to deal with Habbo.

With that said, in my time on Devbest (~ 2 months) I have seen a HUUGE number of people who come into the chatbox or make very basic/poor threads about Habbo literally get talked down to till they disappear.

The problem with Devbest, in my opinion, is honestly the level of condescending attitudes that new users are met with when they arrive. Now, I have also been a computer person most of my life so things that I consider "common knowledge," I know are not. In an age where even common sense is becoming a lost art, it seems funny that we should expect users to know how to properly work dev tools, how to properly analyze an error message, how to declare/define a variable, etc.

Now don't take this as me saying we should kiss the asses of new comers and hold their hand through everything but I do think that ~60% of any message that you try to convey to someone is through body language and tone. Being as we are on the internet, body language is all but removed from the equation; leaving only tone left in a large portion of the messages we try to deliver to people. When you are insulting, displaying rude sarcasm, and being a general asshole in your non-verbal tone which is used on the internet; it leaves new users very turned off.

I know it's annoying seeing the same questions asked when there are literally 10+ threads with answers. I've already noticed myself getting annoyed with these questions and I have been on here a considerably shorter amount of time compared to a lot of you veterans. However, I think there is some importance in politely showing someone how to properly find answers, post threads, or do their own research.

The best thing to maybe work on realizing is that a forum is not made great by having approx. 10 great contributors but instead by creating and facilitating an environment that is effective in it's ability to spread and further our understanding of ideas. Devbest has become a dichotomy in which the veterans/more experienced users work together (not even as i can tell lol), and the lesser informed are left to scramble together in an attempt to build a project that will most likely never be finished or actualized to it's fullest potential due to lack of professional advice/teachings. If there were perhaps some workshops lead by veterans, community noob projects, or something of the sort; then maybe some newer users would actually rise up, stick around, and be able to sit in the place that many of you are in now.

Just by tidbit on the matter

Disclaimer: this is an opinion, treat it as such.

 

[Joe]

The forum still gets 225+ members everyday. Considering the peak is like 350 it's still quite good to say the forum is at least 8 years old.

I agree that people could help and welcome new users more though. For example, moderation actions should be changed. If somebody posted in the wrong section, don't delete it, move it and encourage the user to post in the right section in future.

A lot of people comment on things they've got no idea about which confuses me on some threads in the Habbo section, they'll be a genuine problem and somebody will comment make sure MySQL isn't in strict mode! When it'll have nothing to do with that.

Since there's no active development (like there was when RevCMS was being developed and PlusEMU was being developed) then you'll see a dip in the forum. I've also noticed new users come here and if they don't get help to their issues then they'll post in the CB and then logout because nobody has managed to reply in the 20 minute window they wanted.

There's nothing exciting or crucial going on in the development side of Habbo here anymore, I guess that might be why it isn't as lit as it used to be.

Edit: Why don't we bring back community awards (badges on profiles)? Achievements that actually mean something to 'regular' users.

 

[Markshall]

I predict that a large percentage of the incoming traffic for Devbest is through people googling terms that have to deal with Habbo.

This is why I get annoyed when 'OG' members of the forum throw shade on Habbo. Alright you're like 25 or whatever so the game no longer appeals to you, but it's the game that ultimately brought this community together and brings new members in.
They may not stick around and that probably is because they don't get welcomed very nicely (perhaps I'm largely to blame for that too lol) but it's also because the forum tries to separate Habbo from the rest of itself. There's a separate Habbo chatbox and users are completely discouraged from talking about it unless they're in the Habbo section.

 

[treebeard]

This is why I get annoyed when 'OG' members of the forum throw shade on Habbo. Alright you're like 25 or whatever so the game no longer appeals to you, but it's the game that ultimately brought this community together and brings new members in.
They may not stick around and that probably is because they don't get welcomed very nicely (perhaps I'm largely to blame for that too lol) but it's also because the forum tries to separate Habbo from the rest of itself. There's a separate Habbo chatbox and users are completely discouraged from talking about it unless they're in the Habbo section.

I agree, I was just talking to someone else about this.
I've played Habbo since I was in 5th grade(?), I'm now in my 20's. I literally quit Habbo in 2009 but I don't try to shame people who play or even try to act like I'm too cool. Habbo, Runescape, and a few other early 2000's games are what got me so into being on my computer all the time; It's the reason I ever learned a thing about code at first.

I take pride in the things that I enjoy, even if others mock me, and I also am realistic enough to realize the many ways that I have benefited from Habbo. I wish others would follow suit because tbh the lack of humble attitudes is the biggest turn off when it comes to Devbest (in my opinion).

I'll leave this quote and quit spamming thread
"When the student is ready, the guru appears."

 

[Markshall]

I agree, I was just talking to someone else about this.
I've played Habbo since I was in 5th grade(?), I'm now in my 20's. I literally quit Habbo in 2009 but I don't try to shame people who play or even try to act like I'm too cool. Habbo, Runescape, and a few other early 2000's games are what got me so into being on my computer all the time; It's the reason I ever learned a thing about code at first.

I take pride in the things that I enjoy, even if others mock me, and I also am realistic enough to realize the many ways that I have benefited from Habbo. I wish others would follow suit because tbh the lack of humble attitudes is the biggest turn off when it comes to Devbest (in my opinion).

I'll leave this quote and quit spamming thread
"When the student is ready, the guru appears."

Same man, I think I was about 11 when I started playing, I'm now 23. I stopped playing for years and then joined some retro last year with a mate, admittedly all we did was troll people and didn't play properly. We'd just sit in a public room trolling people for something to do, lol

But I'm the same as you, it was Habbo that got me into software coding. Before that, I was just on Piczo whacking together crap websites because that was the "cool" thing to do at our school, it was the equivalent of Facebook before that hit us lol

 

[Wassim]

to be honest i very much like the somewhat small community that devbest is.

 

[RastaLulz]

I'm not too sure how well traditional advertising would work, and what audience we'd even target, due to the niche user base that we currently have. I think one avenue of exposing people to DevBest would be to live stream (mainly programming, with maybe a separate channel for gaming) on Twitch (where staff would have access to stream), and we could also host people in the community. The down side is that it's a time commitment. Beyond that, I'm open to other ideas.

 

[Brad]

I'm not too sure how well traditional advertising would work, and what audience we'd even target, due to the niche user base that we currently have. I think one avenue of exposing people to DevBest would be to live stream (mainly programming, with maybe a separate channel for gaming) on Twitch (where staff would have access to stream), and we could also host people in the community. The down side is that it's a time commitment. Beyond that, I'm open to other ideas.

I'd be down to stream using Devbest's official twitch account maybe.

 

[Benden]

I'd be down to stream using Devbest's official twitch account maybe.

As long as they don't follow the same path as our Snapchat

 

[Weasel]

As long as they don't follow the same path as our Snapchat

I'll try to pick that up again, I've been really busy.

 

[Magic]

I think DevBest should be advertising or trying to gain users and should try create a welcoming environment.

 

[Habright]

As Magic said, I would try to make the community more, well - community-like. Player retention is as important as gaining users is.