This is the latest situation of Movies & TV:
- The number of questions per day (4.2),
- the number of avid users,
- the number of visits per day (394)
seem below the average of a healthy beta. Should we worry about the course of the site? Will it survive?
asked Feb 8, 2012 at 12:21
-
4I am not unduly concerned, especially about the number of 'avid users' (the estimation here is a litle off in my opinion). I think we are on pace to be close to the 200+ rep users, and 3000+ user target, but a bit of a gap perhaps for 2000+ rep users. At TylerShads says, it takes time. I personally think that these targets are unrealistic for the new less technical sites - nothing is going to drive people to talk about movies in the way that they need to get programming/server answers.– iandotkelly ModCommented Feb 8, 2012 at 14:09
Add a comment
|
6 Answers
Will it survive?
This is an oft-asked question at about this point… which is why I wrote a blog post to address exactly your question.
Does this site have a chance of succeeding?
and soon to be followed by this question:
I don't think we're going to be shut down just comparing our numbers to a few others that have been in beta almost twice as long:
All 4 of these sites have been in beta for almost twice as long as this site and their numbers aren't too much better than ours are now. It takes time for these sites to build up.
On another note, I have not heard anything concerning being shut down, regardless. Our numbers are low, but that is because of the community. If we want this site to succeed, we have to promote it.
Ask good questions, jump on top of recent releases to increase traffic (this summer will be a huge opportunity with all the big releases), and share share share (yes I mentioned this).
You see a good question, use the Facebook/Twitter/G+ links on the side to share the questions with your friends. If you see a question you would really like answered, whether you asked it or not, offer a bounty of rep for it.
If you have ideas on how to promote our site on a large scale, don't be afraid to post them on meta. As far as I know the SE team checks in on this site occasionally on the meta for posts like that. From what I hear, sites that have very active and enthusiastic communities have the chance to get funding for contests and events; Skyrim Vs MW3 for example.
This site depends on the community to succeed, which can be a great thing, but can also be a downfall if the community just comes and goes. So if you have a few favourited questions, tweet them, post them on FB/G+ (redundancy!) and chances are you'll get a few people to check them out too and possibly involved in this community (Also a nice way to nab some badges on the main site).
I feel with our Anniversary here, It would be appropriate to update this answer with our stats after 1 year:
SNIFF I'M SO PROUD OF ALL OF YOU :D
-
Just a note: you're not wrong, but the Skyrim vs. MW3 promotion was a very special event for a very special site. I'm not saying Movies won't one day be very special, either, but it's not exactly something we do for all the sites. I just wanted to make that clear.– Aarthi StaffCommented Feb 8, 2012 at 19:01
-
Of course :) which is why I tried to stress the importance of getting a great community together.– Tablemaker ModCommented Feb 8, 2012 at 19:10
We don’t have anything to worry about. The 90-day goal is essentially a reassessment of the site after the private beta to see if it’s worth keeping or not. The site isn’t a failure, so we will stick around. However, that doesn’t mean we can sit on our laurels. Instead, we really need to push for the community to promote the site and to get as many high-value questions and answers as we can. Stack exchange’s bread and butter are search engines. The more questions and answers we have the more surface area we have in the search engines. The more we show up in search engines the more traffic we get. It’s a repeating cycle.
So, no, we don’t have anything to worry about right now, but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t continue to improve the site.
The site is doing okay, it could do better but compared to other sites in public beta it's doing alright.
You shouldn't look at those stats it has been mentioned across SE metas that they are a poor indicator of site growth.
Nobby is just shy of 3000 reputation. I pop in ever so often to vote on a question but this site has not really been on top of my priorities.
The advice passed around is
Strive for high-quality, useful question and answers.
So starting going through the existing and see whether each question is high quality and well useful to a tv/movie fanatic.
- Edit questions to improve quality
- Vote up and down on questions to show usefulness. If you see yourself reach the meh vote (i.e. not voting at all) try popping in the Movies chatroom and ask your fellow users what's so good about the question to better understand it.
- Vote early, vote often (I tried this earlier in the private beta but the community didn't like it) Basically find a way to increase the incentive to vote. The questions and answers will come if the feedback is abundant.
"It is too early to apply numbers and getting worried."
The main requirement is that the site needs to have enough traffic. Even post-beta, when the site has become live, it needs to maintain a minimum amount of traffic to stay alive.
The site isn't a failure or a mistake.Look at the below pic as the visit/day gradually increasing.
I'm not convinced we have to worry, if only for the myriad reasons highlighted in previous answers.
The blending of Movies and TV should help the numbers, and it won't be long before there are a bunch of us in the 3Ks.
I occasionally promote a specific question on Facebook with some industry friends, and have found this a good way to spread the word - although only one has bitten thus far.
