I’ve been lazy about updating the money thing, but my work life has recently calmed down and I’ll try to post something today or tomorrow. I would love to figure out a way to attract new users here. A couple of random thoughts:
I think referencing good UP posts on twitter or reddit could be useful. Like, I think a recent post that I wrote in the stonks thread about the prevalence of very large, unprofitable companies was substantive and would be interesting enough to attract one or two clicks.
Mega threads can be really intimidating to people like me who are scared of jumping in someplace new mid-conversation, but who are also unwilling to read the first 30,000 posts in a thread.
I’m in favor of more non-politics content and users, particularly since politics has receded from a lot of people’s minds since 2020.
Of course, I should try to be the change I seek, and actually contribute to more off-topic discussions if that’s what I’m looking for. I think what I’d like most is an active low-content thread that is explicitly non-politics. I am probably a lunatic, but I enjoy reading about other people’s experiences/preferences related to mundate things like:
How frequently do you purchase a pineapple, procrastinate cutting it because you’re lazy, and then find out you’ve waited too long and it’s all rotten?
Where exactly is the optimal place to cut your toenails?
Where do you draw the line between a barber and a hair stylist? (A reasonable decision rule would be that if they wash your hair, they’re a stylist.)
It’s partially a matter of what topics are discussed and it’s partially a matter of organization. The main LC thread is classified in the Politics & News section. (This doesn’t matter for people who display threads on chronological order, but it might matter for people new to the site.)
As for content, even as a regular user here, I feel super weird jumping into a LC thread that’s talking about something moderately serious like, say, NY politicians’ knowledge of local housing prices, to talk about something stupid like pineapple cutting or toenail clipping.
There’s no “plan” but this wouldn’t be a bad thing. You could still make politics the main topic, but have a rich off topic community. Kind of like what 2p2 became.
I think the much more intimidating factor for anyone who comes in here new is that they don’t know anyone here and we all do. And it’s because of this:
Right now our brand is “People who were kicked off 2+2”. That’s it.
If someone comes in here new, unless they are vouched for like Nano, they’re going to be bombarded with “Why are you hiding your 2+2 username?”.
I don’t have a solution, but I’m near certain this is or will be a significant barrier to any ideas of expanding the user base here.
I’ve been watching The Majority Report hoping to see the name of the caller as “Bettlejuice” or “StimAbuser” of unstuckpolitics.com, I’d think a genuine caller would get through if they mentioned all about the forum on the intro, if that’s how your vetted etc.
I was going to call some, but I’m a terrible speaker all told and would not be as fluent as most here.
Let’s try the free stuff 1st, before committing to spending a lot unless if the advertising is minimal, go for it I say.
Benjamin Dixon Show
Naomi Konst
(TYT) I’ve not seen there show in a long long time, but I’d try Anna kasperian
And all the other progressive YouTube shows
In short, UP is up its own arse and can’t attract new non-22 users because of it.
When people dare to disagree with the group think they’re invariably run off the forum by a pack of wild dogs/schoolboy bullies trying to impress each other and empowered by malignant moderation, who then revert back to lamenting the lack of diversity here.
Yea the google clicks could go way up. 6k clicks in a year seems lol when we were getting more than a million site views a month. It’s probably from our own users too.
I haven’t been posting or reading about politics much since there’s no Grandwizard-in-Chief actively trying to burn the country down. It’s like when you finish a marathon or 5k you need to rest for a bit. I imagine it’s the same for a lot of people.
Wow I have access to something called google search console which has a ton of analytics about our site. Seems like 99.9% of our clicks come from searching “unstuck politics,” which confirms my suspicion it’s coming from our own users.
I think we should lock down the moderation rules on this site to a point where we are satisfied before you invite the demon hordes of randoms on the internet.
Should I create a burner Twitter account with a link to the forum and use it to troll Republicans?
