Let's Buy Advertising to Attract New Users

[ElSapo]

Weekly forum poll we publicize the results of through social channels.

[clovis8]

If this was a thing it would work wonders I bet.

[Trolly]

@ElSapo

Why do we want new users? Most of the joy on this site comes to chatting with folks with whom I have some kind of longstanding relationship or online proximity.

We seem to be losing guys at a regular clip. It’s gonna get lonely here before too long.

[clovis8]

I said design but you know that.

Also, I am not assuming everyone here wants to do free labour when we have money.

Just stop with the petty bs and maybe try to contribute to the conversation.

This thread is so telling as to who is engaged in an exchange of ideas to better the forum and who is here to attack people and bring up old grievances.

[catfacemeowmers]

@spidercrab

• 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.)

Whether they use a razor and hot lather on your neck at the end of the cut.

[catfacemeowmers]

@anon46587892

Why would anyone want to join Unstuck, is a question we’d need to answer. I’d love more non-politcs stuff, but what do we have to offer for a new user that they don’t get from reddit or the off-topic section of the Sports Team/Handyman/Gardening/Baking/Gaming/etc forum they already post in?

What’s the draw for political discussion here? A few good posts mixed in with people who think they’re on the left arguing with other people who think they’re on the left about how much the other people are ruining the left?

I think the discussion here is orders of magnitude different than on Twitter or Reddit because the expectation is that it will be a back and forth with cited sources that will go beyond surface level shit.

Like 99% of discussion on Twitter, even the stuff that I find informative, is just like standing on a soapbox to scream for clout. There is no intention to address any criticisms of the viewpoint presented, and usually criticisms are shouted down by people without addressing them on their merits. It’s a large reason why lefty Twitter people get taken in by so many charlatans. (It’s also why keeed is high up on my secret poster rankings list, even though I think he’s very wrong about lots of things)

I feel more confident in my politics because I feel certain that you guys tell me when I’m wrong about something. Even when I’m actually right!

[miliboo]

@zikzak

Online advertising doesn’t work. The whole industry is a scam and probably a bubble ready to pop too.

If people want new users they need to create content that will attract them. Us talking to one another isn’t very compelling reading to people who aren’t us.

Yeah, this. We need someone of Dvaut’s caliber blogging etc original content imo. Mysteryconman springs to mind, or PocketChads activism etc.

[CaffeineNeeded]

You, member of the brit clique, cannot be serious.

[cassette]

online advertising doesn’t work

@miliboo

Yeah, this. We need someone of Dvaut’s caliber blogging etc original content imo. Mysteryconman springs to mind, or PocketChads activism etc.

I don’t really get these comments, tbh.

First, I don’t think it’s true. Or at least it isn’t categorically true. We need to define “doesn’t work.” If you mean it’s an industry on the brink of collapse, sure. But that doesn’t matter to us. If you mean “advertising never draws eyeballs to things the advertiser and user both want seen/to see”… I mean that’s clearly false. We aren’t selling tchotchkes to seniors. We have something that is valuable. We just need to draw attention to it.

Second, the suggestion to instead have Dvault write content to draw people to the site doesn’t really make sense either. He or anyone else can do that too. Why does that prevent us trying other means as well?

I’m trying to break up the decision paralysis that is leading to no site at all. Let’s just do something. Looking for the perfect thing will lead to us having no thing at all.

[cassette]

@Vict0ar

its not petty. its legit baffling that we would hire crappy fiverr devs when half the forum could do it.

If you’re volunteering, thanks! If not, then please don’t volunteer other people’s free labor. There’s nothing wrong with hiring someone to do a job.

[microbet]

I thought you were getting at how fiverr is trying to Uberize web development and if the site were going to pay someone to do something people should just directly find someone to who will do it.

[jmakin]

We will suffer attrition slowly and die off. It is not sustainable.

[jmakin]

why do you make everything so personal?

[ElSapo]

@ElSapo

Weekly forum poll we publicize the results of through social channels.

UP folks then engage with social media content on twitter, be it poll results, picks, etc. … one twitter thread a week gives a mini version of what fun and hot debate and terrible investing tips they can get on the site!

[cassette]

Sounds good! Does this mean you are OK with new users?

[ElSapo]

I’m not opposed, I just don’t really care. Or, didn’t. jmakin says this is an existential issue, ok. So we need new members. That’s some ideas. It’s going to be tough to attract political discussion right now,. It’s not what I pay attention to here anyway. But the things I mentioned – political betting, NFTs, stocks, digital horse racing, crypto, poker – could be packaged into a weekly “here’s what’s up on unstuck” graphic that if it caught someone’s inerest would in turn bring them here.

[StrontiumDog]

Give it a fucking rest.

[Jalfrezi]

@Trolly

@ElSapo

Why do we want new users? Most of the joy on this site comes to chatting with folks with whom I have some kind of longstanding relationship or online proximity.

We seem to be losing guys at a regular clip. It’s gonna get lonely here before too long.

Vote Trump

[eyebooger]

@ElSapo

digital horse racing

Man I am so out of the loop on all the weird shit that has been going on lately.

[seities]

Listing some of the points here that I generally agree with:

• Cassette’s point about taking some action rather than letting this devolve into hundreds/thousands of posts about what won’t work and whose fault that is feels important. I can see the arguments against paying for an ad banner, and in a sense it is a band-aid solution since people have to want to stay and post once they arrive here. I think a strategic banner in the right place can still be worth trying, but;

• We really do need to think more about what page they land on and what would make them take further steps. People have full time jobs optimizing landing pages for a reason.

• I also have to agree with the people raising the point of what this forum actually needs to be in order to attract new people. And I do think that politics actually can’t take center stage if we want to achieve that. Just as 2p2 was centered around something else but brought a lot of smart people together as a result, I think another topic that people discuss here and generate valuable content around is a good play. Naturally though, there are going to be barriers around organic growth since we will be competing in SEO.

• I think something we have learned time and time again is that forming a committee and having a multiple vote process before coming to an agreement of what might be an acceptable site to consider placing a banner will need to nothing productive. Probably the best we could hope for is having say 3 people who are interested in putting time towards the actual growth part, have a general idea of what audience they will target (I think the suggestions around crypto/nfts/stocks/poker etc kinda makes sense as there is a lot of overlap with current users), and then trust them with say $500 or so to spend as they see fit. That would involve collating some content that is valuable, editing the landing page, then finding some way to share that content and bring new people to the landing page, then hopefully convert from there into relevant threads.

Frankly, most of this content is not for me. I blocked the politics part of the site some time ago and mute more threads than I follow. Just wanted to throw in my 2c.