Feedback Wanted

Galvasean

Due to falling thread viewership we want your feedback on how best to improve the forum.
What would you like to see in future?
What would make you visit the forum more frequently?
What would attractmore/new viewers?
What would make people more prone to post in the forum?

Yitzhak Rabin

I think that the problem we are having is pure paleontology is a fairly niche topic (Duh!). While I love all the articles yourself, marco_polo, Wibbs, Cap'n Midnight etc. post, they normally don't do much for discussion (well maybe Wibbs excluded )

Perhaps if we could post more questions at the end of the articles on what the unkowns of the specimen are, or what the competing hypotheses are with the creature re: where they fit in, what their eating habits were, what way did they hunt etc. Basically, phrase the commentary after the article snippet in a way which encourages people like me (paleo-idiots) to speculate, ask questions and just let the mind wander. It'll move away from a purely scientific discussion, but, thats the tradeoff.

A good example of the types of threads I'm talking about have been the ones about neandertals, and other archaic humans.

My two cents anyway...

Yitzhak Rabin

Also, a badass dinosaur sig for us to have could attract other people here

Galvasean

yekahs wrote: »

Also, a badass dinosaur sig for us to have could attract other people here

Ask and thou shall recieve:
http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055342945

I'll pop one on once the boards charity comedy gig is finished.

Yitzhak Rabin

Made a new one there.

Anyone who wants to use it is:



Just close the spaces at the the end of the [/img ] and [/url ] tags

Coriolanus

I'd echo the above. Most of what is posted, while interesting, isn't really the sort of thing most people will be able to discuss beyond the "oh, that's cool" reaction and I include myself in that.
You could always get the AH mods to move any Evolution threads over to here, that'd at least get activity of a certain type going.

marco_polo

I think one of the problems is that there haven't been as many real headline grabbing Paleontology stories this year compared to say last year with Ardi, Ida etc, which generated a fair bit more casual traffic than normal.

I do think it is a problem that the place has the feel of an RSS news feed to it sometimes. Perhaps we could do a bit more to add better background/context to a story and why it is signifigant, in order to provoke a bit of dicussion, as personally I am rather guilty of simply paraphrasing the orignal article most of the time when posting a story.

Alternatively for the quick win we could just ask PDN for the BC&P thread.

Galvasean

marco_polo wrote: »

Alternatively for the quick win we could just ask PDN for the BC&P thread.

No. One of those popped upin A&A too. I think two on boards.ie is more than enough.

I've been phrasing my news stories with a bit more "but WHYYYYY??????????" lately. Seem to be getting more chat going.

Kess73

Galvasean wrote: »

No. One of those popped upin A&A too. I think two on boards.ie is more than enough.

I've been phrasing my news stories with a bit more "but WHYYYYY??????????" lately. Seem to be getting more chat going.

Nah it is just because I have started popping in again. :cool:

thebouldwhacker

At the risk of posting in a forum I lurk in but not post in I'm gonna throw in my 2 cents.
Most of the threads are about the Jurassic period and Dinosaurs. Surly a Palaeontology forum should have a healthy mix of all periods, mass extinctions etc. Other forums vary their specialties and seek debate and conversation where as here a lot of threads have a short life span as they are just posts about reports or press releases with little follow up.

Now I know there are other periods and creatures posted about but its not very exciting (kinda Ross Palaeontology vs Attenborough Palaeontology)

I reckon sex it up a bit, get a few threads up about the tree of life, how far back it goes and how it applies to the world we know and the world we are.

If you go for a certain pop science approach ye will attract more casual passers by, such as I, as well as more experts, such as ye.
This can only be good.

Any way, agree or disagree that my view. I think Palaeontology is one of the most important and interesting of the natural sciences and would be unthinkable and a sad sign of modern society if boards dropped it as a forum so best of luck!!!

Galvasean

thebouldwhacker wrote: »

Most of the threads are about the Jurassic period and Dinosaurs. Surly a Palaeontology forum should have a healthy mix of all periods, mass extinctions etc. Other forums vary their specialties

At the moment there is an awful lot about the Mesozoic era (time of teh dinosaurs), particularly T. rex, pterosaurs and ceratopsians (Triceratops' relatives), but they are what most of the recent discoveries have been on.
On page 1 we also have two threads in relation to human ancestors (prehistoric apes/cavemen), which is a popular subject with some of the regualrs. There are also two threads on life before the dinosaurs and even one about prehistoric life on another planet.
In short, I don't think the forum shows too much bias in favour of the age of the dinosaurs, especially when you consider that it is probably the most popular age of palaeontology.

thebouldwhacker wrote:

and seek debate and conversation where as here a lot of threads have a short life span as they are just posts about reports or press releases with little follow up.

This is true. And I personally must take a lot of the blame for this as I post most of the new threads here. In my attempts to spread the news (which I am very passionate about) I am not sparking a lot of conversation. Unfortuantely I'm not sure what way would be best to make people want to post in relation to new palaeontology discoveries/research.

thebouldwhacker wrote:

I reckon sex it up a bit, get a few threads up about the tree of life, how far back it goes and how it applies to the world we know and the world we are.

If you go for a certain pop science approach ye will attract more casual passers by, such as I, as well as more experts, such as ye.
This can only be good.

I agree thatthe forum does need to be more 'snazzy' to get more of an audience. I try my best to use tabloidesque headlines to attract interest from passers by. There are also a couple of purely light hearted threads.
Sadly, I cannot think of much more to attract an audience.
Any more ideas are very welcome.

FWIW, it was good to hear your feedback, thebouldwhacker. It is encouraging to hear from someone else who is interested in the subject.

Stepping Stone

I do view, but don't post.

I think that there's too much Mesozoic stuff, which is fine, but it's a bit repetitive.

How about a wider variety, go a little further back, even to the Permian and the mass extinction. That is always fodder for debate. How about Lazarus taxa?

I think it's hard for someone to really get into it just from factual posts, something to start a debate would be a great starter.

Maybe you could get some of the conspiracy theorists here if you started a nessie thread.

I like what's here, it just needs more variety.

Kess73

thebouldwhacker wrote: »

I reckon sex it up a bit, get a few threads up about the tree of life, how far back it goes and how it applies to the world we know and the world we are.

If you go for a certain pop science approach ye will attract more casual passers by, such as I, as well as more experts, such as ye.
This can only be good.

I think this approach would reap rewards as it would be more likely to spark debate and converation amongst all.


Maybe some discussions on some of the more popular beasties, or discuss how we think some creatures hunted, how some adapted, how some that seemed ideally equipped to survive died out very quickly etc.


Maybe have threads that discuss what creatures people think may be alive today, and discuss the pros and cons of such opinions, and where people think they may be on the planet. Topics that lean toward Cryptozoology
a little could turn out to be quite interesting and many of the supposed sightings match descriptions of extinct creatures.

Speculative debate can often be much more fun that debate on bare facts, and speculative debate will always get the facts interjected into it anyway, so it would be good for the casual lurker and the dedicated poster alike.

Galvasean

Hmmm... I'm not so sure inviting the conspiracy theorists around for tea is such a good idea. I mean look at the mess that were the 'Troodon' and 'Human evolution' threads respectively.
Although perhaps some sort of thread in relation to 'Alternate Ideas' to incorporate cryptozoological style discussion and other fairly unorthodox science related theories? If that thread goes well we could possibly open the wider forum to such ideas.

Thoughts?

Kess73

Galvasean wrote: »

Hmmm... I'm not so sure inviting the conspiracy theorists around for tea is such a good idea. I mean look at the mess that were the 'Troodon' and 'Human evolution' threads respectively.
Although perhaps some sort of thread in relation to 'Alternate Ideas' to incorporate cryptozoological style discussion and other fairly unorthodox science related theories? If that thread goes well we could possibly open the wider forum to such ideas.

Thoughts?

When I mentioned Cryptozoology I was talking more about cases that were less fanciful and certainly not of a supernatural leaning.


It could be a discussion on how people over the last thousand years reported seeing monsters when in fact all it may have been was species that have recently gone extinct, and discussing what recent extinct creatures could have been mistaken for the monsters those people saw.


Or take Cryptozoology into conversations where we discuss animals that are meant to be extinct, but where there is an element of doubt that could mean there is a slight chance of one turning up. Obviously that would again mean talking about species that are known to have gone extinct thousands to hundreds of thounds of years ago rather than millions of years ago.

Maybe people would discuss what the popular theory is as to why a particular species became extinct, and maybe then touch on why they think there is a chance, no matter how slim, of that species or an undiscoved descendant of that species somewhere on the planet today.

I think putting such threads into one big super thread or a sub forum could end up hiding topics from people who just happen upon the forum, and by missing certain threads, they may not stick around and add to the forum.

The mods would always be around to nudge a thread back on topic or to pop a thread that was not really relevant to a more relevant forum within Boards.

I know what I am suggesting in my muddled way is more conjecture than pure science, but it may lead to people finding out about topics they never looked into before and as such would end up with people having to check out the actual facts and maybe start fresh conversations.

Rubecula

People do like paleontolgy. It is of interest to people of all ages.

To build up interest in the forum we could try to get them involved in someway.

I did try with the name the dinosaur thread where we posted picturs and got folks to name the beasties, but that seemed to end up with just me and Galvesean playing.

So how about letting folks know where they can find fossils for themselves, and perhaps posting their own pictures of their finds.

A question and answer thread where folks can post questions that experts can offer their answers... when I say experts, I mean us. (well you really, I am not an expert)

A sales board where fossils can be bought and sold???? Not sure about that one though.

A History Of Life On Earth thread were each week someone takes the story on a little bit further on how life has evolved?

Oh and by the way... I am now back... sorry about that. Is my chair warm or covered in snow?:D

Kess73

Rubecula wrote: »

People do like paleontolgy. It is of interest to people of all ages.

To build up interest in the forum we could try to get them involved in someway.

I did try with the name the dinosaur thread where we posted picturs and got folks to name the beasties, but that seemed to end up with just me and Galvesean playing.
So how about letting folks know where they can find fossils for themselves, and perhaps posting their own pictures of their finds.

A question and answer thread where folks can post questions that experts can offer their answers... when I say experts, I mean us. (well you really, I am not an expert)

A sales board where fossils can be bought and sold???? Not sure about that one though.

A History Of Life On Earth thread were each week someone takes the story on a little bit further on how life has evolved?

Oh and by the way... I am now back... sorry about that. Is my chair warm or covered in snow?:D

You sod, I have 65 posts in that thread.

Rubecula

Oops sorry Kess. I didn't mean to insult you with that comment.

*gets down on his knees grovelling that the kicking isn't too painful*

I am very glad you have found that thread interesting enough to take part though. Especially as getting folks interested was the entire reason behind it.

Do you like it?

Rubes

Coriolanus

Ditto on the fossil bit. I'd love that. Especially since it can probably be combined with a cache.:o

Rubecula

Just had a thought, the bit about the picture quiz and the creature of the week feature gave me an idea.

Why not one "sticky" so it is at the top permanently where everyone can see it.

A post of 26 'interesting' dino pics in alphabetical order (one pic for each letter of the alphabet) with a little summary of the creature typed in underneath.

Not sure if would be possible but make the pictures thumbnail so that a click on it would give a larger picture link with more info.

If you put them in as thumbnail you could have them at three across the screen.

It may not interest the 'hardened' fans of the site but may well induce a bit more interest in the occassional visitors.

Perhaps change the name of the site to Paleontology: And Lots Of Dinosaurs.

Everyone likes a dinosaur... albeit you couldn't eat a whole one.