PubTalkForum Year in Review Member Survey

[Everlong]

It’s hard to believe, but in just a few weeks we’ll be hitting the one-year anniversary of the closing of WWE-Club and the opening of “The Club,” which a couple months later turned into PubTalkForum.

We’ll have a big celebratory thread where we can share stories and reminisce about the best parts of our first year so far when the actual anniversary rolls around, and it’ll be a blast. However, in the lead up to that, we thought it’d be a good idea to have a slightly more serious discussion about what’s going well with PubTalk, what could be improved and what directions we’re going to take going forward as a website. We’d love to get the input from as many people as possible!

To kind of get the ball rolling, I’d like to encourage you to respond with answers to these survey questions. We can engage in some conversation from there.

Here we go!

GENERAL QUESTIONS:

1. What is your favorite thing about PubTalkForum so far after nearly one year of existence?
   
2. What is your least favorite thing about PubTalkForum so far after nearly one year of existence?
   
3. Do you post regularly, or make new threads? If not, what could encourage you to do so more often?
   
4. How do you feel about the features on the site? Is there anything you would add?
   
5. How do you feel about the reputation points feature in particular? This was a feature that was heavily requested and has been the most-used new featured added on the site. Do you think it encourages or discourages discussion?
   
6. Did you participate in/enjoy the Ultimate Wrestler Tournament this year? Would you like to see more similar activities?
   
7. How often do you use the PubTalkForum chat feature? Is using the chat an enjoyable experience?
   
8. How do you feel about moderation on PubTalkForum? Is there anything you would change or improve in terms of how we run this site?

GROWTH/FORUM DIRECTION QUESTIONS:

1. What do you think can be done to reach out to more prospective new members to encourage growth of the site?
   
2. Do you think this forum needs to take a more focused direction heading forward (as in, narrowing the theme of the site)? Currently we are fairly undefined in terms of our focus, but have marketed ourselves as a Sports/WWE forum.
   
3. If the answer to question 2 is yes, what would you like to see our direction be?
   
4. If the answer to question 2 is no, what do you think we can do to improve the way we’re marketing this site?
   
5. How do you think we can improve the home page to reach out to more people?

YOUR TURN

Are there any questions you have for us as a moderation team? Is there anything you’d like to get off your chest? We’d love to hear from you.

Again, we’re pretty pumped to be celebrating our first completed year here in a few weeks, and we’re looking forward to having a laugh over some of the best moments of the past year once our anniversary (October 6th) rolls around!

Thank you in advance for your participation—you guys taking the time to answer these questions will do a TON to help us out.

[PorkChop]

What is your favorite thing about PubTalkForum so far after nearly one year of existence?
It's easily the community. Most of our members have built a rapport together from the days of WWE-Club, and despite having one or two high-profile casualities from our shift over here, the core of our community remains. We have some great and insightful personalities on the board, and that's what keeps me coming back here.

What is your least favorite thing about PubTalkForum so far after nearly one year of existence?
The lack of consistent topic makers. This was also a problem on WWE-Club, and a significant factor in its demise - so I'd love to see more people regularly chipping in. Say five of our posters decide to set themselves a target of posting one topic per day - that's 35 extra topics per week, on top of the work of the regular topic posters. Topics create traffic, and this will increase our presence on sites like Google, and this will potentially bring us more members. Hence, it would be great to see a bit more of an effort made.

Do you post regularly, or make new threads? If not, what could encourage you to do so more often?
I probably post too much, if anything

How do you feel about the features on the site? Is there anything you would add?
I like the features we have, though it's always good to review them and constantly look at improvements. I'm one of those people who believes that everything can always be better, so I think we should trial new features every couple of months or so and see what the general response is.

How do you feel about the reputation points feature in particular? This was a feature that was heavily requested and has been the most-used new featured added on the site. Do you think it encourages or discourages discussion?
I like the rep system, but I don't take it too seriously. I see it as the same as Facebook 'likes' - they're just ways of showing appreciation. I'd probably argue it encourages discussion, in which case. It's a way of making people feel like they're a valued and appreciated member of our community, so I'm all for it.

Did you participate in/enjoy the Ultimate Wrestler Tournament this year? Would you like to see more similar activities?
I did, and it was a big success. I've been very vocal about the next tournament being about something other than wrestling though, so I won't repeat myself again here.

How often do you use the PubTalkForum chat feature? Is using the chat an enjoyable experience?
The chat is a great feature, but timezones often restrict me from talking to many people here. It's always enjoyable talking to my fellow Brits on there though - shout out of @prophet and @Daz for our Saturday night 'Amazing Greys' pisstaking.

What do you think can be done to reach out to more prospective new members to encourage growth of the site?
I was a big advocate of other people using the PTF Twitter, but it was mostly me doing the work. I haven't used it for some time now as I got a bit burnt out, but I'd definitely take it back up if we had a couple of others chipping in. I also think that those with Reddit could attract traffic to the site by posting links to us on the appropriate subreddits (maybe something like r/Startups, or something similar).

Do you think this forum needs to take a more focused direction heading forward (as in, narrowing the theme of the site)? Currently we are fairly undefined in terms of our focus, but have marketed ourselves as a Sports/WWE forum.
If the answer to question 2 is yes, what would you like to see our direction be?
If the answer to question 2 is no, what do you think we can do to improve the way we’re marketing this site?
We definitely need more of a direction, but I oppose the idea of us becoming another wrestling website. I love our community here, but we've already failed as a wrestling site. If we targeted ourselves at wrestling once more, we'd basically be the reanimated corpse of WWE-Club, just without Bryan and Cris. WWE-Club was around for ten times as long as we've been and received far more traffic than we get - and it was an utter failure - so why would we want to take a step backwards and become a wrestling website again? "Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

How do you think we can improve the home page to reach out to more people?
Perhaps cosmetically - I'm a big fan of the SBNation layouts (i.e, the layouts of sites like BloodyElbow.com) and I think we should look into writing articles for our homepage on a regular basis.

[Twister]

GENERAL QUESTIONS:

What is your favorite thing about PubTalkForum so far after nearly one year of existence?
I think my favourite thing is how laid back the place is (most of the time lol), and how there seems to be a good mix of serious discussion and light hearted chat.

What is your least favorite thing about PubTalkForum so far after nearly one year of existence?
Sometimes when I go onto the site I'm logged out even though I checked the automatic log in box but honestly it doesn't bother me much, I just couldn't think of anything else.

Do you post regularly, or make new threads? If not, what could encourage you to do so more often?
I post fairly regularly, but I don't make many new threads - Nothing to do with the site, I just struggle to come up with topics that I feel people would be interested in.

How do you feel about the features on the site? Is there anything you would add?
No issues here

How do you feel about the reputation points feature in particular? This was a feature that was heavily requested and has been the most-used new featured added on the site. Do you think it encourages or discourages discussion?
I quite like it, I see it as a fun little feature that can encourage discussion and also gives people the chance to be 'rewarded' for making a good quality post. No one really takes advantage of it either which is great.

Did you participate in/enjoy the Ultimate Wrestler Tournament this year? Would you like to see more similar activities?
I did briefly, it was a great way of encouraging activity on the forum and yes I would like to see more in future.

How often do you use the PubTalkForum chat feature? Is using the chat an enjoyable experience?
I rarely ever use it to be honest, I prefer browsing the forums.

How do you feel about moderation on PubTalkForum? Is there anything you would change or improve in terms of how we run this site?
I think you all do a pretty good job and so far have dealt with any issues appropriately. I really like the laid back nature of the mods and I think that rubs off on the rest of the members too. It's the polar opposite to how things were on wwe-club, which is obviously a good thing. I do wonder what things will be like as the forum gets bigger and becomes busier, but I guess it's all a learning curve and you guys will adjust the way you do things as and when you need to.

GROWTH/FORUM DIRECTION QUESTIONS:

What do you think can be done to reach out to more prospective new members to encourage growth of the site?
Maybe more advertising and activity on social media platforms, especially Facebook as word can spread fast on there. You could possibly run a competition of some sort to encourage people to sign up and more importantly post.

Do you think this forum needs to take a more focused direction heading forward (as in, narrowing the theme of the site)? Currently we are fairly undefined in terms of our focus, but have marketed ourselves as a Sports/WWE forum.
No - although you could maybe change being being a Sports/WWE forum to Sports/Wrestling instead, nothing wrong with being a wwe fan of course, but 'wrestling' kinda covers all the bases whereas 'WWE' may put some non-WWE fans off, they may not realize that there is a general wrestling section.

If the answer to question 2 is yes, what would you like to see our direction be?
-

If the answer to question 2 is no, what do you think we can do to improve the way we’re marketing this site?
Like I said earlier, social media is the way forward when it comes to marketing a website imo. Make the most of it if you're not already.

How do you think we can improve the home page to reach out to more people?
I like the recent topics boxes and the link to the Twitter account. I guess it could do with jazzing up a little, but I'm not sure how.

YOUR TURN

Are there any questions you have for us as a moderation team? Is there anything you’d like to get off your chest? We’d love to hear from you.

Overall I'm pretty happy, this place is tonnes better than wwe-club. And it feels like you guys care and are doing this for the right reasons whereas Bryan obviously didn't. Keep up the good work guys!

[Viazon]

What is your favorite thing about PubTalkForum so far after nearly one year of existence?

I'll Porkchops answer and say the community and the banter we can have with one another. There were a few bad eggs on WWE-Club. It seems to me like we have all the best members from there and move them to here. Everyone seems to be on same level and bar a few disagreements in a few discussions now and then, everyone seems to get along fine.

What is your least favorite thing about PubTalkForum so far after nearly one year of existence?

It would be better if we had a few more new posters. And not just people who knew about WWE-Club. I mean brand new posters. That way we can build up the forum to a bigger community. One that even eclipses WWE-Club in its hey day.

Do you post regularly, or make new threads? If not, what could encourage you to do so more often?

I like to think of myself as one of the most regular posters, but admittedly have died it down lately. That's nothing against this place. I just have a shitty laptop with major performance issues. A lot of the time, my laptop is running so slowly, I get frustrated with it and it stops me from posting. Usually, when I'm browsing the Pub, I'm on my phone and posting from my phone too much frustrates me as well. I don't start many threads because honestly, I never know what to post a thread about. A lot of the times, I'll be going about my daily routine and think about something. Then I think about how it would make for a good discussion on here. But by the time I get home, I have forgotten about it. I guess I could just start remembering these things!

How do you feel about the features on the site? Is there anything you would add?

I think the current features are great. I'm sure there are always ways to improve and add things though. Couldn't think of any right now, but then again, I guess that's why I'm not a web designer.

How do you feel about the reputation points feature in particular? This was a feature that was heavily requested and has been the most-used new featured added on the site. Do you think it encourages or discourages discussion?

I think the rep points are pretty cool. It's a nice little feature to add. I wouldn't say it either encourages or discourages discussion. If someone wants to reply to something, they are gonna do it regardless. The rep points just add a little something to it.

Did you participate in/enjoy the Ultimate Wrestler Tournament this year? Would you like to see more similar activities?

I did indeed. I thought it was a lot of fun. I love stuff like that. I definitely would like to see more in the future.

How often do you use the PubTalkForum chat feature? Is using the chat an enjoyable experience?

I usually only use it when an event is on, like a PPV or a sporting event. Because of my work shifts, I am able to stay up every other Monday for Raw. It was a lot of fun during the World Cup as well. It always usually is. Some of the best moments and conversations occur in the chat box.

How do you feel about moderation on PubTalkForum? Is there anything you would change or improve in terms of how we run this site?

It all looks like you are doing fine and dandy to me! I think it's good that you let a lot of stuff slide, especially when it isn't really serious. I like that basically the only rule on this site is to not me a dick. We seem to have a lot more freedom on hear than we did on WWE-Club and I think that's cool.

GROWTH/FORUM DIRECTION QUESTIONS:

What do you think can be done to reach out to more prospective new members to encourage growth of the site?

Social media is usually the way to go now in order to get things to kick off. I am on Twitter and I can promise to try and advertise this site a bit on Twitter. For example, whenever there is a football match or a wrestling PPV or some other sporting event, I could maybe tweet a link to the Pub, encourage people to chat and discuss.

[AkydefGoldberg]

What is your favorite thing about PubTalkForum so far after nearly one year of existence?
The whole vibe of the place is just extremely relaxed and alluring. Great that one can swear without being censored - just a nice atmosphere within the members and the relationship between mods/members is what it should be.

What is your least favorite thing about PubTalkForum so far after nearly one year of existence?
Nothing major to add here. I

Do you post regularly, or make new threads? If not, what could encourage you to do so more often?
I try to. I post regularly in the Soccer thread and tbh, that's my major posting area. I try to make threads that will generate discussion. I don't see the point in posting a link, brief sentence and asking others to debate on it. If I come across something, or something pops in my head that I'd create a thread for it. I believe in quality over quantity when it comes to creation of new threads.

How do you feel about the features on the site? Is there anything you would add?
Nope.

How do you feel about the reputation points feature in particular? This was a feature that was heavily requested and has been the most-used new featured added on the site. Do you think it encourages or discourages discussion?
I think it works fine. I don't think I've seen people abuse it which is rare on forums so it's a definite plus point.

Did you participate in/enjoy the Ultimate Wrestler Tournament this year? Would you like to see more similar activities?
Not massively. I engaged in it but felt abit outta the loop in terms of debating on the big match ups because I'd not seen that particular wrestler in his heyday or on Youtube etc, but I tried to make general comments and thoughts. Definitely more tournaments would be great - even in the Soccer thread. There's a small, intelligent soccer community and should encourage members to set up tournaments in a particular sub-forum.

How often do you use the PubTalkForum chat feature? Is using the chat an enjoyable experience?
It works OK but have had problems when posting. Sometimes it takes an age for a message to post but no doubt, being part of WM 30 chat/RAW the night after was a memorable experience.

What do you think can be done to reach out to more prospective new members to encourage growth of the site?
I think social media, especially Twitter is the way to go. Especially during RAW/other wrestling shows, hashtagging in official discussions, engaging people on Twitter aswell if they post a wacky/funny/insightful opinion and 'luring' them here.

Do you think this forum needs to take a more focused direction heading forward (as in, narrowing the theme of the site)? Currently we are fairly undefined in terms of our focus, but have marketed ourselves as a Sports/WWE forum.
If the answer to question 2 is yes, what would you like to see our direction be?
If the answer to question 2 is no, what do you think we can do to improve the way we’re marketing this site?
It's tough to define how to focus it. Personally, think we're doing fine. PTF covers a wide array of things so fear if we narrow it down, it might mean people are not keen to join if it's seen to be a specific forum etc.

How do you think we can improve the home page to reach out to more people?
Just more articles on there that can be used to plug out on Twitter more. If one writes an article, I always tweet it out to various people to generate interest. If you get a RT etc, can help get us out there. We should use articles to try and get our name out there.

[Westcoastvibes]

1. What is your favorite thing about PubTalkForum so far after nearly one year of existence?
   Honestly, the laid back feel and lack of over controlling members
   
2. What is your least favorite thing about PubTalkForum so far after nearly one year of existence?
   This is most likely going to be a sore spot but without pointing fingers (cause that's not nice to do) there seems to be a unspoken hierarchy amongst the members. I have noticed that within this group of people you are either in or your not. this is mostly apparent in how well a thread does and the quality of the replies based on who started the thread and who posted the replies. The easiest way to explain would be if person "A" starts a thread on why the sky is blue they will get 5 pages of replies amongst 4-5 members with each post being a decent length but if person "x" starts a thread with the same topic instead of "A" the thread will get 2-3 replies mostly consisting of one liner posts.
   
3. Do you post regularly, or make new threads? If not, what could encourage you to do so more often?
   I try to but I do not follow NFL or football/soccer and I don't have the time for PCW so I am limited to my threads and responses
   
4. How do you feel about the features on the site? Is there anything you would add?
   I like it the way it is, if you add to much it becomes overwhelming
   
5. How do you feel about the reputation points feature in particular? This was a feature that was heavily requested and has been the most-used new featured added on the site. Do you think it encourages or discourages discussion?
   I honestly don't think it encourages discussion, I look at the feature as a way to give someone virtual pat on the back for something well said. I think it would cause a increase in discussion if the topics themselves could be rated as well and be seen on the main page.
   
6. Did you participate in/enjoy the Ultimate Wrestler Tournament this year? Would you like to see more similar activities?
   did not, no opinion on this
   
7. How often do you use the PubTalkForum chat feature? Is using the chat an enjoyable experience?
   I try to use it but it is clunky and lags real bad on my tablet so I give up alot
   
8. How do you feel about moderation on PubTalkForum? Is there anything you would change or improve in terms of how we run this site?

the moderation is superb, there has not been a single situation were a mod has flexed their power just because they could.

GROWTH/FORUM DIRECTION QUESTIONS:

1. What do you think can be done to reach out to more prospective new members to encourage growth of the site?
   I think those who use reddit could drop some bombs in related subreddits and having a variety of topics helps
   
2. Do you think this forum needs to take a more focused direction heading forward (as in, narrowing the theme of the site)? Currently we are fairly undefined in terms of our focus, but have marketed ourselves as a Sports/WWE forum.There are literally thousands of specific themed forums out there. Its actually nice to have a forum that you can literally post any topic you want on any subject (within reasoning of content) without it being out of place. I think keeping it in the direction of a general everything sports related and them some forum is good.
   
3. If the answer to question 2 is yes, what would you like to see our direction be?
   look to #1
   
4. If the answer to question 2 is no, what do you think we can do to improve the way we’re marketing this site?
   I think the marketing is okay it just needs to be refined, I don't know were to begin to do this though.
   
5. How do you think we can improve the home page to reach out to more people?
   ummm.... titties on the front page?

[Tom]

GENERAL QUESTIONS:

What is your favorite thing about PubTalkForum so far after nearly one year of existence?
I agree with most in saying that it is the laid back atmosphere on here. Although I don't post or interact as much as others, the WWE section on the Club was becoming unbearable at times and particularly over modded. It was more autocratic while everything around here there seems to be a more laissez faire attitude with little interference from the mods.

What is your least favorite thing about PubTalkForum so far after nearly one year of existence?
Sometmes the site does be down for me. Around a week ago I was really struggling accessing the site on my phone and the site was running slow on my laptop. There seems to be times when the place runs slow. Because I'm familiar with people around here I still come back. However, if I just stumbled across the site on Google lets say and I started browsing the forum at times during its slow period, it really wouldn't encourage me to return.


Do you post regularly, or make new threads? If not, what could encourage you to do so more often?
This is a hard one for me because even if the place was more active I don't think I would create more topics or post much more than I do at the moment. During my first few years at WWE-Club, I used to post a good lot. However, as I have got older, I have become much more or a lurker and enjoy browsing and seeing peoples opinions more so than expressing my own. I suppose that is just a trait of mine that has changed over the years. Maybe it is because I am less interested in wrestling than I once was but as it stands I can't see anything encouraging me to post any more than I currently do.


How do you feel about the features on the site? Is there anything you would add?
I think the structure is OK for what the forum is trying to present at the moment. I think having separate forums for soccer, NFL etc has made it easier in terms of finding topics in relation to my interests. One feature that I think could have a positive effect would be the introduction of arcade games to the website. WWE-Club had it for a while and they were pretty fun. They also may encourage activity from members and encourage more sign ups. I'm not sure it is feasible though in terms of costs/platform etc that we have though.

How do you feel about the reputation points feature in particular? This was a feature that was heavily requested and has been the most-used new featured added on the site. Do you think it encourages or discourages discussion?
I think it has the ability to encourage discussion. However, I sometimes wonder whether systems like this work better for forums that mainly focus on a specific topic/sport/show etc as opposed to multiple things like we have.


Did you participate in/enjoy the Ultimate Wrestler Tournament this year? Would you like to see more similar activities?
I participated in some of it and enjoyed so while I did. However, as it went on there were other things happening that distracted me away from the forum so I didn't comment much after the first round. I was a great concept though, and certainly sparked discussion that would not have been created if it had not taken place. I definitely think we should see more of them, maybe in relation to things outside of wrestling also.


How often do you use the PubTalkForum chat feature? Is using the chat an enjoyable experience?
I don't think I have used the feature once so I can't really comment on the feature itself. However, one thing I would look into the possiblity of doing is actually have a live Raw discussion thread in the WWE forum for example. WWE-Club did this for a time but stopped doing it due to people complaining about people's post count and that. However it did generate a lot of discussion there and generated more activity as well. That can only help this places Google ranking. I understand why people would feel that chat is more appropiate for this though.

How do you feel about moderation on PubTalkForum? Is there anything you would change or improve in terms of how we run this site?
No issues regarding this.


GROWTH/FORUM DIRECTION QUESTIONS:

What do you think can be done to reach out to more prospective new members to encourage growth of the site?
Social media is one. Not only is it important for social media platforms to spread the word about the site though, I feel it is important for whoever is controlling it to post consistent links to the forum as well. That way should outsiders see the link on the social media channel, they may click it and they will immediately be brought to the forum. External links also helps google rankings for websites as well.

Do you think this forum needs to take a more focused direction heading forward (as in, narrowing the theme of the site)? Currently we are fairly undefined in terms of our focus, but have marketed ourselves as a Sports/WWE forum.
I think it would be beneficial for us to do so but it is hard to see what we could branch out to at the moment. The one common thing everyone had in common here was wrestling but the reality is that most of us have little interest in that anymore so that is a no go. I don't know if the fact that we are marketed as "WWE" is bringing us more traffic. But I do know from reading comments on here that Twitter users have mocked WWE when discussing issues with Pork Chop. Maybe changing "WWE" to "Entertainment" could change peoples perceptions of what we are when he is engaging with people through social media. It would be great if we could somehow narrow the site though, I just don't see how we can do it at the moment.

If the answer to question 2 is yes, what would you like to see our direction be?
I covered this in the last part really.

If the answer to question 2 is no, what do you think we can do to improve the way we’re marketing this site?
How do you think we can improve the home page to reach out to more people?
I'll be honest in saying that I am not in favour of having a homepage for the forum. Although I don't participate in much forum activity any more, I have always been more inclined to sign up when there was not a homepage. And isn't that what the goal is; to get sign ups? Maybe this is just a me thing but I look at a homepage as a barrier to getting people to sign up. It's an extra click for the user to get to the page where they sign up. If I was to offer a suggestion I would say have the index page as the homepage or give the user an opportunity to sign up for the forum on the homepage.

I hope this feedback helps :-)

[Everlong]

@Tom -- Just wanted to clear something up quick in regards to the home page. I definitely understand your feelings, but the main purpose of the home page is to have an extra place where we can place blogs/articles/etc. Because of the way forums work these days, it's getting harder and harder to get good search rankings with just a forum. The home page has helped tremendously with that, and just about everybody who has joined our site since we introduced it has come through the home page.

[SortaCreative]

GENERAL QUESTIONS:

What is your favorite thing about PubTalkForum so far after nearly one year of existence?
Probably the community and the many topics in which we engage in discussion. WWE, Sports, Films, sometimes games or politics. It's nice to see everyone pretty much taking part everywhere.

What is your least favorite thing about PubTalkForum so far after nearly one year of existence?
The sometimes juvenile nature of discussions. Also, the colour scheme has really grown thin on me over this amount of time. The several shades of brown just ... depress me.

Do you post regularly, or make new threads? If not, what could encourage you to do so more often?
I post somewhat regularly, I don't make many threads. I'm not sure why I don't make threads to be honest.

How do you feel about the features on the site? Is there anything you would add?
Features are okay. There's the issue of hosting and speed that sometimes crops up.

How do you feel about the reputation points feature in particular? This was a feature that was heavily requested and has been the most-used new featured added on the site. Do you think it encourages or discourages discussion?
It's a nice touch however I still think negative reputation has some massive negative connotation added to it. The few times i've used it seriously people have taken it as a personal attack against their loved ones and then gone on to negative rep me back solely based on the fact that I did it to them. It should remain but people shouldn't feel so scared about using it when the time comes. Also, giving someone positive reputation because someone else gave them a negative hit is bullshit and needs to stop. If it continues scrap the system. #realtalk

Did you participate in/enjoy the Ultimate Wrestler Tournament this year? Would you like to see more similar activities?
Yes. I really enjoyed the discussions and even the discussions about the rules and definitions used in the discussions. They were all great.

How often do you use the PubTalkForum chat feature? Is using the chat an enjoyable experience?
I guess so. It's chat, there's nothing really bad about it.

How do you feel about moderation on PubTalkForum? Is there anything you would change or improve in terms of how we run this site?
I would make me a mod and ban Prophet. (i.e No. it's fine!)

GROWTH/FORUM DIRECTION QUESTIONS:

What do you think can be done to reach out to more prospective new members to encourage growth of the site?
It's difficult because we don't really offer anything unique except ourselves. I've been giving a lot of thought to the idea of bringing more traffic to the website and it's a tough one. Mainly due to the fact that we have no exclusive content, no exclusive news, no real hook to make people click in the first place.

Do you think this forum needs to take a more focused direction heading forward (as in, narrowing the theme of the site)? Currently we are fairly undefined in terms of our focus, but have marketed ourselves as a Sports/WWE forum.
I'm not sure. I think the direction is okay but it could maybe be refined into just a Sports forum.

If the answer to question 2 is yes, what would you like to see our direction be?
it could maybe be refined into just a Sports forum.

How do you think we can improve the home page to reach out to more people?
I think we have the only real way to attract people and that is featured posts written by our community. I think that's going to be the only real hook we have in getting people to click or involving them in the discussion the question becomes how do we promote these posts and get the word out there about what's written here. Is Twitter our only viable option in promotion? Could we use a Facebook page to promote ourselves through funny images like everyone else? Ultimately though I honestly think the biggest asset we have in getting people to join us and stay is getting them involved in the discussion and apart of that process is engaging them with well written, thought provoking and entertaining content. By that I mean something Messiah might write on the old pigskin. That gets promoted out there and someone might join just to comment or disagree. Another example could be like the Bleacher report, imagine something like that just being apart of the website in general.

[Everlong]

Also, the colour scheme has really grown thin on me over this amount of time. The several shades of brown just ... depress me.

Yeah, I've been thinking about doing an overhaul of the color scheme on here as well, although that might require a complete rebuild of the site. It's something I plan on looking into this fall/winter.

[Tom]

@Tom -- Just wanted to clear something up quick in regards to the home page. I definitely understand your feelings, but the main purpose of the home page is to have an extra place where we can place blogs/articles/etc. Because of the way forums work these days, it's getting harder and harder to get good search rankings with just a forum. The home page has helped tremendously with that, and just about everybody who has joined our site since we introduced it has come through the home page.

@Everlong -- If it is beneficial in terms of the site getting found then I definitely understand its use. I think I was more so looking at it from my own perspective as opposed to an overall benefit perspective. In my experiences, I have always been more likely to join a forum when I land on an index page as opposed to a homepage. But I understand everyone is different and the way I view content may be different to the way others do.

I still think it would be useful having some form of sign up on the homepage though. Even just a caption with a link saying "Sign up to our forum now" or something. It may increase sign ups from people landing on the homepage!

[prophet]

Fuck the tile. @SortaCreative

[Str8Shooter]

What is your least favorite thing about PubTalkForum so far after nearly one year of existence?
The sometimes juvenile nature of discussions.

@SortaCreative

I wouldn't mind if you expanded on this a bit. What kind of juvenile antics are you referring to?

[SortaCreative]

What is your least favorite thing about PubTalkForum so far after nearly one year of existence?
The sometimes juvenile nature of discussions.

@SortaCreative

I wouldn't mind if you expanded on this a bit. What kind of juvenile antics are you referring to?

The celeb nudes thread is a pretty good example. Towards the end there was a decent discussion but at the start it felt like diet 4chan

[Westcoastvibes]

What is your least favorite thing about PubTalkForum so far after nearly one year of existence?
The sometimes juvenile nature of discussions.

@SortaCreative

I wouldn't mind if you expanded on this a bit. What kind of juvenile antics are you referring to?

The celeb nudes thread is a pretty good example. Towards the end there was a decent discussion but at the start it felt like diet 4chan

To be fair that was a monumental situation that brought out the inner 14 year old in most of us so to label it a juvenile isn't that bad, it could have been a lot worse

[The Legend]

GENERAL QUESTIONS:

What is your favorite thing about PubTalkForum so far after nearly one year of existence? I'd start with the community and people we get to talk with on here. Everyone is really cool most of the time and it's just fun to chat with all of you. The second thing would be the ability to get a lot of different perspectives both on serious and not so serious issues. Perspective on things can often be tied to certain things a person can't change like geography, socio-economic status, and other factors that lead one to hear a lot of the same opinion. Getting people's perspective that I'd never otherwise get a chance to meet is a rewarding experience. Third, would be PCW. I'm really enjoying that right now.

What is your least favorite thing about PubTalkForum so far after nearly one year of existence? Two things, the fact that this place isn't quite as busy as I would like. I'd love for this place to get hopping so that there's more things to discuss. Second is the slow downs on the site that seem to get better lately, but it's really frustrating when you try to get on here and you cant.

Do you post regularly, or make new threads? If not, what could encourage you to do so more often? I'd say I post pretty regularly. Looking at how many posts I've made I usually average about 5 posts a day which seems pretty good to me. I'm not that frequent of a thread starter and I guess that would come from the kind of personality I have. I'm not much of a conversation starter. I'll chime in, but I'm not much of an idea man when it comes to generating a discussion in real life and on here as well.

How do you feel about the features on the site? Is there anything you would add? I think the features we have are pretty good and I wouldn't know where to start with what I'd like to see added.

How do you feel about the reputation points feature in particular? This was a feature that was heavily requested and has been the most-used new featured added on the site. Do you think it encourages or discourages discussion? I think it's good. I don't think it necessarily encourages or discourages discussion on its face. I do think it has a way of increasing the level of discussion going on, with less stupid and not thought out concepts being put forward.

Did you participate in/enjoy the Ultimate Wrestler Tournament this year? Would you like to see more similar activities? The UWT was awesome. I'd love to see more of these in terms of wrestling and not wrestling.

How often do you use the PubTalkForum chat feature? Is using the chat an enjoyable experience?

How do you feel about moderation on PubTalkForum? Is there anything you would change or improve in terms of how we run this site? It's really good for the most part I'd say. I like that it is laid back and relaxed. Although there have been occassions where it would have been nice to see someone step in a little sooner when a topic had gone down the rabbit hole and was just a never ending loop (take the Kanye thread for an example).

GROWTH/FORUM DIRECTION QUESTIONS:

What do you think can be done to reach out to more prospective new members to encourage growth of the site? This is tough because I'm not really a marketing mind. In loose terms social media integration and search engine optimization, but I don't really know what that means as far as carrying out a strategy.

Do you think this forum needs to take a more focused direction heading forward (as in, narrowing the theme of the site)? Currently we are fairly undefined in terms of our focus, but have marketed ourselves as a Sports/WWE forum. I would say not really. I mean I come on here because I like talking about wrestling and sports, if this forum were to become something other than that I don't know that it would keep me around as much.

If the answer to question 2 is yes, what would you like to see our direction be? Sports and Wrestling.

If the answer to question 2 is no, what do you think we can do to improve the way we’re marketing this site? Already touched upon briefly.

How do you think we can improve the home page to reach out to more people? This I would say a different layout would be good. There's too much on the homepage in terms of deadspace. You have to scroll down the page to see the featured elements of what's actually on the site. Thos should be brought "above the fold" as they say in the newspaper business.