Tribe members declining

Could be some of the longstanding bugs are finally driving people away.

It might help if the absentee landlords put in an appearance. Darren is being asked to handle way too much.

IMHO.

I both bookmark and join a tribe, when I join it. I have many other tribes bookmarked that I read-only. Sometimes I will join a tribe ONLY for a specific discussion and then leave it when the discussion dies down. But it IS kept bookmarked for quite some time. Some are of interest to read, but I don't know enough to participate.

I think that many other people join all the tribes they have even a little bit of interest in, and suddenly realize they have a few hundred tribes, only problem is, they really participate in a handful. It can make a person feel like they are "falling behind" if they go to their tribes and have so many unread posts. They aren't going to read them all. I certainly don't read all the posts that number over 1,000 in Politics. No way. I just scan it once in awhile.

I might leave a tribe if there are problems. Or join it when there are problems, because I have something to say about whatever is going on.

There are many very slow tribes, that i have bookmarked or have joined, that do not need instant or daily reading, so that can be good. Others, to keep up, I really have to visit them every day.

Even though Ning is different, the way it's set up, I think some people are moving there, or elsewhere.

I totally agree that this is way too much for one person. Darren has too much work to do. I think it is highly unfair and unreasonable to expect one person to be able to do everything. I think there was a staff of 15 maybe when I first joined?

Let me look at the About page here:
sanfrancisco.tribe.net/templa...bout.vm

Pete Butler, Gary Chou, Marshall Halford, Brian Lawler, Jennifer Snyder, Elliot Loh, Noah Mercer, Chris Law. That's eight people anyway, that still have profiles here and that I remember talking to. Patti too. Um...who else...??? That's nine. There were Tribe.net people all over. And we did have bugs back then, and they were worked on, and some were fixed and some weren't. So even with nine times the people, it still wasn't perfect.

How can the boss of Tribe think that one person can do it all? It makes no sense to me. And I wish they could be straight about what has happened and why.

I do wish it could get better. But there aren't enough people to make it work. And Tribe.net still has to decide on their market. In my opinion. Focus in on a particular segment, make the rules, the layout, the advertising for that segment only. Period.

Magazines. Magazines do not try to appeal to all members of society. Modern Bride won't appeal to Low Rider magazine buyers. I head right for the House and Home magazines, house plans, home decor, and pass by the cheesecake cover of Low Rider with a hot car and the "lethal weapon 15 pound special issue" of Bride's magazine. Neither is my interest. Right at the moment. Someone else is savoring the images in a chef's magazine, and I glance at my cart full of microwave meals. Nope, right now, the cooking isn't much of an interest.

Tribe is trying to provide for all those interests, and then some. It's not going to work. The groups aren't separate enough to be separate. If that makes sense. I suggested separation. Two versions, sort of a Family-friendly, G-rated Tribe. And separated an adult-oriented (not meaning all-porn all the time) that is R to X rated for language and nudity.

Family Tribe could be for teens too. And move all the recipe things, crafts, etc to Family area. Movies, trivia, sports. Music. Various support forums. Parenting. Gardening. Business.

And the separate one that is more lifestyle and language differences. Kind of like real life? There are different places for different things. One does not have a chugging contest at church. So there could be nightclubs and all the burningman stuff.

I guess that's sort of wanting the old Mature ratings. That didn't work, did it? Oh well.

I haven't noticed a decline in the tribes I frequent. In one tribe I moderate I did go through the members and delete obviously inactive, or never really got around to ever being active in the first place kind of profiles. You know the ones with no picture, little or no friends, and nothing to indicate they use tribe at all.

I think with the combination of moderators cleaning house, and members trimming down which tribes they frequent, a reduction in any given tribe's membership is natural. It's a good thing, even, as far as I can tell.

type tribe.net into the "site analytics" field to get traffic analysis, you can also compare to other sites.

don't know just how useful this will be to this covnersation. it's an interesting tool.

siteanalytics.compete.com/tribe.net/