03-15-2015, 01:33 PM
Coming to this a little late, but: Welcome to OA!
To answer your questions below and also touch on a question that I saw in a recent thread you had posted to:
The forums are generally fairly active, given the somewhat specialized subject matter. Sometimes only one or two new posts may appear in a day, other days it can be a dozen or so. We probably aren't going to give a forum dedicated to a major commercial franchise (such as Star Wars) much competition in terms of posting volume, but that's also not something we care a lot about. We're having fun and that's what mainly matters to us.
Virtually all of our admins (who often wear other hats in the project that don't involve the forum) started out as members who, due to the quality of their contributions and thoughts on how to operate/improve the project and their longevity with it (meaning they stuck around and kept contributing over years) demonstrated a high degree of dedication to the project. The flip side of that is that they are often some of our most prolific posters.
One thing to always remember with OA is that it is basically a volunteer driven organization. We don't have paid staff and nearly all the content on the site is the result of efforts by our members, past and present. So, if we don't have something or do thing s certain way, it's often because it kind of shook out that way over the history of the project rather than due to a formal policy or 'business decision' (although there are exceptions to that and some items are due to a combo of evolution and formal policy).
As far as how popular the site is - we do occasionally pull Google Analytics data, but not that often. I'd have to dig up where the last batch is stored and get back to you on this one.
Re what people may post to the project - almost anything. We are as likely to be impressed by a one paragraph description of the Y11K version of a left handed teacup as some multi-page description of some race or super weapon or the like. Extra brownie points if it covers something we haven't thought of before or some aspect of life in the setting that should have been obvious to us, but that we somehow overlooked. So there really aren't any (or at least very few) rules about what people can talk about if they wish in terms of additions or updates to the setting.
On a somewhat different note: I noticed in another thread that you expressed concern about spamming the forum with too many posts. Realistically, you'd have to work really hard to post enough for that to become a concern among the admins. What is more likely to be a concern is starting multiple threads on multiple topics and then either not developing the topic through to completion/an EG entry or starting a bunch of new threads before an earlier one has really had any chance to develop. Having multiple threads on multiple topics going at the same time is fine, as long as you're able to keep all those metaphorical balls in the air. Where we (the admins) may start to have a problem is if you were to start generating a whole lot of threads and then never bothered to follow up on them or the like.
Hope this helps and once again, Welcome to OA
Todd
To answer your questions below and also touch on a question that I saw in a recent thread you had posted to:
(03-11-2015, 06:27 AM)ATMLVE Wrote: First, how active are the forums? Do people post often? After a small amount of browsing it seems the majority of posters are admins.
Second, how popular is the Orion's Arm site? How many visitors does it get per day?
The forums are generally fairly active, given the somewhat specialized subject matter. Sometimes only one or two new posts may appear in a day, other days it can be a dozen or so. We probably aren't going to give a forum dedicated to a major commercial franchise (such as Star Wars) much competition in terms of posting volume, but that's also not something we care a lot about. We're having fun and that's what mainly matters to us.
Virtually all of our admins (who often wear other hats in the project that don't involve the forum) started out as members who, due to the quality of their contributions and thoughts on how to operate/improve the project and their longevity with it (meaning they stuck around and kept contributing over years) demonstrated a high degree of dedication to the project. The flip side of that is that they are often some of our most prolific posters.
One thing to always remember with OA is that it is basically a volunteer driven organization. We don't have paid staff and nearly all the content on the site is the result of efforts by our members, past and present. So, if we don't have something or do thing s certain way, it's often because it kind of shook out that way over the history of the project rather than due to a formal policy or 'business decision' (although there are exceptions to that and some items are due to a combo of evolution and formal policy).
As far as how popular the site is - we do occasionally pull Google Analytics data, but not that often. I'd have to dig up where the last batch is stored and get back to you on this one.
Re what people may post to the project - almost anything. We are as likely to be impressed by a one paragraph description of the Y11K version of a left handed teacup as some multi-page description of some race or super weapon or the like. Extra brownie points if it covers something we haven't thought of before or some aspect of life in the setting that should have been obvious to us, but that we somehow overlooked. So there really aren't any (or at least very few) rules about what people can talk about if they wish in terms of additions or updates to the setting.
On a somewhat different note: I noticed in another thread that you expressed concern about spamming the forum with too many posts. Realistically, you'd have to work really hard to post enough for that to become a concern among the admins. What is more likely to be a concern is starting multiple threads on multiple topics and then either not developing the topic through to completion/an EG entry or starting a bunch of new threads before an earlier one has really had any chance to develop. Having multiple threads on multiple topics going at the same time is fine, as long as you're able to keep all those metaphorical balls in the air. Where we (the admins) may start to have a problem is if you were to start generating a whole lot of threads and then never bothered to follow up on them or the like.
Hope this helps and once again, Welcome to OA
Todd