Member recruitment brainstorming session - 2013-01-30 – Conversation in Maid Café (メイド喫茶)

Madara Uchiha

Jan 30, 2013 21:59

This next session is about recruiting more members to the community.

Unless we get enough critical mass of users and questions to the site, it will be closed.

The bookmark starts here.

Mysticial

As for recruitment, I'm tempted to see what happens if we dump a reddit link to the eating pokemon question.

2

Krazer

@Mysticial lol

Madara Uchiha

@Mysticial That question is a winner

I second that notion

Mysticial

Why did I pick that one?

Logan M

I don't think this is just a question of where to recruit. We also need to work on our site so that people will actually stay.

Mysticial

Jan 30, 2013 22:01

Because everybody has heard of pokemon and at least seen some of it.

Danalog

Yeah, I tried to get converts by linking the eating pokemon one on my facebook

Mysticial

reddit.com/r/anime

Isn't as big as proggit.

JNat

@Mysticial so we should get more mainstream questions?

Logan M

Even if we do that, there are going to be lots of people who see 25% Naruto questions, don't know they can hide them, and just leave.

Mysticial

When I hit front page on Proggit, I bring in about 30 - 40k views in 24 hours. (I've done this about 5 times.)

Danalog

Jan 30, 2013 22:02

The site is a bit sad looking since I block Naruto and Bleach, I get half greyed out pages

Madara Uchiha

Speaking on the behalf of @HashiramaSenju, whose English is more broken than my body after our battle, I propose the following

Logan M

reddit.com/r/pokemon is also an option for that one

Mysticial

So I suspect that on Anime, we'll only get a fraction of that if it hits #1.

@LoganM Holy shit, that subreddit is bigger than Anime.

Madara Uchiha

The vast majority of the anime/mange community comes from pirate sites such as anime crazy or mangastream

Logan M

@Mysticial yup

Mysticial

Jan 30, 2013 22:03

@LoganM On the other hand, we want to target more than just the pokemon community.

Madara Uchiha

Advertising there, but placing a banner or discussing it in their forums or chat could be a good start.

Logan M

@MadaraUchiha There's a pretty sizable amount of people who just use fansub group sites, but most of them don't take kindly to posting advertisements

Mysticial

@LoganM I see newegg ads for hard drives on MAL.

I actually click on them.

It's pretty appropriate if you ask me, since people who use MAL usually - well - download their Anime.

If we make a banner with some really attractive title...

such as the eating pokemon question.

It might actually work.

Logan M

I have a friend who is the head of [sage], and I might be able to convince her to post about us if we can manage to get at least a bit better-looking in terms of the distribution of questions.

Mysticial

@LoganM We definitely need more weight on non-naruto questions.

Logan M

Jan 30, 2013 22:06

But she isn't going to advertise a site that is mostly shounen, because that's not what her group does most of the time.

Mysticial

I mean like...

Madoka is one of the most popular recent shows.

And how many questions do we have on it?

Madara Uchiha

I was thinking about IRC as well

Logan M

@Mysticial 3, which is not bad comparatively.

Krazer

If we do post on others sites, Pokemon eating aside, what would be out pitch?

Mysticial

@LoganM Compared to 72 for Naruto...

Madara Uchiha

Jan 30, 2013 22:08

freenode has some pretty serious anime chat channels as well

Logan M

I mean, we have 0 questions about Shana, Toradora, Bakemonogatari, etc.

Madara Uchiha

##anime and ##reddit-anime

Mysticial

@LoganM All of which I've seen...

Madara Uchiha

They have a lot of users there and most of them are serious

Logan M

@Mysticial I would ask questions if I had any, but it's usually harder for these kinds of shows.

Monogatari might be an exception, but I haven't thought about it.

Mysticial

Jan 30, 2013 22:09

@LoganM yeah, it's hard to ask specific questions about those shows.

I can't even think of one for Shana.

Madara Uchiha

Let's keep it on topic please.

Mysticial

@MadaraUchiha Well, part of the problem right now is that we don't have enough diversity.

JNat

do you think we have exhausted the potential new users coming from inside the SE network?

Madara Uchiha

@Mysticial And that happens because we don't have many users

JNat

@MadaraUchiha I agree here

Mysticial

Jan 30, 2013 22:11

Quick question: Does anyone know the proportion of people who watch subs vs. dubs?

Madara Uchiha

Any notions about my IRC idea?

Logan M

@MadaraUchiha In my anime club, it was like 70% preferred subs. But we might not be representative.

JNat

@Mysticial no clue

Logan M

Sorry that one was for @Mysticial

JNat

@MadaraUchiha I don't use IRC, so I'm not sure

Mysticial

Jan 30, 2013 22:12

@LoganM Same. That's the group that's currently being under-represented.

@JNat reddit.com/r/anime seems to be the group that we need more of.

The problem is that pokemon doesn't appeal to them that well.

Logan M

It's the whole Type A vs Type B fans

Mysticial

What we need is a question that falls well into our group. We need it to be answered spectacularly well.

Madara Uchiha

@Mysticial The eating Pokemon question will get their attention

Mysticial

Then we can put it on r/anime

@MadaraUchiha It will, but I think we can do even better.

Or rather, we do both.

Logan M

@Mysticial I really liked anime.stackexchange.com/questions/195/… and anime.stackexchange.com/questions/278/…

JNat

Jan 30, 2013 22:14

@LoganM yes, the second one is very good

Mysticial

@LoganM I like the Clannad one.

The top post on r/anime right now is in fact - Clannad.

Logan M

Everyone loves Clannad

(well, maybe not everyone)

Krazer

I personally want to ask a question about how they did the dub for this anime but I'm not sure how to word it

Mysticial

So we have two candidates for reddit/r/anime

Madara Uchiha

The Pokemon one, and the Clannad one.

Mysticial

Jan 30, 2013 22:15

The pokemon one can be X-posted on r/pokemon

Madara Uchiha

Getting strong question on the top pages of Google is also important

Mysticial

@MadaraUchiha The Clannad one is something that has the potential to bring in google traffic.

Madara Uchiha

Posting links on Reddit is a good way to promote them, especially if they succeed there.

Mysticial

The pokemon one I think will only be good for a one-time reddit link. I don't see the potential for long-term SE traffic.

Logan M

@MadaraUchiha How many people does it take to succeed on Reddit? Could we by ourselves push this to the front page?

Mysticial

Jan 30, 2013 22:19

@LoganM It depends on the subreddit.

Krazer

@LoganM It also depends on how you word the link submission

Mysticial

I'm only familiar with r/programming since I've been on there 6 times. (my top 6 answers on Stackoverflow).

@Krazer On the smaller sub-reddits, it only takes a few votes to get onto the front page.

Whether it stays there becomes a matter of the quality of the link.

And of course the wording of the title.

Krazer

Are there any other anime communities that we haven't touched upon yet?

Madara Uchiha

@Krazer There are the various forums

Krazer

Animesuki has a pretty good following due to it's tracker

Madara Uchiha

Jan 30, 2013 22:21

But most of them don't like adverts too.

Krazer

and then there's 4chan....

Logan M

@Krazer Most colleges have anime clubs, at least in the US.

Mysticial

As well as most of the fansub groups.

Krazer

What about other non-anime communities like Bakatsuki or manga communities like Batoto or Mangafox?

Logan M

@Krazer I know a few people who go on /a/ regularly, and they actually would probably like this site. But we can't really promote there easily because almost all external links get downvoted to oblivion.

Not actually downvoted, but no one posts anything so they die in a few minutes

Madara Uchiha

Jan 30, 2013 22:25

I think 4chan is a solid lead.

Logan M

@Krazer :7904742 A lot of these sites have policies against posting advertisements, which they interpret pretty strictly. Not that having our posts deleted actually hurts anything, but it may not be worth the effort.

Madara Uchiha

We get a lot of traffic from there already (second only to stackoverflow.com). There may be potential

Mysticial

@MadaraUchiha At the same time, we might get trolled into oblivion.

@MadaraUchiha Are there mod-tools that show that?

I wouldn't know how to get that info.

Madara Uchiha

Though we're not quite sure where these referrals are coming from

Logan M

@Mysticial We've already had a couple of troll posts, and there was no harm done in the long run.

Mysticial

Jan 30, 2013 22:27

@LoganM Well, we don't want to create a bad impression among the 4chan community.

Madara Uchiha

@Mysticial It's a mod tool, but since it's not super sensitive, and it's relevant to the discussion, I feel like posting it here is constructive.

Logan M

@Mysticial If we were posting on 4chan, we wouldn't post it like an advertisement. We'd post it like "Hey look at this cool explanation I found for something I didn't understand" or some such nonsense.

Madara Uchiha

Anyway

4chan is a double edged sword, it's risky, but it might be worth it

Logan M

I think sticking to reddit is better for now, but /a/ is way bigger than /r/anime, so we should keep that in mind.

Madara Uchiha

@LoganM I agree

We should keep 4chan at bay for now

Mysticial

Jan 30, 2013 22:31

Agreed.

Now the question is: when do we start?

Krazer

here's a summary of the thread about anime.SE from 4ch:

Mysticial

I don't actually have a reddit account.

Madara Uchiha

@Mysticial I say we just start.

JNat

@Mysticial same

Krazer

archive.foolz.us/a/search/text/anime.stackexchange.com

Mysticial

Jan 30, 2013 22:32

So I can't really just make an account and dump a link without risk of getting banned.

Logan M

I think if we start now it will be counterproductive. We need to seed the site with questions from other series before we can bring type b anime fans in

Mysticial

@LoganM That's what I'm thinking too.

Krazer

@Mysticial I do.

Madara Uchiha

@LoganM Alright

Mysticial

@LoganM Then we should make a list of the shows that appeal to our group that we need more of.

You're already listed 3. I can add a few more.

We might have to go ahead an ask some questions ourselves.

Logan M

Jan 30, 2013 22:33

@Krazer That thread is actually really funny

Mysticial

Even if they don't get answered, it might attract people from r/anime to answer it.

JNat

@Mysticial maybe we should all try to keep questions unanswered for a bit longer, instead of answering right away

Mysticial

@LoganM how many of those were posted by us?

JNat

that may attract new users: "hey, I can answer that"

Mysticial

@JNat I don't think that's gonna be a problem right now. I'm not particularly knowledgeable even in the shows that I watch.

Madara Uchiha

Jan 30, 2013 22:35

@JNat I thought of that, and I think it's a good idea.

Mysticial

And the questions that I've asked are mostly unanswered.

JNat

Also, we shouldn't be too fast in accepting as well

Mysticial

I dunno how well answered the Naruto questions are.

JNat

new users may think they have a better answer too, register, answer and stick around

Mysticial

@Krazer Then whenever you feel like it, I'd say dump a link to the Clannad question on r/anime

We'll save the pokemon one for later.

Logan M

Jan 30, 2013 22:36

@Mysticial Naruto is like 100% answered. I don't know if the answers are any good, though.

Madara Uchiha

Alright

I think we have a conclusion

Mysticial

yeah

Madara Uchiha

We require a list of 5-10 shows which will appeal to a group of higher level people.

Mysticial

@MadaraUchiha I wouldn't say "higher-level". But the group that Logan and I are in.

Madara Uchiha

Those shows will need some seed questions. Some of which will inevitably remain unanswered.

After we have a reasonable amount of seed questions in place.

We can place links over on Reddit, IRC and perhaps even 4chan.

JNat

Jan 30, 2013 22:42

@MadaraUchiha Yes, I believe that having some unanswered questions is important

Mysticial

@Krazer Alright, so don't link anything on reddit yet until you get the ok from us.

Madara Uchiha

In addition, making sure our question titles and texts are seeded with proper keywords is critical

When you ask a seed question, make sure to think "How would I search on Google to find this piece of information?"

Krazer

@Mysticial Okay

Mysticial

@Krazer Before you submit anything to reddit, run the submission title by me. I have a good sense for what will work and what won't.

Madara Uchiha

This concludes the session on member recruitment.

Mysticial

Jan 30, 2013 22:43

Bookmark it if you want.

Madara Uchiha

We'll track the progress of it over the next few weeks

Member recruitment brainstorming session - 2013-01-30

Maid Café (メイド喫茶)

Participants