Record forum activity..... again!

[ImutualLikeAPro]

As you will see from this report, last month saw us achieve yet another record for forum activity - 3,345 posts. That's the highest number ever (as is the number of unique posters at 118). If you compare that with April 2011's total of just 525 posts (and I didn't think we were doing too badly then either), you get an idea of our steady progress

So a big thank you to all our regular (and occasional) forum contributors, and let's keep encouraging newcomers to join and post

[kevinchess1]

111.5 posts a day

[Kelantan]

But surely a lot of it is being artificially generated by bribing people with shares. Witness the post below which started off being useful and worthwhile. Although in my opinion should never have been started but reported via the broken link facility, but ended up with totally useless replies. After the announcement that the merchant link was working again.
viewtopic.php?f=28&t=11477&start=10

[Sarah]

But surely a lot of it is being artificially generated by bribing people with shares. [ ... ] Although in my opinion should never have been started but reported via the broken link facility, but ended up with totally useless replies.

I agree!

[mark_r_abcd]

Me too

[Oggy]

Yup!

[richard@imutual]

LOL

Well, as you will know from this topic I agree with you that the time has come to revise the 'shares for posts' incentive, but in a democratic vote the members opted for the status quo. Probably worth having a further poll now, as that was 3 months ago

On this specific point:

Witness the post below which started off being useful and worthwhile. Although in my opinion should never have been started but reported via the broken link facility, but ended up with totally useless replies

With daily click offers, we encourage people to report link/tracking problems to the forum initially rather than using the 'report broken link' button, so the poster was correct in doing this. This is because they can stop working every now and then, sometimes only for specific users and usually for a very short period. If people reported a broken link every time this happened, our staff would be employed full-time answering such queries! It helps if people can check with their fellow members as to whether the problem is universal, before escalating it to us. You often see several members reply to confirm that an offer is also working / not working for them; these multiple posts serve a genuine purpose and are not necessarily motivated by the offer of a share.

In general, the stats suggest that the 'shares for posting' is not a major reason for the increased forum activity. It seemed to give it a 'jump start' when it was introduced (monthly posts increased to 1175 and 79 posters), but activity has tripled since then whilst the shares awarded for posting has only increased by 60%.

[kevinchess1]

At the mo, you can get 5 shares a day for postin;
3 for offers
1 for just postin
1 if you start a topic that get's a reply.
Maybe ltd this to 3 in total

[Sarah]

In general, the stats suggest that the 'shares for posting' is not a major reason for the increased forum activity.

I disagree!

[coz93]

Posts should be constructive/informative - not one word answers as already shown on this post ! It is too easy to earn shares this way and ultimately devalues them.