General Decrease in Omnimaga Activity - What can we do?

[Jonius7]

Fellow Omnimaga Members,

After a discussion with DJ_O, he and I (Jonius7) have come to the conclusion that something must be done about the general decrease in activity on Omnimaga.

For those of you that need a little background info (DJ_O may be able to provide some more), Omnimaga reached a peak of around 400-500 posts per day in October - November 2010. This was mainly due to a surge of interest in the TI-nspire with significant ndless and nDoom and other TI-nspire hacking tools releases, though at this time z80 projects were also thriving too. However over the course of 2011 interest in the TI-nspire began to die out in general, and also combined with DJ_O's retirement from manager, several active members leaving Omnimaga or becoming inactive have lead to this gradual decrease in posting activity. Even with the opening up of the Lua programming environment on the TI-nspire, projects and forum activity in Lua are not as widespread as they could be.

In February - March 2012, Omnimaga is barely attaining an average of around 150-200 posts a day.
The stats graph illustrates this trend: http://www.omnimaga.org/statsgraph.php

Even activity on OmnomIRC is enough to show a general decrease in activity. The time period between 3am and 9am (IIRC in UTC-5) is often quiet, and even sometimes in some peak hours activity is low.


So I guess we need to collectively form a plan to tackle this. The big problem is that while we have more members joining than ever before (the rate of registration is exponential like), many of these members have only posted minimially or not at all and have left, leaving the older members to hold up most of the website activity. And when even some of the older members have become inactive, including some staff, there doesn't leave that much left of who remains.

What could we do to bring these inactive members back? What incentive would work? And how would we entice new members to stay and bring some new young blood to omnimaga?
Programming contests are one thing, however DJ_O and I have both agreed more action is required.

I leave these questions with the Omnimaga community. If anything is incorrect, feel free to correct.

Regards,

Jonius7 and DJ_O

Spoiler for PS:

DJ_O also wanted to point out that in the Programming Contests last year in 2011, there was very little activity in the TI-nspire Lua contest, with many entrants remaining inactive on the forums until the submission date. From what I have heard, precautions will be taken this year to ensure that this does not happen again.

Spoiler for Log of Conversation with DJ_O:

For those who want a clearer picture of the situation, read the logs here:

[02:57:28] <+Jonius7> activity has decreased or something. It does seem quiet even at times when it's meant to be busy
[02:57:44] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> yeah
[02:58:00] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> especially during morning from 4 to 11 AM it used to be quite active
[02:58:40] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> I think the Nspire community started to die, as someone else mentionned recently to me, like if no more Nspire projects were being worked on except for a few
[02:58:49] <+Jonius7> true
[02:58:50] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> kinda like if everyone decided to abandon the fight against TI
[02:59:05] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> because if you notice, there are still a bunch of z80 projects in the works
[02:59:06] <+Jonius7> there are lots of Basic programs I could port to Lua
[02:59:16] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> but barely any Nspire ones, even Lua
[02:59:20] <+Jonius7> Yeah
[03:00:56] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> and Prizm... well... most of the development moved to Cemetech (dunno if it was another round of mass-invite via PM like 2 years ago or just most of our prizm coders having moved on like z80man), although there are some topics here too from time to time
[03:01:08] <+Jonius7> Hmm
[03:01:11] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> even there it's quiet regarding prizm
[03:01:20] <+Jonius7> wow
[03:01:27] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> it's Casio, after all
[03:01:42] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> since ti got the monopoly casio calcs usually have much less coders
[03:01:57] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> But the sucky thing is how the Nspire scene seems to be dying like the 68K one
[03:02:12] <+Jonius7> I hope not
[03:02:23] <+Jonius7> there were lots of those boot2 and other tools released a week ago
[03:02:26] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> that would pretty much leave us only 83+ expertise for the most part
[03:02:27] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> yeah
[03:02:34] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> well there was Ndless, nDoom, etc
[03:02:44] <+Jonius7> Those are big ones
[03:02:52] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> but then nobody made custom programs like RPGs or arcade games
[03:02:55] <+Jonius7> but it's true there hasn't been that much other games and dev stuff
[03:03:01] <+Jonius7> Yeah
[03:03:14] <+Jonius7> and the nspire has so much potential now
[03:03:19] <+Jonius7> hope it picks up
[03:03:20] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> ndless probably had a novelty effect that weared off over time as newcomers didnt see any new stuff
[03:03:29] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> what we need I think is another contest
[03:03:32] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> but this time
[03:03:34] <+Jonius7> yeah
[03:03:42] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> to avoid last year's activity drop
[03:03:54] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> force every contestant to post about their entry on the forums
[03:04:12] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> last year only like 2 contestant did, the others worked behind the scenes, leaving the site for months
[03:04:13] <+Jonius7> Good idea, but "force" isn't the best word
[03:04:23] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> well i mean like last year on cemetech
[03:04:36] <+Jonius7> Ah Ok
[03:04:38] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> if someone wants to submit an entry he had to create a topic announcing it there
[03:04:58] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> this was most likely to prevent lurkers from participating
[03:05:17] <+Jonius7> I thought most people did post something and there was that list of entrants
[03:05:42] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> not really for the nspire iirc
[03:06:19] <+Jonius7> o
[03:06:24] <+Jonius7> disappointing
[03:07:26] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> anyway i have to go to bed. What you or me could do if we have time is post a topic in site feedback regarding the dropping activity and what we could do to bring the people back, why has most people became quiet including some staff and what could attract
[03:07:28] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> more ppl back
[03:07:58] <+Jonius7> Yeah.
[03:08:03] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> but again if nobody bothers to reply then that would mean nobody cares if the site becomes inactive
[03:08:13] <+Jonius7> waaaaa lots of unreplied topics
[03:08:15] <+Jonius7> Yeah
[03:08:16] <+Jonius7> OK
[03:08:21] <+Jonius7> cya DJ_O
[03:08:27] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> i guess a title like "Why has Omni activity dropped so much"
[03:08:35] <+Jonius7> nobody cares if the site becomes inactive
[03:08:38] <+Jonius7> NOOOOOOO
[03:08:39] <+Jonius7> I care
[03:08:59] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> well i mean if such topic gets posted and nobody bothers replying
[03:09:34] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> we kinda need ideas on how to bring the ppl back, bring new ones back and stuff (not just contests)
[03:09:38] <+Jonius7> Hmm
[03:10:02] <+Jonius7> Admittedly I don't see the managers around that often. BUt that's my perspective
[03:10:35] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> I mean if the removal of negative rating is what made ppl leave silently, or if it's due to the projects section split into categories, the bunch of inactive staff, or me not being admin anymore (I hope not lol)
[03:10:53] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> and it's best the ppl speak their mind so we know what happened
[03:10:58] <+Jonius7> "or me not being admin anymore (I hope not lol)"
[03:10:59] <+Jonius7> I think that does make a difference
[03:11:06] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> that could maybe be the case
[03:11:06] <+Jonius7> Yeah
[03:11:12] <+Jonius7> sigh
[03:11:30] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> but would the managers (besides deep thought) be willing or be able to be more active?
[03:11:42] <+Jonius7> Deep Thought is alright I think
[03:11:46] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> yeah
[03:11:52] <+Jonius7> I don't see EEems much tho
[03:11:53] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> same for qwerty and to a lesser extent shmibs
[03:12:07] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> (shmibs has sudden periods of inactivity sometimes tho)
[03:12:21] <+Jonius7> I've seen Qwerty but not really shmibs, yes
[03:12:29] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> and in my case i doubt i would get hired back considering how unstable I am (and my uncertain stability in short terms)
[03:12:35] <+Jonius7> hmm
[03:12:57] <+Jonius7> I have a feeling that ARS should have some role somewhere
[03:13:00] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> and idk if i would want to take over the job again (although I guess if netham45 is the leader that could help)
[03:13:10] <+Jonius7> in between Managers and CoT
[03:13:14] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> maybe
[03:13:21] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> well they do but mostly moderating
[03:13:28] <+Jonius7> Yeah
[03:13:38] <+Jonius7> Though I do'nt know
[03:14:17] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> ARS technically only started to exist because of the nDoom troll invasion tho
[03:14:38] <+Jonius7> yes
[03:14:47] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> otherwise it would probably not even exist
[03:14:53] <+Jonius7> but they are the moderators level type thing
[03:14:56] <+Jonius7> So Hmm
[03:15:06] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> of course a bunch of our activity decrease was probably due to the many bans of active users tho
[03:15:22] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> Ashbad ans SirCmpwn had a quite high activity rate until their final months
[03:15:44] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> Also maybe the site got blocked at more schools so that won't help
[03:15:46] <+Jonius7> sad to see those two go
[03:15:59] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> but staff had to enforce rules so...
[03:16:13] <+Jonius7> they're both on cemetech right?
[03:16:16] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> yeah
[03:16:19] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> er not sir
[03:16:25] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> he's banned there too
[03:16:27] <+Jonius7> o
[03:16:39] <+Jonius7> Yeah I've seen ashbad there.
[03:16:41] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> anyway if you want I guess you can create a topic about the 3 things I mentionned earlier or something
[03:17:01] <+Jonius7> Ok. I'll do that for Omnimaga
[03:17:23] <+Jonius7> I just hope it doesn't add to the list of topics where you and I are the active posters
[03:17:29] <+Jonius7> and Yeong a bit
[03:17:57] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> why the site activity dropped so much (like from 400 posts a day to barely 150), why the formerly active users and staff rarely post anymore, what could bring them back and what could help bringing more members again to get some young blood
[03:18:32] <+Jonius7> Ok
[03:18:45] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> there's the how to improve omni topic but it only emphasises on site suggestions, not the activity and stuff
[03:19:07] <+Jonius7> I agree a new topic has to be created for this
[03:19:19] <+Jonius7> Like those news topics with the change in activity and other things
[03:19:20] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> heck maybe it's because of Netbot always breaking
[03:20:17] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> the issue is not when people leave due to moving on after a year or two of calc programming, then new ones coming. It's more when a shitload of people, even younger users, leave, then barely anyone remains from the ones who arrived
[03:20:49] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> cya now
[03:20:50] <+Jonius7> Oh about the ARS I was trying to say. I don't really know half of them such as rcfreak0 and Tribal
[03:20:54] <+Jonius7> Yeah
[03:21:01] <+Jonius7> Sorry for holding you up on sleep
[03:21:06] <+Jonius7> Good night
[03:21:10] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> it's fine
[03:21:21] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> plus i wanted Omni to be independent from my lack of activity
[03:21:31] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> i mean i stayed around the community for 11 years
[03:21:41] <+Jonius7> Yes
[03:22:01] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> in 2006-07 as soon as I left Omni it would immediately drop by 60% activity
[03:22:14] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> then slowly die until i return
[03:22:46] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> now even when I left it still remained somewhat active at the same level as before, but afterward I discovered it kinda dropped slowly
[03:23:13] <+Jonius7> Wow tribal hasn't posted since October
[03:23:25] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> not sure if it's due to me not being as around or not but that would suck if I was "doomed" to stay active like I used to be to keep omni active
[03:24:09] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> especially considering at one point my health was preventing me to do so (and still does sometimes)
[03:25:12] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> I wonder if there's a way for admins to grant full admin privileges to a member except for anything involving moderation (except moving topics) and banning members
[03:25:17] <+Jonius7> tricky situation in general I guess
[03:25:32] <+Jonius7> so what rights would that leave?
[03:25:48] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> that would probably be the only safe way to let me back in the team, if that was ever needed to save the site or something
[03:26:01] <+Jonius7> Hmm
[03:26:16] <+Jonius7> You are the founder, I guess you deserve something like that
[03:26:26] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> rights to edit EzPortal blocks, the about page, adding new subforums, removing dead ones
[03:27:11] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> i gave away the site tho so the new owners have every right to do what they want with it, including not ever hiring me again (i guess they would have a point tho, considering I blew up often before)
[03:27:22] <+Jonius7> So the general site template and pages but not getting "dirty" in all the forum post management stuff.
[03:27:44] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> yeah, plus I got sick of the moderating. It'sjust not my task
[03:27:57] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> i mean it was not a task for me
[03:28:06] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> i rather leave that to others
[03:28:11] <+Jonius7> I know
[03:28:30] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> anyway gonna let you post the topic I guess unless i manage to have time tomorrow and you didnd
[03:28:42] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> i might have to go shop for food before working during evening tho
[03:28:51] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> good night
[03:29:23] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> and the site stats btw http://www.omnimaga.org/statsgraph.php (scroll right, if necessary, since the graph doesn't fit the page)
[03:29:51] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> the peak spike in the 700s was a month after you joined, I believe
[03:30:14] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> the last 500 post days were around oct 2011 (a year afterward)
[03:31:35] <+OmnomIRC> (O)<DJ_O> i really should post about that life topic one day (I was supposed to do so last may but it took too long to write), although part of the issues (IRL) were solved a year ago

[Yeong]

Well, in my opinion, TI-nSpire's programming couldn't get much because they're not that simple to program with. (Lua needs computer, and so does C.)
If someone comes up with programming language on-calc for nspire, it could bring more people (Just like how Axe did)

[Jonius7]

Well, in my opinion, TI-nSpire's programming couldn't get much because they're not that simple to program with. (Lua needs computer, and so does C.)
If someone comes up with programming language on-calc for nspire, it could bring more people (Just like how Axe did)

True, this may change with being able to edit the lua script inside the tns file in OS 3.2

[Yeong]

OS 3.2 can do that? O.o
I never heard anything about that.

[Juju]

I totally agree with Yeong here. A Lua on-calc editor or something? Or even gcc? EDIT: ninja'd

Also we should come up with cool awesome prizes for the contest.

[Jonius7]

I think so. Apparently it will come with the LuaSDK, but I may have got things completely wrong.
oclua can already edit on calc in an indirect way.
Also made minor edits to my post.

[Yeong]

I know this is kinda asking too much to certain people, but since both Prizm and nSpire uses C (Well, for nspire, with ndless), if somebody comes up with the new programming language that can be used in both prizm and nspire(well, kinda differentiating the screen size.), it'll be nice. (idk if it's possible though, lol)

[Darl181]

If someone comes up with programming language on-calc for nspire, it could bring more people (Just like how Axe did)

Or the Prizm

But anyways, what seems to boost stuff the most IMHO are projects, that are often updated.  So keep 'em coming

[DJ Omnimaga]

There are a few ideas that I think that could help bringing back the site to its previous activity rate (or close):

-More active CoT staff and admins. The team activity often have big influence on member's activity and encouragement to sign up. I speak from experience, after seeing MaxCoderz and Void Productions die (barely any regular would bother visiting anymore), and Revsoft barely surviving over the years. That staff activity, if they are too busy to work on projects, can simply be encouraging other member's projects, by replying to their threads. That doesn't have to be extreme, such as Darl/Qwerty's insane post rate, but they should not just try to barely make it to the 10 post minimum every month, else members might think they just don't care enough.

-Focus more on the forums than OmnomIRC to ask help when it's not that urgent. Not only this provides more discussion to the hundreds of people that have OmnomIRC disabled/minimized, but also that discussion won't get lost in myriads of logs. We got help sections for a reason, after all.

-Don't worry bumping a 3-5 weeks old project topic if you want to comment on an update or release that you didn't have time to comment to. Heck, if the member was procastinating, maybe that could give him a small regain in interest to finish the game faster if he get extra encouragement?

-For next programming contest, do like Cemetech and force participants to make a topic about their entry when it reaches a presentable state (code done) in order to not be rejected. That will prevent people from just disappearing for 3 months while working on their entry. Last Summer, I think only 2 or 3 Nspire entries even had a topic and almost every Nspire coder on omnimaga vanished entirely during that time.

-An actual contest to begin with, but it might be best to wait for when Summer arrives, such as June, because there are too many contests lately and it prevents every other projects from progressing. I actually thought about taking over the entire contest management (except judging), if the staff do not mind. As for money issues, my entire TotKotM album sales are going for the contest, along with an extra personal contribution. However, until we know what happens with the Phoenix Coyotes NHL team, I do not know exactly how much I can contribute (it will be at least enough for 3 prizes, though).

-It seems many Nspire coders abandonned the fight against TI, and Ndless 3.1 did not create as much interest as 2.0 did. Don't give up! You know some people still code for 68K and AFX calcs, right? Also if you are really afraid of the Nspire being blocked permanently, maybe it would be a good idea to try doing what Reo did with his RPG: Make it for both the PRIZM and Nspire at once? Maybe Reo could share how he works on a C game on both the PRIZM and Nspire at once.

-The community has received fierce competition from smartphones, handhelds, Minecraft, other online games and such stuff since the past few years, which forced us and some other calc sites to branch out. If somehow you're on a calculator break at one point, remember we still got plenty of non-calc discussion areas, such as gaming, where you can also share your latest interests.

By the way what I noticed is that most of the activity decrease seems to have been in the Nspire scene. PRIZM saw a small regain in activity, but not that much. 83+ programming seems steady. Besides that, we have to take in account that two of our most active users got banned last Summer, so that possibly affected our activity a lot. Besides that our spam section is now limited to 500 post users so that's a lot less posts there (although that's a good thing I guess that people do not overuse it). I got less active too so that might have gotten an effect too. I just wonder what happened to some of the formerly active members and staff that are hardly around anymore (a bunch just vanished without saying why).

But yeah I agree something has to be done (by contributing to the forums like we used to, while not neglecting development/life either), because if we ever had another community-wide lull like in 2008, remember how hard it was to recover from it afterward: It took us 1.5 years to do so, and I pretty much had to reply to almost everything during that entire time to allow the site to grow again. Basically at the moment we still got a quite decent amount of activity, so it's a good opportunity to keep the site afloat in case of an inevitable lull. (From experience the community goes through up and downs every 6 year or so)

[Juju]

^^ This exactly.

Also I might contribute as well for the prizes, since I'm now 8x richer than usual.

[Xeda112358]

I have lots of times throughout the year where I do not have internet (about 21 weeks per year, so about 5 months), so certain times I am not as active Though when I am active, I try to maintain a 5.0 or better posting average

And DJ_O has good advice, I think, for keeping activity up. For example, right now I have tons of IRL stress, so I cannot really work on projects. However, I try to keep up a few posts every day and I check in here often. Plus, if there are answers that I can provide, it makes me feel good

In any event, Omni is still pretty active, right?

EDIT: @Juju: So you have an extra TI-8x to spare for a contest?

* Xeda112358 runs

[DJ Omnimaga]

Not only he brags about his much higher salary to his mom and me IRL, but now he shoves it in our face on the forums too.

But yeah I had plans to contribute. However to ensure this goes well and reduce risks of incidents like last Summer due to community drama, I might be leaving every other non-Omni calc site during the entire duration of the contest. And yeah for now I know I can contribute roughly for the equivalent of 3 prizes, but I have a shitload of money saved for hockey tickets just in case next Fall, so depending of how the Nordiques thing goes, that portion might not be useable for Omnimaga donations.

I have tons of IRL stress

Qwerty.55 is stalking you again??

Seriously I hope things are not going too tough

[Juju]

EDIT: @Juju: So you have an extra TI-8x to spare for a contest?

* Xeda112358 runs

I didn't even thought of that pun lol.

Not only he brags about his much higher salary to his mom and me IRL, but now he shoves it in our face on the forums too.

hehehe

Also go Nordiques \o/

[DJ Omnimaga]

On a side note maybe that would be a good occasion to revive the "What have you been up to" thread, for the more busy people. Hopefully they tell where they have been and stuff.

[shmibs]

-encouraging more staff activity is always a good thing =)

-both irc and the forums have uses when it comes to helping people. irc is useful for both little questions and communication between developers, and the forum is good for complex questions, community-wide pole type things, or just general showcases.

-we can encourage people to post, sure (and i, for one, would like to hear more from people talking about their entries), but enforcing it seems a bit silly for contests. anyways, entrants announced/winners announced posts will provide places for discussing them at the very least. also, making people post before they've finished encourages them getting help from others.

-plans for the next contest are already being talked about =)

-i don't know much about nspire stuff, so can't really comment here, but some sort of guide to writing cross-platform C would be awesome =D

-we can't really force people to post. seeing more activity in other subforums would be nice, though.