Poll: Site Member Count

Another admin and I are currently discussing whether we should clear out some inactive accounts on our site. We're trying to decide if it would be beneficial or destructive to our activity level to have a smaller (but more accurate) account pool. Basically, it's a matter of what looks more appealing to potential members. So, if you don't mind me asking, here's a little question for you all...

 

I don't care about account number, I care how active the site is. If you have 500+ accounts, but only 20 of those accounts are actively posting, I might take a second look and reconsider my choice to join.

 

I'll be honest, if it's a site that's intended to be an RP directory, I'd be way less likely to join if there's only a few members. It'd be different if it was an RP itself, but I think the reason most of us initially join places like this is for the advertising-so the less people there appear to be, the less perceived visibility we'll get. Obviously upon first glance no one's going to have a clear idea who's active or inactive, so I'd say keep them.

 

They're n ot talking about this site. The OP of this thread isn't even a staff member on RPG Fix.

From the sounds of it, they're talking about a RP site they own.

 

I believe Yona was speaking generally, not specifically implying that the OP was talking about RPGFix.

I definitely am more likely to join a site that has more than 100 members (and this is coming from someone who just opened his site a month ago and currently has... 39 members). My personal goal has been to advertise and make my rounds throughout the RP community to up those numbers as I understand the appeal of joining a site where you have a higher chance of finding another member with your same RP interests and sensibilities.

That being said, I have also been part of sites in the past where they had 5,000+ members but only a few hundred of them were actually active. I think doing a purge every year or so can be beneficial, as at the end of the day numbers mean nothing if no one is actually using the site.

 

Potential members WILL notice if most of your members are not active. I always check that sort of thing. I think you'd be much better off displaying an accurate count of active members.

 

So I personally don't care too much about how many accounts there are on a site if I'm interested in joining. BUT if there are a lot of inactive accounts, it will deter me. If you have tons of accounts but a huge portion are inactive it just looks like the sites are trying to make themselves look bigger than they actually are. For me it's just deceptive and I will never consider joining.

 

In the end for me it's all about that activity. Exactly what Sora said: if there's a ton of account but a lot of them are dead, I'm out.

 

I do notice the number of accounts, but it isn't what draws me to a site. The only thing it clues me in on is a) how long the site has been around, and b) whether it has ever been popular.

When draws me in is looking at the most recent posts. If the last 5 posts happened over the past week and were all advertisements from other sites, I move on. If the last five posts have happened in the last five hours and are all IC, I'm enticed to keep looking.