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Sat 21 Dec, 2002 02:27 pm
A theatre group I helped organize in Thomasville, Georgia began with 12-16 active members. From Thomasville Onstage and Co., close friendships evolved, marriages, and even deaths occurred. As time sprang forward, new people joined, some of us dropped out and finally our membership grew far beyond our initial numbers.
We reached a point where we didn't recognize the new people, and they didn't know us or the stories of the first days. One didn't share tidbits in chance incounters because you didn't know one another. Communications had to be planned and consistent, else, we would became unattached to one another.
A2K is user friendly. As long as we are able to maintain the experience, I expect the numbers will continue to increase. Just wondering, at 2000 members, what will be the problems we will have to face to maintain the quality of the experience?
When there are too many members, communication will become much more impersonal. But still, it is possible to discuss interesting ideas and exchange opinions with people that you do not know: this is freedom of speech all about.
It's also possible that the number of active members will turn out to be self limiting. With that many creating discussions and relating to them, it is going to take a very well written header to attract attention.
The key, in my humble opinion, will be upholding the standards of decorum that we've promised to abide by. Sounds stuffy, I know, but it was the lack of decenct behavior that has made Abuzz what it is.
So far able2know has been great, and I gather that partly has to do with the work of moderators. We should all thank them. Will there enough of them willing to do the work if this forum grows and grows? We shall see...
Phoenix
I know it's been said before, but I'm astounded & very impressed by the work done by moderaters here. It really is another job (minus the pay!), isn't it? Heartfelt thanks to all of you for your terrific commitment. You are truly amazing!
On the issue of size: The more the merrier! (fully appreciating the extra work for moderaters). It makes for more "surprise" contributions to threads & it means that A2K doesn't feel small & claustrophobic. Though the initial smallness felt good after the Abuzz disasters ... & it made it much easier to make the transition.
A2K is developing into something very nice & addictive!
I love the "international flavour, too!
If anyone's concerned about there being enough Forum Guides, may I direct you to the Help Page? There's a few forms you can send to Support - one of them is to volunteer to be a Forum Guide. :wink:
The bottom line is of course we would need more staff. Currently, there are slow times of day (generally when it's late night or very early morning in the US, particularly the Eastern part of the US), but with more members there will be shorter and shorter slow times. Hence, in order to continue to be as responsive as we have been, we will need more Guides, particularly from other time zones (e. g. hello, Australians! :-D), to be able to respond quickly to problems and inquiries.
It will also take longer for you to get an answer from Support because I am Support - and I sleep at night. Plus, I have a lot of other things on my plate and, the more members, the more on my plate. Again, the more Guides there are, the more of this stuff I can hand off so that I can do the things that only Craven and I can do, such as validate memberships. And I can do the things that only I do, which is work the Support line and work with Amazon.
One thing to also keep in mind is the percentage of truly active members is far below 100%. We have 409 members, but only about 230 of them have posted at all and, of those who have posted, only 187 of them have posted more than once (about 81% of the people who have posted at all, and 45.7% of all members). Hence, we may get 1,000 more members in a week (doubtful but hey, it could happen), but if the stats hold true, fewer than half of them will post more than once, so that will be more like 457 new people.
The detailed responses are very helpful.
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