Is it me or are the forums a little quiet these days?

[ashmie]

A: It seems the people who post come and go a lot on here where the core vets duck in and out. It seems less people are posting these days compared to years ago. Many of my PMs have gone unanswered in recent months also. So my question is, of all media which do you use the most? Forums, you tube? FB? Twitter?
Regular e mail and private mail?
The reason I ask is Im finding it increasingly difficult to organise events through the multitude of mediums and I feel communication is becoming less smooth more convoluted as a result. Things can be changed/canceled/altered at the touch of a button. Things are less set in stone and its easier for myself as well as others to cancel. It's very difficult to run an event that keeps folks sweet I find. Lots of logistics personal and practical to take care of.
I had a much easier time in the past organising through e mail and dare I say it the telephone!
So what works for you? Please reply if you read this

B: FYI: the Tsu games weekend is both days as originally planned. We have numbers now. Many of you I have PM'd regarding this. If you haven't received a PM from me you should have. Tod I didn't hear back from you regarding GMing something this year. I'm guessing you are busy or can't make it. The offer is open to you as always mate. Likewise wargamers, play what you like guys. No probs on space now, would be a pleasure to see you.
Yoroshiku.

[me_in_japan]

That's a fair question, actually. I tend to respond to PMs or direct emails, although I'm aware I haven't responded to either Badruck or Dlord, who both PMd me recently. Sorry for that, chaps *hangs head in shame*. This is a personal failing though, rather than one inherent in the system. Other than that, I'm on this forum at least twice a day, as well as the Studio McVey one and CMoN. I'm never on Facebook, and don't have a twitter account.

I'd say for organising group games the best bet is to open a thread here on Nagoyahammer, and then if people need chasing PM or email them and tell them to post in the thread. If they're not Naghammer members, encourage them to join

Phone calls are best if you need to actually have a discussion about something, but if its just a simple question like "can you come?" then an email is better. Forum posts are good for simple questions to a group or complicate group discussions - everyone can see everyone else's opinions.

[Primarch]

The forums have their busy times and their quiet times. Somedays there are dozens of new posts, others have maybe 1 or 2 if that. It all depends what is being discussed and how much interest there is in the topic. Some threads get derailed and go for many pages as folks discuss a point that interests them. Other threads die a death with no replies. Don't forget that compared to 3 years ago when this all started, several members of the forum have newborns in their family, which seriously eats into their free time for posting online.

I'd say that if you want to get more responses to events etc then there are several things in my experience that you should be doing.

First of all, have 1 thread to discuss the event. I count 4 for your March event, often giving contradictory information.
http://www.nagoyahammer.com/forum/viewt ... =23&t=2277
http://www.nagoyahammer.com/forum/viewt ... =23&t=2250
http://www.nagoyahammer.com/forum/viewt ... f=8&t=2270
http://www.nagoyahammer.com/forum/viewt ... =12&t=2272
If there is a need to discuss a particular aspect of the event then set up a clearly labelled additional thread for it. Don't post event details elsewhere e.g. in this thread or in the painting thread (http://www.nagoyahammer.com/forum/viewt ... 160#p33178 already 5 pages down as it is the busiest thread on the forum) as they will quickly be buried and overlooked. Keep the first post of your main event thread updated. The same can be said of emails/PMs etc. Keep everyone focused on one area rather than spread out across different media. Use different methods to spread the word but point everyone in the same direction.

Secondly, be consistent. If you say you're running an event then run it. Flip flopping will inevitably lead to people losing interest or making alternative plans. Of course, should there be a reason why the event can't go ahead (you have the flu, the venue burns down etc) people will understand, but cancelling on a whim won't encourage people. Numerous times I have thought about not bothering with an event I have planned due to the amount of work/stress involved, but I still go ahead simply because I have made a commitment to the people who plan to attend.

Thirdly, don't be afraid to make it clear exactly what games will/won't be available. Everyone has their own favourites and if you leave things vague or open then everyone will bring something different. If enough people want to play a game that isn't listed then maybe you can make space for it, but by no means do you have to give everyone exactly what they want. You don't need to be a tyrant about it, but you can be firm and resolute in what you will accept.

Finally, if you really want to encourage responses do so. "Comments and ideas are welcome" for example.

Please don't comment on this thread...

is a no-no as far as this goes.

Running an event is a big commitment in time, effort and worry that I think often gets overlooked by the people who attend. If you feel you need help organising it, ask for help. Badruck helped me a lot when I ran the first NagoyaHammer and I still need the occasional volunteer every now and again, especially with translations and logistics. I have walked away from every event I have run absolutely exhausted, but happy with the end result.

[Primarch_Vanguard]

What prim said and perhaps, as I found when organizing paintballs events, have people put their money where their mouths are. Nothing large but I would have people at least pay their share of the room, etc, up front. That way if they don't show, no worries. And it it worked. After starting this, the paintball people that would skip out at the last moment, never missed an event. It was amazing how people wouldn't want to lose 1000 yen.

[ashmie]

Good advice thank you. Basically I should have stopped holding events as soon as my son was born. That's when it became difficult to invest time. I love that expression, flip flopping. I'll bare that in mind and try to avoid in the future. Cheers again for the help/advice.
I think I'll stick to one event a year and run the monthly drop in with a forum post each month. Good one.

[The Other Dave]

Tod I didn't hear back from you regarding GMing something this year. I'm guessing you are busy or can't make it. The offer is open to you as always mate.

Sorry for not replying, man. Part of it is, yeah, super-busy, and that's been compounded, frankly, by not knowing quite how to respond considering the on-again off-again nature of the event. When I only check the forums weekly-ish, and log in to a pm invite to an event but simultaneously see a couple threads telling me it's happening and it's not happening and, no, it's happening, I get a bit flustered and go off to do something else while I think about how to respond and eventually forget to respond at all because: super-busy. So, apologies.

[ashmie]

No worries Dave mate, I'll try and organise it a bit smoother next time. Thanks for letting me know.