What do you care about? What topics, when you read them, are you most motivated to read thoroughly, think about, and respond to? I've noticed that with the recent uptick in activity, there's often quite a few members lurking and reading topics, but as far as actual conversations go, it's often me having a one-on-one conversation with the thread's author, if it's someone else's project, or a monologue with myself, if it's my project. What would motivate you guys to post more regularly and frequently in the topics that you read? Would another subforum about [X?] do the trick? Tell me your thoughts.

I post in topics that I can contribute to, such as helping with optimization.

Well, I care about expressing my opinion a lot, in topics such as this. I also like answering questions about stuff. On other people's works, I usually like to just read them and look for updates, sometimes giving a "Good job" every once and a while. For me to read a topic fully, it must catch my attention, therefore making me want to be a part in it. Epicness counts.

Ya know, looking through the topics I really pay attention to all the threads but I pay closer attention to the ones I have interest in, such as Website Development; both Lemur & Cemetech Mobile. As well as the video game threads we have roaming around, such as the used game topic, I am reading that one but not contributing - for the moment.

I'm interested in your projects Kerm, but more so on the website end (Random Stats, SimmsAI, and the like) than the calculator projects (CN2), DCS is different.

I don't normally post in the program topics because I can't really offer significant program optimization advice, but do so when I can. I'll also chip in some advice as well. But with the increasing use of Libraries, I'm finding it harder to contribute as I don't know the libraries or the syntax and routines for each library.

So, I'll poke in when I can so I don't get too rusty and follow up on others.

What about things that require opinions and such, for random example BuilderBoy's thread about his Optimizer project? I understand that people generally restrict their posts to topics they feel they have expertise or knowledge in; I'm just trying to feel out if there's a way to make people feel more welcome to share their thoughts, opinions, and general musings. I'm also wondering if people feel wary about starting new topics, and if figuring out a way around that would help.

Sidebar, it's sort of a loaded question, but here goes anyway: do people feel more connected to a site or forum or group like Cemetech when they have some kind of official position in the forum, such as a moderator or administrator, and do you feel that's something I should explore more aggressively? Most of the subforum moderators are users that no longer visit, and the majority of subfora have no explicit moderator.

Kerm, I meant any topic where I can contribute something, whether it be optimization, opinions, advice, etc.

Ah, that makes sense.

Question: How do people generally find posts to read? Do you go to the forum index, the front page, or click the Go to the new posts link at the top-left of every Cemetech page?

Searching with google until they find a page that might have what they need in all honesty. That is how I found this forum, though I also noticed this place seems to have alot of... forgot the word, will edit when I remember. But people usually look for what they need unless they are a member of that forum.

I use the go to new posts link.

Sonlen, I'm thinking more about members of the forum that hang out here.

Souvik, aight, good to know. I've always just assumed that everyone clicked that link, as I do, but it seems that that may not necessarily be the case.

Nope. I was an admin on a former forum I frequented and I eventually stopped visiting all together. I probably haven't been back for just under a year. I haven't seen them post anything on Twitter either, it's not like I left an active board. I imagine.

The lack of a moderator is probably a good aspect. It's like having too much police on the street. You don't want to scare people from leaving their house to go for a walk or an errand, though at the same time you want to show people they are being governed.

{From here on out, I go a little overboard +/}

Making one, two or three people responsible for a highly active sub-forum will help if cover times when a specific moderator isn't available. But, that starts this whole psychological issue of safety in crowds. You got three moderators and each one is thinking the others will take care of it, or one thinks it's still civil, the other is on a vacation and the third thinks the other two will take care of it so s/he doesn't have to be the "bad guy."

So, you really ought to employ people who aren't afraid to come off as mean if the time calls. Covering every sub-forum is a little extreme, in my opinion.

Kerm, I say you explore user groups a bit and make a few "Moderator" usergroups. So you can privately list people as moderators. Maybe then moderator won't be afraid to lock a topic when they aren't listed as the sole moderator of a sub-forum.

Though Cemetech is a well behaved forum so I see no real need to create moderator user groups, list more than one moderator for a sub-forum or anything to that extreme.

Indeed, that's always been my hesitation with moderators. No one gets so out of control in topics that they need more than a conveniently-visiting gmod or admin to lock a topic or delete a post or two. My promotion of moderators is usually in an attempt to both recognize people's time and devotion to the site, and to acknowledge their skills and expertise in that area and encourage them to continue or increase their posting and oversight in all the topics in that subforum.