I once joined a plumbing forum to ask a question about rust in my hot water heater. I was trying to solve a problem as a homeowner and couldn't find the answer online. I was not a plumbing professional or enthusiast (if there is such a thing) and didn't want to join a plumbing community for the friendship of it.
So I can relate to people who join our little forum for a "one and done" question. But my hope is that, more often than not, people join and stick around and participate to the extent they feel comfortable doing so. Some people are quiet, some people are vocal, some are shy, some are outgoing, so the level of participation will vary.
Other than a simple registration process and requiring some form of real name as username, I'm not big on throwing up barriers to participation. I know some forums impose a waiting period before a new member can begin posting, or they must post X number of times before earning the right to post in a "Buy/Sell" section, but I figure even a single "one and done" post can be useful. If someone joins and says they have a NIB yellow Simpson's grill for sale and one of our members snags it, that's a win-win, right?
Regarding prize drawings, I think I've said before that from my perspective, prizes are mostly about showing appreciation to the folks that read my website, my newsletter, my social media, and frequent this forum as active members or lurkers. But prizes are also a form of marketing, attracting new folks to my website, newsletter, social media, and forum. So I do a mix of prize drawings. The biggest ones are open to anyone...I'm casting the widest net possible. Some are targeted, like my monthly prize drawing for newsletter subscribers. And I've recently started doing some small ones for registered forum members only. I tried one a while back for members with a certain post count...that felt weird to me because I wasn't sure where to set the cutoff, so I'm unlikely to do that again...and I'm always reminded that there are lots of folks who quietly visit and read the forum every day but don't actively post, and I appreciate them, too, so why not let them join in the fun and possibly win a prize?
A year from now, I don't think we will find this discussion here. I have a feeling Chris is going to move us all somewhere else. I don't think this is the right place for all this discussion. Right Chris?
It will probably stay right here, but the discussion definitely went off-topic at Post #10!
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