As a
cycling forum the primary content that builds and drives new traffic and member registrations is the cycling threads and posts. As a
community of cyclists the off-topic areas such as the Cafe, CAD and the games threads are often the most popular and keep people engaged with fun threads, gossip, and chat with friends. (Many CCers also know each other and ride together so we are very lucky in having an off-site/real-life bonding that helps oil the wheels here on the site.)
Now, Google is the key driver of traffic to CC and rates us
primarily on the cycling content -
more (on-topic) cycling content means
more prominence in its search results,
more visitors,
more new members. Growth. We obviously want this. However, conversely the off-topic content such as the Cafe and Games threads - which
members love - devalues our Google position.
The forum also uses a combination of total post count and registration length to escalate people's permissions and to control access to certain parts of the site. This means that people are promoted whether they post great cycling content or Cafe / games content or questions in the support forum (hence some of the recent not-counting posts changes).
I have to find ways of balancing all of this out. I need to make changes and assess the results (
which can take weeks - sometimes months). I need to see whether the changes work as expected both from a practical / membership viewpoint, as well as from a growth point of view. I need to ensure I don't "break" CC in the process and maintain the sense of community which keeps everything together. I have to try things to see how they work (and decide what to do if they don't). I realise that sometimes means a bit of disruption for you all, but the changes are rarely so massive that they make CC unusable - a little strange for a while perhaps, but that's the norm here sometimes anyway, right?
It is not my intention to naff off the membership, but to put CC in a good position for future growth; and whilst some of the changes may have you shaking your heads and wondering what the hell I'm doing and why, there usually a good reason for trying them and my motivation is not to send you all mad but to ensure that we're still here in years to come!
Cheers,
Shaun