KO Forum, a little retrospective

[josh]

Didn't even realize it until I just checked, but the forum is now well into its 6th year of operation: Born May 29, 2006.

It's by any measure a tiny eensy weensy little forum... but activity and posts and members have grown each year.

I'm actually pretty amazed it's still going. I never intended it to be anything but a place for a few dozen Kaleidescape owners to share some thoughts. So despite being small, I guess it's bigger than I ever thought it would be.

HISTORY: It started with this post over on AVS Forum, wondering if there was anyone else who wanted to talk Kaleidescape every now and then... and asking if a dedicated forum be helpful. Despite the naysayers, I eventually decided to give it a go. Invited a few of those early people who encouraged it, and then officially announced it to AVS Forum on 6/2/06 here. Slowly it grew and then started having enough regular weekly visitors to convince me to keep it running.

I'm probably the only one with any reason to have any interest in sentimentally reviewing some of this, but in case there's anyone interested...

MEMBERS: About 10,000 attempted registrations, about 2000 successful ones (others were spambots). Of the 2000+ who did register, I've pruned off those that never came back or didn't validate their email addresses to complete the registration. Today we've got 857 "real" members after the monthly pruning of dead/inactive accounts. I get 30-40 registrations a month form people who never validate their email address or answer the brief email question, so they never become members. Presumably most of those are spambots.

Of that little 857-member group, in a given month we tend to get 150-160 unique members visiting and reading, but there are at least 20x as many lurkers... about 3000 unique visitors per month, folks who read more than one page on the forum and come browse as guests but never register or log in. If I really cared about boosting membership numbers, I'd limit some of the forum areas to registered members only... there are tons of owners who come visit here and learn things but never register so they can post. Not a problem at all for me, I hope it's a good resource for all. I suspect there are about another 800-1000 frequent visitors who are owners, dealers, or interested industry people but don't see a reason to register.

About 50 members post regularly in a given month.

LEADERBOARD and HALL OF FAME members:

Our most prolific posters: (Thank you! You make the board what it is!)

1. my incredibly helpful assistant, protege, and co-moderator and heir... Cinelife: An astounding 1322 posts to date. That doesn't even count the many hundreds of helpful PMs he sends to members (me especially!). Honestly, the board wouldn't still exist without his extraordinary help.
2. JerryL, recently crossing the millennium mark with 1066 posts!
3. me, a paltry 796
4. Mr.Poindexter, one of the earliest members... now at 487 posts
5. brodricj with an impressive 372.

Earliest members: (not counting me)

1. ptrubey - first guy to register. Part of the AVSForum group that encouraged the formation of this board. In fact, he was originally slated to open and create it himself but got too busy and I reluctantly agreed to give it a whirl myself.
2. regwood - one of my fellow scene-file advocates/authors!
3. rgbhykr
4. Dizzman
5. Mr.Poindexter

Kaleidescape Employees who visit/participate: The official Kaleidescape "authorized" participant is currently Tom Barnett, Kaleidescape's Sr. Director of Marketing. Tom's been very helpful to me and a supporter of the forum in many ways. Good guy. CEO Michael Malcolm is a member who occasionally visits but has only once been riled up enough to convince him to come post a message here. There are many other Kaleidescape employees who have accounts, but I think I'm not supposed to divulge who they are. There are LOTS of Kaleidescape, Inc. lurkers... surprising the amount of weekly traffic that comes here from their domain(s).

Worth saying again that Kaleidescape has been pretty supportive over the years... giving me some advanced info, inviting me to events (or tolerating me inviting myself!), answering questions for me, and being very nice and responsive to my requests. That said, I get no financial help from them, nor any freebies in equipment or anything else. They do offer the occasional loaner or preview equipment to me but damn if they NEVER forget to come collect it again!

POSTS: About 8,300 as of December, 2011, in about 951 different threads.

TRAFFIC PATTERNS: General News and the Marketplace are about tied in page views. Most threads are, by definition, in that General category, with Hardware forum as #2 and Marketplace as #3. But Marketplace gets more page views than does hardware/setup forum.

SURPRISES: biggest surprise is the relative success of the Marketplace as a pretty vibrant 2nd-hand gear forum. Wasn't sure anyone would post there, and it's now one of the most popular areas of the site.

Big disappointment/surprise is that scene-sharing was never a popular use of the forum... had always thought this would be one of the primary uses, but just not something people care much about, with a few exceptions.

Should also mention that I'm disappointed that our "Requested Features" forum (which gets a healthy amount of posts and plenty of readers) hasn't (to the best of my knowledge) resulted in any new features. Kaleidescape people certainly read those posts, but they have yet to actually implement any of the many very good suggestions there. That's a disappointment. Would like to think our group of owners and dealers had a little influence there, but even some good minor UI changes that folks here were pretty unanimous about never results in any changes. I keep hoping...

Anyway, thanks to all of you who participate and help. It's definitely been more work and cost to me than I ever expected, but I do it because it remains fun and I enjoy the interaction with other smart people who share the interest. Hope to keep it going for as long as the equipment has any reasonable numbers of passionate fans.

Happy holidays to all... hope 2012 is good to each of us,

--josh

 

[cinelife]

Hey, my friend, the biggest "thank you" belongs to you! None of us would be here had you not agreed to start, support and then move this forum forward!!!!

Wow, those years sure passed quickly....but a lot of fun along the way!!

Thanks Josh!!!!!!!


Jim

 

[nineball]

Hey, my friend, the biggest "thank you" belongs to you! None of us would be here had you not agreed to start, support and then move this forum forward!!!!

Wow, those years sure passed quickly....but a lot of fun along the way!!

Thanks Josh!!!!!!!


Jim

As a relatively new member of this forum I echo your comments. This is a great resource and I check it at least once a day. It seems to attract good folks all round.....which speaks well of the positive culture maintained by the 'owners'.

Thank you from me as well. Best of the season to all.

Peter

 

[ptrubey]

Too funny josh. I was reading your post thinking what an interesting history and then I get to the point where I was the first poster and encouraged you on. I had totally forgotten! I swear the older I get the less I remember. Good job maintaining this site, it really has been useful.

 

[JCHS]

Josh, it is a great forum and very useful. I, too, wish the scene sharing would have been more prevalent, but as they say, you can lead a horse to water...anyway, great forum, and thanks for all of the hard work. It is truly most appreciated.
Jeff

 

[JerryL]

Thank you Josh for establishing the forum and doing such a nice job of administering along with all the participants. Great stats there. Happy and healthy holidays to all.

 

[paulc]

Thanks Josh for all your efforts in starting and continuing this forum. I find this place to be a valuable resource of information. I don't often post. However, I do read through the recent posts frequently (generally without signing in). I suspect that there are many people like myself that gain great value from just reading through the posts. I do feel a bit like I have learned to know some of the frequent posters also.

Thanks again for all of your efforts!!
Paul

 

[PSU Lion]

Josh and all -- I'm not a frequent poster but I check the forum several times a day. Great members and very helpful guidance... Thanks for your efforts.

 

[regwood]

Josh, you deserve a great deal of thanks for keeping the forum going. I continue to lurk once a day here. The expertise that's present now is fantastic. I have my teenage son interested now in creating scenes from my bluray collection. Maybe we can get the sharing back to where it was a few years ago.

Merry Christmas to all on the forum!

Reg

 

[rgbyhkr]

Josh,

Thanks for doing all you have done to create and maintain the site these last 5 years. Given all the negative commentary on sites like AVS, even in the $20K section, it made a ton of sense for K owners and aspirers to have their own place to talk more in depth about the system. I have no ill will towards DIYers, but I do wonder why those who constantly gripe about the price of K or any similar system bother wasting their time. It's nice to be able to come here and have intelligent conversation about the system without that kind of regular thread-jacking.

Thanks again for everything and, like most here, I still love my system 8 years later. Communities like this help reinforce what is so special about a quality product like K. Happy holidays to you all and have a very Happy New Year!

Jeff

 

[josh]

thanks for all the kind words. happy holidays to you all, and hoping 2012 is a healthy and happy one...