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Aran
Location: Kansas City Gender: Male Total Likes: 1844 likes
Huh. I guess covid made me a trendsetter.
| | | Re: UER new FMs and general website traffic < Reply # 1 on 1/15/2020 11:53 PM > | Reply with Quote
| | | There's actually a statistics page where you can see various stats on UER membership and use over the course of the entire site's history. As you can see, the number of posts made each month has dropped by nearly 90% since the site's height in 2009. Likewise, the number of photos posted has dropped 85%, database locations created has dropped by 95%, and accounts registered has dropped by 82%. Furthermore, 77% of the roughly 900 accounts that are active any given month are lurkers, so that's maybe 207 people posting each month. That's not a lot, especially as from my personal observations many of them are rookies who don't stick around. I try to keep participating in this community in the hopes that activity will get people to stay- encouraging people for their exploration photosets, being generally active in the forums, etc. I do contribute to the database, and try to keep it up to date in my local area. I also add some new locations, though I don't add everything I find for a variety of reasons. It's the indisputable truth that UER has declined in recent years. That doesn't mean it's dead though. Instagram and Facebook may have drawn a lot of traffic away since this style of forum has fallen out of favor, but I still try to give back the community and truly believe that UER is a valuable online gathering space and social hub for our subculture. I don't want to see this site go the way of the Brew City Grime Punks, the Milwaukee urbex forum that's been dead for years like so many others. Sometimes it feels like I'm one of the last holdouts refusing to let go of the past, but hey- isn't that what this hobby's all about?
[last edit 1/15/2020 11:57 PM by Aran - edited 3 times]
| "Sorry, I didn't know I'm not supposed to be here," he said, knowing full well he wasn't supposed to be there. |
| blackhawk This member has been banned. See the banlist for more information.
Location: Mission Control Total Likes: 3996 likes
UER newbie
| | | | Re: UER new FMs and general website traffic < Reply # 2 on 1/16/2020 12:42 AM > | Reply with Quote
| | | http://www.uer.ca/...s.asp?rank=XXXXXXX Someone's bumping the site count, goes on in the mornings. Multiple hits 1-2 second apart with 1 page views. Quality not quantity otherwise FM status is meaningless. Basic members who have no explorer pics, never met up with anyone here and have less than 10 posts shouldn't get FMs. This is far below the listed requirements generally eccepted yet it's the biggest factor for FM strikes at least for myself. I know of at least one basic member who's been on here 7 years but never posted. They view sometimes 200 pages in a day. Due to health reasons they don't explore but enjoy watching others. Be nice if they had full access but the rules are in place for good reasons. Otherwise I would have put them up for FM years ago; they are a nice person that has a sincere fascination with UE. Basic members shouldn't worry about getting their FMs. If you contribute, post exploring pics, don't beg & bitch, don't hang with vandals... someone will notice you and you up for FM. Read more than you post; learn from others mistakes and don't repeat them with dumb ass threads and posts. The mods jump in members who are not up for FM on a regular basis. Many FMs will put members up if they think it's appropriate. If you're a FM you should help trying to find good prospects and put them up for FM when you notice them. That also means trying to vet them by reading all their posts and PMing with them. It is time consuming. Put ones that look promising on your favorite list and watch them for a few weeks or months. Do they login a lot or not? How many pages do they view per session? These are indicators of their interest in the site. Basic Members who are vandals, thieves and scrappers degrade the site even without FMs. If there's any doubt they should never get their FM.
| Just when I thought I was out... they pulled me back in. |
| Aran
Location: Kansas City Gender: Male Total Likes: 1844 likes
Huh. I guess covid made me a trendsetter.
| | | Re: UER new FMs and general website traffic < Reply # 4 on 1/16/2020 1:34 AM > | Reply with Quote
| | | Posted by blackhawk Quality not quantity otherwise FM status is meaningless. Basic members who have no explorer pics, never met up with anyone here and have less than 10 posts shouldn't get FMs. This is far below the listed requirements generally eccepted yet it's the biggest factor for FM strikes at least for myself.
| That's something we can agree on. I'm all for showing rookies the ropes, but FM status is a badge of trust. Not unconditional trust, not by a long shot- but trust none the less. Giving it to everybody regardless of their activity on this site cheapens it. I'd say anyone who doesn't meet the stated requirements shouldn't get full membership- it's not hard to meet them if they're serious about becoming community members. Posted by AdventureDan What are your thoughts on advertising UER through other venues more prominently in an attempt to bring more new life into the forums? On the drive home from work just now I was thinking about hosting a sort of old school Urbex open meetup through instagram in order to attract some of the younger street and urbex photographer crowd, and have a sort of workshop where the core values and culture side of the art kind of represented and instilled, and directly encouraging users to visit the website through some sort of incentive. Obviously you can't force a subculture ideal, but it may be a primer that many would take to. And there's still the FM vetting process to pluck out the weeds. I have a fair amount of pull in my local instagram exploring and rooftopping community, I think if I with the help of other explorers from this website advertised such events we could get quite a turn out.
| I think that could go a long way. The simple fact of the matter is that Instagram and Facebook are far more accessible to rookies than UER, so they might not find it. Showing rookies what this part of the subculture is about and encouraging them to join could go a long way towards breathing some life back into this site.
[last edit 1/16/2020 1:34 AM by Aran - edited 1 times]
| "Sorry, I didn't know I'm not supposed to be here," he said, knowing full well he wasn't supposed to be there. |
| blackhawk This member has been banned. See the banlist for more information.
Location: Mission Control Total Likes: 3996 likes
UER newbie
| | | | Re: UER new FMs and general website traffic < Reply # 14 on 1/16/2020 6:10 PM > | Reply with Quote
| | | Posted by Boffo The internet was a very different place back in 2009. Today people can easily connect through facebook, instagram, youtube etc. with little need for message boards. Especially forums that require you to contribute or meet people before you get to the bulk of content or the ability to add content.
| Vetting is important for a site's integrity. FB is a huge security risk and a mess. The other main stream sites are as well. They literally give me a headache. This site is more isolated by design and it filters out a lot of the riffraff by it's interactive nature and rules. Smaller is better in this case. When everyone's a member, what's the point of being a member? Posted by AdventureDan
Sadly I believe that it's not just an internet trend, but a trend in society as a whole, and a negative trend at that. And this assessment doesn't just affect our little sub culture. I was reading a similar lament in an article about the IMDB forums shutting down. A lot of people called that place home and considered it a meaningful part of their lives before it's slow desertion and eventual shut down.
| IMDB had insufficient vetting and ineffective mod intervention. Freedom is never free or easy; it is a constant struggle. It's sad it was shut down because it was a valuable source of information and a way to connect with people in the industry* Never posted there but enjoyed some of the posts. IMDB use to be a good resource 10 years ago but in recent years commercialization has ruined it. Wiki is generally better now. *When those people die, many of their experiences will be lost forever...
[last edit 1/16/2020 6:21 PM by blackhawk - edited 1 times]
| Just when I thought I was out... they pulled me back in. |
| Wei
Location: Los Angeles, CA Gender: Male Total Likes: 97 likes
whoops
| | | Re: UER new FMs and general website traffic < Reply # 19 on 1/17/2020 6:01 PM > | Reply with Quote
| | | Basic Member here. Been exploring since 2015, had an account here since 2017. I know when I first joined UER, I had been so excited to talk to other explorers, especially since I'm based in California. But a friend of mine who I knew a little while before realizing she was a FM here had told me stories about the history of the PSW subforum. Suddenly I had a lot less interest in starting threads, joining conversations and posting photos if there wasn't as many people to engage with as I had thought. Years later, I understand that's more a reflection of my frame of mind at the time, rather than anything on UER's part. That being said, as someone who exists on Instagram and Facebook mainly to connect with other explorers at this point, I've had a fair share of both positive and negative experiences with this current crop of explorers whose primary outlet is social media. Whenever I've mentioned UER to them, they'll either a) acknowledge its existence but express disinterest since their main communities are all on SM, or b) actively disparage it and its members as they've had negative experiences of their own on the site. Which, considering everyone I talk to is based in the PSW and urbex is a relatively small subculture, I'm sure some of those "negative experiences" were well-deserved in the end. I haven't received FM, nor would I except to since I'm pretty sure I have less than 30 posts here in the last 3 years. There's nothing wrong with how y'all vet folks here. They're just... not here. And from my interactions, I'm not sure most of the current generation of explorers should be here. Their groups are much smaller, but they don't have the same established camaraderie and trust you're more likely to find here. Locations are more likely to get burned. Drama is more likely to start, and it's usually for pretty petty reasons. I'd like to think UER still serves a purpose, especially as one of the original online communities for urban exploration. But the current generation ironically aren't interested in learning about their own history. AdventureDan, thank you for starting this thread. It's nice to know folks still care.
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