This site currently has an average of around 7 posts per day. The number is skewed a little because I was editing things without posting for almost a week before opening the site up, and it hasn't been around long since. But in the longer term, this number is still useful.
We're also just shy of 3 topics per day as I'm writing this. When I post this thread it will likely go over 3. The number is, again, a little skewed because of the first week where nothing but setup happened.
The admin control panel says that this site has 149 "activity points." I have no clue what these "points" are or how they're decided, but given the value's name and that it's been clearly going up as activity has, I imagine it's some sort of useful metric that I just haven't figured out yet.
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Now, two goals I think should be set to keep this place stable:
First, hold the topics per day steady at 2, and higher like we have now if possible. 2 topics per day may not seem like a lot. That's because it's not, for one. But there's also the fact that there doesn't need to be countless topics for activity to be booming. Just enough to keep some fresh things to talk about coming up, as people get bored of the old discussions.
Second, get the posts per day up to 30 and at least hold it steady, again going higher if possible. This also may not seem like a lot if you think about it, and again it's not in the big spectrum of things, but it should be a start, and a clearly defined first step is always good.
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Managing these should be enough to get the initial momentum going. Anyone we draw in should be inclined to stay around and chat at length, at that point.
And then the community should easily start to snowball. Posting will then not be an almost-chore that I have to try to cajole everyone into helping me with; rather, it'll be fun chatting with friends and the occasional new stranger.
Everyone, if you have even the slightest idea for a topic, or even a little interest and a little thing or two to say in an already existing thread, please, post it!
When we have a few more members wandering about fairly often, and frequent posting, I promise I'll slack off on this activity talk.
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Questions, comments, objections?