Driving more traffic to these new forums, ideas?

Ace_Dragon

The reason I post this thread is that I think it would ultimately be a good thing if we can help turn this forum into a major part of the Godot community. The advantages...

No reliance on Facebook and the tendency of posts to be rapidly buried, not to mention that the community there is subject to frequent TOS and UI changes.
No reliance on Reddit, where threads quickly get buried and there's simply little to no control over operations outside of the ability for self-moderation.
Total control over rules, features, and the future. The big social networks can and will change things around even if it's for the worse.
A brighter future for the Godot community and the community becoming a stronger asset. We need a strong community to foster the creation of more developers and more funds for Godot itself.

Short of spamming the other channels (I already made one post on Reddit), what can we do to convince the community that this might be the best option to really produce a strong and massive community not unlike what we see for Blender?

TwistedTwigleg

I think it would be great if we could drive more traffic to the forums. Personally I like the forums better for many of the same reasons above, especially things not getting buried.

I definitely want to improve and refine the forums so the users here feel comfortable and like using it. I hope that if people like using the forums that it will grow naturally with time.

One really big thing for me is making sure that people don't feel like they are forced to join the forums. In my opinion, if we are forcing people to join the forums then we probably need to reevaluate and form a new plan.

As for how to go about driving traffic to the forums, I have a few ideas. I'm not sure if they are good, bad, or otherwise though:

I think one of the biggest issues is not many people know that the forums exist.
* Hopefully the forums link on the community page on the Godot website will be updated soon. I sent a message about it last weekend when we made the final migration, so hopefully it will be updated with the new URL soon.
* Perhaps we could post about the forums every so often on other websites, but we don't want to spam.
* Maybe we should ask the people who run the Blender forums for advice?
Perhaps we could run an event or something every so often. Like once or twice a year?
Maybe a bi-annual game jam? Kinda like Ludum Dare or the Godot wild jam. That said, there are a lot* of game jams happening all the time, so I'm not sure how much it would help.
* Run a resource (tutorials, pixel art, etc) event? Something like we try to make game assets and release them on the forums for anyone to use. Not sure how feasible this one is...
* Kinda like the idea above, but instead we try to help contribute directly to Godot? Like we write documentation, contribute to the Godot source, etc.

I dunno, but I'm open to the idea of helping the forums grow.

newmodels

I think the updated URL will probably give some results. Godot had some traffic last time, I think it can get this traffic again.

NeoD

It's sad Godot leaders don't care about the forum. The link in the official website is wrong and no announcement was made 5 days after the move... To answer the question I think the account is a little barrier for lazy people. If it would be possible to log with a twitter account (or Reddit ?) it could help.

TwistedTwigleg

@newmodels said: I think the updated URL will probably give some results. Godot had some traffic last time, I think it can get this traffic again.

I certainly hope so! I think the new URL should help too.

@NeoD said: It's sad Godot leaders don't care about the forum. The link in the official website is wrong and no announcement was made 5 days after the move...

Well, I did message them on the new forums, so maybe the message/email went into spam or something? I’ll message Akien on Twitter later today just in case.

To answer the question I think the account is a little barrier for lazy people. If it would be possible to log with a twitter account (or Reddit ?) it could help.

I think we can probably do something like that.

I know there is a few plugins for Vanilla that allow for logging in using other social media accounts, like Twitter and Facebook, we just don’t have them enabled. I don’t remember if there is a reason they were disabled though.

I’ll see about testing it later today on a local copy to see if there is any problems with enabling it. If there is not any issues, then I’m all for enabling the plugins.

Megalomaniak

@NeoD said: It's sad Godot leaders don't care about the forum. The link in the official website is wrong and no announcement was made 5 days after the move...

They're probably just busy.

TwistedTwigleg

I messaged Akien and he has updated the link so it now points to the correct URL!

As @Megalomaniak said, it is likely they are just busy. I imagine that running something as big as Godot takes a ton of time and energy. I think with the limited amount of time they have and how busy overseeing Godot must be, that it just kinda slipped out of their radar.

As for the ability to log in using other accounts like Twitter and Facebook, I haven’t been able to test it just yet. I looked at it, but I couldn’t get very far because I need to verify things, make application IDs, and all that good stuff.

I don’t know if I’ll have the time to look into this weekend, as it is especially busy for me, but I’ll try to get set more time to look into it soon.

Kequc

For me I've been checking to see if the forums have been up for a while. I think a large number of people just have no idea the forums are back open. The only reason I know is I kept coming to look.

There should be a large "the forums are open" announcement. On the godotengine website and possibly on all of the various groups.

Ace_Dragon

@TwistedTwigleg said: I messaged Akien and he has updated the link so it now points to the correct URL!

Good, but the thumbnail image could use an update as well (as this forum's look is quite a bit more professional than in the early days).

Kequc

Please also add a favicon :+1:

TwistedTwigleg

@Kequc said: For me I've been checking to see if the forums have been up for a while. I think a large number of people just have no idea the forums are back open. The only reason I know is I kept coming to look.

There should be a large "the forums are open" announcement. On the godotengine website and possibly on all of the various groups.

Thanks for checking and welcome (back?) to the forums! :smile:

As for an announcement on the GodotEngine website, that is entirely up to the Godot team and what they want to do. I know they are quite busy right now so it might be they just have not had the time to get around to it.

@Kequc said: Please also add a favicon :+1:

I think we have a favicon here on the forums, but I’ll double check.

@Ace_Dragon said:

@TwistedTwigleg said: I messaged Akien and he has updated the link so it now points to the correct URL!

Good, but the thumbnail image could use an update as well (as this forum's look is quite a bit more professional than in the early days).

Don’t worry, updating the thumbnail is in the plan. Akien mentioned updating the thumbnails once there is time. Right now I think they are just really busy with other Godot related things.

AlexandrosKap

I learned today that the forum is up again. Like the new design, more modern. It would help the forum if people that make videos about Godot also recommend this forum.

siska

Maybe tweet a couple of times with the #godot tag ?

TwistedTwigleg

@AlexandrosKap said: I learned today that the forum is up again. Like the new design, more modern.

Welcome back @AlexandrosKap! I'm glad you were able to find the forums again. I'm glad you like the new design! We worked really hard on it.

It would help the forum if people that make videos about Godot also recommend this forum.

Hopefully as time goes on the forums will start to get mentioned/recommended in videos. It is a good idea though, I just don't necessarily know how to go about it.

@siska said: Maybe tweet a couple of times with the #godot tag ?

That is a good idea, I didn't think about adding #godot.

I tweeted using the #godotengine tag before and after the forums migrated, and it got a decent amount of coverage. I'll add #godot next time I tweet about the forums and see if that helps!

thedaemon

Well, I prefer forums for detailed, reference-able information. But I too just found out about the forums.

Also, Hi @Ace_Dragon, fellow Blender head.