Time for a long overdue Forum update

Good luck Steve!

yep good luck.. Didn't you just over haul it the other year lol

Time flies matey, so it's well overdue and it's all based on analytics and overhead. Part of the forum gets superb traffic, other parts are a waste of time and consume overhead (intros). The blog has also been pretty redundant over the last 2 years, so looking at replacing it with showcased forum posts. 

All very much work in progress, but hopefully end result will benefit anyone who adds valuable content, whilst keeping it interesting versus fending off spammy Karachi based SEO muppets

An overhaul huh... about time......  have to say it does seem to have gone down the pan a bit since the last overhaul.....

It has hasn't it ..Only seems to be spammers and a lot of people that introduce themselves and never return

@Steve.Richardson  Yes it does feel like just the other day you were playing with the forum

Originally Posted by Barney

“An overhaul huh... about time......  have to say it does seem to have gone down the pan a bit since the last overhaul.....”

Sounds like you need a locksmith Barney. 

Well I did say don't be shy about being vocal, you didn't let me down

The intro forum is no more, so the spammers are exit stage right 

As for playing with the forum, absolutely, no denials here. In the last week, we've dumped thousands of older posts, been analysing where traffic is coming from and scrapped the blog, which seemed a good idea at the time, but in reality, never got updated.

Instead of the blog, I'm simply going to use some of the best or popular forum posts and populate the "showcase" tab in the header menu on the MLS site.

With intro's gone, it means no more self-promo one post wonders and we can concentrate on adding useful content which will populate our social media channels. Likewise, if anyone else wants to contribute something worthwhile, then that can be showcased and also pushed out over social media.

I have been guilty of just leaving the forum in tick over, with Rebecca keeping an eye on things, mainly because my focus has been elsewhere, and to be honest, didn't really know what to do with the forum longterm wise. Options ranged from culling it completely to converting it to a blog, to doing nothing!

But after sitting down and analysing it all, I was surprised how much traffic the forum is generating and the sheer volume of viewers versus contributors. So rather than turn it into a blog which was generating little traffic, I've gone the other way. 

I get my kicks out of passing on wisdom and cock ups, and want to focus on better quality posts, positivity, stuff that helps people. Always up for a bit of humour or an occasional rant, but with the world falling apart, a bit of positivity wouldn't go amiss. 

If longterm members like yourselves and Barney want to contribute, then perfect.