Re: [GZG] List moderation was: Dear John

On Mon, May 19, 2008 at 6:52 AM, Ground Zero Games <jon@gzg.com> wrote:

> I think this has been asked before, but opinions may have
changed......
> would it necessarily mean the death of the list if we had a forum AS
WELL?

There are GZG forums out there. I used to belong to the Yahoo
Fullthrust-Stargrunt forum.

The problem with hosting a forum is that you will fracture the
discussion. This happens with Arc Dream, the roleplaying company I've
been writing for. There's an official Arc Dream forum, plus there's
the Project Nemesis web site for topics about the game system in
general (with particular emphasis on one of Arc Dream's products),
there are discussions on RPG.net, and then there are two Yahoo Groups
for separate Arc Dream stuff.

Shane at Arc Dream posts on all of these sites whenever there's
something official needing to go out. Are you willing to do that, Jon?

Even with Shane posting everywhere, the main "go-to" board is Project
Nemesis, which means there are people hanging out at the other
locations who miss the "main" discussions.

If you create a forum, you will fracture the game base. That's not
necessarily a bad thing. You might find the forum attracts a lot of
new fans, while the mailing list does not. You might find that the
standard, typical "newbie" questions all show up on the board while
the GZG grognards discuss different stuff.

However, at some point one or the other is going to become the "go-to"
location, with the other locations falling further and further out of
favour.

You have to ask yourself if the forum will increase your business.
And, if it will increase your business, is it worth losing touch with
some of the long-time GZG customers who won't migrate to a forum (or
who will migrate but only visit it on rare occasions).

> But I seem to recall that when this was last mooted, there
> were a number of strongly dissenting voices of the opinion that the
list
> would then fold through lack of use and we'd lose several old (in list
> terms!!) and valued members, so the idea got shelved.
> Thoughts now??

I think you probably would lose several long term customers. Whether
or not that's a bad thing depends on whether or not a forum would
increase your sales. It's not the first company that's folded because
they alienated their loyal customers. It's also not the first company
that found considerable growth by unshackling themselves from older
customers who were keeping them static.

-- 
Allan Goodall http://www.hyperbear.com
agoodall@hyperbear.com
awgoodall@gmail.com

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