Suggestions for Community features

jenygard

Show user information like what keyboard is played (owned), and user's nationality
Show number of guests that are online

Is "users online" working properly? Usually there is only one (me), sometimes two. Styleplayer himself is not counted I suppose.

StylePlayer

jenygard Displaying owned keyboards is a great idea, we definitely need to add it. Things like nationality, age etc I think each user can reveal under "about me" if they want to.

"users online" is working properly, sadly 😂, and it counts me too. It's a quiet place currently...

aprilla

jenygard Usually there is only one (me), sometimes two. Styleplayer himself is not counted I suppose.

I'm on a desktop and usually leave my go-to spots open, seldom closing them, so when there's two it could be me and you 😂 🤣

jenygard

StylePlayer You should consider how to get more people to become registered users. The number of downloads suggests that here are lots of people, but they are invisible. Thats why I suggest "guests online" as a first step. It is common on forums to have that.

StylePlayer

jenygard Hm how would seeing number of guests online encourage registering, just so people can see that this place is not completely empty? I think wanting to participate in interesting discussions would be a better encouragement to register, we just don't have many.

We already have about 1000 registered users which is quite a lot, considering that registering is completely voluntary and you can use the main site without ever registering. Just nobody wants to participate in discussions it seems, perhaps everyone is too excited about the core site and doesn't have time to visit the forum (that's what I am hoping anyway haha).

I think the best way to boost the forum activity is just to start more threads about interesting topics, and people will join if they have anything to say.

jenygard

StylePlayer 1000 registered users? I would never have guessed! Yes, seeing the guests would help seeing the potensial of the site. Make all activity visible to everyone. That should also go for the main site.

As for user information, I don't think it will be helpful if you have to go to profiles to find it. I checked out a few of them, and seems that no one exept me have written anything about themselves. Take a look at PSR Tutorial Forum. It has to be encouraged.

Styleplayer.io site would/could/should not compete with PSR Tutorial on general Yamaha keyboards topics, but specialize on all aspects of styles sharing, finding, creating and so on. May be the (future) possibilty to comment on specific styles would create more engagement. If you want all discussion to go on inside the community forum, then a link between the style in Styles section of the main site and Styles subforum could be the solution.

aprilla

jenygard then a link between the style in Styles section of the main site and Styles subforum could be the solution.

That's an idea 👍

I don't know about visible info. In all the years I've belonged to various keyboard related forums I've seldom looked at a profile. I just get familiar with the usernames who post in different areas, relate them to that. I'm not precious about my info, I don't care who knows what (but never really think about adding it), but many are. That might put them off. Content, that's what I'm more attracted by whether it be chat, informational or just files.

Something in the download area that highlights that there's a Community area too might encourage members to use it, build some content. Maybe they aren't noticing the menu link. Maybe it needs to show comments that will draw people into the Community area. But repositories often become grab and go places, it might not be easy. Realistically people will spend their time seeking and auditioning styles, and maybe not think about participating in the Community unless it's easy or somehow interesting to them to do so.

StylePlayer

Yeah I think integrating style reviews with the forum is a great idea and on my short todo list right after improving the site search which I am working on currently.

I also want this forum to focus more on styles, advanced technical midi internals, and site improvements; and people can discuss other topics on other existing forums that's totally fine and even preferable. Creating a popular keyboard forum was never a goal and I wouldn't want that for myself as it will be a full time job moderating it (I already spend more than an hour a day replying to the very few new posts we have).

So maybe we don't need to try to boost the forum too much and just let it be, I'm sure the activity will grow with the time whether we want it or not. But if you feel bored here feel free to start some topics with whatever you want to discuss, I think that would be the biggest boost to activity, not displaying extra counters.

kaimei19

StylePlayer Yeah I think integrating style reviews with the forum is a great idea and on my short todo list right after improving the site search which I am working on currently.

Here's a suggestion for further down the track - perhaps in Community, perhaps accessible from Main site.

Have a "Style of the Week", or "Style of the Month" or a "Top Three" based on user votes, or user downloads, or combination of both. And you could do the same for Suggested Songs.

jenygard

I do not not feel bored, I feel lonely.😄 The best reason to build the community is to attract people that is interested and knowledgeable enough to answer new users and discuss relevant topics with each others, so you don't have to every time.

StylePlayer

kaimei19 Yeah good idea. We need to display something like that on the home page as it's currently pretty static. Can also display the latest forum threads there to promote the forum.

aprilla

Is there anywhere on the Styles pages that shows you can Request a Style? I can't find any. I do see the link in the Community area, but it's tucked in under styles. It's only been used once so far (and I can't help with that style).

A link could direct to the Community area and raise the right sort of activity.

StylePlayer

aprilla Good idea, thank you.

aprilla

Will there be a way to search for styles submitted by a particular person? So if we find we like styles by XXX we can look to see what they have made available... something along those lines.

I read a post here by someone describing how they set up their styles and was intrigued. So went to see if any were uploaded yet but found no way to search for that.

☺

StylePlayer

aprilla Currently you can click on user's name on the site (under some style they submitted for example) and see their profile with detailed breakdown of everything they contributed including the styles.

There is no link to that profile page from the forum currently, so that's perhaps something that can be improved.