What else would you like to see in BBB?

[Philip]

Originally Posted by MrOats

Thank you for voting!

...Any more takers?

My sentiments exactly, Andrew. Just where are our 47000+ members?

[RU Still Down?]

I'd like to see more Social Networking related forums, computer support, and international forums in more languages -- not that I use social networking or can speak any language other than english. I think it'll bring more (returning) users to the site.

It seems like there are less visitors to this site than in previous years. Especially in the AIM section. It seems to have died. Maybe it's just me.

To Phillip: I think close to half the registered members have 0 posts. I'm going to guess only around 1/4th of registered members have 10+ posts. From those only a couple hundred come to the forum often enough to see this post. This poll is buried pretty deep. Maybe you should move this topic. Or at least refer to it in the news section so it makes it to the front page.

[Tigerblade]

I'm starting to wonder just how far instant messaging forums can go. The bulk of the posts in those forums are tech support questions, many of which have either been answered or have no answer. Even with new version releases, there's only so many questions that can be asked.

what's left?

and I have to agree that the vast majority of our "48,000" users are one-time signup-and-never-come-backs. Look at the members list - by the seventh page (30 users per page, so 210 users), you're down to people under 100 posts, some of which have "been here" since 2002.

[VvWolverinevV]

But what is the goal really? When you expand boundlessly, you lose your specialization in IM and become an all-encompassing tech forum; now you're competing with TechSpot, etc. which will probably win. A relatively small forum community is also not necessarily a terrible thing. I prefer to post here over TechSpot for exactly that reason. Posting here is often like dialogue at a town meeting, while posting on TS is more like shouting your feelings in the middle of Times Square.

[Philip]

Wolverine, thanks for your comments. I don't think that BBB is going to "expand boundlessly" as you've mentioned, but I feel that if we keep sticking just to IM alone, we'll slowly specialize ourselves to an untimely demise. We need some variety here in the BBB menu. OK, we're not in the same league as Neowin or TechSpot, but that doesn't necessarily imply a disadvantage.

What we need here is more feedback and posts from our members. That's why we sign up in a forum, isn't it? Like yourself, I found BBB to be a very friendly place when I signed up last year, and when I posted, someone was bound to respond. However, the good times haven't lasted, and now the BBB globe is slowly spinning down.

This is just my own thoughts, but BBB does need a revival, a rebirth. Social Networking could be just the thing for this, as well as several other topics included in the poll. But if everyone just sits back and acts like nothing warrants any attention and everything's comin' up roses, well this is when we'll stumble and fall hard.

[Gandalf]

How about sending this poll out via email? I haven't seen the BBB bulletin grace my inbox in ages? Maybe that would stir up some interest?

[Hasan]

You can have a page that lists all the official clients of major IM networks along a table of supported features and an official BBB rating for that client

Then a list of interoperable clients along with the list of supported features and IM networks and ofcourse a BBB

Then a list of alternate clients with the same set of info

A critical review of each client by BBB staff and links to official websites would be great

To make it more interactive, you can allow users to comment on each client

Addressing Social Networking sites is also an interesting area to expand in for the forums and the site as whole.

[sarahtowny]

Originally Posted by Hasan

You can have a page that lists all the official clients of major IM networks along a table of supported features and an official BBB rating for that client

Then a list of interoperable clients along with the list of supported features and IM networks and ofcourse a BBB

Then a list of alternate clients with the same set of info

A critical review of each client by BBB staff and links to official websites would be great

To make it more interactive, you can allow users to comment on each client

Addressing Social Networking sites is also an interesting area to expand in for the forums and the site as whole.

Wonderful ideas there!

More competitions would be good too, we used to do them and the response was amazing.

[VvWolverinevV]

Originally Posted by Hasan

You can have a page that lists all the official clients of major IM networks along a table of supported features and an official BBB rating for that client

Then a list of interoperable clients along with the list of supported features and IM networks and ofcourse a BBB

Then a list of alternate clients with the same set of info

All of that less the subjective ratings is available here:
Comparison of instant messaging clients - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[cuongnet]

ok ! go to ..!..