A request

I have created a community for ride and coaster enthusiasts on a site called LiveJournal. I created it so that ride freaks can join and discuss things. You will have the following benefits if you join:
a free blog
a profile where you will be able to give info about yourself
access to community-only message boards linked to journals (in other words, you can post comments in people's journal)
free membership unless you want to get premium membership
and much more!
I would like to know if we could make this community a part of CoasterBuzz. I mean, we could have links to it from the main pages so that we can grow. I want to join with CB so that each member can have an interactive blog that will be linked to members of CB in the same community. I want to know your feedback before I give the address out. BTW, all joining requests will go through me for clearance, so privacy is guaranteed.

Hmmm, considering the webmaster has his own blog site that has way better features than LJ (although a much smaller community) I somehow doubt this. But, I'm just speculating.

Another thing, I will be creating a separate, closed community for RRC, ACE, ECC, and CB members, in addition to opening it to members of other coaster clubs. That will be completely private and it will be a subsidiary of the main community. However, I will only do that if enough people are interested in promoting this.

In case you think I'm trying to leave the webmaster out, I'm going to make him my co-manager, so he and I will work together.

Not what I said at all. Read my comments again.

Next time, try PM'ing Jeff. You won't get burnt to crisp by the flames that will come. ;)

Umm... OK!

Why would I want people gathering somewhere else at the expense of the community I run for a living?

Good question Jeff. I am curious to know what the answer is....

Well, he *did* say he'd make you his co-manager! Who can pass up a title like that?

^He's right! Because I'm totally sure that the sites you already run haven't taken up enough of your time.

Everyone dreams of setting up their own "community" every now and then, I guess.....

-Josh

Truth be told, I don't think I'd try to do it again today. It's too hard to make any headway without spending a lot of money on marketing. I launched www.uberasp.net a year ago, and granted my time spent updating it has been minimal, but I scarcely get a thousand visitors a day there, and only a few forum posts a day.

It's much easier to maintain your audience than attract a new one.

I want to use a third party site to take your traffic and I'll make you co-manager.

Please. Pretty puh-leeze? With sugar on top?

Hmmm. You're a shrewd businessman, Mr. Putz. You may have won this round, but this is far from over...

So.. besides the Blog thing, (which I think by now 99% of people who want a blog have one), what would be the advantage of doing this?

I have visited many sites and projects similar to what you are describing John, and Coasterbuzz is hands down the best.

And, as a word of advice, Splitting your visitors into smaller groups with limited specialized areas actually creates less traffic. General areas where people can participate and see the new posts (even if they do not apply to them) rather then waiting days for a new post in a specialized forum works much better.

Good luck on your project I guess.. I would say that you should get away from LiveJournal though. There are much better options out there if you have at least some basic FTP/HTML/other Net knowledge.

*chokes on soda and falls out of chair*

REALLY?

No one's ever, ever heard of LiveJournal here. Ever!

*considers linking to years-old CBuzz LiveJournal thread, smells stench of spam and thinks better of it*

-CO

Playa', whats a livejournal?

No, seriously.

Is it like MySpace?

(rolling my eyes as I type this) *** Edited 4/6/2005 6:57:57 PM UTC by Raven-Phile***

Yeah.

They both gag on themselves at least twice a week.

-CO

LOL, I should die of laughter...if u hadn't realized this site is busniess, plus helps the site pay for running costs as signing up for CB Member and CampusFish...I don't think its a good Idea at all...I know Jeff works hard at maintaining these sites, I know I'd go nowhere other than CB. You got burned dude....sorry... it just a horrible subject! ;-) *** Edited 4/8/2005 12:24:39 PM UTC by DC2Beltz3***

Huh? I'm not an optometrist.

I thought you'd accepted the job at Visionland? ;)