Member Contact Discussion.....

[Train]

OK, this is where we will devise the plan to contact the "bottom 400" as some have called them , the people who are not active in the forums, or arent even active anymore cracking.

all ideas, concerns, and thoughts on this matter will be reviewed before any actions are taken.

 

[DanC]

Please see beginnings of this discussion:

In this thread.

 

[Train]

Ok, so far Dan has nominated the following members to be the "Representatives" This list will be edited/updated, as other people are nominated or decline to represent.

RaySun2Be
Engineer!
Russ
Virge

 

[Kilowatt]

HMMM.....Don't forget to mention in the letter, they get a FREE Copy of Klinux to help crack on those extra mobos without a HDD.

 

[DanC]

Not a bad idea actually... My Klinux is rock-solid. Not even a hiccup.

 

[NT4Mike]

While I personally think this is a wonderful idea, this has been brought up before and more or less shot down by Dnet.

Reference the following thread.

Thread 1
and
Thread 2

-Mike


*edited for bad thread link.

 

[DanC]

Mike -
Point well taken - HOWEVER - we are not suggesting a recruiting to TA letter, we are suggesting contacting existing TA members to become active in the distributed computing forum. Once active, they will get the bug. We are not reaching our membership. DNET can hardly fault us for asking folks to participate in our forum.

 

[blade47]

I don't really know what to do concerning contacting the inactive existing members, it would be nice if some of them would start back. I think we need to focus also on a way of keeping the active members interested so they won't be adding to the total of inactive members any time soon.

I do like the suggestion about when someone new joins the team asking them if it's ok to send them occasional emails about TA (I can't remember who made the suggestion, it's been awhile back). At least this would maybe hold their interest. Maybe something along the lines of a Team AnandTech newsletter pertaining to one or all of the projects. It could be on a daily, weekly or monthly basis (whatever someone was willing to do). The newsletter could contain the teams current ranking in all projects, important info on new threats such as DPC (RC5), accomplishments such as when /. will fall, new clients, or when new versions of software such as setiQ, spy & driver are released (for seti).

As has been mentioned before very few members actually come to the forums and post. A team newsletter would help keep the members who don't frequent here up to date on what's going on with the team. I think anything that will create a stronger sense of community within the team will increase the interest of the members and help hold that interest which is what we really need.

 

[DanC]

Blade has the right *general* idea - but... I'm not talking about inactive members. I'm talking about the 600 or so that don't participate in this forum. The other ideas are great.

 

[NT4Mike]

Dan,

I understand your point. I would strongly recommend that Dnet review any action prior to implementation. When it all boils down, you are talking about using email addresses that were supplied to Dnet for the purpose of the contest. The fact that they have contributed blocks for TA, but not posted in the forums would probably carry no weight with Dnet on their no-spam policy.

I do think that the idea of a newsletter is a wonderful idea. I think that it would have to be implemented in a "going forward" type of approach and let people sign up as they wish. We could promote it all we want on our forums and team websites, but sending unsolicited emails will get us in major hot water.

I think this campaign would really hinge well with the project for the TA website. Do we have any updates as to the status of that project?

-Mike

 

[osmo]

Hey Guys-

Looks like NT4Mike got to it quicker! It is one thing to contact our membership, but with the aid of who's source? There lies the problem as it was discussed in the past. Just some things to consider.

Osmo.

 

[office boy]

What about Pproxies?
Don't you register to use those?

 

[osmo]

office boy-

In the past no, but that idea has been mentioned as a way to solve a couple of issues. Not only would it generate a list of participants, but would restrict use of team resources to the team. It has potential.

Osmo.

 

[LeBlatt]

A lot of good ideas have spawned and energy/money spent on them to keep the active members active, and to attract new ones.

The guys in charge of these do a wonderful job, no need to name them as we all know who they are and "we love you men".

But 2 major projects have been delayed for various reasons, TA.com and TA gear.

See the point ? On one hand you mail members and tell them "hey friend, why wont you drop by the forums sometimes ? Its fun there you know". On the other you say "Hey friend, TA put up a great website, with daily news and tips, TA gear, and a hot tub too, and...". You see the difference. These project are close to completion I imagine, and they can seriously boost interest in the Team, and make formerly inactive members feel part of the family and motivated to recruit/assimilate. Then it will be the same for the new members.

We -need- to get those projects rolling for good. Dont take me wrong, I dont wanna sound like I were blaming anyone for the delay, and if Virge, Tripleshot, Mika or someone needs some help, REQUIRE IT because otherwise TA is slowly going down.

[edit] yes osmo, I had to stop working when I saw that thread : )[/edit]

 

[DanC]

LeBlatt makes some really good points.

[edit] BTW - TA.Com is owned by TA Associates. That could pose a little problem.

Fact is - there is little difference *where* an address came from, as there is no evidence for - or against the *where* -
This particular aspect is nitpicky IMHO. I can't believe any member who is actively cracking for TA would object in any way to being informed of TA sites, forum, or any team-oriented stuff.

Shooting these kinds of things down constantly is why the DPC are moving in to put a permanent smackdown on TA. We're too timid, we're not managing, and contacting our membership - and that's pretty sad.

I'm not suggesting we try to 'steal' anyone, or anything. TACube doesn't benefit in any way either, as we will no longer accept any TA member with more than 30 days time. If we don't all get behind SOMETHING - we're going down. That's the reality of it.

 

[LeBlatt]

I nkow this has been discussed 2^28 times, but lemme tell you : my first shot at DC was when I read a post by David I., borlands PR man for programmers on their info site.

It was something like "Be part of our community, join Team Borland, follow this link." It was 1 or maybe 2 lines long. And I joined for Seti.

Thats what I wanted to point out.1 or 2 lines long. Not an article.

 

[narzy]

about half a year ago on a bus ride with ViRGE I had brought up a similar Idea where the system automaticly E-mailed the e-mail address to remind the person about Team anandtech and where they stood. I think this is what you are talking about, so maybe its an idea that will take shape faster then I had relized.

 

[Pretender]

That's not necesarily true...after hearing a little about rc5 from the other forums on AT, I got curious and decided to look in Distributed Computing. After my initial reaction of 'what a bunch of nerds..', I realized that calling you guys nerds is a hypocritical thing for me to do, and eventually all the talk of RC5 and my wanting to help the team eventually influenced me enough to join.

Sometimes the best action isn't hysterically telling everyone to join, but instead just exposing people to it, letting them know it exists, telling them what it's about, and let them make up their own mind.

Of cource there will always be sheep who will follow along with what people tell them to do, and for those, this idea would work. For others, it would be futile and probably have the reverse affect.

 

[DanC]

<< there will always be sheep who will follow along with what people tell them to do >>



I'm going to flame you ever-so-gently.
This is exactly what I've been talking about. That is negativity - and will ultimately be our undoing. The whole point to this discussion has been that we are missing some 600 potential [distributed computing forum] members that are already cracking for TA.

We cannot help motivate, can't send information, can't communicate with them.
The Dutch do this on a regular basis, do it well, and look at the result.
We are going down. We're too afraid, too negative, too [fill in the blank]

I'd think the members of this forum would be exactly the ones that would support this concept.

 

[Train]

The question of right or wrong has already been solved, some people agree, some dont, well, like it or not the people who want to do something about this are going to do something.

This discussion is about what to say, how to say, who to contact, when to do it, etc.

basically all the details is what we are hoping to work out.

 

[DanC]

I have either PM'd or e-mailed our most senior (elite) members to ask them to participate in this thread.

Russ
RaySun2Be
Virge
Engineer!

so far.

[edit] Before I get flamed - no one is trying to leave anyone out - they're just the ones who came immediately to mind.

 

[Train]

ya, those are the guys i thought of too, but that was another reason for this thread, for people to suggest/nominate others for that as well.

back to the other discussion, a co-worker of mine always says &quot;It's a lot easier to ask for forgiveness than it is to ask for permission, so just do it, and hope it works out for the best.&quot;

 

[DanC]

Regardless of the &quot;modus obtainii&quot; - (so to speak)

Allowing someone to &quot;unsubscribe&quot; would be in order. Once a member list exists, there's little to be said about exactly how and where it all came from - especially if people can elect to leave it.
If they are not inundated with crap - there'd by no reason to.

Imagine how lively this discussion group would be with over 600 rc5 members.

 

[Train]

<< Imagine how lively this discussion group would be with over 600 rc5 members >>


yep, thats thinkin like a Borg!

 

[Train]

the one-two line idea sounds good to me, heres a few i came up with:, feel free to edit them and suggest others as well.

---------------------------------------------------
Hey TeamAnandtech RC5 member,
Theres some good discussions going on in the TA Distributed forums, as a member, we would like you to participate, feel free to drop by, Distributed Computing Forums

---------------------------------------------------
Fellow cracker,
We miss you! when you get a chance stop by the DC forum to catch up on whats new with Team Anandtech.

----------------------------------------------------

ummmmm, ok so i only though of 2, im sure you guys can do better.