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#1 (permalink)

This is a webmaster forum is it not? What's been going on with the site? Feel free to ask many of your knowledgeable members.

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#2 (permalink)

It USED to be.
Now it is
The knowledgable ones are scattered to the four winds, the rest either don't speak the same language or think it is still 1999 (or both)!

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#3 (permalink)

And as an unashamed 'plug' for alternatives

We, (Myself and the former WMT moderators) have a resurrected WMT at WMTeu with something more than just the discussion board. And Rich Powell (Galaxian) has started a new webmaster forum at Webmarsters

So if you are a freelance or self-employed designer, developer, marketer. All three websites will have something for you, and if you are not, you have more choices of where to inquire for advice.

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#4 (permalink)

Thanks for the shoutout there, Chris.

Unfortunately TycoonTalk lost its novelty as a webmaster forum when the new owners tailored it more towards online business in general.

Now, I'm not down-talking TycoonTalk as I understand that the new owners want to take a new direction and that sacrifices must be made sometimes.

The continuation of the old Webmaster-Talk spirit lives on in wmteu and Webmarsters.

Please note that Webmarsters has only just been opened in the last few days so I welcome you to help get it started.

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#5 (permalink)

Perhaps this may seem too obvious, but if you all want to see more webmaster conversations on the forum then start those conversations. A big part of why you don't see as many design and development conversations as you might have in the past is because many of the people who had those conversations decided in advance the site was going to change and so they left leaving a gap for those conversations.

Forums generally pick up traffic from long tail keyword searches based on the content of threads and posts. If more threads with development words in them get started and responded to then more people will find those threads when searching, leading to more threads and posts about development and so on.

It also helps to reply with longer posts.

No one has to do that of course. If more people are visiting and wanting to talk about the online marketing side of things then that's what will get reinforced. As Chris pointed out there are other forums where the talk is more along technical lines. Perhaps things have changed and those conversations won't come back here to the same degree. I still think it's possible, but it certainly won't help if people prophesize that they won't and then do what they can to fulfill the prophecy.

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#6 (permalink)

My actual question was really in regards to the 503 error that left the site shut down for an entire day. Just two days before it was down as well...

Regardless, I too have seen the fall of the webmaster forum. I think it's comical actually... turn the thriving webmaster forum into an online business forum and lose majority of your users....

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#7 (permalink)

I ended up reporting the problem last night and it seemed that the admins didn't know about it until my message reached them.

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<mgraphic /> - I don't have a solution but I admire the problem.

#8 (permalink)

Epic fail. I even tweeted (and I NEVER use twitter) to them wondering about it. It was down for a few days for me.

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#9 (permalink)

What Webmaster Forum isn't an online business? Some of them have a pay subscription membership besides the ghastly ads all over the place. The ones who don't have the pay membership subscription have the ads. That's online business......

On this side of things, what has changed? The Forum Boards are in place, Members are still asking for help, and other Members are helping. So what has changed from Webmaster-Talk? With the exception of the name and logo......

#10 (permalink)

Sometimes ads are necessary for operational costs. Not purely a money making machine. Webmaster-talk.eu doesn't have a single ad. It seems Freelancer just bought this site to promote their services. Example being "Hire SEO Experts" in the SEO section. I looked at the "experts" that are bidding on jobs for 1/6th the price and they haven't a clue as to what they're doing.

Ads promoting poor services are one. Spam is over whelming for link drops, and regular, knowledgeable users, are dropping off left and right. Anything that I see "Freelancer" on automatically makes me cringe.

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#11 (permalink)

A very few Webmaster Forums choose not to have ads. I am sure Freelancer did buy Webmaster-Talk to promote their services, what's wrong with that? Take a Casino, suppose to be gambling, but also offers restaurants, stage shows, and hotel accommodations. There's a Quick Stop nearby, that sells gas, groceries, etc., on the second floor of the building has a wine tasting gallery. That sounds like capitalism to me, nothing preventing one from having multiple services.

Let us know if you see spam, with your help and other Member's help we can have a forum like it used to be.....

#12 (permalink)

A forum is as good as the members make it by contributing in a positive manner....

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#13 (permalink)

I can't say there is anything wrong it. It's just not logical driving away your main user base (who posts the good content). Of course they have every right to go and do that, it'll eventually just leave the forum with "a dofollow link makes your site show up on google" members.

I would say 80% of the posts here on this forum are spam. Users coming to only post so their link in their sigs to get credit in Google for their rankings (as they think). Just no point in reporting all the posts. Either get rid of signatures all together or make users wait a day before their account is active.

I agree. Well positive is debatable... I've seen some hateful forums (which I DO NOT participate in) that thrive. I would say it's more about building a community with contributing, quality, knowledgeable users.

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#14 (permalink)

Debating how to make a successful forum is not going to bring back the valuable members who have left.

They probably share the same viewpoint as myself; I'm just not a fan of the new direction.

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#15 (permalink)

What new direction? Webmaster-Talk was going down hill in 2010, most of my time was spent removing spams, and most of the older Member's had already left, under the circumstances I can understand the whys.

Freelancer purchased Webmaster-Talk in December 2010 with the public announcement from Matt Barrie. January/February 2011 started the new changes, such name, logo, etc.

Now we are into March 2012, again, what new direction? Nothing has changed since January/February of 2011.

Quoting Vangogh......

Another quote from Jim...

#16 (permalink)

Agreed 100%.

If this is the direction TycoonTalk wants to go... let them. The users that made this worth the money spent will go elsewhere and TycoonTalk will go where it wishes to be. That's capitalism, some fail, some win. Being the number 1 forum for online business means that most the users here should understand that.

I just hope the spam is controlled by some new system or the site doesn't crash for an entire day again. I do enjoy debunking myths. I learn a thing or two on occasion in the process as well.

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#17 (permalink)

You misunderstand. It not about it BEING an "online business, it is the focus of the discussions being about online business.
The vast majority of "webmasters", designers, developers, graphic artists etc. are not that interested in being a business 'person', a tycoon or a magnate,they do it as a hobby, a pastime or a bit of fun. If it is their career, they are probably quite happy in their current employment. For myself I was self-employed in a business that did many things for clients, web-development and programming being one of those, and to be honest if I had run my business in the way some of the posters suggest I would have been sued or gone bankrupt long before health reasons forced me to quit.

It's not the tangible things that has created the issue, it is the spirit of the site, the few good and knowledgable people that are still here, get drowned out by the stupid ones who can only manage to post poorly worded, mis-explanation of something they didn't understand in the first place.
Along with their "guru" username and signature links for "there most impotant keywrods".

Sure, earlier incarnations of WMT had adverts and when they got in the way of getting the information over something was usually done about it.
Previous management teams KNEW that the most important thing about having a forum as a business was the USER BASE, lose those and you have no business, alienate the users and they vote with their "mice" or "keyboards" on the decision by going somewhere they "feel comfotable" with, and yes that make us as consumers fickle.
In 1985 Coca Cola changed their recipe slighly to reduce the sugar in it and created the largest consumer revolt that the world had ever seen.

Freelancer did a similar thing, they messed with the "recipe" that made the forum users happy, thereby proving the adage of "if it ain't broke, don't try fixing it!

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#18 (permalink)

But......even a hobby user, unless they do not desire some cash return for their time, has to be a business person......
If one does not have a beyond basic understanding, regardless of the skill level. the chances of operating in profit diminish drastically......

That should mean the a successful, (however defined), person really needs all facets..

Example, large successful webmaster forum, touches on most facets of the
"whole" package......

These hit us and run spammers simply need to be dealt with quickly and firmly....

There are thousands of new net users coming on daily...we just need to add some......and will by keeping this place clean....

Reducing the sarcastic replies to some of the idiot posts and reporting them ....might encourage more new growth....instead of scaring away the shy newbies....

My two other cents....

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#19 (permalink)

Not really, there are many, many people who have a website for no other reason than to pass on or collate information or to entertain others, myself being one of those. Even running advertising on the pages does NOT mean that it is a "business". Adsense was conceived to provide GENUINE content publisher a means to be rewarded for providing information for/to other Internet users. But of course the inherent laziness of people meant that some found ways to exploit it to "earn" money for doing precious little work, and pretend they had a "business"

Maybe if the "management" actually took notice of what was happening and took some action, especially against the bulk created "November 30" birthday "members" things might not not look as bleak.

I have been involved in or running forums before "forums" existed, on bulletin boards, newsgroups and mailing lists so am no stranger to what tricks spammers try and employ to dump their junk on all and sundry, and as moderators there is little you can do about it UNLESS the management above administrator level give you the tools to fight it.

There are two spam threads that have been hanging around for about five days now, I purposely have not made any comment to, nor drawn any attention to them in any way just to see if they would be found.

All that Freelancer have done is take away things that limit spam members signing up pre-moderation for instance. The two threads I mentioned could have been stopped by using a spammer lookup system such as Stop Forum Spam where the perpetrator is listed and no doubt with the same IP and email.

Basically they don't care about the forum, the members OR their administrator and moderators, basically they were/are simply asset strippers who made the assets (members) disappear.
The reasons I resigned as moderator was the direction the forum was going and the lack of interest the management had, their concern was purely for member numbers not the quality of the information posted or the "quality" of the members, and it WAS the quality of the membership that made WMT what it was.

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A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds
Thought for today:- Is SEO the only industry where all the cowboys are Indians?

#20 (permalink)

It is hard to help correct any operation from the outside........

But then again, considering the number of forums on the net, a person can find one that is satisfying and provides enjoyment.....

The technical aspects, as I see it, are normally left in the hands of whomever is actually running the forum...

My technical knowledge is somewhat limited, my business knowledge is much deeper...
I do know one of the basics is to try to keep the customers happy (members) either by offering something that can not be found elsewhere or making them feel like part of the "family"...
That is difficult to do either when we continue to be bombarded with some of the idiocy that we see posted...
Unless we start deleting the total cra* posts......
And closing more threads due to multi-spam posts......

It would be nice to have someone from upper management to give the green light for more aggressive moderation....

Considering that we were told not long ago, basically, blacklists alone do not give cause for banning a member.....I disagree.....
That is like being just a little pregnant....
Cleaning is cleaning.....
Two more of my cents......

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