I’m not sure if anyone noticed but IDNForums turned 5 this year. It’s easy to remember because it was registered on my birthday in 2005 while I was just about to relocate back to Tokyo, September 9th 2005.
Ah those were the days I guess there was a lot of misconceptions about me at the time but it was hard to register domains, start working for a new company in Tokyo & move all of your stuff overseas. I’m glad I did my part then but in reality there were IDN portfolio holders before me. Even the domain IDNForum.com was actually registered BEFORE (2003) I created the forum but never developed.
I guess my initial vision of one forum & others creating services is actually happening now. But I remember back then everyone wanted to own a forum.
After 5 years I’m basically doing what I want to do in this market. That’s increase awareness about the use of IDNs. I might not log into IDNF but I’m glad it’s still up & well maintained. I even have a coworker go through & look through my old IDN & SEO tips if she needs it for a client.
I guess since we share the same birthday I’ll be attached to ya…
PS does everyone & their momma now have a domain blog? IDN Blog does an excellent job & I wish more IDN investors would share value on the web.
9ine
When the IDN game settles, there will be much more sharing and writing. + Maintaining a quality blog is somewhat time consuming. Moreover, if look at the visitor/active user ratio at IDNF, you get the feeling that there are a lot of vultures circling in the sky… that surely doesn't inspire sharing.
I understand the point of keeping some things to yourself but if no one really shares it becomes a problem. It's currently a bit too secretive. I might not share everything also but I like to write enough details for the blog readers to at least see some things that might work. I also like to share new ways of thinking that I also share with clients. Like doubling up on IDN.jp & ADCII.jp, creating shopping sites, developing with wordpress, example plugins.
With the user/visitor ratio I visited the site a while back & noticed someone changed the session time so everyone's logged in forever. I had it set to maybe 30 minutes or so which is standard or an hour. These things are unwritten webmaster standards. It's looks like a club with 100 silhouettes standing at the wall. So I understand from the outside it looks like there's just tons of people who aren't on the site just watching everyone's move. Member's would write more if they knew, there's actually only 5 to 10 members logged in now, what can I do to make more members log in & contribute to my investment. Japan has a term for it "Sakura"… This isn't a complaint but an observation that I'm sure others who may not be sure about IDN community credibility may also observe.
Would this "session time" setting also apply to the guests ? Because that's what is bothering me a little. 80 members to 2100 guests ratio (as of now) is really weird. Combining with other factors, like the pricing discrepancy between drops and forum sales, the big picture looks like some people just don't want to register/post on IDNF.
You bring up a great point. It's usual to try to let users know how many people are on the site members & separate bots, crawlers etc. If the community is small then so be it. Sometimes people like that more actually. The sessions time applies to all on the site. Members, non members, & even bots & crawlers.
Like a user like you it makes you think people are just watching your moves in reality they aren't. To see how long the session time is you log on. Then check back hours later on a different browser & see if you are still logged in. I believe it was changed to make it seem like the community was more vibrant but it may have a reverse effect.
In reality there are quite a few things that just seem weird (if you look outside the community). I read IDN Blog & think it's a great blog but it makes no sense to those outside with 2 different interviews with anonymous buyers who want to be anonymous for their buys but agree to do an interview.
Thanks, very informative