Transparent Moderation Log & Site Topics - Part II - Page 654

lasbar, as much as I like you, I hope you don't speak this way IRL.

Well, the original thread has been restored, with the OP reinstated with the permission of Monty, in Fine Living. If you want to take a look, contribute, whatever, here it is:

http://www.styleforum.net/t/308717/bespoke-bicycles/0_50

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I'd like to challenge the contention that SF is quantity driven. Advertising is our main source of revenue. However, most of our revenue is *not* through banners, and other "eyeball driven" traffic. Personally, I feel that banners are very 2005, but we don't (unfortunately) control what goes on in digital media. Instead, our strategy is to get retailers and brands to interact with members, to give something back, and we make concerted attempts to make sure that the advertisers with whom we work can interact well with the community.

The only way, I believe, that advertising can be effective on any form of social media, is for the members of a community to feel that the advertisers are offering something of value to the community. This has been part of our strategy since 2005, when we had our first advertisers, most of whom are still here. I think that this is a good and sustainable strategy. Time after time, our users have told us that good retailers make great members of the community. You only have to go to a thread like Epaulet's thread: http://www.styleforum.net/t/111211/epaulet-shop-official-affiliate-thread/0_50 to see that our members enjoy interacting with and form a bond with, good merchants.

We live in a digital age, and let's face it, there will never be a good men's store in Moscow, ID, unless something drastically changes here - as in - the population increases 10 fold, and people interested in tractors become interested in bespoke and designer clothing. While there are nodes of activity in NYC, LA, Chicago, DC, and San Francisco, a lot of our members are spread out across the UK, Canada, and Australia. Direct access to vendors, and, shortly, direct feedback to vendors that will help drive the direction of internet shopping, on which many members rely, is a service that benefits both members (myself included) and vendors. I see inbounds (vendors who want to advertise on the forum) very regularly, and I am pretty selective, and in many cases, have left money at the table because I don't feel that a specific retailer would be good for Styleforum. From experience, this is fairly unusual, and sometimes surprising to other forum and blog owners.

Also, everyone realizes that the community is the lifeblood of any forum. My (sometimes successful, sometimes not) initiatives has always been to increase engagement by both our core community, and to draw in new members. Both are very important. The "veterans" are those who really drive the community, and the "newbies" are those who will find camaderie on the forum, and eventually, become veterans.

Also, I don't find that MC is dead. There are threads, like the MaoMao thread, that are extremely interesting and helpful. However, if a small, persistent, number of veterans spend time ignoring these threads and belittling newbies, they are not helping the situation. We'd like to invite you to start new posts, to really engage in a positive manner.

Cheers,

Fok.

I'm a peaceful mood at the moment...

I have adopted the Wait and see policy with the new mods...

Their first test will be the Bhowiegate..

As they have me on ignore , I could have insulted them...

yes, piob's main interest is the sausage, isn't it.

I luv ya man, I really do.

/inane post.

As a relatively new member and part time lurker before joining, I can add to the voices of senior members - what drew me to SF (through Google, no less) was the quality of information, the intelligent discourse and, last but not least, WAYWT - I found it immensly helpful to see commentary coupled with visual aids

Since I joined - and mostly kept to myself while reading and learning - it has become much more difficult to find and follow threads with both substance and volume/longevity.

I agree with Vox's general idea, which I see as enabling more curation of valuable threads, as opposed to merely increasing the volume ( =eyeballs). Actually, I believe that these are not mutually exclusive goals, certainly in the long run the insight from senior members' discussions is what get's the eyeballs in. Well, at least if the owners are interested in attracting the "right" eyeballs, those that will stay and contribute (thus attracting more eyeballs) or those that will buy from affiliates (nothing wrong with that). If the game devloves to attracting anyone then the attraction will not retain any staying power in the coming years. What will Google return to people's queries: another "what should I wear to interview" thread?

Any significant withdrawal or departure of senior members and in-depth discussions will be profoundly detrimental to SF and will undermine the economic model (or its long-term sustianability). I have no particular interest in whether the forum succeeds financially or not but I'd like to continue to come here for good discussions about clothing along with the occasional foray into DT.

Wait. You can view DT now with less than 100 poasts?

Who are the members who admire the MC forum as it today, and don't think it has not become much worse?

I know that you think it is just the same old, same old.

Is there anyone who agrees with you? That things are okay, no problemo? Even one other guy?

Or to put it another way, how many members have to disagree with you for you to relent that they might be correct?

There are guys who posted in the recent pair of discussions that not only is it worse than before, it is even worse than one year ago.

I concur with you that the Maomao thread is a useful example. First of all, it is a gazman thread. Second, Maomao curtailed his activity on the MC forum and now has resurfaced it on tumblr, like many of us. The thread says more about his absence than his presence.

Thank you. I luv me, too.

Forum soul-searching makes me sad. It's usually a sign of something bad to come.

This has been said before and elsewhere but the reason I personally post a lot less in MC is simply that I feel I have made every point I have to make about 10 zillion times. The thrill is gone. I don't know how to recapture it.

I have nothing against the efforts to monetize the forum. After all the entertainment I've gotten here, I can hardly complain about banner ads or affiliate threads or J and Fok making a buck. I hope they make millions. But for that to happen, there has to be something worth commodifying. After the forum split, MC had a fairly clear focus on the tailored clothing aesthetic, but that's been diluted to the point that the noobs are baffled as to why there are two casual clothing forums here. Now, instead of having a MC WAYW thread -- a wonderfully wide-open concept -- we have five or six. And endless threads, each more specific than the last, that exist just to show off purchases and get praise. People don't have conversations so much as compliment or complain. It's all very insular, even as the focus has shifted to the generic. While it's entertaining on a superficial level, I doubt it's the sort of content that will keep people coming back long-term.

I'd love it if MC were filled with great, vigorous threads begging to be packaged and sold. Maybe the lack of that sort of content will eventually drive home the problem.

I did stay solely on MC for 5 years before migrating mainly to DT and GC...

I miss the old DT because the bespoke tips ,photos and conversations were second to none..

We had great discussions about fabrics , cuts, shoes and SF became quickly my Mecca.

I have discovered Delos ,Rubinacci ,Huntsman , Corthay, Lobb, EG thanks to these guys...

SF was putting GQ and other shite publications to shame..

I miss Dopey ,Rjman ,Manton, Kuro ,RSS and so many others ..

Tell me you didn't get a twinge of the old feeling when denouncing my vulgar taste for patterned linen.

I also enjoyed yelling at Douglas not to wear a gray fresco as an odd jacket.

I'm still thrilled.

well but you don't post pics any more.

i found posting pics kind of a pain in the ass. I had to be really motivated. As the actors say, I lost my motivation a while ago.

Of course, I still dress spectacularly well.