2100 Members

Currently we are 2096 , I think within 3 or 4 days we'll hit the 2100 mark !
90th

Gary
What would be really welcome is if we could persuade more than 1% of them to post something!
Steve

The new members numbers are great, and I agree with rusteze on the his comment about getting more people to post but I think that the reason new members don't is because sometimes this forum can be a little intimidating, especially if  people are new to the subject. I have seen several new members make a post, they normally introduce themselves and start by asking a question, unfortunately the response that they get is often something along the lines of 'We have discussed this before, take a look at this link or they are ignored, you may not realise it but that happens quite a lot. I'm not accusing anyone of anything here but sometimes the forum can be a little negative, now, you may be thinking to yourselves that Waterloo is bitching and moaning again but the truth is I am still in contact with a few people that are newish members that no longer feel that they wish to participate, recently we lost a member who had a relative killed at Isandlwana, he is himself still in the military and his ideas and thoughts were quite valuable, but as he has told me, he just can't be bothered to post anymore, he felt that his posts were being pushed aside and that people did not want to engage in a conversation with him. I am hoping that after he reads this he will come back onto the forum to validate what I am saying.
I have thought about my own experiences as a new member on the forum and the biggest problem was and perhaps still is my lack of knowledge, what would really help perhaps is something along the lines of a new thread for new members to discuss the basics of the AZW, there are plenty of knowledgeable people on this forum that new members could turn to for advice and information. We have got access to some professional historians/Authors and people like Frank who have good access to the sites along with a wealth of information. The new thread could be treated as a beginners introduction to the AZW. Wouldn't it be better to respond to a new members post with an invitation to discuss the basics of the AZW in a beginners thread. I would have found it really helpful if someone had said to me, why don't you join the discussion thread called 'An introduction to the AZW'. that would have been really helpful instead of me trying to work at Diploma level in a class full of Masters and Phd students.

I hope that makes sense.

People will join in if they want to. Most join to look for information about a particular thing or person.
There could be many reasons why new members don't post, the first step is always the hardest.
And no doubt the many heated debates is enough to to put anyone off. I think the ones that post are good enough, even with the small number that post, something new always seems to come to light, something that's draws a lot of interest.
One day it will come to light, that the Good Lord Chelmsford did an excellent job during this small campaign.

This Forum 69974 Messages have been posted by the small number that contribute.
Now in anyone's book that's not bad.

Victorian War forum 5804 Members. 52708 messages posted.

RDVC 608 Members. 27664 Messages posted.

Chelmsfordthescapegoat wrote:

People will join in if they want to. Most join to look for information about a particular thing or person.
There could be many reasons why new members don't post, the first step is always the hardest.
And no doubt the many heated debates is enough to to put anyone off. I think the ones that post are good enough, even with the small number that post, something new always seems to come to light, something that's draws a lot of interest.
One day it will come to light, that the Good Lord Chelmsford did an excellent job during this small campaign.

Hello CTSG

Absolutely agree with you on 'the first step is always the hardest' and without a doubt some of the debates do get a bit heated, it takes a strong will to continue sometimes, people can over step the mark with their comments but you soon learn to shrug it off and continue on. When your new to the subject every bit of info is interesting and there have been some very good points raised on the forum, I didn't realise that it was possible to go into a subject in such depth as happens here.

With regards to Lord Chelmsford, I expect that you are enjoying the debate ( Exactly was Lord Chelmsford Guilty of) I don't know that anyone has managed to clearly answer that yet.

Kindest Regards

Waterloo

CTSG knows LC as to shoulder a portion of the blame!
If I recall, I think CTSG said LC was to blame, for his choice of officers.

Dave wrote:

This Forum 69974 Messages have been posted by the small number that contribute.
Now in anyone's book that's not bad.

Victorian War forum 5804 Members. 52708 messages posted.

RDVC 608 Members. 27664 Messages posted.

Spot on with the figures but if you remove even a small percentage of the regular posters on this site then the numbers drop significantly and that may well be the case for other sites. The good thing about this forum is there is always someone posting something and hats off to those that start new topics, they are needed. Sometimes people ask questions that have already been discussed, I don't think that there is anything wrong going over old ground especially when new evidence comes to light, in some respects revisiting some of the older threads can be beneficial especially for new members.

Dave wrote:

CTSG knows LC as to shoulder a portion of the blame!
If I recall, I think CTSG said LC was to blame, for his choice of officers.

At the moment, unless anything new has been added, I haven't read the Exactly what was LC guilty of' thread yet, the main gripe seems to be about the officers, it will be interesting to see how that develops.

Something we might consider. People are understandably reluctant to post for the first time for all the reasons discussed. But they might be happy just to indicate (perhaps from a tick list) what they are particularly interested in. This could even be made a condition of joining. Others could then offer up some thoughts on those subjects and that might encourage a response. We need to make it easier to participate

Steve