Does anyone actively promote this site anywhere? We do have a decent number of posters but I don't sense much in the way of new blood. If posters stop posting we don't get many newcomers. Can't even tell if there are lurkers with the current site format.
There is an argument that we should leave well alone. We do attract new posters but slowly and generally they are similar to our existing posters in that they use intelligence to put their case rather than abuse. If we advertise we will attract idiots as well as possible useful contributers. I think we mange pretty good debates which suggests that we are not struggling for posters. Quality rather than Quantity every time for me , but let's have the debate.
Can't even tell if there are lurkers with the current site format. Yes SD I think that's a miss too, I'll ask the management about this @SpursDisciple
It's a bit of a strange site, this. Some (perhaps most) boards on the PL are as silent as the Emirates. There appears to be no correlation between size of fanbase and levels of activity on the site, as the Everton and City boards are dead (Chelsea and Arsenal aren't far behind - albeit for very different reasons: Wenger is killing Arsenal whilst most Chelsea fans can't read and write). Then you have some boards with surprisingly high volumes of content and large numbers of posters - such as Hull and Swansea. What got me hooked on this particular board (after lurking for a good few months ) was the exceptionally high level of debate and general tone of respect and cordiality amongst posters. The sort of 'togetherness' you can only get from suffering through decades of embarrassment and underachievement, seeing success and progress come at painfully high prices and enormous effort. That is something that City, United and Chelsea fans cannot and will never understand, and it creates a real team spirit both on and off the pitch. I also think we have near enough the perfect number of regular posters to this board. I reckon around 20 different users are on here regularly. It helps that all of us seem to have very different personalities and backgrounds (at least I think we do. In quiet moments I worry that I have been interacting with 19 different HIAG accounts for the past 2 years ). I find some boards on here to be too 'congested', with thoughts and opinions simply getting lost within seconds of being posted. The Hull and Sunderland boards are internet forums on speed.
Go on the Makems board and start voicing strong opinions. Guaranteed you'll get an argument. If you persist it'll get more vociferous. And within hours you'll be offered out for a straightener! Then the whole board descends into chaos with people offering each other out all over!
Having said that I don't live in Sunderland. Apparently they voted strongly for Brexit which is a bit odd to say the least when their largest employer is NIssan.
Bloomberg did a survey up there some months after the vote. Some of the answers they got were, 'don't know that much about it, but if Cameron's for it we're against' and, 'we'll, it's gotta be better than what we've got now, hasn't it?' And these are the kind of people that Cameron, to try and settle an intra party feud, gave the chance to make a decision on the future of the nation for generations to come!