How to Get More Users

My goal is to get 10,000 registered members by the end of the year on this web site. Currently we are at 760 which is a great start but the trend is definitely slowing down. There are so many people out there that do not know about this site yet. How do we reach them? Post you ideas and thoughts here.

Tom

How about starting with a "News from the Church" article on the LDS Daily News mailing list, which also gets posted on LDS.org?

I found this through Joel's Blog which I found when the Tech Talks were briefly advertised on the lds.org homepage. I'm sure that web space on the main LDS site is tough to claim....

Many users of the site are likely the ward/stake website administrators. In general an administrator news page or email list would be a welcome idea--and what better way to inagurate such an email list/news group than an add for the Tech Forum.

Also, a huge tech-saavy population is currently being educated in the Chruch's universities (and associated institutes). A strategically placed announcement in the Computer Science department or institute bulletin board would reap numerous new users, I am sure.

captaz wrote:Also, a huge tech-saavy population is currently being educated in the Chruch's universities (and associated institutes). A strategically placed announcement in the Computer Science department or institute bulletin board would reap numerous new users, I am sure.

I used some of my contacts at BYU to get the word around to a few teaching assistants and professors for the Tech Talks. In one case, a teaching assistant told his whole class about the Tech Talk.

I think it would be a great idea to reach out to the whole BYU (and the U, and UVSC, etc. for that matter) CS department somehow. I know the CS department sends announcements regularly to all of it's students about upcoming events and meetings. Most CS students definitely read those emails (and in some cases attend). If there was an announcment about the Tech Forums, I bet you many would be willing to give it a look.

Tom, I know one or two email address you could try (heads of the CS department in Provo). Let me know if you are interested.

Some great ideas! Keep 'em coming!

Tom

You could allow the creation of "LDS Tech Chapters" around the country. Someone in each city could recruit local techies to be part of the local group and the global group.

I had similar thoughts about an LDS Tech Association with local chapters throughout the world. I discussed my ideas in this [thread=111]thread[/thread]. In summary, I think this site could become a "HQ" for the LDS Tech Community Association similar to the BYU Alumni Association or BYU Management Society. This site could host templates for charters, resources, directories on the non-forum pages. Membership could have a small fee to receive a membership card, hold regular meetings. These groups could work in conjunction with the above named BYU and other Church/non-Church affiliated groups. They could also host "Tech Talks" as they hopefully spread around the country or hold their own events as long as they follow certain guidelines to protect the Church's interests and image.

kgthunder wrote:...I discussed my ideas in this [thread=111]thread[/thread]...

Sorry, I just have to quickly complement kgthunder's use of the thread tags, keeping the link relative even if we move domains or something!

The exact text was as follows:

[noparse][thread=111]thread[/thread][/noparse]

Thanks kgthunder!

No problem... I learned from last time when I got burned for direct links.

I learned from [post=923]last time[/post] when you tried to fix my link

I sent out an email to the mailing lists for my department at BYU (Information Systems). Hopefully it will spark some interest. I gave them some background on this site, the Tech Talks. I gave links to the various blogs/sites (ldswebguy.com, northtemple.com, familysearchlabs.org, etc...)

kgthunder wrote:I sent out an email to the mailing lists for my department at BYU (Information Systems). Hopefully it will spark some interest. I gave them some background on this site, the Tech Talks. I gave links to the various blogs/sites (ldswebguy.com, northtemple.com, familysearchlabs.org, etc...)

Awesome! Thanks!

Tom

Try sending an E-Mail to all the Registered Priesthood leaders and Family History Consultants who have registered with the Church Family History Department and ask them to pass the word along.

Also you could send an E-Mail to all those who have registered to help in the Beta2 testing of the NewFamilySearch Help Forums.

You could also send an anouncement to the Area Family History Representatives to pass on to all the Family History Centers.

tomw wrote:My goal is to get 10,000 registered members by the end of the year on this web site. Currently we are at 760 which is a great start but the trend is definitely slowing down. There are so many people out there that do not know about this site yet. How do we reach them? Post you ideas and thoughts here.

Tom

Tom,

I just added the LDS Tech link to my Stake Additional Resources page!! I think I'll go through and add it to all of my Wards' homepages as well....maybe add a blurg in the News and Information section.

Your challenge is so much like what the Stake/Ward Web site administrators are dealing with....how do we get members to register on the Web sites? I have the feeling because of the "newness" of these programs (remember when most people didn't know about e-mail?), it will take time. Just like the children of Israel wandering in the wilderness for 40 years, I feel like this progress is for those 2 (or more) generations behind me (an old granny). I find the people older (and even a little younger) aren't interested/computer literate as I am. I've always been on the cutting edge of technology and wondering why things that I have thought of haven't been put into production yet. Technology can't go fast enough to catch up with me yet. I've always been ahead of my time....

Sister Phyl

Getting the word out to new people is definitely important, but keeping them coming back is even more important in the long run. So far I have seen a lot of good ideas, suggestions, or gripes about how Church technology works in these forums. I haven't seen a lot of discussion regarding how to develop systems which interact with or reference Church data. Chatting about ideas only goes so far... chatting about doing stuff will go much farther towards filling the purpose of this site.

On the other hand, hacking Church systems or data isn't sometime we should promote. There obviously is a lot of issues around using personal data and distributing it... hence the reason why the Church has implemented their own Stake/Ward sites rather than letting each unit develop their own. If it doesn't already exist, the community needs guidelines regarding what is and what is not acceptable to do with the knowledge they can glean from these forums (eventually).

haledn wrote:If it doesn't already exist, the community needs guidelines regarding what is and what is not acceptable to do with the knowledge they can glean from these forums (eventually).

I'm working on just such guidelines. It takes a while as I have to meet with various departments, discuss changes in technologies, etc. But you are absolutely right in that without such guidelines, it is difficult to know what a person can or cannot do and/or how they can help.

Tom

When I first heard about the site, I hadn't noticed the forums, so all I did was subscribe to the RSS feed. But thats been pretty quiet, and it wasn't until yesterdays post about stats/visits/etc that I found out about the forums. So more RSS content could help - maybe a featured forum post now and then?

I think the Church News article was a good suggestion, also places like LDS About, etc. Maybe get everyone to link to here on a set date at del.icio.us/digg/etc

I think the biggest issue is that the coverage is so broad it's hard to figure out just who it will appeal to other then general propeller heads who happen to be LDS. (That's me!) It's not a support site so it limits the interest of clerks, LUWS admins, Stake Technologies Specialists, FHC Techs, FHC Directors, etc. It's not really an official "features request" site. There's currently no Open Source program going on or a similar project.

Personally I think the site it too broad and lacking in depth to pull large numbers.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, uh, corrupted MP3, set up an official user-to-user support area for some of the things mentioned above and I think you'll have your hands full. Or a open project of some kind. I think the site has promise, but it needs to go somewhere.

If we could get something mentioned about it in either the Friend or the Ensign, I think we'd be hitting a good number of members too. Not sure if that's a possibility or not, but it's worth a try if we can do it.

Other than that, word of mouth/email is about the only option we've got other than posting it on ward sites and/or personal sites, but we've got the same problems getting people to come to those.

Take a trip up to the church on one of the nights where your family history work is done, and drop a line while you're there. Talk to the people about changes they would like to see or problems that they encounter here, and then come and post about it. Then the next time you see them, let them know you posted it here and that they could come and see what people have to say about it, and can get in on finding a solution themselves.

I think if we spread the word to the general populus of the church in a manner more along the lines of, come and share your ideas and concerns, rather than come to the "Tech" website (the word "tech" nearly translates into something evil to those who are scared of it, or who don't care about it), then I think we'll have a better turn out. If you start talking about it being technical right off the bat, you're likely to scare of just as many (if not more) than you can pull in because they'll imediately think that everything is going to be way over their heads.

Just a random couple of copper pieces thrown out there.

RussellHltn wrote:I think the biggest issue is that the coverage is so broad it's hard to figure out just who it will appeal to other then general propeller heads who happen to be LDS. (That's me!) It's not a support site so it limits the interest of clerks, LUWS admins, Stake Technologies Specialists, FHC Techs, FHC Directors, etc. It's not really an official "features request" site. There's currently no Open Source program going on or a similar project.

Personally I think the site it too broad and lacking in depth to pull large numbers.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, uh, corrupted MP3, set up an official user-to-user support area for some of the things mentioned above and I think you'll have your hands full. Or a open project of some kind. I think the site has promise, but it needs to go somewhere.

Your ideas are already in the works. If approved you may see some specialized forum sites for some of the ideas you have already mentioned. Part of the purpose of this web site was to work out how we (the Church) would operate forums. Your help is invaluable.

Keep the ideas coming!

Tom

tomw wrote:Your ideas are already in the works.

A couple of thoughts:

One might be to keep some of the existing support groups as unofficial but simply help spread the word of their existence (with appropriate disclaimers). It might even be a good idea to find of volunteers to sift though the messages and kick upstairs the valid problems and ideas to relieve the staff from having to keep up with a ton of mundane posts like "How do I become a LUWS admin?" This limits the issue of "control" and the image of the church.

(Sound of more pennies landing in the penny jar)

JasonG wrote:If we could get something mentioned about it in either the Friend or the Ensign, ...

In reference to promoting the Forums in the Friend magazine...

I know kids at the age of 8 nowadays can use a computer better than most of us. However, I think they should get their parents' permission before signing up for an account on the Tech forums here.

Just kidding around...

RussellHltn wrote:There's currently no Open Source program going on or a similar project.

If you are refering to church sponsered open source then you are correct, but as for open source projects we have a few that have been started, albeit slow going.
.

• [thread=47]VCard2Outlook[/thread] (2nd page) Hosted at: SourceForge
• [thread=28]LDS Meeting Manager[/thread] Hosted at SourceForge
• [thread=113]Scripture Software[/thread] Hosted BYU Personal Page but will move to SourceForge once someone creates a project for it.
• [thread=170]Scouting Software[/thread] Currently no place is hosting as a source control.
• [thread=203]MLS Companion[/thread] Currently ideas are being thrown around, no project has been started yet.
• [thread=207]LUWS Interface[/thread] Currently not being hosted anywhere but in development.

.
I think that is a comprehensive list of the Open Source Projects that are being worked on or that have been created because of these forums.

thedqs wrote:II think that is a comprehensive list of the Open Source Projects that are being worked on or that have been created because of these forums.

I stand corrected, although there doesn't seem to be much action at the moment. Perhaps it's moved over the SourceForge area.

BTW, if it hasn't been done already, a listing of current projects would be a good thing for the announcement area.

thedqs wrote:If you are refering to church sponsered open source then you are correct, but as for open source projects we have a few that have been started, albeit slow going.
.

• [thread=47]VCard2Outlook[/thread] (2nd page) Hosted at: SourceForge
• [thread=28]LDS Meeting Manager[/thread] Hosted at SourceForge
• [thread=113]Scripture Software[/thread] Hosted BYU Personal Page but will move to SourceForge once someone creates a project for it.
• [thread=170]Scouting Software[/thread] Currently no place is hosting as a source control.
• [thread=203]MLS Companion[/thread] Currently ideas are being thrown around, no project has been started yet.
• [thread=207]LUWS Interface[/thread] Currently not being hosted anywhere but in development.

.
I think that is a comprehensive list of the Open Source Projects that are being worked on or that have been created because of these forums.

I started a new [thread=228]thread here[/thread]. Let's keep a record of all open source projects for people to get involved with.

Tom

mkmurray wrote:In reference to promoting the Forums in the Friend magazine...

I know kids at the age of 8 nowadays can use a computer better than most of us. However, I think they should get their parents' permission before signing up for an account on the Tech forums here.

Just kidding around...

Alright, switch "Friend" out for "New Era", and it'll make a little more sense. :p

Oh, I didn't see this thread when I posted a reply to the one in which you announced the goal itself.

I would suggest sending it in a "Tip of the Week" announcement to all the MLS computers, inviting any geeks out there to check out this website. Perhaps you could put a note at the bottom of the message to please print it and post it on a local bulletin board for a while.