G'devening, chaps, and a soon-to-be Merry Christmas. In any regard, onto business. In my opinion, the Brickforge forums have a disappointingly small number of users and activity based on the quality and popularity of some of the products. A larger community would bring added interesting activity and, of course, customers. Anyhow, I have a few ideas, and would love to hear yours as well.
First of all- more contests. The new introduction of the weekly challenge was a good move in this regard, but larger contests would help as well.
Secondly- asking popular blogs to write about said contests/events. Big name blogs such as the Brothers Brick writing an article or making an announcement about us would increase traffic and encourage people to join the forums if they knew of an incentive to do so.
Finally- More forums exclusive items/discounts for forum members. Of course, in moderation. I just thing that offering exclusives more frequently would help attract business and members. In regards to the discount, I'm thinking something very small, such as a 3-5% discount off of the order, or we could spin it to something along the lines of an extra 1% off of the total with every $5 spent, or something like that.
Any thoughts, Bf folks? I just thought I'd throw in my two cents, and I'd love to hear yours.
As I finish writing this, it is in fact Christmas over here, so have a happy one, y'all!

I like the contest one, even if ya' don't win anything it's still fun to enter.

I think posting on blogs is a good idea. Perhaps the firebrands should post in forums about new contests?

Well I think that there should be more contests.

I think that more contests/forum-exclusive items would be great. I also think that adding additional forums for discussing things not necessarily related to Lego/BF would be helpful in adding to the community, even if only a general writing/reading forum and a general art forum, since we've already got a good amount of that going on, what with all the 'non-lego art' threads. I also think if we come up with some kind of Brick RPG forum thingy that would attract members; a role-play forum for sig-figs in different genres like sci-fi and fantasy, maybe a Brickstopia (sp?) world for RPing in.

I also think you might change the topic to 'Increasing' rather than 'Increased' because to me it sounded like BF had gotten a lot more people in it and I was confused when I read the OP.

OP? what's that?

Well to answer most of your questions, check out the scriptorium, also Discounts are already given of like 10% off on orders of $50 or more with even higher discounts the more you spend.

BF already has Forum exclusive items and contests too, although it would be nice if the contests had more BF goodies for prizes and were happening more.

Several sites have already blogged about BF and so on, best thing you can do is word of mouth from you the forum members.

Plus, while Armothe & co. want and encourage the community to join together and build and be creative, I don't think attracting more members to the forums is that big a deal. We had hundreds and hundreds of members at one point, but most of them weren't active and joined only to get the forum exclusives. More buyers to the shop? Yes, that'd be awesome for BrickForge. Tons more members? If they were active, yes, but if they were like over 60% inactive as we've experienced before, then I see it as being cluttered as does BF, causing the 'mass deletion'. So really, since there isn't any way to keep all the members that would join through such propoganda/advertising active, I don't see the forums needing much more traffic. That's what I think, at least.

1. Bringing back contests is being discussed currently, due to what I been doing recently. Expect something in spring. My "monthly" challenges are considered contests. Prizes is also being discussed, with variety to them.

2. I know a lot of people read the Ugly Duckling Blog, and he posts a lot about everything that happens on here, with it being new items and contests and even the special offers. Firebrands also tell people of new items.

3. The thing about forum exclusive items, it is a gamble on whether they sell or not. Armothe had so much left of the Red Crowbars that he changed them from being Forum Exclusive to Public, and even then he still has a crapload. Although the Tan Armor did quite well.

There is a problem with that. Most forums have a rule against advertising. Spreading awesomeness about BrickForge is great, but you also have to respect other sites and what you are allowed what to do.

And if you have any ideas for the forum, PMing Quickblade would be the best bet. That is the only way to make things happen is by initiating it.

-Omi

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