Future of Rainbowland Forums

Post by **SunSpire** » Sun Apr 03, 2011 10:34 pm

I got a bit frustrated about how quiet our community has become. In fact less than 10% seem to be posting nowadays, many members got more important things to deal with in real life (we all do, that's understandable) and others seem to be more active on larger communities such as facebook. FB has been a real killer for message board based communities (what's so special about farmville and "like" buttons anyway??)

At peak times we used to have over 400 members, many of them posting daily and there was a real sense of community here, nowadays it dropped to a tiny group of active members and I started to wonder whether or not running a RB community still makes sense in these modern times, when there are plenty of other social networks out there.

So because I am sure there are members out there who still care about this place I would like to hear your thoughts and opinions about where our community should go in the future. Convince us (the team and myself) that this community is worth keeping alive!!

"SunSpire"

Post by **Clinozoisite** » Mon Apr 04, 2011 1:39 am

At least 14 unique users have posted in the past week. The topics have ranged from eBay sales to custom dolls to collecting interests. In all, I think we have a pretty good forum here. I know that I enjoy stopping by, and visiting this forum is part of my daily internet routine.

Are we a good community? Not really. But that has less to do with the topics discussed than with the gathering of many type-A personalities in one place. With so many strong personalities coming together, there are bound to be some differences of opinion. However, if we all treated each other with a bit more respect (like taking personal pet-peeves to PM, rather than posting publicly about them), I think this would be a happier place. Considering we all love a television show about a magical little girl who brings light, color and happiness to the world, not very many folks display charitable attitudes towards the diversity of this forums' members.

Post by **Patreek** » Mon Apr 04, 2011 6:09 am

I'd hate to see this site close down. I think its really important that the brand have a forum like this. I think part of it is that there hasn't been a very successful relaunch of the brand yet.

I think the community here is large enough to merit keeping it going, but small enough that some of the issues you've mentioned are just part of the nature of smaller communities.

I know for me personally when I get busy visiting forums is the first thing I stop doing. As soon as things settle down though one of the first things I want to do is catch up on them. Its why I logged on tonight. I just finished a big stressful concert today and boom I'm back here wanting to catch up.

Post by **Rainbowbrite84** » Mon Apr 04, 2011 7:21 pm

I'd really hate for this site to close down. I may not post a million times a day, but being a member here I'm finally around people that love and appreciate Rainbow Brite just like I do. Our love for Rainbow Brite is what got all of us here in the first place.
With all this other 80s cartoon brands that still popular today, Rainbow Brite is just a distant memory to everyone. No one remembers her. I feel like all of us here are keeping her alive. It feels like all of us are her last surviving fans, and without this site Rainbow Brite would just die all together.
I understand that this is a forum, and we're to allowed to "voice our opinion", but sometimes peoples' comments can rude and inconsiderate. But isn't it like that in our everyday lives? No matter where you go, not everyone is going to agree or like your opinions. This place is no different. I don't think things like that should be the basis for shutting down the site.
We all LOVE Rainbow Brite. Why don't we continue to do that?

Post by **SunSpire** » Mon Apr 04, 2011 7:49 pm

It is nice to see people express their thoughts and opinions about the boards and there seems to be a considerable interest in keeping them up, so please carry on telling us what you'd like to see or happen in the future

"SunSpire"

Mon Apr 04, 2011 9:35 pm

Face it, there aren't that many people interested any longer. We have almost 200 members and the majority of them, 105 out of 193, have made 10 or fewer posts. Some of their last posts go back to 2008. Only 31 have 100 or more posts. Eight of that elite group are totally inactive. Ten more are only here once in a while. That means that only 13 people are the most active members. Of course others will come up and take the places of some of the inactive ones. I've been here a little over a year now and I've seen a lot of new members join but most of them soon disappear without a trace.

Looking at the member list, there are a few people I'd love to see back on here again but I doubt it will happen. Some of them (and us) played with the Gen 1 dolls as kids. Now they're grown up and have kids of their own with less free time. Worse yet, I strongly believe the Gen 4 fiasco turned some of that group away forever because the dolls were so different to the ones they loved and played with as children.

In a way it's too bad. We have several serious RB experts on here to share their knowledge and help newbies. It's just that we're not getting enough newbies to keep the pot boiling.

Post by **Dialga-Brite** » Mon Apr 04, 2011 11:46 pm

Im glad this site is here. Even if I dont post all the time, I like to be able to come here if I want to make a sale or share something cool about my collection. That would be very hard for me to find or do on facebook, I hope this site stays alive.

Post by **stormberryfairy** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 1:43 am

I agree the site isn't super active, but I really enjoy it nonetheless. I come her every day at least once, and sometimes I have things to say and sometimes I don't because there isn't anyone talking, lol. But I do always come and I would be sad if the site weren't here anymore. Maybe you could promote on FB or something to get more people interested? And we could all add the site link to our Ebay My Page or something too. I'd be willing to help promote the forum for sure.

Post by **Rainbow Brite** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 1:05 pm

stormberryfairy wrote:Maybe you could promote on FB or something to get more people interested? And we could all add the site link to our Ebay My Page or something too. I'd be willing to help promote the forum for sure.

Those are good ideas, stormberryfairy! Thanks

I know RB.co.uk and I use Facebook/Twitter to announce new RB news pieces to the masses, but the bulk of the real RB discussion takes place here. Because face it, RB has lots of fans, but not a lot of hardcore fans. And many of the hardcore fans just don't have as much time to devote to it as they used to - which is ok, as long as they come back and say hi every once in awhile

The only other discussion medium we have is the mailing list and that's used even more rarely than this board. So I definitely think it's worth keeping around. Without it, RB fandom would pretty much cease to exist

Post by **Clinozoisite** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 2:35 pm

Rainbow Brite wrote:The only other discussion medium we have is the mailing list

There is a Rainbow Brite ML?!