Originally Posted by kewlJ View Post
Originally Posted by cyberbabble View Post
WoVs new owners told the Wiz to get some activity going on WoV. Wiz brought back Nathan since she reliably posts most days.
Wiz got a little more activity than he expected.

This may not be true but I can post it here without being banned.
I kind of figured this a strong possibility as well. As far as the forum, back in the heyday when I joined the active member visits for any given day were 300plus. That is not really an active number because many members like Axelwolf for example choose the "invisible" feature at WoV and don't show up in the active member list even if they posted several times that day. I don't know why people choose that feature or what the advantage is, but some choose it here as well. Come to think of it, I am invisible here I believe.

So for the sake of comparison, lets just say that number members that visited is half what it really is. Back in the day, the 300+, really equated to 600. Just for the sake of this discussion.

So it dropped throughout the years, with several specific incidents resulting or showing significant dips. Some of those would be right after I was nuked, (we will call the Norm incident), When new ownership bought the forum (some AP's had a real problem with casino related ownership), When Dark oz reveal some AP info (sorry Darkoz, but there was a big backlash), When Mdawg started posting and the resulting dustup of people being suspended for simply saying they didn't believe his crazy story.

So that number that shows went to from 300+, settled for a period at around 220 or 225, settled for another period at around 180, settled again between 125 and 150 and now is around 100, and even below 100 of weekends and holidays.

Honestly I don't know how important, if any that forum part even was to the casino bonus dudes, but if it was, they might have asked Wizard to do something to build it up and get some members back. If Mikes response was to allow Karen Nathan back, he is an idiot. There are a lot of much better, more valuable members he should have tried to get back. Some one like Maxpen for instance, or Mickeycrimm. Mickey no longer has the issue that he was banned for (drunk posting ). He has indicated he is not interested in a return, but that is the kind of think Mike should have gone for, not Karen.

And if I am Mike's issue, you don't have to worry, Shacky, you could throw open the doors to everyone and I wouldn't wander back. Not without major other changes anyway.
I can't say this with absolute certainty, but my tendency is to think that you guys are overestimating the level to which the owners care about forum activity. They're certainly not going to refuse increased activity (provided same is within the rules), but I seriously doubt that Wizard was specifically directed to bring Nathan back to increase activity...or even that Wizard received a directive to get forum activity up whatsoever.

Given that I write for the sites, and do not participate on the forums as much as I theoretically could...my inclination is to believe that the owners and/or Wizard would come directly to me and ask whether I could pick up my own forum participation a little bit, if that was a high priority objective, and no such conversation has ever happened.

I don't know why some people are invisible. I like people to know that I'm on as, the closer to real-time a discussion/debate that I'm having with someone is, then the more the situation is to my advantage; I don't generally need any time (brief research, when applicable, aside) to think of what to say. Anyone who knows me (off forum) would probably tell you that my brain is pretty quick and I can speak, in real time, just as eloquently as I'm capable of writing. I'm not trying to brag; that's just the truth of the matter---you can take it as bragging, if you wish.

With that, I think Wizard let Nathan back in because he wanted Nathan back in. I don't think it had anything to do with any sort of directive to bolster forum activity; I will say that is a harmless speculation to make, but not one that I think is particularly likely.

ADDED: Another quick point that I neglected to make is that, if the owners cared about forum activity for its own sake, then they wouldn't have restricted/would change course on and allow for political discussions again.