Robots.txt

[adam]

i think even an occasional browser can use view new posts, just that they end up with more pages of threads to look at

[RiK]

One way to get more activity on the forum would be to integate the Llamasoft support forum into yakyak, or move yakyak to the support forum. I never really understood why they are seperate (but i'm sure someone will tell me ). People are more likely to track down the community if they have a problem that needs sorting out.

Well over the years Jeff has often pointed out that YY is *not* 'his' forum, rather a community of like-minded people that originally started out of a common interest, therefore it encompasses much more than just LS topics. The llamasoft/support forum was set up to be the 'official' llamasoft forum and which is the one specifically mentioned in the readme files for all the recent releases etc. Trouble is, that's backfired somewhat as it's not given much prominence on the actual Llamasoft website and in fact YY appears first and the LS forum is only labelled as 'Llamsoft tech Support' which is potentially confusing for new users. Not sure why they've done that but that's a decision Jeff/Giles have made so that's entirely their call.

[RiK]

i think even an occasional browser can use view new posts, just that they end up with more pages of threads to look at

Yes I know that. My comment was based on the fact int he past certain people have moaned that they only visited occasionally so 'view new posts' contained so many threads it was useless! How that is any different to viewing a whole forum of new threads is beyond me.

I think it's more the case that some people just aren't happy unless they're moaning about something.

[disciple]

google: llamasoft
1st result - http://www.llamasoft.co.uk - yakyak linked to off menu on front page and in about.

google: yakyak
1st result - http://www.yakyak.org

google: gridrunner
1st result - http://www.llamasoft.co.uk/gridrunner.php - yakyak linked to off menu on page

google: space giraffe
2nd result - http://www.llamasoft.co.uk - yakyak linked to off menu on front page and in about.

google: minter
2nd result - http://www.llamasoft.co.uk - yakyak linked to off menu on front page and in about

Not difficult to find, really.

To me there's another question. How many people are visiting, and how many of those are registering and posting? It's possibly a conversion issue, not number of visitors.

Personally I didn't find this place through a Minter related search term. To be honest I've only really become a fan since discovering this place - and that's completely valid, probably not unusual.

If the search results for yakyak.org back then were like they are now then I probably wouldn't be a member (yes, not necessarily a bad thing I know).

Reckon the conversion thing is an interesting discussion and certainly worth exploring, yeah this is going to play a role I reckon. I honestly think PVB's (and other's) welcome packs have a positive effect here, I remember when I joined up I felt this was a very welcoming place. To be honest it's something I've never seen on any other forum and one of the (small) things that makes Yakyak unique. =)

[gravy]

One way to get more activity on the forum would be to integate the Llamasoft support forum into yakyak, or move yakyak to the support forum. I never really understood why they are seperate (but i'm sure someone will tell me ). People are more likely to track down the community if they have a problem that needs sorting out.

That's a pretty good suggestion. It'd be very easy to make http://www.llamasoft.co.uk/support redirect to a forum here.

Rik's completely right about the historical reasons for their being a LS forum / YY split but it may be time to change that

Up to Yak / Giles though.

[craigt]

Well over the years Jeff has often pointed out that YY is *not* 'his' forum, rather a community of like-minded people that originally started out of a common interest, therefore it encompasses much more than just LS topics. The llamasoft/support forum was set up to be the 'official' llamasoft forum and which is the one specifically mentioned in the readme files for all the recent releases etc. Trouble is, that's backfired somewhat as it's not given much prominence on the actual Llamasoft website and in fact YY appears first and the LS forum is only labelled as 'Llamsoft tech Support' which is potentially confusing for new users. Not sure why they've done that but that's a decision Jeff/Giles have made so that's entirely their call.

That makes sense. Thanks for the explaination Rik.

So... In order to boost the membership two things are needed:

1. People have to find yakyak
2. People find stuff on yakyak on which they want to contribute to.

Regarding point 1 - Wandering surfers are not going to be searching for "yakyak" (since they don't know it exists). We want yakyak to be in the search results for up to date common search terms. Searching for "gridrunner revolution forum" brings up Something Awful as the first hit even though i'm sure it must be talked on here more. In fact, yakyak isn't even on the first page!

We need someone like Bruce Everiss to register and kick up a fuss. That always brings in the crowds

[edit - disciple has just touched on the same point]

[Zoot]

I still can't see why we *need* to do anything. As I said in my last post, it is what it is, and it lives or dies on that. Surely it would have the potential for backfiring on llamasoft (which I am sure no-one on here would want), if we tried to drag people in here and all they find is a load of inane banter?

To me you just have to accept the fact that it is different to what it was. Whilst I agree with RiK that it isn't a llamasoft forum (in that it isn't managed by Yak), there is no doubt that his presence made it seem so, and he has said on a couple of occasions that i remember that he was proud of the place. The fact is that, by design or not, he isn't around as much, and that makes the place less attractive to people who want to know about llamasoft (to be honest, when the blog was moved out of here - because of hassles with Unity IIRC - it lessened the place for me given that back-in-the-day NOTB was a major highlight. And yes, I know that there is a link to the new blog, but it isn't any easy click-to-read link, and so moves the man away from the place even more).

What you are left with, then, is just another forum with folks spouting, fighting, sometimes posting gems, and a few friends who have other things to do nowadays for the most part. It just is what it is, Isn't broken, it doesn't need fixing. It's just different to what it was.

[Foozwah]

Yeah, wot Zoot said.

[ElfQrin]

I really can't understand the fuss about forum sections and sub-forums. Some people seem to moan about them all the time so what to they do on their home PCs then, just stick everything in one big folder and hope they can find it again?

Should I allow random people to upload whatever on my home PC, yes, that's precisely what I'd do: a big "uploads" folder, and then I'd use the search function when needed, rather than searching for new files that people could have stored anywhere in my hard disk.

One way to get more activity on the forum would be to integate the Llamasoft support forum into yakyak, or move yakyak to the support forum. I never really understood why they are seperate (but i'm sure someone will tell me ). People are more likely to track down the community if they have a problem that needs sorting out.

That's a pretty good suggestion. It'd be very easy to make http://www.llamasoft.co.uk/support redirect to a forum here.

With just 71 threads and 460 posts in about one year and half from mostly the same people here, I don't think it will make a big deal of difference.

[gumboot]

It's called a filing system, it makes things you're interested in easier to find. I hear they're all the rage these days.

Fucking hell... where have you been the last decade? The current trend is to dump things in random places, disregard where they are, and let Google, Spotlight, or that stupid little dog in Windows sort it out. Most modern file select dialogues don't even bother to tell you the full path that you're looking at -- they just give the current folder name and pretend that there aren't any other folders that also have the name 'src', 'Debug', or 'stuff'. Nobody cares about your stupid filing system.

But I do agree in principle. If somebody feels that a board is too high-bandwidth for them then it's good to offer themed slices to which they can restrict themselves according to their interests.


By the way... although I don't personally see fit to try to fix anything, obviously somebody does. What was the problem, again? Am I right in assuming that what "we" want is for bots to fail to find this board, and "we" want humans to find this board -- possibly on the condition that they're likely to make an interesting contribution rather than change the nature of it in a way that "we" don't like?

Could we post a yakyak digest (or mirror), somewhere which includes links to yakyak.org, and which could be indexed by Google, but which isn't a board and couldn't be spammed by bots?

[gravy]

One way to get more activity on the forum would be to integate the Llamasoft support forum into yakyak, or move yakyak to the support forum. I never really understood why they are seperate (but i'm sure someone will tell me ). People are more likely to track down the community if they have a problem that needs sorting out.

That's a pretty good suggestion. It'd be very easy to make http://www.llamasoft.co.uk/support redirect to a forum here.

With just 71 threads and 460 posts in about one year and half from mostly the same people here, I don't think it will make a big deal of difference.

There's 149 users and I'd assume they're all LS fans. That's more people than post on a YY on a regular basis.

[Orava]

It's called a filing system, it makes things you're interested in easier to find. I hear they're all the rage these days.

Fucking hell... where have you been the last decade? The current trend is to dump things in random places, disregard where they are, and let Google, Spotlight, or that stupid little dog in Windows sort it out. Most modern file select dialogues don't even bother to tell you the full path that you're looking at -- they just give the current folder name and pretend that there aren't any other folders that also have the name 'src', 'Debug', or 'stuff'. Nobody cares about your stupid filing system.

Windows 7 cares! Today it stopped me from saving a picture from Paint to C:\ and forced "My Pictures" on me. It also gets really snooty if you try to do the same from Notepad but still allows it.

See, Microsoft cares.

[Jamesac]

I think it's more the case that some people just aren't happy unless they're moaning about something.

Which is why I'm dropping out of this particular topic. I said my bit and done, and anything else will be a bit to close to moaning for my taste, so best to stop now.

James

[Baggypants]

google: llamasoft
1st result - http://www.llamasoft.co.uk - yakyak linked to off menu on front page and in about.

google: yakyak
1st result - http://www.yakyak.org

google: gridrunner
1st result - http://www.llamasoft.co.uk/gridrunner.php - yakyak linked to off menu on page

google: space giraffe
2nd result - http://www.llamasoft.co.uk - yakyak linked to off menu on front page and in about.

google: minter
2nd result - http://www.llamasoft.co.uk - yakyak linked to off menu on front page and in about

Not difficult to find, really.

To me there's another question. How many people are visiting, and how many of those are registering and posting? It's possibly a conversion issue, not number of visitors.

But what if I google "Dog Biscuit PC"?

[gravy]

lol

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&so ... =&gs_rfai=