Your HA Facebook is Killing Your Forum

[WorldTraveler]

Winston, I don't know if you've noticed but your Happier Abroad Facebook is getting more traffic than your Forum. Most of the postings on Facebook are small one liners, where Forum is used for deeper discussion. I guess in this world of thinking in Twitter, most people would rather write one line snippets or get likes vs. have deeper discussions. Most bloggers or people that run forums use Facebook to announce new posts on their blog and don't use Facebook as the place to have the discussions. I'm assuming your traffic on your Forum is down, based on the lack of posters. I prefer the Forum to Facebook. Do want a good Facebook or a good Forum?

[Cornfed]

I agree with this. Facebook (a CIA information collection service) should be used sparingly or not at all.

[Rock]

Winston, I don't know if you've noticed but your Happier Abroad Facebook is getting more traffic than your Forum. Most of the postings on Facebook are small one liners, where Forum is used for deeper discussion. I guess in this world of thinking in Twitter, most people would rather write one line snippets or get likes vs. have deeper discussions. Most bloggers or people that run forums use Facebook to announce new posts on their blog and don't use Facebook as the place to have the discussions. I'm assuming your traffic on your Forum is down, based on the lack of posters. I prefer the Forum to Facebook. Do want a good Facebook or a good Forum?

I told Winston quite awhile ago that I wanted nothing to do with the alternative venues, that attention and focus should go only to the forum. Even when we introduced ideas such as the ladies forum or special forums for minorities, I argued that all that does is fragment an already small poster ship.

How many consistent posters are left on the HA forum? How many good interesting posts are produced each day? To me, it seems the quantity and quality has really dropped off as have the number of non-troll participants. Is this just my imagination???

Facebook is a very annoying distraction. I only use it to chat with friends or perhaps look at their pics and newsfeed items. I also can't stand having crap pasted and re-posted to me in PM, What's App, private email accounts, etc. Post it once and once only - in the forum!

Why is HA selling it's soul to Facebook and fragmenting it's fragile poster base?

[Banano]

Agree with Rock, quality and quantity has gone to the toilet

I see Winston is trying to revive some of the old posts but its too little to get this forum back on track he needs to attract new posters who will provide some interesting content.
'

[WorldTraveler]

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one that thinks the Forum has gone to nothing. I hate Facebook. It is such a waste of time. There are only about 10 people posting now regularly. Mr S. and Ladislav seldom post. Everyday someone else says they are leaving. Winston why are you posting long posts on Facebook instead of on the Forum? Everything should be here on this Forum.

[Mr S]

Also, FB doesn't bring Winston direct income, unlike his forum or other blog sites if he has any. Facebook groups, if he is going to use them, should probably be locked and keep other people from posting, allowing Winston to be the only one to post links or updates that redirects individuals back to the main forum to read and reply to topics there. He is actually killing his bread and butter, a slow death. As others have requested I believe posters wanted a real time chat room environment so since Winston has denied that request, those that wanted that option are using FB instead of the forum. If Winston doesn't modernize and adapt to the changing fickleness of online users, his forum will lose much of its appeal and his revenue may dramatically be reduced as readers go elsewhere.

I don't post much anymore cause there is no real decent dialogue among users here and there is little appeal to spending time writing decent material when there is no decent feedback. I think forums are a dying internet technology and will be used less and less as blogs and other social media with real time commenting will appeal to readers. I also think it's easy to put up ones own website now or blog and write for yourself with revenue generation rather than for someone else. Writing takes time and time is money so nowadays I would only post quality items to a personal site or get some kind of payment for posting.

Winston should maybe start thinking about where the trends are heading to preserve his main income stream or he may lose it in a few years. What Roosh has created with his ROK site is probably the direction Winston should be taking, quality written content under certain topic headings with main commentary by readers at the end of the written piece. Pay decent contributors a cut to continue writing content for the site, invite new writers on a trial basis. Keep the forum site going but know that it will be a slow death as internet trends change among the younger generations. Most forums appeal to the 30+ age demographic the teens and 20 somethings rarely use forums like this anymore, they don't have the attention span for it.

BTW, once I actually do get my own unrelated site up and running, posting to HA will be few and far between. Right now I only do it to kill time in between doing other things that I'm taking a break from so my days are numbered here as well and I'm assuming for others in similar a situation. It was good in its heyday, but trends have changed starting around 2012ish or so, and now it's becoming more and more noticeable that these kinds of forums will be going extinct. I give it less than 5 years, that's my prediction.

[Rock]

Also, FB doesn't bring Winston direct income, unlike his forum or other blog sites if he has any. Facebook groups, if he is going to use them, should probably be locked and keep other people from posting, allowing Winston to be the only one to post links or updates that redirects individuals back to the main forum to read and reply to topics there. He is actually killing his bread and butter, a slow death. As others have requested I believe posters wanted a real time chat room environment so since Winston has denied that request, those that wanted that option are using FB instead of the forum. If Winston doesn't modernize and adapt to the changing fickleness of online users, his forum will lose much of its appeal and his revenue may dramatically be reduced as readers go elsewhere.

I don't post much anymore cause there is no real decent dialogue among users here and there is little appeal to spending time writing decent material when there is no decent feedback. I think forums are a dying internet technology and will be used less and less as blogs and other social media with real time commenting will appeal to readers. I also think it's easy to put up ones own website now or blog and write for yourself with revenue generation rather than for someone else. Writing takes time and time is money so nowadays I would only post quality items to a personal site or get some kind of payment for posting.

Winston should maybe start thinking about where the trends are heading to preserve his main income stream or he may lose it in a few years. What Roosh has created with his ROK site is probably the direction Winston should be taking, quality written content under certain topic headings with main commentary by readers at the end of the written piece. Pay decent contributors a cut to continue writing content for the site, invite new writers on a trial basis. Keep the forum site going but know that it will be a slow death as internet trends change among the younger generations. Most forums appeal to the 30+ age demographic the teens and 20 somethings rarely use forums like this anymore, they don't have the attention span for it.

BTW, once I actually do get my own unrelated site up and running, posting to HA will be few and far between. Right now I only do it to kill time in between doing other things that I'm taking a break from so my days are numbered here as well and I'm assuming for others in similar a situation. It was good in its heyday, but trends have changed starting around 2012ish or so, and now it's becoming more and more noticeable that these kinds of forums will be going extinct. I give it less than 5 years, that's my prediction.

Yes, the reward for posting is some interesting feedback and active discussions. Seems like there's a lot less of that on this forum than even 2 years ago. So it can become a vicious cycle where people post less and less quality material and good posters slowly drop off but are not replaced. I've not been keeping exact numbers but this place just feels a lot deader than it used to be. And Winston also seems to be less active here than in the earlier days.

Perhaps you correct. Forums may be a dying medium. So you think ROK is one viable model for future? Any others?

Even if the posting falls off to almost nil, perhaps the existing content of this forum will continue to attract search engine results and keep the revenue flowing in for Winston? Or do you think it will slowly decline as the bulk of content becomes more and more dated?

[Mr S]

Well the forum will still exist as long as he pays the fees to keep it online, but I think the platform itself is not interactive enough for younger generations who need instantaneous feedback with short quips of communication back and forth rather than long form dialogues where one needs to have some focus skills to read and participate. Younger kids and adults have a hard time focusing on paragraphs longer than three sentences at a time. If you notice many sites are converting to this type of writing style. The long form paragraph is dying a slow death. Winston can still make get some revenue even if the forum becomes abandoned due to older postings, but yes the material will be dated and maybe people aren't interested in old dialogues past a few years old. IT won't happen overnight, but it will be noticeable every 6 months to a year that there is less and less participation.

Like I said if I were Winston I'd start doing research on what's working nowadays for discussion themed websites and start converting to that before it's too late. However, I'm pretty sure he won't as he will be in denial about this and also he is probably too lazy to do a mass over hall of his websites to a more modern format to maximize tablet and phone viewing. This forum type software is designed for traditional computers with a screen and laptop. Most people are converting to tablets or smart phones where its scrolling and tapping and forums like this don't work on those. Yeah, the big change over isn't necessarily here yet but the tidal wave is on the horizon and approaching rapidly. Like I said Winston has less than 5 years to adapt, maybe less than 3 depends on the technology and software changes and affordability for the average person.

Winston is wasting alot of potential revenue writing his long detailed essays and posting them on here or facebook rather than a better organized website like ROK that is better organized and easier to read on all technology platforms. He can still put ad revenue on these sites but people can choose to read certain quality topics or authors with specific commentary on that piece of writing rather than a hodgepodge of anything goes in this outdated forum format.

[Banano]

Something radical needs to be done, forum is becoming hopeless with bleak future
Winston can starts advertising HA movement on TV and local radio stations, people listen to the radio every time they are in the car and Americans live in their cars.

Infomercial style advertising, something like ....Winston approaches US women she rejects him by punching him in the guts and abuses him by calling him fatso Asian creep, 1 week later....Winston goes overseas, becomes gigolo, celebrities pay him for sex...HA.com receives million hits within 1 hour, revenue skyrockets, Winniez back in AC doing p4p

[Mr S]

Traditional radio and TV platforms are dying. New cars are not even going to be equipped with traditional radios as standard anymore. Podcasts and internet streaming is the new fad nowadays. Winston probably would need to do some kind of regular podcast as well as weekly decent quality videos that are entertaining enough to lure watchers and listeners with the added option of visiting his website, but this would need a drastic reinvention of his brand so it can move smoothly into the next decade and I don't see that happening.

[xiongmao]

HA was a great idea. And the idea has caught on as there are huge numbers of people in Barcelona alone who are trying out to see if they would be Happier Abroad. Plus there are even more folks back home who see my photos from here and wish they could also be Happier Abroad.

Trouble is Winston has no focus and the site is full of junk. Also it looks so out of date. Men who want good HA related info these days go to Roosh or the other places out there. Winston needs to sell his soul to an investment cartel like the Warrior Forum did a year or two back. Then they could bring in ideas and new ways of thinking.

[BlackKnight]

Infomercial style advertising, something like ....Winston approaches US women she rejects him by punching him in the guts and abuses him by calling him fatso Asian creep, 1 week later....Winston goes overseas, becomes gigolo, celebrities pay him to for sex...HA.com receives million hits withing 1 hour, revenue skyrockets, Winniez back in AC doing p4p

Lol

[The]

The forum is utter trash....The users are trash, moderation is trash, the site is trash....I just come here, say what I got to say and then leave....

[Winston]

OP,
You aren't making any sense here. Our Facebook group isn't that big. FB is a marketing tool that every movement and business uses. It's a necessity these days. If every movement is using it, then there must be a good reason for it. FB has the potential to attract new people who are on FB to our movement. So it probably brings in MORE traffic here than takes away from it. There is no evidence that our FB group is taking away our forum members. That is pure speculation. What gave you that idea?

The FB group posters are mostly different members from the forum posters anyway. Most in our group there do not post here. Also, some of the FB posters prefer to post on there because it is now a closed group that only members can view. So they can post without being read by the public. Some guys prefer that.

Some people prefer being on FB anyway. It's a matter of personal choice. The HA members on FB can invite their other FB friends to the group, which in turn means that they will find out about our site and come here, thus bringing in more traffic. So that should help us.

FB is an important marketing tool. This is common sense. Everyone knows this. So how could you say the opposite? Weird. Why do the other posters not see the obvious here? It's like you are saying that 2+2=5 and no one sees the mistake except me. Very weird and Twilight Zone like.

Also, the traffic on this forum has been going UP. Go to the index page and scroll down to the bottom, and you will see that during the day, we have an average of 60 users online at any given time. It used to be 30 or 40. So that's a definite increase in visitors.

I do post links to this forum in our FB group. We could start a FB fan page too. But I don't want to manage a new FB page.

Rock,
Everyday there are many new topics here. I told you many times to go to the Active Topics page and you will see many. I gave you the link many times too.

search.php?search_id=active_topics

[Winston]

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one that thinks the Forum has gone to nothing. I hate Facebook. It is such a waste of time. There are only about 10 people posting now regularly. Mr S. and Ladislav seldom post. Everyday someone else says they are leaving. Winston why are you posting long posts on Facebook instead of on the Forum? Everything should be here on this Forum.

You are again in error. I do not post long posts only in the FB group. They are usually CROSS POSTED both here and on FB. I just copy and paste from here to there. I use the mailing list to drive traffic here too. I've done everything by the book. I could have the mailing list sign up box pop up, but that would be annoying.

There are more than 10 people posting regularly. That was debunked long ago remember? I listed in another thread a list of 40 or 50 names that post here regularly or occasionally. I can't find it now though because I don't remember the name of that thread. But Rock saw it and so I thought the matter was settled. He assumed that there were only a dozen posters, but there were actually a lot more. I listed the names and Rock shut up after that. Now he's pretending it never happened? WTF? Is there a conspiracy going on here?

Why is it that when I do something, you guys ask me to repeat it? It's annoying having to repeat something that's been discussed or shown already. Why do some of you have amnesia?