Gee Dave, why didn't I think of that. Here I was naively assuming GLOWs are the root cause of forum participation. After all, Bob's lament comes after HL started making them. LOL!

JC, being the market share maven, no doubt has some stats or at least reasonable theories about forum participation.

Let's consider some other factors.

1. I just did a Google search on "Harbour Lights". Out of the top 40 results, the Collector Forums are missing. I'll suggest that is a primary factor - perhaps the top reason - why a person does not come to this site.

So how does a site cause itself to get listed with search engines? A good place to get info and answers is at Search Engine Submission Tips . There are other sites with answers - just feed the following phrase "How to get your site on search engines" into Google search and review results. The bottom line answer is $$ - if you want your site to become known, have a search engine submission budget.

2. If he hasn't done so already, I'll suggest JC run a study from actual login stats for info such as:
a) frequency of visits - how many people (not who) visit the forums N (2, 5, 10, etc.) times per day, week, month.
b) average amount of time over which a person visits and/or posts at least N times per week/month.
c) keep an eye on 'page views this month' (thus far for November it is 63,502). It would be interesting to see this graphed across a year to gauge which months typically have higher participation. (I believe the numbers are kept in the forum directory somewhere - look for a file or directory named 'Counter'.)
d) tell us your favorite Forum. Vote Here

3. I'll conjecture there are participation patterns that follow collecting patterns. It is not uncommon for someone really to get hooked on Harbour Lights Collecting, spend lots of time and money in the initial blush of enthusiasm, then taper off (or even get burnt out). We certainly have seen a few folks burst upon the scene here, post regularly for several months (occasionally for a year or two) and then disappear. On to the next big thing in their life.

4. Having tied ourselves to Harbour Lights, yes forum pariticipation is probably somewhat subject to enthusiasm about their models. As the company has shifted their focus from Collectibles to giftware, so the focus of their audience has changed. I'll conjecture that giftware collectors (small 'c') are not as fanatic or hobbyistic (?) as Limited Edition Collectors. And thus, not as likely to participate in discussions as frequently. See Dave, I knew I could work the G-word in here some how. :-)

5. Akuna Mattata - don't worry about forum participation. We've been going for several years now and there has always been a core group (not necessarily all the same people). The discussion ebbs and flows. Also, there are always lurkers about - at the time of this posting the FSB shows 36 Recent Visitors and about 1/3 of those are 'Guests'.

The real strength of the Forums is the sense of community established among folks over time, not new member churn (imo).

Broadcasting live from WFSB,
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/im