That is right Isa....But ours (in Zurich) is not to and that is what I am wondering...why?? :P
Ehsaan, Nov 6, 2008 @ 15:06

It's a different bunch of apples in Zurich :P

Not only do then NOT post NMIntro, but hardly ever participate in the Forums period ;)

That's the bigger question.
YouMeCo, Nov 6, 2008 @ 15:11

Isn't it a case that the forums in general are still dominated by people in Swiss-French parts of CH?



A hypothesis. Focussing on forums only.



Glocals, as a result of its history, remains pretty Geneve (or at least Swiss-French) dominated, right? I know, I know: the dudes are trying to spread and and get all over CH, but at the moment it does remain that way, especially on the forums. Just look down any of the recent threads; we're almost all in GE / VD.



So, OK, the are 2 major English speaking forums in Switzerland: this one and the other one. In terms of forums alone, the other one is much more active. To contrast briefly (sorry folks...) the other one has a similar number of members, and right now has 50% more people online. But more importantly they are much more Swiss-German centred than Glocals. They also have an Introductions section and just scrolling down it, there is loads of Zurich in there (and some Geneva/Lausanne too).



Could it be that new Zurichers naturally gravitate towards the Swiss-German forum?



Anyway, it appears their servers are in Luzern. You could bomb them.
hayes, Nov 6, 2008 @ 15:24

Thanks Isa for getting the ball rolling.... ;)

Hayes, you have enlightened us.... :P where do we get the bomb from?
Ehsaan, Nov 6, 2008 @ 17:09

[quote][b]

Ehsaan (06/11/2008)[/b]



Hayes, you have enlightened us.... :P where do we get the bomb from?[/quote]



Well, it's just speculation... there may be some other reason. That was just what jumped to mind. I suspect some of the people who have actually be trying to promote Glocals will have a better feeling for it. You know, as opposed to the people that just hit refresh and sigh.



See your private messages re: the bomb.
hayes, Nov 6, 2008 @ 18:02

Well, it's just speculation... there may be some other reason. That was just what jumped to mind. I suspect some of the people who have actually be trying to promote Glocals will have a better feeling for it. You know, as opposed to the people that just hit refresh and sigh.

See your private messages re: the bomb.[/quote]

Its OK....I don't need any bomb...we have several "bombs" in Zurich!! ;)
Ehsaan, Nov 6, 2008 @ 18:21

Hey Guys,

Thanks for bringing up this topic. We also noticed that the Zurich folks are less active on all forums, incl the New-Member-Intros (compared to GVA folks), and we think there's at-least 3 reasons for it, listed below. Would love to hear your feedback & ideas on how to improve thing:

1. The # of members is Zurich is 93% lower than that in GVA, so we'd expect to see far less forum posts from Zurich. In GVA we're 20K members, in Zurich 1.5K (althogh Zurich is now growing very fast). GVA members generate around 70 forum posts / day, means we should expect around 5 Zurich posts a day... 
2. In Zurich, we focus glocals.com marketing more on a community for 'Doing Real Activities with Real People', and less as an online Forum. We do this both because this is indeed what glocals is all about, and also because - as Hayes said - an established discussion forum already exists in Zurich, focused more on discussions and less on real-life activities.
3. In Zurich we're less known & trusted than in GVA, so people are a bit hesitant to 'expose' them-selves on the Forums. Many Zurich folks are still figuering us out...(-:

All feedback / ideas / thoghts very welcome,

Nir
Nir Ofek, Nov 6, 2008 @ 20:37

[quote]> Many Zurich folks are still figuering us out...(-:



You don't think they have already reached a conclusion, like say, uhm.. let's not get involved in the forums - these ppl are bonkers!?[/quote]



you always make me laugh bedrock! how about this: maybe they have demanding jobs and thus can't spend all day writing posts on forums???



:)
Minda, Nov 6, 2008 @ 22:24

you always make me laugh bedrock! how about this: maybe they have demanding jobs and thus can't spend all day writing posts on forums???

:)[/quote]

Minda, I am one of those victims :crying:
Ehsaan, Nov 6, 2008 @ 22:34

:pinch: i'm with E! ... no comment...:alien:
YouMeCo, Nov 6, 2008 @ 23:09

Hah.

I'm no new member, so why introduce me?

;-)

I do post in the forums, but hardly anybody asks questions I have answers for ;-)



And during the day, I usually have no time.

Or I have time, but post in other forums ;-)
rainer_d, Nov 7, 2008 @ 16:36

[quote][b]

Nir_ (06/11/2008)[/b]

2. In Zurich, we focus glocals.com marketing more on acommunity for 'Doing Real Activities with RealPeople', and lessas an onlineForum. We do this both because this is indeed what glocals is all about, and also because - as Hayes said - an established discussion forum already exists in Zurich, focused more on discussions and less on real-life activities.
3. In Zurich we're less known & trusted than in GVA, so people are a bit hesitant to 'expose' them-selves on the Forums. Many Zurich folks are still figuering us out...(-:

[/quote]



Yeah,,, it's taken me a long time to get this though my thick skull but I think I've got it now. Glocals is more of a meeting and doing stuff thing than a forum. I don't go to many Glocals things: I went to one big party that I didn't enjoy, and one pub thing that I would describe as general. That was when I was trying to shake myself out of a low spell. Everything else has been concerts and stuff where some amount of common-ground with the people you meet is more-or-less guaranteed.



I was talking about Glocals with a friend-of-a-friend the other day about just this and I said something like: nah, I don't go to much general stuff, no parties or sushi or pub-crawls or hiking or wine & tapas for me. I mainly just hang out on the forums and annoy people with my verbosity. And I was absolutely flabbergasted when the guy said: what? there are forums too?



I think I've said this to you before, (Nir_; and also to your bro), that lively forums on a site are a really major draw to me. When I encounter a new site, the first thing I do is go and lurk the forums to get a feel for who these people are: what their angles are, what topics come up for discussion. To try and find people who are creative and find good ways of playing with the text. And just to get a feel for what kind of people I could be encountering there.



I'm not a member of the other CH forum but I do lurk it from time to time and I search it when I'm looking for information about things I can't find here. I'm a bit jealous of their forums and part of me thinks I would be better suited there. If it weren't for (a) the fact that it's Swiss-German centric and (b) I will leave CH in a year from now, I would definitely consider giving it more of my time.



I guess what I'm trying to get across is that for me, vibrant forums provide a really strong motivation to get involved with a community. I can't be the only person like me, although I do get the feeling that not that many Glocalers share this opinion. Just think about the number of expats there are out there who get bored for an hour at work and are looking for a bit of entertainment. Anyway: my advice (if you can call it that) is not to neglect your forums. Don't regard them as a thing that's tacked onto the other, more important part of the site.



I know we're all responsible for the content of the forums, and it's a bit shit to complain about the lack of activity when I could quite easily go and start any threads I want myself. Only it's just a bit disheartening to make an effort to write something cool, only to see it slide off the bottom of the page with nothing.



Anyway, that's it. Good weekends, all.
hayes, Nov 7, 2008 @ 19:33