Approaching 20,000 strong!

[TickleTheater]

Yes, it has been awhile since the last news posting, but to be fair there wasn't really much to report on until now. 🙂

I'm pleased to announce that we're slowly but surely approaching 20,000 strong! Which will make us, and correct me if I'm wrong, the first tickle board ever to reach that milestone. Not only that, but in a few short months we'll be coming up on our 2 year anniversary...so, what are you going to get us? (j/k)

Also, there are plans being made to resurrect the famed Clips and Images sections that haven't really been touched upon this year. However, I shouldn't have to tell you about the thousands and thousands of clips already available and constantly added to in our community forums.

Finally, we have a little surprise cooking up for everyone that will be released for this summer season... 😉 As always, take care!

 

[TickleTheater]

Server is having a bit of a fit today, hopefully that will die down soon.

 

[Celtic_Emperor]

If we are the first board to reach said milestone then that is easily just as much an achievement as it is actually making it to 20,000. Good for you. Good for us.

 

[cosquillero1]

I like this site, is really great, much better than TicklingForum (without offense, only my honest opinion).

 

[nessonite1]

Does 'spanking invisible person' dance.
Oh yeah!
We're so damn cool...

 

[Celtic_Emperor]

Invisble person Ness? Who is this invisible person, and why haven't you introduced us?

And I will agree cosquillero that TT does have a few advantages over the TMF. For starters its uses a more recent interface and has many more posting options than the standard vb bulletin that the TMF uses. It gets more traffic, and it has much more material. Its also more user-friendly both in navigation and user options.

The only downside is that all of these things slow TT down considerably. The TMF is much faster, pages loading in a few moments, seconds even, whereas here you have to wait for a minute or more on standard dial-up.

Overall, the TT experience makes up for this one and only draw-back. TT is very much of a theater quality whereas the TMF is like a home entertainment system.

When it comes to just general discussions and debates, I have to give it to the TMF. We don't have that same kind of activity here and we have more members. Most of the veteran posters and members of the community are on the TMF as well. But then again, here on TT we artists and contributors can upload our material directly without having to hassle a server.

So maybe it is a toss-up. One is certainly not better than the other, since its not about that. But clearly they have advantages and setbacks over the other.

I think what TT needs now to become eveb better is more general discussion. I've noticed that even entire days at a time have gone by without anyone posting anything new or starting a new topic.

It is my experience that forums that have good, sturdy general discussion builds character, gains you experience socially, and it solidifies the community in another way other than through the media.

More general discussion is what I'd personally like to see more of as we hit the 20,000 mark.

Anyone else with other ideas?

 

[Robie_F]

Invisble person Ness? Who is this invisible person, and why haven't you introduced us?

And I will agree cosquillero that TT does have a few advantages over the TMF. For starters its uses a more recent interface and has many more posting options than the standard vb bulletin that the TMF uses. It gets more traffic, and it has much more material. Its also more user-friendly both in navigation and user options.

I have to agree. Both forums have different things to offer as well as Halticklings and BigJim's forums.

We each serve different needs of the same community.

As for traffic? Who knows. I see a lot more at the TMF when you look at "currently on" stats, but that doesnt mean much.

Member counts dont mean a lot as there are far too many of us who have multiple accounts. I would like to see just how big our tickling community really is.

I would guess as a whole we have about 5000 or so unique members combined, with only a small % of those being active posters in any way. Again my guess would be about 10% are active posters on the boards.

Nothing scientific. Just my general observations over the past few years.

At any rate, for advertising and other purposes, the member count is indeed impressive. Keep up the good work here TT, I remember our conversations when all this was just an idea you had 2 years ago. Way to go! Tickletheater is a very important part of the community at large.

Ray

 

[Celtic_Emperor]

My thoughts exactly Ray. In fact, I've talked about this before. About how many of them are 'real' members as I put it.

I agree with your estimation. Its a sad fact that only about that 10% are active, and of that 10% only 5% or less are of a contributing nature.

Your estimations are not only correct but very valid when one takes the time to actually take stock, inventory, and appraise the situation.

I think that for any community to be successful all the communities have to suppliment eachother in some way. The TMF has long been considered the 'father' of the tickling community, and it's 'spawn', everything else. However the TMF can't operate at top efficiency without these other sites, groups, or contributors.

In fact, this community could not exist without the donations and contributions of our talent and of our good will contributors.

And in getting back to the 10% ratio/5% ratio, I see alot of demand and not enough stock, or maybe its that its too much media and not enough discussion. TT is lacking something fundamentally speaking. We'll of course even this out eventually, but just how long will it take is the quesiton. I'm inclined to believe it might always be this way. Why would it change just because we have more members? You know what I mean? The more members there are, the more people will think 'well, theres 20,000+ other people on this site, let them find material and upload it.' This ends up creating, and has created a community within a community where one bottom-feeds off of the ones doing the work and making a difference. If we keep defering to someone else to make things better than the same people will be contributing and we'll never catch up, technically and socially. Even if that 5% or so is raised a bit it won't make an impactable difference.

I'm an artist. Thats my gift to the community. I draw fanservices that both you and I can enjoy. But how many others, that other 90% to be exact do anything?

Think about it now, are we really a community? Or are we just several, a small handful of hard working people working for ourselves (as those that do not post at all aren't really part of the equation)?

Not that I'm downplaying this momentous occasion. Its just something to think about. Its really good that TT has made it this far in such a short ammount of time, and I applaud him for his success.

 

[cosquillero1]

Does 'spanking invisible person' dance.
Oh yeah!
We're so damn cool...

A text out of context, is a pretext.

 

[s78ucr]

20,031 today. Good to know i'm not alone 🙂

 

[baubaloo]

Glad to be a part of the 20,000!