Question

a small idea for increasing members in os

Answer 1

people love fame.
people love reputation.
people love being noticed.
people love having power.

these are psycological facts.

if you want to keep people coming back here (ok, I know you guys know this stuff better than me, but I just cant help myself :) ) you got to make them "hooked". And what makes people hooked??? well, just think of some things that people are hooked these days to. First, role playing games (think EVE Online, Runescape, WoW.....). What else? Facebook. Something else? Social recognition... Being better than others...

If you can find a way to implement a game-like system, with levels and so on, I am sure MANY more people would keep coming to this site. Levels are fun and addictive. Yes, you have the Fan system, which is cool, BUT, it is not enough. You could also make levels, that would determine the power/reputation of a member. Just for example, Levels could be gained be acumulating experience points. The number of experience points needed to advance to the next level would constantly increase. Experience points could be gained for performing just about ANY action. For example lets say posting a question gives 1 experience point, posting a reply to a question gives 1 exp point too, getting a new fan could give 15 points, making a member register to OpenStudy using your user name as a referal gives you 10 points" . And so on....
You could also make quests, something like "Get 10 fans to gain an extra 50 points", or "post 100 replies to get a bonus 80 points", or, "log in to OpenStudy for 30 days in a row to get a bonus 500 points" or, "Get 10 people to register to OpenStudy (from different IPs) using your user name as a referal, to get 300 exp points" and so on, the posibilities are ENDLESS.
Such features, even though childish, are fun and WOULD result in growth of OpenStudy.
Of course, you guys would have to design such leveling system very carefully and economicaly, it should be really balanced.
It is not easy.
Anyway, Good Luck with further OpenStudy development! =D

oktalBlizzard,
OpenStudy Fan.

Answer 2

Awesome thoughts Oktal - we are indeed moving in this direction. Expect a lot more soon, and expect us to contact you directly along the way.

Answer 3

(for feedback)

Answer 4

alright

Answer 5

The entire team is discussing your post now =)

Answer 6

Will be in touch - thanks again

Answer 7

nice to know =D

Answer 8

and you are wecome

Answer 9

I truly believe this project will keep growing, as well as the rate at which it is growing, you guys are really great at what you are doing.