PsychopathFree.com (Yes, we're still using vBulletin!)

Discussion in 'Community Showcase' started by Peace, Aug 2, 2013.

  1. Peace

    Peace Regular Member

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    Hi everyone :)

    Just wanted to share our community and get some feedback. It's a site for survivors of relationship abuse. We've been online for nearly 2 years now (in November). It's been such a fun adventure, and I've made a lot of great friendships. I've also loved having a playground to try out different styles and mods, as I'm sure you all understand.

    Here is our site:
    http://psychopathfree.com/

    You can view the CMS here:
    http://library.psychopathfree.com

    We also have a Facebook page, which we started about nine months ago:
    https://www.facebook.com/PsychopathFree

    I understand that the content nature of this site is different, but I'd still really appreciate any thoughts. We use vBulletin 4.2.1, and we are very happy with it!

    Registered users see this in the sidebar (instead of the instant registration)

    ai.imgur.com_FNEV5uu.png

    One thing I have noticed really boosted user engagement was instant notifications in page titles, similar to Facebook - they update in live time, even if the user is looking at another browser tab:

    ai.imgur.com_Bw5Ogxj.png

    Corresponding Notifications:

    ai.imgur.com_c5nbJGy.png

    Highly recommend this for any forum administrator!
     
    Last edited: Aug 2, 2013
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  2. BamaStangGuy

    BamaStangGuy Administrator

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    Nice site :)
     
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  3. Peace

    Peace Regular Member

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  4. GasMan320

    GasMan320 Regular Member

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    Your site's design is really nice. It all blends together very well and looks professional and welcoming. I like the quick registration thing in the sidebar and the large avatar icons for last poster on the forum home.
     
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  5. Xenon

    Xenon Regular Member

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    Normally, I wouldn't like the color scheme, but because of the topic of the site, I must say, I love it. The forum looks very nice, and the small registration form in sidebar is AWESOME! Someone needs to make something like that for XenForo. :)
     
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  6. Peace

    Peace Regular Member

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    Thank you so much @GasMan320 and @Xenon !

    Xenon, someday we might convert to XenForo (if our members wouldn't be too upset), and I would be happy to write a similar quick registration mod :) It nearly doubles legitimate registrations - although it seems like XenForo already has a pretty speedy way of getting new members to register.

    Thanks again, you guys made my night!
     
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  7. Xenon

    Xenon Regular Member

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    DOUBLED it?! Are you available for hire? LOL
     
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  8. Peace

    Peace Regular Member

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    Well, almost doubled! We added the mod right at the end of May 2013:

    ai.imgur.com_uVoLGG1.png

    (No spam registrations - for anyone using vBulletin, we've had 100% success with a good security question & the Spam-O-Matic database check)
     
    Last edited: Aug 4, 2013
  9. Xenon

    Xenon Regular Member

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    Could the increase be due to other factors?
     
  10. Peace

    Peace Regular Member

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    Not sure - the only other thing I could think of is that I published our book in March 2013, which definitely has increased in popularity each month. But that spike was pretty sudden. Another thing could be our FB page growth - although that was up since last year. I should track my Analytics better :)
     
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  11. Xenon

    Xenon Regular Member

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    Hmm. Tough to say then. I'll stick with the positive answer and assume it's due to the mod. :)
     
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  12. Peace

    Peace Regular Member

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    :) Do you know of any better ways to track conversations/registrations? We have Google Analytics installed, but I don't understand it at all. I just check out the Real Time monitor because it looks cool. Would be helpful to know where our most effective referrals come from, to help us direct donations to the right place (our donations just go right back into advertising, to reach more people)
     
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  13. GeorgeB

    GeorgeB Building Social Communities Since 2004

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    Need to see if they have one of those for IPB as well.

    Nice site.
     
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  14. Xenon

    Xenon Regular Member

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    I use GA as well so I'm not sure I can be of much help, sorry!
     
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  15. BlckBrd103

    BlckBrd103 Regular Member

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    I really like your design, it really looks like the site is populated, but on the darker side of things, it does look a TINY bit congested. You've got something good rolling with the advertisements as well, I think there's nothing for you to do improvement wise though, keep up the good work!
     
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  16. andyred

    andyred Regular Member

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    Really nice site and you have great features that are perfect for your users and their current circumstances.

    Looks like you've made a great support site for many vulnerable people - kudos to you!
     
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  17. Peace

    Peace Regular Member

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    Thank you so much - that's really kind of you to say!
     
  18. Peace

    Peace Regular Member

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    Just wanted to share a milestone that we're really proud of! Hit 100,000 posts today :) Below is a chart showing the growth in posts each month - very happy with the rate we're expanding. Now we just need some more mods!

    upload_2013-12-5_11-36-34.png

    And our FB page is at 27,000 fans!

    Anyway, thanks! Couldn't think of anyone else who would care except other admins :P
     
    Last edited: Dec 5, 2013
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  19. WEfail

    WEfail Regular Member

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    On one of my old sites, a member parted out his car, then parted out his GF.

    We weren't psychopath free.
     
  20. PassiveHybrid

    PassiveHybrid Regular Member

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    This just shows that hard work and persistence pays off!

    Nice job on getting your site to where it is today. I know most owners would give up after a month or two.
     
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