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Now that we have a full Cabinet, one thing I would like to do is attempt another SWOT analysis of the region...that is, with the help of everyone in the region, identify our regional strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. What are our strengths and weaknesses? Where can we pursue opportunity that we haven't yet? What are some potential threats that could harm the region in the future? Once we answer those questions, as a region we can work on putting together a plan to move the region forward and make it even greater than it is now

My last attempt to do this wasn't very successful, but I hope this try will be since we have a much more active region with more people involved in our political processes, as the recent vote showed. Thanks for participating in advance!

Strengths
-Considerable size (Stacky)
-Solid community of dedicated members (Stacky)
-Friendly, fun community (Polaris)
-Anything goes community attitude (Pope Righteousness III)

Weaknesses
-Large number of nations/Citizens aren't engaged in the community (Stacky, Alterra)
-Too many men vs women (TBHR)
-Topics that aren't relevant on the forums (Polaris)
-Lack of steady flow of newcomers (Alterra)
-Community can look closed (Alterra)
-NationStates isn't appealing to most new players/isn't what they expected (Alterra)
-Forums involve display a lot of information/isn't streamlined and can be overwhelming (Alterra)

Opportunities
-Restrict boards non-Citizens can see (Stacky)
-Utilize full Riksråd (Stacky)

Threats
-Overemphasis on forum statistics (Stacky)
-Departure of key active members (Polaris)

Strengths

We are a region of considerable size. The region's population has been slowly but surely growing over the past month by about 10-15 nations, and we've been hovering right around the 18th spot for largest in the world. We also have, albeit fairly slow, steady forum growth, with over 300 members at a little less than one new member every 2 days. Personally I think that our population's size and growth is at an optimal level. Wintreath isn't too large to become thoroughly involved in, especially for new members, but by no means is it a small region.

We also have a solid community on the forums. There's a large group of dedicated members that is slowly growing. The activity isn't through the roof but it's up there, and it's only looking better as we move forward from elections. Currently the region is in a very good position.

Weaknesses

As mentioned above, the activity isn't exactly phenomenal. We have 310 members as of now, with only a bit more than a quarter of those members registered as citizens, at 82. I'd estimate about half of those citizens are currently regularly active, with about 18 online per day, 47 posts per day. These are solid numbers but given the size of the region, it's a little less than what could be achieved. A fair number of citizens have only the one post--their applications. It isn't the size that's the issue, it's getting the new citizens, and the older ones as well, engaged in the community.

Opportunities

What I've noticed from being a member here for only a couple of weeks, is that there's always a high number of unregistered guests that are on the forum at any given time; often there will be as many guests as members online, if not more. It means the forums are getting views, but those viewers aren't really interested enough to become involved in the forums. I think we should take advantage of this and try and pique interest amongst visitors, and to get them involved in the community. Maybe the amount of boards visitors can see could be limited, to give a preview of sorts to what a full member can take part in.

We've also just had a tremendously successful election, with a full cabinet and legislative body. This can take a lot of the pressure off of Moot, who has been working very hard to keep the region very much alive. With more members running things, not only will the amount of content and activity naturally increase, but the quality as well. Two (or three, or four, or twenty) heads are better than one, and it's a given that the region will be reinvigorated because of that. We should take advantage of this as a community, creating more genuine interest in the forums where the activity increases as a bi-product. That will help counter what I think is the biggest threat:

Threats

The biggest threat to the health of the region isn't the activity directly, but rather the feeling, amongst its members, that the level of activity must be maintained. Analysing how post counts have changed and recording members' average posts per day shouldn't be the reason behind the posts, to maintain a statistic. Instead of just posting for the sake of maintaining a post per day count, there needs to be a real interest in the content of posts, even if it means post counts drop momentarily. It'll spark some genuine online discussion and the post counts and activity levels will maintain themselves. Just keeping up a statistic is probably one of the greatest threats to the region, because it only gives the illusion of activity.

The difficult part is to create some spark, to start the discussion...

You know, this is like the best region ever and it's the only thing keeping me from leaving NS, but there is one weakness:

THE SURPLUS POPULATION OF MEN

Now don't get me wrong, men are…nice…on some occasions, but have you seen the male to female ratio? >_>

btw, shouldn't this be in the Citizens Platform? <_<

The Black Hearted Rogue
lmao, that should be an interesting one to try to resolve, Rogue.

The Citizens' Platform is specific to legislation proposed or considered by the Storting...since this is an Executive initiative, it doesn't really apply to that forum.

Stacky
You raise some interesting points and make great observations, but there are a few things I wanted to note.

First, some of the unregistered guests that you see are bots...some crawl through the website for Google, Yahoo, etc, while others try to make accounts to spam the forum with, something that used to plague us until we added better anti-bot measures to the registration. I'm not entirely sure that restricting the forums would result in more people registering though. We advertise our forums a lot in our recruitment message and our welcome message, and I think it's good that people can view the forum, see how our community and government functions, and then decide if it's for them. Personally, when I come to a forum that you can't view unless you register, unless I have a specific purpose for being there I usually won't bother with it.

I know of a few regions that have restricted their forums, but that's usually to try to prevent 'foreigners' from viewing controversies that may go on there and make the region look bad, not to pique guest interest.

Secondly, the post stats that we compile at the end of the month isn't for the purpose of emphasizing post counts over content, but to view trends and spot when someone might be losing interest in the forums or region. That listing only includes people that have contributed 1% of posts for a given month, which is usually between 10-20 posts, meaning that they've taken the time to come to the forums, register, apply for Citizenship or more rarely ambassadorship, and post a good amount of messages. If they drop off the face of the forum, it may be something to notice and ask why, especially if they're still maintaining a nation in the game...and I just compile the rankings because I think it's fun and kind of cool to see how things are trending, but I do stats for a living anyway.

We haven't utilized the stats for that purpose as much as we should, but now that we have a functioning Integration Ministry we should be able to actually investigate issues the stats bring up.

Just my opinion...I've included everything you've brought it in the chart, cause ultimately I'm looking for Citizen opinions, not my own.

Overall, Wintreath has become my home and life.

Strengths:

It has made opportunities to meet new people and interact with them, to have fun.
Honestly, that's how I picture Wintreath, a place of enjoyment and entertainment. It's my escape to paradise.

Weaknesses :

Stacky already explained all that I could muster.

Opportunities :

Honestly, anything can be improved. It's just a matter of preference. But the main thing that I see that needs to be improved is the relevance of topics in some areas. Some topics just aren't that important and don't apply to most people. (Definitely excluding the Valley)

Threats :

I see no serious threats. But the main thing I'm most concerned about is the "feeling" and the activity in the forums. Due to the departure of several key active members, activity is being affected all around.

Weaknesses and Threats:


Lack of a steady flow of newcomers and new people to the region. This could lead us to stagnate. Honestly I don't know what to do besides posting on the RMB, unless I can get stamps to spam Wintreath nations with TGs and get them to sign up. In fact, I think one of the main things that doesn't allow us to get new people in is how closed our community looks. For example, we only have 19 people with more than a hundred posts. And only 60 members with more than ten posts. This community looks very closed and for people that don't get along with one of us, it creates an issue because they'll always be seeing us. I think if we can get a large new influx of people in that would vary more and we can start forming more 'cliques' with the RP people, the government people, the IRC people, but these groups still interact and know each other and everyone cares about the government and lots of people go onto IRC.


The problem is getting new people in. The main problem is NS itself. It isn't really appealing and unless we hook people the first time they come on, they probably won't come back to NS because it's really slow paced and there's not much to do unless you start getting into the regions themselves, and you can't do that unless you notice the forums to begin with.
The forums themselves are another problem. They look more appealing than they did with the new sidebar and the announcement area, but they still look horrible boxy and unattractive to me. I hate saying this, because I personally don't mind it that much, but most people get overwhelmed when there's a lot of reading and especially statistics, like post countsand last post by: and stuff. I know most, if not all, forums have this format, but it's always been unappealing to me.
I would say I can design something to look more streamlined, but my laptop's power unit and I don't have photoshop, I'm working off my parents iMac (ugh). If someone else has some graphic design knowledge I would be happy to work with them and show them some mockups that would be hand drawn (sorry).


That's my two cents: community looks closed, and lack of ability to grab attention.

Spoiler

Stacky
You raise some interesting points and make great observations, but there are a few things I wanted to note.

First, some of the unregistered guests that you see are bots...some crawl through the website for Google, Yahoo, etc, while others try to make accounts to spam the forum with, something that used to plague us until we added better anti-bot measures to the registration. I'm not entirely sure that restricting the forums would result in more people registering though. We advertise our forums a lot in our recruitment message and our welcome message, and I think it's good that people can view the forum, see how our community and government functions, and then decide if it's for them. Personally, when I come to a forum that you can't view unless you register, unless I have a specific purpose for being there I usually won't bother with it.

I know of a few regions that have restricted their forums, but that's usually to try to prevent 'foreigners' from viewing controversies that may go on there and make the region look bad, not to pique guest interest.

Secondly, the post stats that we compile at the end of the month isn't for the purpose of emphasizing post counts over content, but to view trends and spot when someone might be losing interest in the forums or region. That listing only includes people that have contributed 1% of posts for a given month, which is usually between 10-20 posts, meaning that they've taken the time to come to the forums, register, apply for Citizenship or more rarely ambassadorship, and post a good amount of messages. If they drop off the face of the forum, it may be something to notice and ask why, especially if they're still maintaining a nation in the game...and I just compile the rankings because I think it's fun and kind of cool to see how things are trending, but I do stats for a living anyway.

We haven't utilized the stats for that purpose as much as we should, but now that we have a functioning Integration Ministry we should be able to actually investigate issues the stats bring up.

Just my opinion...I've included everything you've brought it in the chart, cause ultimately I'm looking for Citizen opinions, not my own.

I see what you mean. The stats are really helpful, and it is interesting to see how the region's doing with some numbers. In hindsight I did write that a bit too critically--what I was getting at was how focus should be on the post content, and then stats as well. It's just when the numbers decline and then everyone gets the sinking, sort of desperate urge to go "c'mon people, post more" that kills region activity. That certainly isn't anything to be concerned about now *knocks on wood* but it's really the only threat I could think of to be honest...

I guess it could go both ways for limiting viewing--personally if I get a good hint at what a forum has in store, but not everything, it's a reason for me to sign up and really get into them. But there is no harm in having them open, it does give a good example of how the region works. But it is your call, you know NS miles more than I do .

Forget all this pessimism though, in reality we're doing quite well. We have a full, active government, a solid forum base, sizeable population, it's looking really good! ;D

Ah! Sorry for not replying in so long!

@Polaris - Could you tell me what you mean when you say topics aren't relevant? Do you mean that discussions in a thread go off-topic, or that topics are made that aren't relevant to the region?

@Alterra - Thanks for your insights! If you want to send out regional telegrams, see me or Reon. As Founder and Delegate, we can send regional telegrams out for free without stamps. I personally try to send them out as often as I can, but I admit that's not really often enough.

I think those statistics are pretty normal for a NationStates community, just because of what you have to do to even get them on the forum to start with. First you have to recruit them to your region, then interest them into making a forum account, then get them to apply for Citizenship, and then interest them in staying, and it is a lot. Hopefully we can work on making it easier in the future, but I think it's testament to the challenges that NS communities face in general.

With the forums, it's a balancing act...you want to take away things that people aren't using, but it's always surprising what people are using. For example, I had planned on eliminating the post icons that show if a lot of people are posting in a topic, if it's a poll, etc, but Milograd made some awesome graphics for it and then one person said they used the icons. I think we've done a decent job with the website, and I'm glad to see more people complement it, but anything we do in the future will be piecemeal. I probably will create a simplifed skin for mobile device users, but it won't be until after we're using SMF 2.1, which could be months down the road.

It may interest you that there is an effort out there to create a simplified forum solution called Muut, recently renamed from Moot. You can take a look at it here: https://muut.com/

@Stacky - Just because I have a different point of view doesn't mean you're necessarily too critical.

We're looking at this from two different perspectives...I'm someone that's been here leading the region from Day 1, and so I'm looking from the top down. You're someone that's relatively new to the region and may have a fresher perspective, and things that I may think are obvious or implied may not be to someone that's newer. And I have to admit, when I see our daily post counts dropping into the 20s I do start to panic a little bit and post more.

@Wintermoot - Well, mostly both. Just some topics are uninteresting and really not worth the time to hassle about. While I cannot name any right now, I just want this to be seen more as a precaution for the forum.

 I personally wouldn't mind having some examples, because I'm not quite sure what you mean...since you excluded the spam forum specifically.

I'd like to add a Strength, and that is the openness of the community.  Not openness as opposed to Alterra's claims of a closed community, but openness as an attitude.  The anything-goes nature of the IRC is something I find extremely attractive about Wintreath and is something that should be preserved, if necessary.

I think it's very necessary.

I think we'll end this in two days, if anyone has any last-minute comments.

Only being here for a short time I have came to love the region