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Rusty075 · 08-28-2006, 11:52 PM

As mostly an observer of life over here at PC, I've got a couple of theories about what had led to the decline:

Lack of new front page content has killed casual traffic. Over at SCPR we see a dramatic "saw edge" traffic pattern when we put up new articles. It jumps up very quickly, then slowly fades over the next few days until the next article appears. It's during the "fades" that users who first came to the site to read the article start exploring the rest of the site, and some of them stick around long enough to add fresh blood to the forums. If the forums have content it keeps the new people around longer, and they start to contribute. Good forums are a perpetual-motion machine of a site.

But the forums are part of the problem here at PC. For too long the forums here have been at best "anti newb", and usually downright hostile to newcomers. It's been the same tiny core group arguing the same meaningless arguments. At best a newcomer might get an eyeroll and a "Use the Search, we've discussed that a thousand time already" response. But personality is hard to change. Just look at these two "save PC" threads....it took all of about 10 posts for the debate over testing rigs to start being discussed again.

Solutions? Hell, I dunno. I'd start by pushing out front-page articles. Any articles, and any topic, just to get some fresh meat in through the door. I'd move away from the WC scene entirely. WC is dying. For the last couple of years there's been a big sign on the watercooling world that says, "There's nothing new to see here, move along". Overlcocking isn't far behind. The entire "gamer"-driven PC enthusiast market is slowly, painfully dying. PC Games sales are dropping, motherboard sales are dropping, GPU sales are dropping. PC gamers make up less then 5% of the PC-using market, and that percentage is dropping.

So where to then? There's ergonomics. That's the niche spcr has been chasing from the beginning. There's "sponsored advertising" sites, like THG.

But really, PC needs to decide what it is. Is it a a hardware review site? There's lots of those. Is it super-techy theoretical cooling discussion group? That's a perfectly valid path, but when nothing new is happening in cooling, like what is happening right now, the cobwebs are going to start to grow. (like what is happening right now)

08-28-2006, 11:52 PM	#14
Rusty075 Cooling Neophyte Join Date: May 2004 Location: usa Posts: 14	Re: Is ProCooling dead??? As mostly an observer of life over here at PC, I've got a couple of theories about what had led to the decline: Lack of new front page content has killed casual traffic. Over at SCPR we see a dramatic "saw edge" traffic pattern when we put up new articles. It jumps up very quickly, then slowly fades over the next few days until the next article appears. It's during the "fades" that users who first came to the site to read the article start exploring the rest of the site, and some of them stick around long enough to add fresh blood to the forums. If the forums have content it keeps the new people around longer, and they start to contribute. Good forums are a perpetual-motion machine of a site. But the forums are part of the problem here at PC. For too long the forums here have been at best "anti newb", and usually downright hostile to newcomers. It's been the same tiny core group arguing the same meaningless arguments. At best a newcomer might get an eyeroll and a "Use the Search, we've discussed that a thousand time already" response. But personality is hard to change. Just look at these two "save PC" threads....it took all of about 10 posts for the debate over testing rigs to start being discussed again. Solutions? Hell, I dunno. I'd start by pushing out front-page articles. Any articles, and any topic, just to get some fresh meat in through the door. I'd move away from the WC scene entirely. WC is dying. For the last couple of years there's been a big sign on the watercooling world that says, "There's nothing new to see here, move along". Overlcocking isn't far behind. The entire "gamer"-driven PC enthusiast market is slowly, painfully dying. PC Games sales are dropping, motherboard sales are dropping, GPU sales are dropping. PC gamers make up less then 5% of the PC-using market, and that percentage is dropping. So where to then? There's ergonomics. That's the niche spcr has been chasing from the beginning. There's "sponsored advertising" sites, like THG. But really, PC needs to decide what it is. Is it a a hardware review site? There's lots of those. Is it super-techy theoretical cooling discussion group? That's a perfectly valid path, but when nothing new is happening in cooling, like what is happening right now, the cobwebs are going to start to grow. (like what is happening right now)