2008-05-31

Forum topics down :-)

Recently Ike Roelfsema, Head of Communities and Forum Operations at Skype, published a quite interesting blogpost concerning the Skype Forum with as title: “Skype, Skyper, Skypest”.

And Tamas Henning, the guy who developed the new forum also expressed his feelings in “Flip the switch”.

Let me now comment on this and let us look at the graph of new topics on the forum (see the blue curve).
The first thing you can see is that right after the launch of the new forum on April 17 (see the green line on the graph) the new topics went down to less then 30 per day. Tamas explains this like this: “Of course there has been a slight drop at the beginning but come on when you release something new this is to be expected.”. Very plausible of course, and indeed the number of new topics went up again very fast in the next days.

There has however been a downward trend, from about 80 new topics per day in March to about 50 in May. This is clearly NOT due to the new layout of the forum. The red trend line shows a downward tendency in front of the green line, and the downward tendency continues after the launch of the new forum!

Does it mean the Skype Forum is not attractive anymore? I don’t think so. Everybody knows that most people visit a forum because they have an issue to resolve! The forum is the best way to get help anyway!

Why is there a monthly decline of new topics per day? My guesses are:
Ike says also “The forum users in their 50’s have most difficulties with the new way it is designed”. Well i am 51, and after experimenting with it, i have to admit i like the new design: it is innovating, it is nice to look at, and there are more features. I hope she didn’t think about me when stating that 50+ bullshit

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

that forum is a poisonous dustbin.

Anonymous said...

Jamie Watson from Zdnet should be become the moderator of the Skype forum. He is a well accepted member of the skype community.

Anonymous said...

Bill Campbell should become the CEO of Skype. Phill Wolf can do the Public Relations and Press.

Jean Mercier said...

Well Mister Anonymous, you seem to have a particular sense of humour.

FYI, Jamie Watson is NOTfrom ZDnet, but has a blog on ZDnet, that is quite different. He WAS indeed a well accepted member of the Skype community, until he became nuts.

Even bullshit is allowed as a comment on my blog, even if it is from anonymous persons or Jamie Watson himself.

Welcome, pity you stay anonymous (grin)

Anonymous said...

Bill Campbell should become the CEO of Skype. Phill Wolf can do the Public Relations and Press.

-----

Well yes i looled!
Bill Campell and Phill Wolf.. lool

Anonymous said...

I had decided not to comment on this, considering it to be insignificant. However, the same situation has now arisen in Jan Geirnaert's blog, so I think it is necessary to say something.

I did not make any of the "anonymous" posts in these comments, anywhere else in your blog, or on any other blog. I sign my posts, and I do not post using a pseudonym or "anonymous". If I wrote a fraction of the things that you, Jan or Raul Liive claim that I do, I would be very busy indeed, to say the least.

I think Skype sucks, and I think the people behind it now are arrogant, incompetent fools. But I am not the only one who dislikes Skype, and the numbers of those are growing every day, as more people are exposed to Skype Customer Service, Technical Support, Accounting Department and so on.

When I say such things, I sign my name to them. Others may choose not to do so, but that is their right, and don't use that as grounds to attribute every bad thing that is written about Skype to me and then simply shrug it off.

Jean Mercier said...

Noted Mister Watson!

Indeed, i know you don't post anonymously, and i didn't either say that you did here! The writing style is definitely not yours!

I only said i don't delete posts on my blog, unless it is pure publicity!

But somebody likes your posts! I don't! Like i said: pure hate campaign!