Originally posted by Grampy Bobby
Providing New Red Hot Pawn Members with a link to its Clubs Index and inviting them to consider joining would present them with an opportunity to make friends early; we all learn the ropes with greater ease in a relaxed environment. The benefits of such a unique online correspondence chess site feature certainly would have benefitted me in July, 2007. [b]Thread 152015
I don't think promotion of clubs, or any other part of the site, should be part of a greeter's task, which is to make the person feel comfortable. Forums of any kind are used by a small minority of players here, and pushing stuff in their faces isn't going to make them feel welcome. If I walk into a store to browse I don't want people lecturing me about what department I should be looking in.
Originally posted by KewpieSeems that you've missed the point of my suggestion; I apologize for wording it unclearly. "Lecturing" isn't now nor was it ever this site's modus operandi. Learning from the Help Forum takes time. Our club has helped a few new members with their site feature questions quickly and painlessly. Why, because they felt free to ask and because resident site expertise was available to meet the need. "Red Hot Pawn" is an impersonal entity to a chess player on Day One. There's no greater measure that can be taken to insure retention than to personalize RHP One on One with someone who cares. -Bob
I don't think promotion of clubs, or any other part of the site, should be part of a greeter's task, which is to make the person feel comfortable. Forums of any kind are used by a small minority of players here, and pushing stuff in their faces isn't going to make them feel welcome. If I walk into a store to browse I don't want people lecturing me about what department I should be looking in.
A new observation - have others had the same reaction?
I send a message with each first move. Usually they're ignored, which I accept, there may be several reasons for that. But I have received three PMs from people who've been looking around and discovered there's a message in their message log, apologising for ignoring my earlier message. So of course I've explained where the in-game messages appear and we've gone on from there. One of these is OK, even two, but THREE? Should we be asking for in-game messages to be somehow more obvious, and if so, how?
Originally posted by Kewpie____________________________________________________________
A new observation - have others had the same reaction?
I send a message with each first move. Usually they're ignored, which I accept, there may be several reasons for that. But I have received three PMs from people who've been looking around and discovered there's a message in their message log, apologising for ignoring my earlier message. So of course ...[text shortened]... HREE? Should we be asking for in-game messages to be somehow more obvious, and if so, how?
"Your message will only be sent with a valid move. Your message will be
displayed when your opponent next makes a move." RHP In-Game Message width approximation.
|___________________________________________________________|
|______________________________| <--- major online competitor's 3 1/2 inch message width
with a single line slit to type on
|_________________________|
Kewpie, any new chess player who can't find and figure out how to use our feature has significantly impaired vision or joined to play chess games only; any who fail to reply have negligible interest in conversation in-game or on the site's forums. Devoting scarce resources to embellishing RHP's Superior In Game Messaging Feature with needless frills would seem unwise with marginal return on investment. Welcoming Personal Messages to introduce yourself with encouragement to ask any questions have served as an effective ice breaker for me with new members. I recommend Greeters consider it. -Bob
Originally posted by Kewpie"Sneering at their failure to observe a notice is just childish." Kewpie, you're entitled to your opinion; fact is that I'm well aware of human frailties and also a realist. Human beings resent being manipulated. Far better to err on the side of deference to human free will. We're both, however, straining at technical detail gnats. The issue is membership decline.
You're not allowing for all the different platforms our people play on. I've missed the odd message myself, and I have a widescreen. Sneering at their failure to observe a notice is just childish. And a simple coloured border around the message box is all it would take.
Now that this facility has been running for a while, it's become apparent (to me, at least) that (1) some people are looking only for blitz-type games, and leave the site if opponent doesn't move within a couple of minutes (2) some people want to play, but don't want to chat (3) some people will click on anything but not follow through to the next move (4) anyone who stays long enough to play the whole game through will go on to other games.
I don't know if there's anything we players can do to improve the retention rate, but I'm sure we'd do it if we could.
Originally posted by KewpiePlease see Tygert's Only Chess Forum thread titled, "Lovely": Robbie's comparison of RHP and chess.com on page 2.
Now that this facility has been running for a while, it's become apparent (to me, at least) that (1) some people are looking only for blitz-type games, and leave the site if opponent doesn't move within a couple of minutes (2) some people want to play, but don't want to chat (3) some people will click on anything but not follow through to the next move (4) an ...[text shortened]... ing we players can do to improve the retention rate, but I'm sure we'd do it if we could.
Originally posted by Kewpie"Now that this facility has been running for a while, it's become apparent (to me, at least) that (1) some people are looking only for blitz-type games, and leave the site if opponent doesn't move within a couple of minutes (2) some people want to play, but don't want to chat (3) some people will click on anything but not follow through to the next move (4) anyone who stays long enough to play the whole game through will go on to other games.
I did as you suggested, but that post didn't seem to be relevant to the topic of this thread. What point were you making?
I don't know if there's anything we players can do to improve the retention rate, but I'm sure we'd do it if we could."
Competitive advantages eventually attract the lion's share of any market. Defending a base with efficiency improvements (within a context of inefficiency/competitive insufficiencies) is all that's left: that chess.com is a monster and that all of its online correspondence chess competitors must carve out a niche and accept a small piece of the pie rather than none at all.*
* Sad but true unless a business reinvents itself in a timely way with a targeted new audience in mind.
I don't think it's relevant to discuss what chess.com or any other site is doing. Obviously many people come to look at this site, some stay, some don't. Our points of difference from other chess sites are what make this site so good to play on. I'm more preoccupied here with the point of this thread, getting the greeters' system to work better. I haven't seen, and naturally cannot see, what this site offers upfront to new arrivals.
My personal opinion, for what it's worth here, is that RHP should treat the blitz part of the site as seriously as the turn-based part, and encourage people to move between the two. At present blitz people are treated rather less well than turn-based people, for example in the lack of a rating system.