Opinons needed

[sunshinecindy]

We've seen a huge decline in the forum traffic lately, and I'm really curious as to why.

I've heard some comments about all the coupon advertising being overwhelming or that there is too much negativity (ie complaining about surveys) and so on.

I would like some constructive criticism here as well as what features you like best about the forum. We use to have great times in here all day long, but that seems to have fallen off. How do we get people back in, how do we keep them here. Should we have the chats again?

I know you guys are all full of opinions (ok, so maybe when you are just getting .90 for them), but let them flow here.

[jnorth1007]

My opinion is that the member review threads and the coupon threads take up a lot of space and make it hard to keep up with the forum. I check the forum everyday but sometimes I am too busy too sort through the other stuff to see what is going on in the non-review, non-coupon threads. I do read those threads because they are helpful but I never read them from the new posts section. I go to their section and choose the ones I want to read.

[lanny76]

I agree with the above - coupon posts are nice, but I don't have time to wade through them and check other things too. I suppose I'm not on the forum as much just because life is much busier with 3 kids and one more on the way - I barely have enough time for a survey or 2 in a day, with the other things I need to do, too. The chats were probly nice for a lot of people, but for me, I didn't have the time to sit down in the evening when they were on, because that's bedtime/catch up time with my DH or doing other things around the house. Maybe some would like them again, tho.
And I don't know - maybe negativity has something to do with it, too. Seems like there are always threads fussing about surveys! But then, people aren't always happy when the opportunity to make a complaint (when it is legitimate, esp., is what I'm thinking of) is more strictly regulated (or whatever word would work better). I don't mind threads about issues/struggles people have in their lives; everyone has problems and it does help to vent/get encouragement/advice from others.
I don't post as much about things in general because it also seemed like there wasn't as much response (I mean from the community in general) - like it wasn't noticed or something. Just seems some who used to be very active aren't so much, too, and I miss some of the voices/people I was more familiar with from a year or 2 ago.
Maybe need to revive some of the fun threads/game threads, too?!

[secretmoney]

I love the forum. I've learned so much from the other members here. I don't pay attention to negativity, I'm just happy to be here. There's negativity everywhere. I always told my employees (when we had a negative customer)
that we weren't really the biggest problem in those peoples lives. They just needed to vent, so be nice. I'm still confused about offers, so more threads about them would be helpful to me. Most of all, I like threads about our lives. I like learning about the people with the same interests as me and getting to know everyone!

[marcymajor]

i have to admit that i am not on the forum as much as i used to be. sometimes all the different issues and topics on the forum can be overwhelming so i only read what i am truly interested in and skip the rest. sorry to say that sometimes i do add to the negativity and i am truly sorry about that but there are times that people need to vent (even just a little) just to get it out of their system. lately, i have tried to watch what i say for fear of getting my post deleted or getting written up so my forum postings have been few and far between. maybe we need another contest of some kind to get people talking again on the forum. hth.

[wilsonfamily4]

My opinion is that the member review threads and the coupon threads take up a lot of space and make it hard to keep up with the forum. I check the forum everyday but sometimes I am too busy too sort through the other stuff to see what is going on in the non-review, non-coupon threads. I do read those threads because they are helpful but I never read them from the new posts section. I go to their section and choose the ones I want to read.

YES!! I want to check the threads but get derailed by all the posts on products and coupons. I like those in the shopping area of the main site, not the forum.

[andrea2289]

On a more personal note, I was MUCH more involved in the forum when I was doing well with Sunshine. One of the things that kept me coming back to the site/forum numerous times a day was new offers and the excitement that went along with doing them. I have noticed a drastic decline in new offers lately so the only way for us 'SR Veterans' to earn is by shopping and doing surveys. I don't have time to try for surveys, so for me, shopping is it. I really miss the offers and know I'd be more active on the site/forum if there were more earnings opportunities I still LOVE SR but there just isn't much for me to do in the way of earning anymore, and for me anyway, being active on the site and the forum go hand in hand.

As for the negativity, I think that communicating through text is hard enough. Add to that a thousand different personalities and you have and interesting situation. One that requires patience and understanding. It doesn’t bother me at all but I do think the mods should remove unnecessarily negative posts and I can just ignore the others.

Coupons…I agree with previous posts. There are way too many and I don’t even look at them. The forum can be a bit overwhelming, especially for a newbie.

[sqromano]

First, I have to say that I agree with a lot of the other posts. Thank you for taking care of the coupons. Sometimes, they were just too much to wade through. I check the forum daily, but I would sometimes have so little time that I would just exit out when I saw all the coupon posts. Second, the negativity doesn't always bother me. I sometimes get annoyed when there is complaining about missing big bonuses or not getting an AMP credit when some of us have regular no creits. I don't see a lot of gratitude for all the nice things SR does for us members. This is a voluntary thing, and I think a little more thankfulness would be nice sometimes! I do like seeing about other people's stories, although I am not so great about posting my own! I would love to have a resurgence of some of the family threads. I also use the forum to get problems solved with surveys, offers, etc., although I don't have as many questions now as I did when I first became active in SR.

[fourfoxesinpa]

I find myself spending more free time on Facebook catching up with friends than on here - with no disrespect to SR. The only posts I really find myself checking here on a regular basis are the announcements (to see if there is a contest) and the "Automatic Credit" thread to see what is working. Every now and then I'll surf through threads to see what's going on but definitely not as often as I used to before FB.

I don't play games here, I don't blog, buy ASOTV, or look at the entertainment news, so those threads aren't relevant to me. I guess, to sum it up, I say I use the forum primarily to find out how to increase my SR earnings and not for social networking, again with absolutely no "dis" to SR.

[m 'n c]

I see a lot of survey related posts - saying there are too many posts that tend to be negative and then others saying they like to have these posts.

Would it be too much of a hassle to keep all survey related posts into that technical issues thread? That way those who want to talk about surveys can in there and it is contained to one thread.

I know I try and move posts into that thread when I can but lately I just have been closing threads hoping people will redirect themselves there.