MLP Forums. Only 15,000 Members?

[John 793]

With some sources stating that our fandom can include as many as a million members, I am confounded by the fact that there are only around 15,000 registered users on MLP Forums.  What are the reasons for such a low forum population on a topic that spans such a great length across the internet ?  Are there multiple forums that split us up?  Do only the most serious bronies decide to join?  Are a higher percentage of bronies "closet bronies" than we think?  Do most bronies not even consider joining forums?

 

It seems like everywhere I go on the internet, I am always able to find someone with a pony avatar or someone making MLP references, so it surprises me to see that there are only 15,000 users ever to be registered on the forums.

 

I would like to know what you all think of this.  Should we be concerned?  Is this normal?  Are forums dying as a method of communication?  Let me know what you all think.

 

 

[Moonlight 7,291]

I suppose joining a forum doesn't even come to mind that often. Sure, there are other MLP forums, but there definitely not as popular as this one here. A majority of bronies might not even know this exists, they just hang around Youtube, Facebook, Tumblr, etc...

I'm sure the number will grow as more bronies discover a forum like this exists.

 

That's all I really have to say.

Edited August 15, 2013 by WheatleyCore

[XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 777]

          I wouldn't be concerned, the forums are much active than previous ones I've been to. You need to also keep in mind that out of those thousands of members how many are actually active? Besides, I'd rather be on a forum with 15k members instead of one which has 200k+ active members. There'd be so much noise that I'd sooner leave than stay. 

[aoEAF2FBvC0MIo2Q 3,676]

I wouldn't be concerned, the forums are much active than previous ones I've been to. You need to also keep in mind that out of those thousands of members how many are actually active? Besides, I'd rather be on a forum with 15k members instead of one which has 200k+ active members. There'd be so much noise that I'd sooner leave than stay.

I kinda know what you mean. It takes a while to really assimilate in a forum with this many active users. Not sure if I want to try and imagine 200k active members @__@

 

Hm, well... Not everyone's a forums kind of person. Have you checked Ponysquare though? Facebook seems to be what most ordinary people find to be more readily accessible as a way to speak out random stuff that comes to mind.

[fimdash 1,197]

I wouldn't say that around 15,000 members here is surprising. Even the biggest forum for a fandom will only have a small amount of the fandom's fans. Besides here, another good example is Minecraft's biggest forum. There are a crapload of members there, but compared to the overall size of the Minecraft community, that crapload of members doesn't seem so big after all. For MLP forums, around 15,000 members is indeed probably a meager amount compared to all of the bronies out there, but that's still a fine amount given the fact that forums aren't something that every member of a fandom joins. Also, this place gets plenty of guests, which means that this place isn't only checked out by its users. There are also other pony forums out there, with different members than here. It's probably a good thing that this place isn't too populated, since the forums would become way too crowded. Things are already pretty hectic with around 15,000 members, and that includes the many members signed up who aren't active. I can't even imagine what things would be like if this place's population came anything close to the amount of bronies out there.

[Jokuc 8,175]

Well I am pretty sure that

 

Around 45% of the bronies doesn't even want to join a communuty. You know, 'cause they got their facebookz

 

37% of the bronies haven't even thought about it.

 

And those 18% who are a part of a community, those are members of different forums.

 

 

 

wHeRR diD ya get those numberz jokuc??!!+?!1!

 

I'm guessing.

 

 

Edited August 15, 2013 by Jokuc

[Soundgarden 2,758]

I guess the reason why so little people actually join forums is because of their bias when it comes to large forums. Many, I repeat, many large forums are filled with elitism which really discourages new members to stay. Not to say that this place has it's share of elitism at times, but it's considerably less than other places (Trust me, I've seen some forums with extreme elitism)

[NavelColt 22,883]

We're popular through internet searches, but prior to our recent BronyCon encounter, we have had very little cooperation with other monster pony sites (EQD, FIMFiction, etc) that would help us become truly mainstream in all areas of the fandom's public knowledge. Starting now, as we continue to grow as a network, that will certainly change along the way.

 

This is the most active forum I've ever been on, so I don't really see even a shred of need for concern.

[King 5,626]

There is by no means a need for concern. I was on a Halo Forum before this which had around 60 000 members, and although thats a good number, its not even close to the amount of people who play halo, and only about 100 of them were very active. We have 15 000 members and a much larger number of those are quite active, and by far this is the most active community I've been involved with.

 

There is nothing to fear my friend...the community and forums are not dying, in fact, we're still in our infancy

[aoEAF2FBvC0MIo2Q 3,676]

We're popular through internet searches, but prior to our recent BronyCon encounter, we have had very little cooperation with other monster pony sites (EQD, FIMFiction, etc) that would help us become truly mainstream in all areas of the fandom's public knowledge. Starting now, as we continue to grow as a network, that will certainly change along the way.

 

This is the most active forum I've ever been on, so I don't really see even a shred of need for concern.

Well, I'd be less concerned with the quantity of active members and more concerned with the quality of the interactions that take place within the community. It's just sorta intuitive to think that as the quantity of active posters goes up, the quality of interactions goes down. Although I'm pretty sure the reality is much more complicated than that.

[Concord 1,982]

Hello!

 

Well, 15 Thousand members is quite a bit in my opinion. As long as the forum stays as "The biggest brony forum" on the net, we should know that it's doing it's job quite well .

Also, please remmember, that massive amounts of members aren't that good aswell... I still hear people who praise the times when there were only a thousand, two thousand members on the forums. Don't worry, I'm not discouraging the growth of the forums (To be more exact, Poniverse) .

[You Are All Awesome 505]

i simply believe that not many people know about the site yet 

 

i joined the day i found it which was 11th of june this year  

 

i really didn't know this many people liked the show until i looked it up on the webs 

 

people will find it eventually and when they do

 

WOW 

[Raritas 6,820]

Similar to what Accellerant said, I believe that 15k is actually a good number right now. I feel it's a quite close knit community on the Forum right now, and if it got too over run, it just wouldn't be the same.

[Shift 4,277]

15k is a relevantly good number. I joined when there was like 5,000 members. Ah, the good ol' days...

 

I'd rather be on a large, but not too large forum then a HUGE forum.

[---------------------- 1,645]

- 15K? That's a lot for a forum that's been around for less than 2 years, especially considering we usually have around 300 members online at a time.

 

I am on a Ace Attorney forum (the most popular one out there) and it's been around sense like 2007, and here is how it's doing.

 

 

 

 

 

And there is still a lot going on in the Ace Attorney world.

 

 

Trust me, we are doing fine, amazing if you ask me.

Edited August 15, 2013 by Marco ~ Ace Attorney

[Nah 3,182]

Meh, we may have millions in the fanbase but many are also the type that would rather be on Facebook and YouTube, but then again, 15,000 members is pretty decent, the forums have been around for less than 2 years and it's already the population of a small city! As @@Accellerant, said, if we had over 200k members, it would be a nightmare, if this forum was like Gaia Online, which has over 22 million members and has been around since 2003, because then, it would be like go through traffic on a busy highway if this site had millions on it.

 

To top it all off, there are other pony forums that many other Bronies and MLP fans suggest over this one.

[Doctor XFizzle 8,672]

Quality over quanity

 

I'd rather have 15k and good discussions than 100k and every 3 out of 4 threads is spam crap.

 

@@Jokuc,wHeRR diD ya get those numberz??!!+?!1!

[Harmonic Revelations 8,837]

This is actually one of the most active forums around. Forums just are nowhere near as big as they were back in the early 2000s when they were at the height of their popularity.

[Dr. Vojislav Seselj 691]

I remember when there were only ~7500 members, when I joined. Those were the awesome times. It was hard to find anyone inactive, now there are so many dead accounts and 70% of posters are newbs.

[John 793]

I remember when there were only ~7500 members, when I joined. Those were the awesome times. It was hard to find anyone inactive, now there are so many dead accounts and 70% of posters are newbs.

 

I wonder why so many people left.  I'm a december 2011 brony, but I joined july last year and there were a LOT of people on back then who don't even show up now.  Makes you wonder if EG and Twilicorn really did have such a big effect.

[Dr. Vojislav Seselj 691]

Nah, most left during early spring I think, most of the guys I knew disappeared in March. I joined in September and I remember the guys from then:

 

Spazzy (spas-Tic Shotty, I think he got banned), LF (Lightning Fluttershy, banhammer again), finesthour (never see him ever)

 

Ooh, and Clarity, Shanky and a few others.

Edited August 21, 2013 by Chetnik

[Shift 4,277]

@,

 

I do think Clarity's back now :3

 

Anyway, back on topic, I still do like this tight-knit community. It's not too big, not too large. 

[Misty Shadow 8,283]

I'm totally cool with there only being 15,000 members to be honest. Any more is a little too much for me. I'm no misanthrope, I'm just...shy around large groups of people. H-hey! It's the truth!

Edited August 21, 2013 by CloudMistDragon

[Twilight Sparkle ✨ 8,529]

A lot of people actually know about MLP Forums. Just about everyone I talked to at BronyCon knew about this site's existence, and I've run into some people elsewhere who've heard of it as well. The figure on the front page is merely our number of registered users; we have a whole lot more traffic than that number lets on, from unregistered guests. Last time I checked that number, it was in the ballpark of about 300,000 monthly uniques.

 

As far as brony forum communities go, we're the largest one by far, and are fairly well established as the go-to brony forum. The real "issue" that keeps more of our visitors from actually registering accounts is that forum-based discussion is inherently a very niche interest. Being involved in a forum requires a more active commitment to coming up with stuff to talk about or tell people about; more consumer-oriented activities such as listening to music, reading fan fiction, or watching YouTube videos - basically anything of a relatively passive nature - carry much more mass-market appeal, and are interests you'll see a much larger chunk of the fandom partake in.

 

Most of the aforementioned people I mentioned are familiar with MLP Forums cited that they're "not a forum person". Make of that what you will; but based on what I've found out from talking to them, it simply means that the idea of registering an account on a site to discuss a TV show carries extremely little appeal. You'll find a similar story with any other large fandoms or interest groups out there that have Internet forums dedicated to them: a miniscule portion of the people in the group are actually interested at all in long-form discussion about their interest, which is what forums are designed for.

 

All things considered, we're doing pretty damn strong for a forum community, considering how few people on the planet really want to be part of one in the first place.

[Harmonic Revelations 8,837]

A lot of people actually know about MLP Forums. Just about everyone I talked to at BronyCon knew about this site's existence, and I've run into some people elsewhere who've heard of it as well. The figure on the front page is merely our number of registered users; we have a whole lot more traffic than that number lets on, from unregistered guests. Last time I checked that number, it was in the ballpark of about 300,000 monthly uniques.

 

As far as brony forum communities go, we're the largest one by far, and are fairly well established as the go-to brony forum. The real "issue" that keeps more of our visitors from actually registering accounts is that forum-based discussion is inherently a very niche interest. Being involved in a forum requires a more active commitment to coming up with stuff to talk about or tell people about; more consumer-oriented activities such as listening to music, reading fan fiction, or watching YouTube videos - basically anything of a relatively passive nature - carry much more mass-market appeal, and are interests you'll see a much larger chunk of the fandom partake in.

 

Most of the aforementioned people I mentioned are familiar with MLP Forums cited that they're "not a forum person". Make of that what you will; but based on what I've found out from talking to them, it simply means that the idea of registering an account on a site to discuss a TV show carries extremely little appeal. You'll find a similar story with any other large fandoms or interest groups out there that have Internet forums dedicated to them: a miniscule portion of the people in the group are actually interested at all in long-form discussion about their interest, which is what forums are designed for.

 

All things considered, we're doing pretty damn strong for a forum community, considering how few people on the planet really want to be part of one in the first place.

Sums it up perfectly. This forum is doing way better than some forums that were around when forums were actually a huge thing on the internet (Very late 1990s-Early 2000s) were in their prime time. I guess what I'm saying is that for a forum this site is surpassing successful and moving into miraculous category on account of activity. I've honestly never seen such an active forum, even though I've been on dozens over the course of the years.

 

Usually it takes years upon years for forums to get so successful and they usually don't stay that active for long. MLP Forums has, from personal experience, been an exception to this trend. We're active, still going strong, have a huge fanbase, attract guests, get featured at cons, these are all signs that many fruitful years lay ahead of the forums.

 

Generally forums die when the staff running it becomes arrogant and stops caring about the forum. This is something that I doubt MLP Forums will ever fall victim to with it's amazingly rigid-yet-kind and respectful and wonderful staff team. While we may not be perfect, there are much, much worse sites staff-wise and user-wise.

 

MLP Forums has a very friendly and welcoming atmosphere and I'm almost one hundred percent certain that this has quite a lot to do with it's major success throughout it's existence.

 

Feld0 has done a wonderful job at keeping this site afloat (As already mentioned by Feld0, hehe) and I feel that the forums will still be going strong for quite a while to come. Merely because it's honestly one of the best sites ever. I'm not just saying that, somehow it's run by great people and used by great people. In large part due to the hard work of the staff team to keep it that way.

 

Thank you for sharing your concerns, OP.

Edited September 6, 2013 by Harmonic Revelations