Music Forums

You aren't the only to have made that very suggestion, but I respect their choice to keep it closed as it is their business to run how they see fit.

You need activity to generate activity. The challenges have generated activity and traffic, but even that has been somewhat limited. Online communities need catalysts...active users that generate interest, discussion, projects, and build it up. Management can do that, but that isn't as organic as the "user base" doing that very thing. There are a few of us here that have been just that on another site. Being inclusive, joining projects outside of our circle of favorite collaborators, helping out new people, making it fun and engaging...or controversial...whatever works to shake things up.

I'm fortunate to be in a position of catalyst by being an old session player from way back with acoustic drums and the gear to track them as well as having a bit of production, multi-instrumentalist, and arrangement skills. I've worked on hundreds and hundreds of projects for online collaborations since 2010. I used to dig around the archives for older projects to find what I thought might be something worth working up. The thing is, it takes a LOT of time and effort, energy and money, and a willingness to be supportive of the site, the collaborators, and to be that active on a regular basis. I don't have as much time or inclination as my family takes precedence right now, not to mention the huge pile of private projects I work on with friends outside of collaboration sites.

Here's the catch for me. This is a good site and there are some very talented people here. I have done my share of digging around projects for things to track drums to. There are plenty of projects looking for drums, but I am not inspired to jump in on just anything. There are only a tiny number of projects here that fit my personal interests, and for the most part, I've already joined them. I used to join quite a few projects outside of my personal interests in an effort to help out others.  I don't have that much time these days, not to mention that the majority of the time when I have joined in on projects outside of my interests, the project owners reveal themselves to be extremely difficult to work with. If I have to deal with that sort of thing, I should be getting paid. :D

So, what should they do here? I would open it up to the public, but that isn't necessarily a guarantee. Without the organic growth made by catalysts and people invested in the site because they love the community and the quality of the site, it won't happen. All of the advertising, legwork, promotion, hype, and pushing made by companies will be for naught without the support of communities.

Thanks Morgan and Kevin, great insight and thanks for the valuable feedback - I have to say I agree with pretty much everything you have said especially that you need a catalyst to get things moving and you then need greater numbers to get traction.

We do try to use the Challenges to get some movement, but as you say they are quite limited in the amount of people joining in. Be good if there were any ideas you all had about creating a catalyst to attract collaboration.

I also get the sense we get a lot of new members who come along, load a new project with enthusiasm and then because not a lot happens they disappear. It feels a bit Catch 22 - will more members be the catalyst and start the community or does the community attract more members and then more activity? I guess there’s probably only one way to find out and that’s to try it :-)

Then of course you have another really good point, which is about finding projects members actually want to join in with.......

Thanks again guys, you’re really helping with the conversation and ultimately direction :-)

Be great to get more thoughts on this - how does everyone feel about trying to bring more members onboard?

Do you think we need a better Social Media presence, shout more about what we do here and the great music we produce? Any other thoughts that haven’t yet been identified?

Thanks so much for posting this, Steve.  And thank you to everyone who responded and gave feedback/suggestions.  It's really important to us that we get your honest feedback. 

Just wanted to address the 'open it up to the public' suggestions, because  it has come up a few times in the past as well.  The site is indeed open to everyone who registers.  It has been that way for well over a year.  Anyone who registers, being a pro or amatuer, gets in.  The only screening that happens is towards spammers.  For instance, if someone joins with a username like asdasdasdfasdfasdf and comes from asfsasasdfgasdfasdf, that is clearly a spammer and their registration automatically gets deleted. 

We do require all registrations have a working email, as a confirmation is needed when someone signs up.  If we bypass that, then literally anyone can sign up and become a member, spammers/fake accounts/hackers included.  But not sure that would help with the 'slow activity' on the site. 

We do know the name ProCollabs might intimidate folk (particularly amatuers) to even want to sign up.  Changing the name of the site might be a very big challenge - but if you have any suggestions that would make it more appealing to all level musicians to want to join the site, please let us know. 

As a relatively new member, my take on things is that yes, it IS pretty quiet here.

Comparing PC to other collab sites, I would say that the talent, in general, is definitely more professional, in terms of quality. But yeah, there seems to be way less engagement, in general.

If I could "fix" one thing about the user interface (which I do think either contributes to confusion/frustration/non-engagement (by visitors or potential new members)0, is the flow by which you feature a track. Honestly, it is clunky, to say the least, and when a track is not featured, it takes some work (and several clicks in) to figure out to listen to a track. I imagine that some visitors (or very new members with zero patience) disengage, when they either can't figure out how to play a track - or else just assume that the creator forgot to upload one.

My two cents ...

Geoff

Thanks Geoff, that’s all good feedback and observations especially from someone relatively new to the site - we’ll have a look at the “featured track” in view of your comments ;-)