I've Got an Idea to Boost Members
Rachel0778
Posts: 1,701 Member
A different group on here wrote a blog post about the benefits of joining their group and then had their members "like" the blog post so that it got traction and is now showing up under "popular blog posts" on the main page. This might be an easy way to signal boost so we get more new members in 
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Sounds good to me. I'm not much of a blog writer thought but I can sure like it if I know about it. Don't go over to the blogs very often.
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I think it is a great idea, Rachael.0
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Whoever does it should make sure to disguise the advertisement though... otherwise it just looks like a shameless ploy.
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Rachel0778 wrote: »A different group on here wrote a blog post about the benefits of joining their group
Very interesting. Are you able to post a link, or otherwise point me to it?0 -
Calvin2008Brian wrote: »Rachel0778 wrote: »A different group on here wrote a blog post about the benefits of joining their group
Very interesting. Are you able to post a link, or otherwise point me to it?
Absolutely, here it is: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/themedalist/view/join-us-in-building-healthy-habits-940071
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Rachel thanks for thinking of this. Calvin keep us posted on your views.0
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Interesting idea / strategy, thanks @Rachel0778 . The only challenge challenges I see are who's going to write the initial post and who's going to keep it going? A blog with only one entry kind of misses the point in my opinion.
I am sheepishly going to volunteer to contribute one post/month if we move forward with a blog. I am also going to point out we have 200 +/- members of GOAD and as of now, about 10 who routinely contribute. My point is that the challenge in my opinion is stimulating people to maintain an ongoing relationship with the group. Obviously, ultimately it's up to each person as to whether or not they are going to stay engaged.
That said, drawing more attention to us here and getting some new participation might be a good start that could snowball into something more sustainable. Seems like a good idea to me.2 -
I think the LTL posts here are the best anywhere. I think if there was a way to pick the best of the week and posting in a blog might be good.
Of course some of the humorous blogs are also great. For a smile, go read, "Death of the scale"2 -
That is very written and does make me want to head over to the Challenge a Day group to check them out.0
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@minimyzeme Kim - the blog is an individual's blog. I don't think there is a mechanism for a Group to have a blog. I wanted to clarify as it seemed you had the opposite impression.
Is there material on the old GoaD web page that might be cherry-picked for a quick blog post?
A natural topic is why a WL group is helpful. I might try to put something together. Busy with work, but with baseball having ended yesterday I'll have more time in the evenings.1 -
While GoaD could use new members, how about recapturing existing members who no longer post here. I fall into that category. I still lurk now and then and reply if I see a post where I have something to say, but I'm no longer a regular. For me it comes down to there not being any unique threads. GoaD used to be a place to help people struggling with weight loss and for lively discussions. Now when I look it is all daily threads, which can seem like a closed 'club' to new people. There are 10 threads showing on the first page as I write this - 4 LTLs, 2 Roll Calls, 2 Walking it Off, 1 What Day is It and this one we are on right now.
I know many Goadies like the LTL but it is not for me. I would rather see a descriptive subject line that draws me to the issue. I have started threads since we moved to MFP, but but don't any more. Unique threads are what GoaD needs, IMO. It is a good idea to recruit new members, but we need to give them a reason to keep coming back.2 -
@Philtex
I hear ya! Some of us Old GoaDs mss the “good old days” of FUN. But like life, things change. I have been commenting less and lurking more.
You make some valid points. With our previous site being WW connected there was the annual influx of Newbies in Jan. That in itself brought new blood and being identified as GUYS attracted males who were looking for a place for men.
I still remember they admonished that “we didn’t discuss sports bras” LOL.
My guess is that MFP members are predominately male so we GoaDs are not “unique” like we were on a predominantly female WW site.
But I still look forward to seeing this plan put into action and see if we get some new GoaDs!
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Thanks @Calvin2008Brian ; you're right I didn't get that. Well I did, but I thought the writer was the spokesperson for the group. Taking a quick romp through the community, she certainly devotes a great deal of time to the effort. Honestly, it is way more than I could / would give but kudos to her for doing so.
@Philtex and @Jimb376mfp , I'm not criticizing you guys (much) but I've never understood talking about missing the good old days of GOAD and not working to recreate it (or its morph) here. Don't like the topics? Start a new one! I totally agree with you Phil that with a membership of 200+, GOAD should have plenty of participation, interaction, debate and fun here if our members were more active. I think there's room to have something for everyone. @wwgoadie , @countcurt and @glennowill , as administrators, is there a way you can efficiently do an outreach / invitation to our existing membership to encourage participation?
You all have brought up some legitimate challenges to overcome for any group, really. It's a tough nut to crack and it may never happen. However, GOAD was just the ticket for me on the day I joined WW a few years ago and I continue to appreciate the insight, support and suggestions I get here. That said, in the little bit of perusing I've done in the other communities, I agree with you Jim that GOADies (including our female members) are probably not as unique here as we were at the WW site for the reasons you stated.
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Jim - I post on the Fitness and Exercise board where a majority of the writers are women. I skip the sport bra posts - there actually are such posts!1
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I started a new thread related to this topic. Please chime in there.0
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Long personal post coming.
I’m another who used to post a lot on the old GoaD, but who hasn’t posted much here. Actually, the drop in posting started before the switch to MFP.
Everyone has their own memories of what “the old GoaD” used to be like. For me, part of the attraction was that there seemed to be a healthy mix of people who were just starting out, just reaching a goal, and those who have been maintaining for a while. Another part of the attraction was that there seemed to be a healthy mix of people who were struggling, people who gave encouraging responses, and people who gave “mean“ – tough love responses. That mix really worked for me; I made goal within a year, lifetime promptly after, and I kept it off. I even worked for WW, because I loved the lifestyle I had.
During the first three years of my weight loss journey, I went through the death of my father, my sister, my baby son, and then finally my mother. I weathered the first three deaths and kept relatively on track. I felt like GoaD was a safe place to share those experiences and struggles, and at that time it was. I got many supportive and helpful responses.
And then my mother died. My mother’s death finally pushed me into a depression. I stopped posting for a while. I started eating too much. I stopped exercising as much. I knew I was making “unhealthy choices “, but I made them anyway. At some point I became willing to talk about it on GoaD, so I posted about the deaths and about the depression I was going through.
There have always been some on GoaD who prided themselves on being “mean“. In their minds, they are just giving “tough love” or “brutal honesty“. They deride “rah-rah“ responses or “kumbaya” posts.
I do know that there were a lot of wonderful posts in response to my post about my mother’s death, my depression and my struggles. But the only response I can still remember came from one of the Goadies who prides himself on being “mean”. Not having gone through depression himself, he decided to give a curt response and put the focus on what I should have done differently.
Perhaps he meant well. If he did, he failed miserably.
Ever since, it has been hard for me to post on GoaD. I actually quit GoaD for many years. When GoaD switched to MFP, Charlie reached out to me and asked me to join, so I did. Charlie was always one of the supportive Goadies. But when I got here, I saw too many of the “mean” Goadies, and too few of the supportive Goadies, like Charlie. And Charlie doesn’t come here anymore.
I honestly don’t know why I have kept coming here. I think it’s from a deep longing for the old vibrant but safe GoaD. But that’s not here anymore; at least not for me. I can’t imagine posting about personal struggles on here. I noticed that even Cindy, stalwart of GoaD, stopped coming here when she started having struggles with depression. GoaD doesn’t feel like a safe place, at least not to me. I don’t know what to do to change that.3 -
Gosh Gavin . Yes I miss Charlie too. Depression is an ugly thing for sure which doesn't deserve a mean response.0
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@GavinFlynn1 , I just want to say I'm sorry for your losses. Any one of those would be tough enough but all together would be monumental. I'm a "cumulative effects" kind of guy; it doesn't take much for me to imagine how tough and challenging your situation must have been (or be) for you.
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@GavinFlynn1, I felt awful after reading your post but I'm still glad you shared it. People come and go and we usually don't know why. There's a time and place for tough love - and it certainly seems like your situation was not it - but I'm sure no one intended harm. For what it's worth, I'm always glad to see you post here and value your contributions and your friendship.0
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@GavinFlynn1
I agree with 99% of your post. My only comment is I have not noticed any “tough love” or mean? Posts here on MFP.
The MFP GoaDs seem pretty mellow to me.
And yes some GoaDs are noticeable by there absence MamaCin , Lin, Charlie
Where has Murple been?
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@GavinFlyn1
You are right the fall off started before MFP. It is a fairly low key board now. I do miss Charlie, MamaCin, etc. But I think your comment on the healthy mix.there seemed to be a healthy mix of people who were just starting out, just reaching a goal, and those who have been maintaining for a while. Another part of the attraction was that there seemed to be a healthy mix of people who were struggling, people who gave encouraging responses, and people who gave “mean“ – tough love responses.
That mix created a lot of energy, laughter and motivation.1 -
Gavin, Sorry for what you have been and are going through. I Have been through a lot of what you are feeling. Please don't walk away from the one's that are willing to support you any situation it may be. I may not be good at words but my posting about my struggles here gives me hope and peace of mind. I have received some posts that I may not have cared to hear. I just accept it as tough love and move on. A great part of the responses, I feel is from their hearts.1
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@GavinFlynn1 I am so sorry to hear about everything you have gone through. I admit I am not the most "active" person here, but I always give support when needed. I tend not to be brutally honest, unless I am specifically asked to be so. That being said, if you ever need to talk or vent or whatever please feel free to message me.0
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Thanks everyone for your kind replies. It was hard for me to post.0
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I’m very late to this thread. Since I’m likely one of the ‘mean’ GOADies, I’d like to clarify one thing. There is a difference between ‘tough love’ and kicking somebody when they’re down. Perhaps this medium makes ‘missing the mark’ easier than FTF, which contributes to certain comments being made when they shouldn’t. I’ve always adopted the stance that as soon as I detect there is a more ‘serious’ problem or issue, I back away.
I hate to think that I would glibly dismiss the emotional turmoil caused by losing a parent. Or that anything I’ve posted could be misinterpreted as such. But regardless of intent (assuming intent to have been good), there was harm. I am sorry that you have felt so hurt and so unsafe here. I’m not sure that’s readily changeable other than through the passage of time.
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As to the initial post...
As usual, I’ve been a bit ‘out of pocket’ recently. Partially because I’ve been busy with other things in life, but mostly because the primary attraction to the old GOAD board has, as many have noted, been diluted. So, to some extent, I already know how most discussions will play out because there is such limited ability to recruit new participants.
At one point I was posting threads to the general MFP community boards to invite people. But those threads drop down the list very quickly, so you have to post almost daily to get any traction.
I have ventured out some to other communities and boards within MFP with some satisfaction. I suppose I could start threads on those other boards inviting interested folks to GOAD. I don’t know how the ‘poaching’ might be perceived. Thoughts?0 -
I've posted similar invitations. A few times there's been a corresponding new member or two, but never anyone who hangs around very long. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe there are any regular GoaD participants who didn't come with us from WW.At one point I was posting threads to the general MFP community boards to invite people. But those threads drop down the list very quickly, so you have to post almost daily to get any traction.
Steve, are those MFP communities groups or message boards? It seems like MFP groups - generally - are less active than the message boards. Are there merger opportunities?I have ventured out some to other communities and boards within MFP with some satisfaction. I suppose I could start threads on those other boards inviting interested folks to GOAD. I don’t know how the ‘poaching’ might be perceived. Thoughts?
I went and looked at the remnants of WW boards over on proboards. Interesting. Seems pretty active, but with even less of a possibility of new members than we have here I wonder how long it can last.
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@gavinFlynn1....I for one am glad for your post. Many of us on the GoaD board have been though a lot of personal situations and it is sad that anyone has to be insensitive to any persons personal situations. For the longest while I was on the board I would not post anything that I deemed to be absolutely of a very personal nature. It took time to for me to warm up and post things of a personal nature.
One of many reasons I joined this board was for support. I did witness over the less 7-8 years some insensitivity and I would never phrase things in ways that I saw. I lost my sister in 2009 just prior to joining GoaD and besides DW she was the most special person to me and in many ways she could never be replaced.
So again thank you for your post. It is heartfelt and I for one do wish you would stick around as you certainly have a lot to add to the group. I won't begin to name those who aren't posting anymore but I still enjoy the group that is here and I still have a lot of weight to lose. There were those that inspired me by just seeing the amazing amount of weight they had lost and I knew if that many people could lose that much weight surely I could to. So sometime inspiration comes by ways of no post just watching their numbers move downward was enough to spur me on.1 -
Mamacin is here -- just under another name (this one) because I can't remember my password for "mamacin" here and since the username already exists, I can't re-use it
But I'll readily admit that I haven't participated much lately. For many reasons. Not the least of which has been my ongoing struggle to get back down to my goal weight. In reality, I want to get back to my LOWEST weight which was well below my goal weight by about 12 pounds.
In addition, I've lost no less than half a dozen great, long-time friends in 2017. It started in January with the unexpected and shocking loss of Alan Schneider -- a long-time member of GOAD. Alan and I had become great online friends over the past 9-10 years since meeting on the WW GOAD board. And it went downhill from there. There hasn't been a month this year when I haven't lost a good friend from some horrible disease or just totally unexpected (as the case with Alan) -- some my age and some younger than me. The latest was this past Friday when I lost someone with whom I've been friends for 50+ years and who was diagnosed with ALS about 3 months ago.
So maybe *I'm* also having a bit of depression and some "why the hell even bother?" moments.
I decided yesterday that I'm going to SERIOUSLY work on getting back to my goal weight by the end of this year. That means I need to lose "only" eight pounds over the next 2 months. Eight pounds doesn't sound like much to some people, but I know what a slow loser I am so even that "little" bit is daunting to me right now.
I spent yesterday afternoon throwing out all of my "trigger", "red light", whatever you call them foods and making a trip to the grocery store where I stocked up on "healthy" foods -- lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, lean meats, etc. As a start, last night while watching TV I ate a tangerine instead of half a box of Cheez-Its (one my FAVORITE snacks).
So I PROMISE that I will be a more active participant here. The days of the "old" GOAD are gone and have been for quite a while. I was probably one of the "meanies" on GOAD. But those who know me know that I'm not a mean person -- I just believe it telling it like it is.
I'm now being mean with MYSELF! LOL4
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