Hallo, everybody. It's me, your friendly neighbourhood admin still weird to say that, Vic. I am here today with a PSA that may or may not interest you. Basically, Mibba is very slow when it comes to activity. We all know this. I'm not denying that the community has dwindled in the past few years, because it has. Anybody with eyes can see that and I'm not about to turn around and try and convince you otherwise. But that's not something that's just going to change overnight, nor is it something that the staff alone can change. I've seen people comment on blogs countless times saying that they don't get involved anymore because they don't get anything in return or they feel like it's futile to try -- that's fair play, but to be honest, that's also an attitude that's probably helping poor ol' Mibba into the floor. For every person that simply chooses not to bother anymore, we lose a little bit more of that community feel. So, if you're up for it, we can genuinely try and turn this around. Here's a few quick suggestions that we can use to try and get something back out of Mibba.
Welcoming New Members
Part of the reason why Mibba has gotten quiet is because of a lot of the veteran members leave Mibba. Again, that's fair enough -- people grow out of the site, or move onto other sites which is sad. That's always going to be a part of life. However, we get a bunch of new people joining Mibba each month and where we used to have a huge squad of people welcoming and getting the newbies involved because, as much as us golden oldies don't remember, we were all newbies once and had to be coaxed into the community ourselves! So, if you've got time, welcome a new member to Mibba, let them know where they can find the forums or the blogs or just even lend a helping hand to somebody. Yes, some of the people we recognise from around the site have gone, but without lending a hand to the new members, we're not going to fill that void.
So leave a comment on the page of a new member (you can find newest members on the Members page). And if you're a new member reading this, don't be shy -- we don't bite and we'd love to welcome you into the fold!
Comments!
As much as we have like a million different things on the site not related, we are a writing site first and foremost and some people will just come here to get and give critique. If that's the case, then it's totally cool -- everybody loves a good comment! I must admit in the first case that I am very lazy when it comes to commenting, which is something I aim to change. However, I feel like people are probably put off of the site due to the fact that people tend to just rec. It's easier, and it shows your love for a piece. The site also almost always has a monthly Comment Monsters thread, where you can keep track of comments you leave and even get the chance of gaining a custom title for your account.
If you're not sure where to start with commenting, you've got a few choices. You can either use the Advanced Search on the stories page or the Advanced Search on the poems page to find your favourite kinds of writing. If you're open to anything, why not post a blog asking for recommendations? Check your friends' stories / poems, see what sorts of things people are recommending on your My Mibba page. Check out previous recommendations from the Mibba Magazine if you're looking for some golden oldies. You can also check out the Pimp and Rec Poems, What Is Your New Story?, What's on Your Subscription List? and Story Pimping threads for some reading inspiration. Don't forget to use all of those threads to get your own stuff out there too!
If you're looking for a more give-to-receive sort of vibe (which by the way is totally cool, there's no harm in whoring out your own work and I am the biggest advocate of this because I am hella selfish) then you'd be best looking at a comment swap. And yes, I know the site feature is broken, before anybody points it out. What I'm suggesting is more of a manual swap. There are a few ways to do it. You can post a blog simply asking for a comment swap, and wait to see if people comment on it. I love these kinds of swap because you can find some super-cool stuff through the blogs. You can also use a multitude of threads that're located in the Tips forum. You've got the basic ones such as Story Comment Swap, Drabble for Drabble, Poem Comment Thread and One Shot for One Shot, but you've also got the Comment the Summary thread and the What Do You Think of My Story Idea? thread. If you're looking for the random luck of the draw with stories, then go for these. You can leave your own stories to be commented on after your comment.
So go on. Set yourself a target -- a story / poem a week, or whatever. Get commenting, get receiving comments and get the love flowing a little on Mibba again.
Contests
We've got a really cool thing in having the Contests and Challenges forum on Mibba. I remember back in the day when this was totally bouncing, and there were new contests and challenges being started every day, with loads of folks going ahead and joining in. Not so much now, I guess. We should change that! If there's a contest you're interested in and you've got the time to join, why not do it? If you've got an idea that you'd love to open up to the rest of Mibba, go ahead and go for it!
And if you don't have any ideas, we've got our Contest Revival thread for those who want to adopt-a-contest from the list. C'mon, don't leave them all in their kennels all sad. You know you wanna adopt them all.
Forums
So, we have a fairly sizeable amount of forum topics on here, from philosophical ones to your funnier ones. My persona favourite forum is the General forum because I love the silly little games we have in there. However, we've also got the general chat rooms and the politics forum and the gaming forum and the writing tips forum and pretty much a bunch of super-cool forums that literally never get used, and it'd be so nice to see people having friendly debates again. When I joined Mibba back in ninteteen-canteen (jokes I'm actually not that old) I was so intimidated by the forums because they were so fast and everybody was so eloquent and now I've finally grown up enough to have informed debates, they're a bit dead. So why not start up a conversation, or just help me by playing the games in the general thread and fuelling my procrastination?
Utilise Services
So we have some crazy talented Mibbians on here. There's no denying that. Whether it's editing services or graphics, there's bound to be somebody who'll be able to do you a favour! On Mibba, we have forums for both: the Editing Hub and the Graphics Shop. So if you're graphically challenged (AKA ME) or need somebody to proof or edit something you've written, look no further than the site for help!
BlogBlogBlogBlogBlog
We have a Blogs section. I'm now struggling to figure out if it's actually a word, but hey ho. I don't frequent the blogs section that much and never have, but I always find it fun if there's a blog on a topic that I'm interested in to comment on that blog and start a conversation. If there's not one, why not go for it yourself? I kind of silently stalk the blogs myself, which is something I'm currently trying to change, so why not get involved? You might even make some new friends out of it.
Clubs
The long-forgotten part of the site. I can't remember when the Clubs forum was introduced (2-3 years ago????? idk) but it's a pretty cool area of the site. If you want to start up a club for something you and a bunch of other site members are into, then this is the place to do it. A thread for nothing but chatter, activities and the suchlike around your chosen topic. How cool is that?
Articles / Reviews / Tutorials
New recipe you're dying to share with everybody? Wanna review a book you recently read? Got a handy-dandy article you wanna share? Go ahead and do it! Our article sections are probably one of the most neglected on the site, but there are some super-cool tutorials, articles and reviews held within it. So even if you don't have anything to contribute, have a look and see if there's something that catches your eye. You could even tie this in with blogging and make a blog about your attempt at trying something, which is something I might try doing in the near future.
An added bonus for writing articles, reviews and tutorials? You get 50 points per article. The higher your points total, the more little medals you get. You might even rival my envious points total of 14,970 but don't because then I'll have to fight you to the death.
Worried? Say!
We have a fantastic array of staff on the site that work super-hard behind the scenes to make Mibba the place it is -- yes, even when it's slow! So, if you're worried about anything at all on the site, or see something going wrong or something you think breaks the rules then please let the appropriate member of staff know. You can find them under the following headings:
Administrators -- site admin, can help with general site queries or anything you're concerned about in general. All also contactable off-site by the email addresses in their bios.
Story / Poem Editors -- look after the story / poem section of the site. Any questions / concerns about stories or poems can be sent their way!
Blog Moderators -- look after the blog section of the site. Any concerns or questions about blogs, fire away!
Board Moderators -- keep the forums running ship-shape. Any concerns / questions about the forums, contact these guys.
Article Editors -- these guys approve any articles submitted to the site. If you've got any queries or concerns, shimmy on over their way.
You can also consult our Knowledge Base for any site rules or guidelines you need to grab in a hurry.
So, Mibba. Let's make our little corner of the internet a lovely place to be again. Let's comment, write, spread love and get involved in the side of the site that has made it my favourite site to be on for the past 9-ish years. Because if you guys don't get involved and invested in the site, then it is going to die and there's going to be nothing we can do about it.
Until next time, you wonderful people.
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