My question to those on the forum is what do you do to foster new members that sign up for Chyoa in a way where they become active voices (on the main site and on the forum) and become authors in their own way?
Impossible and/or impractical. Not everyone WANTS to comment or chat on the forums. A lot of people I think come here to get some free anonymous gratification, and nothing more. Just look at the rash of people deleting thier account: hardly a day goes by where someone doesn't ask to have thier account deleted.
There could be a banner advertising this or that. Advertising almost always has an effect. Done in the right way, sending the right message, is an important part of getting the desired effect. Whether such is needed or wanted, and what the 'desired effect' actually is... *shrugs*
When it comes to writing chapters, I think some people who want to contribute are reluctant to do so because either: a) they aren't sure what to write about b) they don't know if their idea would be well received. Maybe for each chapter there could be a mini poll, where readers could suggest ideas for where the story goes next, or vote on ideas by other readers. For example, let's say "Generic Sex Buildup Chapter" is written, and Author A wants to write follow it up with the chapter "blowjob", but isn't sure if people actually want that. He then adds it to the suggestion box, and maybe votes on Author B's suggestion "anal" because he wants to see that too. Later Author A comes back and sees that 30 people voted for his "blowjob" chapter, so he knows it's a good idea and writes it. And because he and a few others voted for "anal", someone writes that chapter too. Of course they are only suggestions! Maybe Author A didn't see "blowjob" in the box, and doesn't feel like suggesting it since he knows people will like it, and writes it anyway. The poll doesn't close, it just gives an idea of what people want to see happen next. It has no direct effect on whether chapters are written or not. Obviously this is just an idea from someone who has never designed a webpage or anything like that in his life. I have no idea how feasible it would be, or how much work it would take to implement for something that's honestly not much of an issue.
I can't really imagine anyone making an account unless they actually want to write... It's rare enough to get comments on chapters, so I can't see anyone who just comes here to read signing up.
You want more people to join CHYOA? Write good/entertaining stories. The more good/entertaining stories there are on the site, the more likely it is read, and the more people read it the more likely they are to stick around. There's nothing else we can do as a community other than threaten them at gunpoint, and I don't have to tell you that's a bad idea.
The reason to sign up is rather to be able to favorite, bookmark and use save games. I don't think that the number of delete requests is high, especially if you consider the number of new accounts (probably around 2 per hour). Then there are probably good reasons for deleting an account. Life changes and some user may want to avoid that their account here can be associated with their real life because of their job, their relationship or the legal situation in their country.
I agree with you Loeman, however it does seem that the site and forum are pretty straightforward. Simple to read and go through. If you wanted to advertise Chyoa on other sites using banner advertising that would spike the sites attention. Then the robots would be even larger as well as the amount of people. If you mean there are sections to educate new users on how to do things that also seems to have been taken care of though at times difficult to navigate through. Reminds me of quests stories. The option in other stories could be intriguing. It could slow down the story or let the author focus on what the readers want for more accurately creating more contributions.
On a few occasional chapters that i have written, i have included a note: To ask readers to press the like button on chapters they do enjoy, but also to give feedback, be it via comment, personal message or forum. I have often included a link to the forum on these. I believe on several occasions i have also tried to encourage participation: "And if you have any specific ideas, don't hesitate to write a few chapters yourself " And while chapters with these notes have received an increased amounts of thumbs up (even to the point where i would say that they aren't justified, and it almost feels like cheating, compared to much better chapters), the amount of comments, PMs and forum posts on this story still goes towards zero. So in conclusion, i agree with Shassar in principle: Write good, interesting, entertaining stories. That's all we can do. At the same time i'm pretty pessimistic. I don't believe that this gives us a sudden influx of new writers or readers who participate and comment. Because writing stories, that is something that we already do to the best of our abilities and as our time allows. ;-)
One thing the more popular writers could maybe do is put up a single one of their threads (maybe edited for improved flow) on other erotic fiction sites with a note saying that there's a bigger, interactive version available here. It's a bit sneaky, but it might work...
I lurked for probably close to a year before contributing. Mostly because I wasn't sure I had time, didn't want to step on other writers toes, and wasn't sure if my dusty writing skills would be up to snuff. Also I hadn't written any erotica etc before. I was mostly content to lurk and read new content on the few stories that had drawn me here.
