Is there a way to bring more members to Fluther?

Tell your friends! Really!

I mention fluther when I am in a conversation and someone asks an odd question.

List us on Wikipedia. Convince them that Fluther is more than a content farm.

The owners could advertise.

I hesitate to tell people about Fluther because I worry that they will try to figure out which Jelly is me, and then they will be able to read all my stuff. Maybe I’ve spoken about them on here, and that could be messy.

The self defeating answer is to tell our friends. Unfortunately since we all use Fluther to talk about our friends, that doesn’t work well.

Keep telling people. Share the Facebook pages that lead back here.

Is there a way to directly link questions you ask on Facebook. Some sites have that as an automatic option when you start a question/discussion.

Wanna pay em?

Tell them across the nation there will be a Bible burning, and after the fire is good there will be s’mores.

If someone is searching for a new hangout, they might eventually find THIS which is how I got here. But I gotta tell you, people here are so insulting when they disagree that I went back and searched again to see what else I could find. The pickins they are slim. Nearly all the Q&A sites have folded. Yahoo Answers is a corpse of what it was a few years ago, but Yahoo won’t admit it. Fluther is just plain hard to find.

@SmartAZ The members on Yahoo Answers are far more insulting. It is playground for trolls. Personally I don’t agree we are insulting at all. We simply embrace freedom of speech and give honest responses. Anything I have said to you as a form of constrictive feedback. I’m not going to lie to you.

But I agree Fluher is difficult to find. I came across it from a webpage listing Q&A sites (it included Quara as well). It is difficult to advertise an independent forum. I have shared many of my posts on Twitter and Facebook.

We don’t need any new members.

Bah humbug.~

Lol we can always do with more diversity on Fluther

It is accepted on Fluther that the tilde (~) signals sarcasm.

@Hawaii_Jake Ah ok, I was not aware. I’ll keep that in mind

It’s one more of Fluther’s little quirks.

@NerdyKeith All the world is more insulting than normal. YA has lost its decent members, so only the trolls and militant atheists are left now.

I have no problem with freedom of speech, but when somebody insults me just because they disagree, that is hard to put up with.

@SmartAZ I have not seen one single person target you with a personal attack on your character. I would never insult you, just strongly disagree with you. Don’t take it so personally.

@SmartAZ I remember thinking the people around here were insulting when I was new. It’s very true that many users here write acerbically. They often pointedly call some things they read idiotic or worse.

I’m not sure why, but I got used to it, and it no longer bothers me. I learned to avoid some topics, which was a lesson that took me a long time. There are users I avoid as well. It may not be the best solution, but I use it, and I keep my peace of mind, so I’m going to keep doing it.

I also learned that the vast majority of things are not directed at me. They are reacting to what I’ve written. There’s a difference. When something is directed at me, I flag it and let the mods handle it. And then I add the offender to the list of users to avoid.

I’ve been here for almost eight years and I can say for a fact that we have rude, insulting members. Not as many as before when the site was more active, but there are a few who linger. But that’s just the internet, or I just have thin skin. (eye roll)

^^^ Yes, there are rude, insulting members. I keep my peace of mind by avoiding them.

We also have idiots. That’s a more subjective group and changes often.

Then there are the bright spots.

On the whole, the bright spots outnumber the assholes and idiots.

Well, anyway, the first thing to do is to add the site to Wikipedia. I won’t do it because my efforts never seem to be done right there, and I don’t care enough to figure out what’s wrong.

Interesting. I tell people that this is a much gentler version of the site I came here from. I still check in there for a number of reasons, but the fighting there has become truly bitter over the years. Fluther feels more like being at a lawn-bowling club. A few inside jokes and snarks, but overall… gentle.

Not for me. This is my private place, apart from friends and family members, where I can speak openly. I don’t want anyone who knows me to join and read my comments.

@Hawaii_Jake You’re so right. Some people seem to post for the sole purpose of being nasty. Other people are periodically rude but fine in general. Most Jellies, though, are rather terrific and thoroughly enjoyable.

Yes I agree that we do need a Wikipedia page for Fluther.

@NerdyKeith I think that Fluther was on a list of Q and A sites, but was taken down because the Wikipedia gods thought that Fluther was a content farm. We need to lose that label as soon as possible.

@RedDeerGuy1 Yes indeed we do. I would suggest that one of the Admin email Wikipedia and ask them to change it.

@NerdyKeith 1 – 2 – 3 not it!

Fluther is always worst when you’re new, @SmartAZ.
It’s always been hard on newbies. Less hard now than ever, but still hard on the new kids. I don’t know it’s intentional meanness, so much as testing your mettle.
As with life, there will always be people you can’t get along with. How you react to that is entirely up to you. I mainly steer clear, as @Hawaii_Jake suggested. PM is free – sometimes it’s best to take it private and find out if the other member was targeting you or not.

One member that I get along with really well, now, misinterpreted something I said at the very beginning and was hateful to me for weeks or months.

I came here from a cooking website. I had never even heard of Q & A sites before, but on this particular cooking site (which I’m afraid I can’t even remember now) they had a section that asked us if we would like to answer some questions about cooking. Since I practically live to do that, it seemed like a great idea.

It would be terrific if the owners of this site could/would try something like that again. Pick a few sites (not other Q & A sites, but subject related sites) in which people on those sites could be sent over this way with the idea that they would be answering questions about that topic, then they could decide to join Fluther like I did.

Most of us don’t want our friends and family checking out Fluther. This is where we come to talk about those people : P

Actually, I rarely talk about them, but I do use them and their stories and situations to help illustrate points when I’m answering questions.

@Kardamom , were you ever at the cooking website affiliated with Fine Cooking magazine. I was a member there for a decade or more, til it faded away. Went on a few trips with the group, including a chocolatier’s tour of Manhattan a decade or so ago. Great fun to travel with cooking freaks <big grin>.

Build another big tidepool and they will come!

If the site had the funding for it. What might be an idea to try is to make a promo video but get it to be played as an ad on YouTube. As in the advertisements that sometimes come up before some videos.

@BellaB No, I’ve never heard of that site. Sounds like fun though : )