strainly.io
1. "Raffles" - Lil Dab suggestion
Have we tried it?
Yes
Why didn't it work or possible concerns and/or things to address?
- Time/labor intensive to set them up
- Requires prompt follow through (that we've had a historic problem of doing)
- Shipping costs get outrageous quickly depending on what is being sent.
- Often limited membership eligibility on the raffles based on shipping limitations to overseas/internationally
- Often limited sponsorship on the raffles from vendors because of location (overseas/internationally)
Possible solutions?
- Ask the vendors to host their own contests, raffles, and giveaways. It's not unreasonable to ask them to do the work they are likely compensated for already -and- perhaps it will entice them to invest more of their time on the forum. Also creates a space for them to directly engage with the winner (something they miss out if they donate product to the staff to give out instead.)
- Consider feasible, simple solutions if vendors cannot ship to one side of the world or the other, that still allows growers around the globe to access their genetics (whether that is coordinating AFN to sponsor the raffle on their behalf, etc.)
- Explore the idea of coordinating vouchers to seed banks (which could create new relationships for AFN and those seed banks) that exist in parts of the world that ship world-wide if a breeder cannot direct ship for some reason.
- Work on creating an equal balance of region specific raffles, so we're not stacking the raffles versus the rest of the world.
- If AFN is going to sponsor any raffle/giveaway, we need a clear Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for how it works, how contact and shipping will be handled, who is covering shipping costs, etc.
- Needs to be ran by a team.
2. "Grow of the Month" - Farmer Jake
Have we tried it?
Yes.
Why didn't it work or possible concerns and/or things to address?
- Time/labor intensive to set everything up and organize it as a poll.
- Historically not very high turn-outs in the voting process despite best efforts.
- Not bulletproof from cheating
Possible solutions?
- Finding ways to increase activity on the voting of the plants.
- Perhaps make them "breeder specific," where we put more of it on the breeders shoulders to promote a contest based on their own genetics. Figure out simple qualifiers like "any plant eligible that was grown and documented on AFN from the month prior." Show the breeders how to run a forum photo-poll.
- Create a simple SOP for setting up the contest to increase the accessibility of it being setup.
- Having some clear guidelines for submissions that help deter cheating (like a real life CAPTCHA)
3. "Increasing Membership" - Wildbill
Have we tried it?
Yes.
Why didn't it work or possible concerns/things to address?
- The changeover from .net to .org was a rough one for the forum. We lost a lot of the indexing of the site because Google didn't know we changed over .org (because of the limited access to the .net domain.) After submitting the site after the changeover, much of the existing content was NOT re-indexed (made searchable) by Google, because how it weighs what is worth indexing has change (and much of the posts were old content.)
- Forums themselves are becoming less popular with the increasing popularity of more "instant response" platforms, like Facebook and Instagram, which are on many peoples phones and already in use. In researching forum traffic in general in terms of the past 5 years; many, many, many forum owners are unfortunately reporting the same issues that we are; there's just simply a lot of not necessarily "better" alternatives, but simply alternatives. If you use Facebook for your social life and now there are cannabis groups on there; it's tough to pry people away from that (and lord knows we've tried.)
Possible solutions?
- Create new relevant content that helps bring people here. New threads and relevant replies and posts within those threads.
- Create tutorials on how content tagging works, how to do add them in, or possibly require them for all new threads (where it would prompt you for them.)
- Create tutorials on how to properly structure a thread (the initial thread post makes a big difference in how content is indexed!)
- Create tutorials for cultivation just in general. No more spaghetti-western strewn all over tutorials, but an actual index of topics that you can easily find.
- Promote sign-up of the forum on other platforms and groups
- Ask all current breeders and vendors on-site to backlink Autoflower.org on their blogs and websites. This would make a huge impact just in itself in terms of hitting the search engines.
- Ask members and breeders/vendors to help promote the forum and signing up.
4. "AFN business cards or fliers" - Jpkindbud
Have we tried it?
Staff-wise yes.
Community-wise, no.
Possible concerns?
- Keeping costs down and how to get them into the hands of those that want them.
Possible solutions?
- Look at Printify or a similar website that allows white-label designed products where we could offer up a minimum quantity order of pre-made generic Autoflower.org business cards that could be left or given out at your discretion.
The cost and shipping would all be determined by the print company and you'd simply order them if you wanted the promotional material.
- Should contain the website, logo, tagline, brief description, etc? Add a generic referral code to it for tracking purposes?
5. "More Grow n Show's" - Bob's Autos
Have we tried it?
Yes.
Why didn't it work or possible concerns?
- We need more cultivators/growers to fill the spots. We have an great format that seems to work very well when it comes to the grow-and-show's, and getting vendors on board with the process has not been an issue. Having enough growers to fill all the spots has been an on-going issue.
Possible solutions?
- Increasing public perception/knowledge of the Cultivators Club; increasing site membership.
- Figuring out an invite process for those NOT in the club to somehow join the forum for a "free pass slot" in the testing process.
- Creating/revising a page or thread that better describes the Cultivator Club, the goals of it, benefits of it, how to join, etc. Keep it simple (but let it exist.) One link that we can pass around that says "hey we have this cool thing, check out this link for what it's all about."
6. "Seed Trading" - MesaBoogie
Have we tried it?
No.
Possible concerns?
- the credibility and follow-through of those trading
- legal concerns for the site and end users
- the financial concerns of members being burned
- possible reputation to the forum over bad interactions
- handling members disputes over trades
- needs to be fully fleshed out
Possible solutions?
- limiting who has access to trading (making trading publicly "private.")
- possibly limiting trading to Cultivator Club members only (making joining it more of an appeal as well.)
- creating a disclaimer that has to be agreed by the member to access any sort of trading benefit, that clearly spells out AFN's liability in the matter (of which we are trying to reduce to minimum.)
- all financial transactions would be taken care of by the members privately, off site. AFN would have no say, no dog in the fight, or otherwise would not be involved with any disputes regarding money.
- having a procedure or policy if someone is being called out or blatantly did something wrong
- this was in-part an idea of the Classifieds software add-on purchased; so we have a possible software solution already bought and paid for.
- Look at sites that are LEGALLY DOING THIS ALREADY and see what times of terms of use and required agreements. Here is a FAQ from Strainly for example (who literally was a vendor here when they first launched, and is still around today.)
How it works - Strainly
WHAT'S THIS ALL ABOUT?Strainly is the leading platform empowering growers, breeders and equipment providers.Growers use Strainly to
7. "Harvest of the Month" - Greengo
Have we tried it?
Yes.
Why didn't it work or possible concerns?
- Same reasons as "Grow of the Month," "Nug of the Month," "Plant of the Month."
Possible solutions?
- Same suggestions listed for "Grow of the Month" suggestion.
8. "AFN Subscriptions (merch, seeds, optional and not required)" - Norby
Have we tried it?
No.
Possible concerns?
- Do not want the appearance that anything on the forum that should be otherwise free and accessible might be hidden behind a pay wall.
- Where is the merch/donations coming from?
- Who is shipping the merch and covering the cost of shipping?
- What is a feasible subscription fee?
- What kind of benefits would make "the juice worth the squeeze" both for the forum to want to go that route, or for the members purchasing a subscription?
Possible and suggested solutions?
- Several breeders have "golden ticket" like subscriptions that allow them VIP access to genetics or monthly goodie boxes. Perhaps we approach some of those same concepts and see if we can model something here based on already successfully running programs (or to see who not running them anymore and what issues they ran into.)
- Instead of an individual breeder VIP pass; maybe we could approach our current breeders on-site to be part of a greater "Autoflower VIP" pass, where you'd pay a small membership fee to be part of the forum, and get free drops every 3 months or something to that effect?
9. "Fish & Chips Every Friday" - hecno
Have we tried it?
No.
Why didn't it work or possible concerns?
- High in fat content and likely heavily salted.
- Perhaps too delicious.
Possible solutions?
- Frying in a light oil using an air fryer to minimize the fat and using an alternative low-sodium salt or alternative salt product.
Might as well have those little triangle watercress sandwiches on whole wheat toast!
Make it admin chosen. Sort of like a showcase of all our sponsors top harvests of the month. No need for there to be just one.1. "Raffles" - Lil Dab suggestion
Have we tried it?
Yes
Why didn't it work or possible concerns and/or things to address?
- Time/labor intensive to set them up
- Requires prompt follow through (that we've had a historic problem of doing)
- Shipping costs get outrageous quickly depending on what is being sent.
- Often limited membership eligibility on the raffles based on shipping limitations to overseas/internationally
- Often limited sponsorship on the raffles from vendors because of location (overseas/internationally)
Possible solutions?
- Ask the vendors to host their own contests, raffles, and giveaways. It's not unreasonable to ask them to do the work they are likely compensated for already -and- perhaps it will entice them to invest more of their time on the forum. Also creates a space for them to directly engage with the winner (something they miss out if they donate product to the staff to give out instead.)
- Consider feasible, simple solutions if vendors cannot ship to one side of the world or the other, that still allows growers around the globe to access their genetics (whether that is coordinating AFN to sponsor the raffle on their behalf, etc.)
- Explore the idea of coordinating vouchers to seed banks (which could create new relationships for AFN and those seed banks) that exist in parts of the world that ship world-wide if a breeder cannot direct ship for some reason.
- Work on creating an equal balance of region specific raffles, so we're not stacking the raffles versus the rest of the world.
- If AFN is going to sponsor any raffle/giveaway, we need a clear Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for how it works, how contact and shipping will be handled, who is covering shipping costs, etc.
- Needs to be ran by a team.
2. "Grow of the Month" - Farmer Jake
Have we tried it?
Yes.
Why didn't it work or possible concerns and/or things to address?
- Time/labor intensive to set everything up and organize it as a poll.
- Historically not very high turn-outs in the voting process despite best efforts.
- Not bulletproof from cheating
Possible solutions?
- Finding ways to increase activity on the voting of the plants.
- Perhaps make them "breeder specific," where we put more of it on the breeders shoulders to promote a contest based on their own genetics. Figure out simple qualifiers like "any plant eligible that was grown and documented on AFN from the month prior." Show the breeders how to run a forum photo-poll.
- Create a simple SOP for setting up the contest to increase the accessibility of it being setup.
- Having some clear guidelines for submissions that help deter cheating (like a real life CAPTCHA)
3. "Increasing Membership" - Wildbill
Have we tried it?
Yes.
Why didn't it work or possible concerns/things to address?
- The changeover from .net to .org was a rough one for the forum. We lost a lot of the indexing of the site because Google didn't know we changed over .org (because of the limited access to the .net domain.) After submitting the site after the changeover, much of the existing content was NOT re-indexed (made searchable) by Google, because how it weighs what is worth indexing has change (and much of the posts were old content.)
- Forums themselves are becoming less popular with the increasing popularity of more "instant response" platforms, like Facebook and Instagram, which are on many peoples phones and already in use. In researching forum traffic in general in terms of the past 5 years; many, many, many forum owners are unfortunately reporting the same issues that we are; there's just simply a lot of not necessarily "better" alternatives, but simply alternatives. If you use Facebook for your social life and now there are cannabis groups on there; it's tough to pry people away from that (and lord knows we've tried.)
Possible solutions?
- Create new relevant content that helps bring people here. New threads and relevant replies and posts within those threads.
- Create tutorials on how content tagging works, how to do add them in, or possibly require them for all new threads (where it would prompt you for them.)
- Create tutorials on how to properly structure a thread (the initial thread post makes a big difference in how content is indexed!)
- Create tutorials for cultivation just in general. No more spaghetti-western strewn all over tutorials, but an actual index of topics that you can easily find.
- Promote sign-up of the forum on other platforms and groups
- Ask all current breeders and vendors on-site to backlink Autoflower.org on their blogs and websites. This would make a huge impact just in itself in terms of hitting the search engines.
- Ask members and breeders/vendors to help promote the forum and signing up.
4. "AFN business cards or fliers" - Jpkindbud
Have we tried it?
Staff-wise yes.
Community-wise, no.
Possible concerns?
- Keeping costs down and how to get them into the hands of those that want them.
Possible solutions?
- Look at Printify or a similar website that allows white-label designed products where we could offer up a minimum quantity order of pre-made generic Autoflower.org business cards that could be left or given out at your discretion.
The cost and shipping would all be determined by the print company and you'd simply order them if you wanted the promotional material.
- Could be done as a digital format that you could click on and print at home.
- Should contain the website, logo, tagline, brief description, etc? Add a generic referral code to it for tracking purposes?
5. "More Grow n Show's" - Bob's Autos
Have we tried it?
Yes.
Why didn't it work or possible concerns?
- We need more cultivators/growers to fill the spots. We have an great format that seems to work very well when it comes to the grow-and-show's, and getting vendors on board with the process has not been an issue. Having enough growers to fill all the spots has been an on-going issue.
Possible solutions?
- Increasing public perception/knowledge of the Cultivators Club; increasing site membership.
- Figuring out an invite process for those NOT in the club to somehow join the forum for a "free pass slot" in the testing process.
- Creating/revising a page or thread that better describes the Cultivator Club, the goals of it, benefits of it, how to join, etc. Keep it simple (but let it exist.) One link that we can pass around that says "hey we have this cool thing, check out this link for what it's all about."
6. "Seed Trading" - MesaBoogie
Have we tried it?
No.
Possible concerns?
- the credibility and follow-through of those trading
- legal concerns for the site and end users
- the financial concerns of members being burned
- possible reputation to the forum over bad interactions
- handling members disputes over trades
- needs to be fully fleshed out
Possible solutions?
- limiting who has access to trading (making trading publicly "private.")
- possibly limiting trading to Cultivator Club members only (making joining it more of an appeal as well.)
- creating a disclaimer that has to be agreed by the member to access any sort of trading benefit, that clearly spells out AFN's liability in the matter (of which we are trying to reduce to minimum.)
- all financial transactions would be taken care of by the members privately, off site. AFN would have no say, no dog in the fight, or otherwise would not be involved with any disputes regarding money.
- having a procedure or policy if someone is being called out or blatantly did something wrong
- this was in-part an idea of the Classifieds software add-on purchased; so we have a possible software solution already bought and paid for.
- Look at sites that are LEGALLY DOING THIS ALREADY and see what times of terms of use and required agreements. Here is a FAQ from Strainly for example (who literally was a vendor here when they first launched, and is still around today.)
How it works - Strainly
WHAT'S THIS ALL ABOUT?Strainly is the leading platform empowering growers, breeders and equipment providers.Growers use Strainly to
7. "Harvest of the Month" - Greengo
Have we tried it?
Yes.
Why didn't it work or possible concerns?
- Same reasons as "Grow of the Month," "Nug of the Month," "Plant of the Month."
Possible solutions?
- Same suggestions listed for "Grow of the Month" suggestion.
8. "AFN Subscriptions (merch, seeds, optional and not required)" - Norby
Have we tried it?
No.
Possible concerns?
- Do not want the appearance that anything on the forum that should be otherwise free and accessible might be hidden behind a pay wall.
- Where is the merch/donations coming from?
- Who is shipping the merch and covering the cost of shipping?
- What is a feasible subscription fee?
- What kind of benefits would make "the juice worth the squeeze" both for the forum to want to go that route, or for the members purchasing a subscription?
Possible and suggested solutions?
- Several breeders have "golden ticket" like subscriptions that allow them VIP access to genetics or monthly goodie boxes. Perhaps we approach some of those same concepts and see if we can model something here based on already successfully running programs (or to see who not running them anymore and what issues they ran into.)
- Instead of an individual breeder VIP pass; maybe we could approach our current breeders on-site to be part of a greater "Autoflower VIP" pass, where you'd pay a small membership fee to be part of the forum, and get free drops every 3 months or something to that effect?
9. "Fish & Chips Every Friday" - hecno
Have we tried it?
No.
Why didn't it work or possible concerns?
- High in fat content and likely heavily salted.
- Perhaps too delicious.
Possible solutions?
- Frying in a light oil using an air fryer to minimize the fat and using an alternative low-sodium salt or alternative salt product.
ppp
