Site direction and weekend project. Requesting feedback

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Patrick

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Staff member
Dec 21, 2010
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Still working out some kinks - but for those that want to play with a new project: [edit no longer online]

This has been discussed for awhile now (see even 9 months ago here) but there has been a good point raised about is this really ServeTheHome
anymore.

For those wondering, the #1 question I get from vendors these days is why do we have to call it "home" when we really look at some higher-end IT items. I spend hours each month answering that question.

As you will note, there is no ServeTheBiz.com or ServeThe.Biz. Likely it will be a WP front-end again, but it is being worked on and hope to have a decent user review system added to that platform.

In the meantime, I am half considering biting the bullet and having the discourse platform become the WP comments platform for both sites. Disqus was not fun and the current comment system is very rough. Last month we had well over 30,000 spam comments on the site and the moderation burden there is very difficult to manage.

The endgame plan is fairly simple:
ServeTheHome -> site for HOME servers + home automation
ServeTheBiz -> site for business IT

I do somewhat feel like this is an idea devoid of intellectual prowess, but at the same time, I do want to scale what we have here. The goal is really to keep STH mostly the same but to have a formal outlet to answer the business IT question.

Since this is hour 5 of implementation, more than happy to get feedback at this point. I think this has been discussed over the past year enough that I have a good idea where we are headed and how to grow what we started here into a new segment.

Also, if you are interested in playing with the discourse based discussion system: [edit no longer online] Only the basic installation has been completed at this point.
 
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dba

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Feb 20, 2012
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I completely agree that there is an issue: The web site name does not quite match the content, and that causes confusion.

That said, you currently have a nice community going, whatever their different backgrounds. Whatever you do, I hope that you don't lose "momentum" by splitting your audience.

By the way, I just call the site "STH" when discussing it. Perhaps, just as Farm Machinery Corporation and International Business Machines became FMC and IBM, you become STH. Just thinking out loud.
 
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PigLover

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Jan 26, 2011
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I get it and understand the problem with the name - but what's in a name? The main site and forum seem to be healthy and have developed their own kind of middle-ground that isn't served by the larger and longer established forums. I'd hate to see it split in two and then have neither one end up as healthy and dynamic a place as you have.

If explaning the name is the issue then why not just rename it? CoolServerShite.com or some such more creative name? Or "ServeTheMiddleAgedTechWackosWithTooMuchSpareCashandTooMuchSpareTime.com"? No - that one might be too long to be practical.
 

Scout255

Member
Feb 12, 2013
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I would highly recommend that you do not split your audience into two sites. Why not just rename it to serve the home and business or something similar? (i.e. like what piglover suggested)

I personally like reading about high end IT gear as well as home server use cases, and I really like the site as is because its a "one stop shop" so to speak. Having to browse through two different sites and two different forums would certainly discourage me from browseing as much as I currently do.
 

Patrick

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Dec 21, 2010
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Points well taken and certainly something I have mulled for about two years now.

I do have a plan (for those wondering, I like to do no more than 2 revs in a given day and it is rev 58). STB is really going to have a much different strategy in terms of how content is generated. STH for the time being will remain the exact same for the foreseeable future, although we may do a few more interspersed home automation topics, such as that Yale Touchscreen Deadbolt review. From the analytics I have seen, and from the feedback we got here I think that makes sense.

I also think that the STB site is going after more of a new audience rather than taking from this one. Quick stat: STH forums' active users have gone up by about 1/3rd in the past 8 weeks. I am very happy how this community is developing as I think in the last month or so we got to a nice place, albeit about two years behind my original plan.

With all that said, STB is likely going to grow much like STH. 0-100 people a day for the first year, although I am hoping that at this point I have learned a slight bit more than I had when I started STH. One area that the sites are going to share is that STB is going to use the STH colo site. The comments idea is something I have been tossing around but am not 100% set on yet.

Now the big one - STH needs a new logo badly.
 

cactus

Moderator
Jan 25, 2011
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With splitting the main site, I would suggest the forums be kept as one, but renamed. This maybe implied with the new comment system.
 

33_viper_33

Member
Aug 3, 2013
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I completely agree with Piglover. I'm mostly a home user but do consult with and do work for small business regularly. I understand the problem but caution you on splitting the site. As a lurker for over 2 years, I’ve come to respect this forum because of its unique middle ground between home and business and the amazing and diverse community it attracts. The reason this site works is because you have experts, people with too much time and cash, and just the common home enthusiast all participating and welcomed. This is also great place for the complete noobs because of the way in which the information is formatted and the open nature of the community. I’ve explored many other tech sites but have found none I like as much as STH.

Cactus is correct in his assessment that splitting the forum would likely have a negative effect on your site since it would effectively split your community and destroy the atmosphere that makes it successful. I could see it the articles getting curtailed to their respective focuses and posted on the appropriately named site as long as both sites and the forum remained linked together.

Coming from someone who is in the middle ground between home and business, I’m constantly comparing the options, features, and price between server, workstation, and desktop components. As a very specific example, I am debating between my next personal build being an I7 or an E3 processor. For one of the business I work with, I’m comparing E3-1200v3 vs E5-1600V2 and E5-2600V2. For your site to remain effective in my very specific example, processor stats must have a common place for comparison purposes.

Whatever direction you take with the site, I wish you luck and hope the community continues to grow as a unique and diverse crowd.
 
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OBasel

Active Member
Dec 28, 2010
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One thing - either way can you at least get a STH logo designed by someone else?
 

altqpeeg

New Member
Aug 1, 2013
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I hope that the community developing will similar blend of users and not split the STH community betwoon 2 sites/forums.
 

RimBlock

Active Member
Sep 18, 2011
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Singapore
Personally I would split the forums in to more catagories, some buisness and some home user based. The main site could also be divided in the same way and then you get to keep all the feeling of completeness all in one place rather than having to go to two.

Having two distinct sites is likely to split the community as the question will be "why are we posting business server info in the home server space ?".

A lot of us have limited time so some sort of unified view on the forums would really need to be a minimum to keep the whole community together.

Now we are at this stage it would be a shame to see it fragment.

A site rename may be in order though :D.

ServeThemAll
ServeEveryone
ServetheCommunity

You could change serve to server in the above examples as well....

If you are trying to drum up a bit more commercial involvement and sponsorship then I can see Serve the Biz being more attractive for the sponsors though.

RB
 

Patrick

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Dec 21, 2010
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Great points. Certainly is something I have spent a lot of time thinking about.

I feel less attached to the comments since the current WP comments system is not so good.
 

cactus

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Jan 25, 2011
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To me, it would be nice to have front page comments integrated into the forum some how, but I can't think of a good way/example of how to keep it simple for unregistered users to comment. One example is StorageReview. They just link to their forum and there is not much discussion, but I am not sure of the cause. I also don't frequent their forum.
 

Patrick

Administrator
Staff member
Dec 21, 2010
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To me, it would be nice to have front page comments integrated into the forum some how, but I can't think of a good way/example of how to keep it simple for unregistered users to comment. One example is StorageReview. They just link to their forum and there is not much discussion, but I am not sure of the cause. I also don't frequent their forum.
Yea - I (really) like the wordpress + discourse integration. It also keeps the most useful comments on the main site. Tom's Hardware does something similar although they have a custom platform.