Maximizing Chatroom Hours: Finding the Balance Between Revenue and Engagement

[JasonRox]

I had a good chat session today. Unfortunately, it had to get cut short because I had a diner to go to.

Are there ways to get more hours? Is anyone interested in other days? I think Friday and Saturdays would be bad times. What about like Sunday evening or Wednesday evening?

If I need to, I'll manage it the whole time. I'd be willing to volunteer 3 hours.

Who agrees?

 

[mcknia07]

I'm all for it Jason, but you need to really do some major sucking up to Greg

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Glad you enjoy it! That feeling in stomach that yearns for more is exactly why we have it once a week with limited hours. Add more days and times and it becomes no big deal and you don't look forward to the next time as much.

There are fundamental differences in how communication is delivered and stored between chat and forums. PF has any sort of use and efficency because records are permanent and organized in a forum format. You can't search and organize chat. There is no good way to record it and for google to index it.

More time people are in chat, the less they are in the forums. Forums are the bread and butter of site and if we are distracted too much by chat then forum threads will suffer. Also the more time I have that chat link under the nav bar the less time ads are shown. PF's revenue is halved on Sundays. I can't take more than that.

So, with that said it was agreed in the beginning that chat would be a once a week event that people would look forward to. We can't support any more time nor any chat event hosted somewhere else by a member.

 

[JasonRox]

Glad you enjoy it! That feeling in stomach that yearns for more is exactly why we have it once a week with limited hours. Add more days and times and it becomes no big deal and you don't look forward to the next time as much.

There are fundamental differences in how communication is delivered and stored between chat and forums. PF has any sort of use and efficency because records are permanent and organized in a forum format. You can't search and organize chat. There is no good way to record it and for google to index it.

More time people are in chat, the less they are in the forums. Forums are the bread and butter of site and if we are distracted too much by chat then forum threads will suffer. Also the more time I have that chat link under the nav bar the less time ads are shown. PF's revenue is halved on Sundays. I can't take more than that.

So, with that said it was agreed in the beginning that chat would be a once a week event that people would look forward to. We can't support any more time nor any chat event hosted somewhere else by a member.

Totally understand.

Is it possible to have a vote to see when the chat is most convenient?

Or maybe put it at times that won't affect revenues so much, but be convenient for the common chat user.

I agree that Sunday afternoon is a pretty good time. Just not sure what the other users think.

 

[Andre]

...More time people are in chat, the less they are in the forums. Forums are the bread and butter of site and if we are distracted too much by chat then forum threads will suffer. Also the more time I have that chat link under the nav bar the less time ads are shown. PF's revenue is halved on Sundays. I can't take more than that...

Fair enough Greg, however I observe generally something like a dozen people in the chatroom, of which several are contributors. That could not explain the dip in revenues, could it?

It's probably also because many people may have other things going on Sundays?

Not suggesting anything. Just an observation.

 

[Evo]

Also the more time I have that chat link under the nav bar the less time ads are shown. PF's revenue is halved on Sundays. I can't take more than that.

I did not know that. Would it be better to put the link in Forum Feedback for the time chat is active?

As much as I enjoy chat, I agree that it takes people out of the forum, which is not what we're here for. I look at it as a perk, a time to chit chat and get to know other members better. The limited time makes it special.

 

[Borek]

Fair enough Greg, however I observe generally something like a dozen people in the chatroom, of which several are contributors. That could not explain the dip in revenues, could it?

That's not how it works. AdSense makes money when it is displayed and people click on the ads. When the PF chat link is displayed everyone browsing the forums sees that link and not ASense ads. No AdSense ads displayed, no AdSense revenue. To some extent revenue is just directly proportional to the exposition time.

(the last phrase is utterly wrong, as it assumes constant traffic; but you should get what I mean).

And I agree with those saying that what we have is enough - it is a great social event now, it will be less attractive if it will be longer or repeated during a week.