Please Register and Post! We could really use your insight and contributions. New members have always been a rarity here at SM, one new member can make a huge difference. You gain the right to vote on affairs of the board, can post, and build up a reputation as a respectable member. By remaining a guest, you don't help us, although you do eat up bandwidth. :P

Well, if you put it that way. ;)

Thanks! I wish every guest would register, just think of how active this place would be! B)

Well, I have been reading this forum for several months, but I hadn't really been considering joining until a month or so ago. One problem recently has been a lack of topics to post upon, and I havn't really had anything to say until now.

The lack of topics is because we've hit upon some bad times. After periods of time with up to and sometimes over 100 posts a day, activity ends up trailing off and the forum quiets down again. Eventually something happens that starts up that activity again. It's hard to believe that we've had 600 posts in one week once when you are in times like this. Similarly, only getting a a few posts a day is laughable during those crazy days with totals in the 80s, 90s, or 100s.

I would assume that this is partly because the soaking season is, sadly, coming to a close. Still, I think we should be able to get more than 40-50 posts a week.

Usually we should get more than 50 posts a week. Last month the goal was 43 posts a day and we were able to keep that going for a while. But when school started, activity dropped significantly, along with the disappearance of some regulars. This whole soaking season has been pretty quiet compared to last year's, and we should see a comeback, surprisingly, during the late fall-winter-early spring. SM's strongest month was March and strongest season was Winter.

I am not sure of the exact numbers, but recently it seems that there are sometimes only 3 or 4 posts a day. Soakermedia is my favorite forum, mainly because it is reasonably active, and there are rarely any topic repeats, pointless questions (not many, but I have seen them on other forums), or any other occurances that take away from discussion. Also, this board is mainly tech oriented, easily my favorite part of soaking.

Nibordude and I are deeply involved in Tech, and naturally that influences the forum's feel. Tech is easily the strongest section of the forum. Since there are no immature people here, and no troublemakers as of now, the discussion tends to be better, the freedom of speech is greater, and rules/the threat of punishment doesn't have to be used.

We haven't been doing well lately. 5, maybe 10 posts a day. It's amazing when we do get rolling and get into high numbers. The posting history of the forum closely resembles a chart of business/economic cycles.

I am glad there are no "immature people here", and I would very much like to see it stay that way. I would hate to see Soakermedia become as flooded with n00bs as iSoaker and SSCental.

Edit: Oops, I revised my post but left an old word in it.

You know, you did miss a few letters in that post, but it doesn't matter too much, as long as one can still understand it, it's fine.

I did the same thing, I have been a guest since april but joined in August.

This topic has had 11 posts in 3 hours. :huh:

^I guess then that posting may be picking up :D . I really only read without joining for about a day, mainly because, (being under 13) this was one of the few boards I could join, plus it is Tech emphasized. I was actually reading the site though for about a week and since it was such a good first impression, I was really excited that it had a forum that I could join.

I take that as an insult. I make sure my forums are clean of all pests. I've already complained about SM's method of gaining members. They're practically drafted from other forums and once they're here, they stop posting elsewhere. I'll quote myself in a PM to Duxburian: "I'd like to know how this is good for the community" :P

Also, Some Guy, if you are not of the legal age, you can not join a forum regardless of it's rules if you live in the United States (legally it's an implied rule). This is covered in COPPA, and legally all forums water gun forums other than Super Soaker Central can be shut down by the US government or their hosts if someone reports them for allowing people under 13 to join. Yes, I do realize that iSoaker.com is based in Canada, but what matters is the location of the hosting, which is in Delaware. If something bad happens with you on these forums, simply put, these forums won't be able to take the legal crap because it's a blatent violation.

Besides, I've received several COPPA forms and there are several people under 13 on my forum. If you just send the form in, none of this would be an issue. B)

Our new host will be based in Australia, so that may change the legal issues unless they have a similar law.

We are not ready for full SEO, and cannot possibly gain members from that route at the moment. And when I do refer someone here about something, I either give them a link without mentioning the site name or mention the site name but no link, showing that the article/concept they wanted info about takes precedence over advertising.

If people post here and less elsewhere, how is it our fault? They decide where they want to post. You're complaining about this, when you're at the top of the pyramid? SSC has 5x the members, 5x the amount of posts, 100x the popularity, yet still isn't satisfied? Sheesh, it would take at least 2 years for us to reach the level SSCentral is at.

And Some Guy, if you want to send in a COPPA form, you can, but I don't know much about the process.

I did a quick Google search and I couldn't find any similar law in Australia, but I would definetly ask your host if one exists before you start saying that your forum is the only one that can legally take people less than 13.

Not really. They're almost brainwashed into thinking this is the only way to go. I never saw anyone put something like "SSCentral: The Super Soaker Source" in their signature back in the day, yet I have seen "Join the revolution!" in other's signatures today. This isn't healthy as far as I'm concerned. The whole attitude the site and forum are taking is very superiorist, something I seriously want to avoid at all costs. I wouldn't complain at all if they posted here and at the other two forums. Best of both (err... all three) worlds.

I will complain very openly about this. I didn't complain back when WaterWar.net was around and many of my members went there just because it was "more popular". In reality, WaterWar.net likely was only more popular because many of my members went there! I believe that this member-leeching stuff is bad for the entire community. I'm a fine fellow and I post at every forum. Though, historically I am one of the first to post at every forum, though initially I did it as a gesture of good relations. I can't believe that it's taking this long for some people to do that same.

Just doing a little math, here the top 5 posters have 4118 posts. At Super Soaker Central that number is 8806 and at iSoaker.com that number is 4731. Now, dividing that by the total number of posts shows my point - at SSC the top 5 account for 32.4% (mostly mine) of all posts and at iSoaker.com the top 5 accounts have 35.9% of all posts, both essentially the same number. Here at SM, the top 5 take 72.8% of the total posts. Now, this can be an easy indicator of the dedication of a certain few and it also can be an indicator that a forum is starting out. You've been starting out for nearing a year. Isn't it time that you got your own members? :P

Well enough of this... you know my stance on this. I'm glad that this is the worst that we've seen recently. No more General RAK style disagreements!

Also, with Google's shitty sandbox policy in effect, if you plan on appearing in the SERPs, I would buy that domain name ASAP. It can take up to a year typically to come out of the sandbox. This practice by Google has caused me to use Yahoo much more often, simply because I can get newer and more relevant information.

I can't really control what members here say or do. I tried recalling the amount of incoming links in signatures awhile ago, but it took quite some time. As for the site slogan, no one has actually been encouraged to add that, it kind of just happened.

I used to post at all forums that I knew about, but since many died out, that has limited it to 3. I agree that one should not spend all their time at one place. The first generation of SM were all crossover posters like Spinner, Hunter, and Wetmonkey. You all should support every forum, though I might mention that the majority of members of Soakerdom stick with only SSC and ISCF, the 2 forums that actually have popularity and the ones they know about.

As for the age and posting issues, nowhere have the administration said that we are the only place to allow under 13. That would be a rather foolish thing to say in many ways. Also, we have been "starting out" for a year because it's that difficult for a small forum to get its foot in the closing door. When the domain is bought, the hosting bought, and the forum converted to the paid version, then things will change. With an actual domain, we would have a chance at the search engines. Or at least a shot at ranking first for a search for "Soaker Media." ;)

Not me, I joined here first then isoaker and ssc.

That's because we don't have hundreds of members, and only the more veteran members come here. Of course all sites will grow it took ssc 2 years to become as big as it is yet i still remember reading last week the topic that was begging guests to join. B)

If you're talking about the Guest Please Join thread, I think that you should realize that I posted that on our second day online (and it was much less than "begging guests to join"). This thread was posted many months afterwards, indicating that guests previously weren't a problem.

I also do not like the suggestion that SM consists of mostly or only veterans. Checking the member list you can easily see that most people, yourself included LA, joined the online community this year (if you kept up with the community since last year). If anything, Super Soaker Central and iSoaker.com contain more "veterans" simply because they have older members. If anything SM is wannabe veterans and future veterans. Veteran is a poor word given that people use it interchangeably with important community members. You can easily be important without being a veteran.

I originally intended to do one for SSC, but when I joined other forums (iSoaker, here) I kind of forgot about it. Thanks for reminding me though, I will get that done as soon as possible.

Also if anything does happen, I will be willing to accept full responsibility.

Sorry I didn't mean anything against the forum. I was mainly referring to the fact that this forum is well hidden from most users, so no one who is not a sirious soaker fan posts here. SSCentral is my favorite soaker site, but at the beginning of the summer, when n00bs begin asking "What's a collosus?" or "What mods can I do on my flash flood?", it gets slightly annoying (Why can't people just read the web site?!).

Some Guy has sent in his form, so that's over with. B)

And SM originally was primarily composed of veterans, though most of the oldest groups knew nothing about us. Now I would say it's mostly 6th and 7th generations, no 8th yet because they need more time to pass first. Veteran is a poor word, since it can mean a lot of things. Seniority on online forums, prominence in the community, or experience on the battlefield, or a combination. Someone can have one of those things and not the other two.

Agreed, people should read the site before posting questions.

Well, I guess I would also be considered pretty new. I started reading the iSoaker forums last year, and have been reading the SSCentral and Soakermedia forums since the beginning of the summer. After saying that, I'll also say that I've read almost all of each major soaker site, and many (at least 100) topics on homemade and tech on SSC and other boards, so I'm not as ignorant as some may think (although by no means am I saying I am an expert).

You are right about the importiant member part, but by your definition all the real "vetrans" left already. This past summer so many vetrans have left and to few new members have come to replace them, atleast that's what I have heard.

I don't think many long-time members have actually left this summer - most of that happened years ago! To the contrary, ones such as m4 have re-appeared.

Certain ones like Iceman, Field Marshal Yang, Commander Roo, etc. have either disappeared fairly recently, or post once in a blue moon. The oldest generations are also gone, but that already happened for years. The 6th gen. which includes Spinner and myself has pretty much disintegrated. Many of those who popped up two years ago are gone.

True, I had forgotten Iceman. Feels like FMY and Roo have been gone longer, however.

Now, the only reason I am re-hashing that old plea is because I have been seeing the same guests over the last few months. Yes, I can tell which guests are unique, and which ones have been here before, often daily. If every guest registered and posted, think of how much we could discuss and kick-start a new soaking year! B)

Well, after getting an email address just yesterday, I am now a member. That was the only reason I had not already joined. :) I joined all the local forums, and hope to be an active member this coming soaking year. B)

Thanks, the community can really use new members, especially those whom stick around and actively contribute. We are really short on people to replace those whom have left, on all the forums.