Just a Few Thoughts on Adgabber…
I’ve been receiving emails from Adrants Daily for quite a while now. Not that I haven’t noticed the modest invitation in the middle of the email that kindly and business daily to join the community. I think that I actually visited the site a few times but never really entertained the thought of joining it. Until last week. Maybe I was bored, maybe I had something to write about, or maybe I… I don’t exactly remember. As any other “newly joined”, I created a profile, uploaded a picture of a cartoon, updated my information, uploaded videos and added a couple new friends. So many smart people (over 5000 Members), so much to talk about. And I do like to talk. As pro-active as I can be at times, I started a discussion and left a few comments. I even posted a blog and added a song. I believe in “Give to get”, therefore, I decided to participate in forum discussions posted by others. But how much fun is it to reply and not to get a response? How much fun is it to have friends and have no one to talk to?
Luckily, I stumbled upon the ‘The Future of Advertising Is Beginning To Fade Into The Past’ posted by Harry Webber. And the conversation was born. While trying to figure out how to save advertising (which turns out to be lots of fun), I decided to sniff around the Adgabber community, check out the people behind the scenes who joined Adgabber with intentions to talk, to communicate, to network, to learn, to share and to enlighten. My selection was very random. Some of the profiles caught my attention while browsing users, others appeared at the top left corner of the main page, and all I did was click on the pic. Some of the profiles said they were looking to communicate yet never participated in a discussion. Some of them were looking for an opportunity but maybe didn’t have the time to explore them. Some of the forum stars of 2007 haven’t been active since 2007. But there are still a few good people eager enough to type their thoughts. 2008 seems to be a slow year. And I don’t need to tell you why.
At the moment Adgabber has 514 posts in the forum. Most discussions seem to remain unanswered: 0 replies to 96 discussions, 1:67, 2:55, 3:48, 4:36 and so on. Why so? I can think of at least 5 reasons. If you have more than 2 replies (not counting your own) your topic is above average. It seems the more questions we ask less answers we get. Or maybe we are not asking the right questions? I did my math. You make your conclusion.
As a new kid on the block I still think Adgabber is cool. As Harry Webber wisely said, everbody has A.D.D. and I make no exception there. As for now it has my attention. I don’t know how long this fun will last. Probably until I find a real job. I don’t like to make promises that I might not be able to keep.
To be continued...
Luckily, I stumbled upon the ‘The Future of Advertising Is Beginning To Fade Into The Past’ posted by Harry Webber. And the conversation was born. While trying to figure out how to save advertising (which turns out to be lots of fun), I decided to sniff around the Adgabber community, check out the people behind the scenes who joined Adgabber with intentions to talk, to communicate, to network, to learn, to share and to enlighten. My selection was very random. Some of the profiles caught my attention while browsing users, others appeared at the top left corner of the main page, and all I did was click on the pic. Some of the profiles said they were looking to communicate yet never participated in a discussion. Some of them were looking for an opportunity but maybe didn’t have the time to explore them. Some of the forum stars of 2007 haven’t been active since 2007. But there are still a few good people eager enough to type their thoughts. 2008 seems to be a slow year. And I don’t need to tell you why.
At the moment Adgabber has 514 posts in the forum. Most discussions seem to remain unanswered: 0 replies to 96 discussions, 1:67, 2:55, 3:48, 4:36 and so on. Why so? I can think of at least 5 reasons. If you have more than 2 replies (not counting your own) your topic is above average. It seems the more questions we ask less answers we get. Or maybe we are not asking the right questions? I did my math. You make your conclusion.
As a new kid on the block I still think Adgabber is cool. As Harry Webber wisely said, everbody has A.D.D. and I make no exception there. As for now it has my attention. I don’t know how long this fun will last. Probably until I find a real job. I don’t like to make promises that I might not be able to keep.
To be continued...
10 Comments
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Comment by Biswajit Das on August 15, 2008 at 4:41am -
Guys, I know how it feels to have readers who don't particpate (lurkers). But it takes all kinds to make the world. And they also serve who stand & wait ...
Btw, here's a link to a blog managed by me along with a small team. Since we work in technology for advertising / media, we focus (loosely) on the "cusp" of advertising/media and technology.
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Comment by Thom Dinsdale on August 15, 2008 at 5:42am - Getting Social networks to work is always chicken-and-egg. It'll be the thankless work of those who stick with it tirelessly that will eventually get it off the ground.
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Comment by Buddy 'Friendly' Wachenheimer on August 15, 2008 at 9:39am
- It has been this way, it is this way, and it will continue to be this way, regardless. Some other reasons why http://www.adgabber.com/forum/topic/show?id=546804%3ATopic%3A75426
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Comment by Abdol Rahim Mirza on August 16, 2008 at 8:47am
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I next to Buddy had posted a topic with title
What's the topic/blogpost you'd most like to discuss? here is the link to it
http://www.adgabber.com/forum/topic/show?id=546804%3ATopic%3A94652
Hope it works
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Comment by Biswajit Das on August 17, 2008 at 12:06pm
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Hey look at the response this discussion generating. Not bad for a discussion on why "most discussions seem to remain unanswered" , what ?!
P.S. My blog is http://www.mediaxch.com:9001/mtblog.html (sorry we changed the back end technology - hence the new link)
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Comment by Mary Baum on August 19, 2008 at 4:04pm - In the words of one Graham Nash: (Maybe) "We can change the world . . ."
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- No Mary, we can change the world only if we have the right tool.
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Comment by alice on August 21, 2008 at 5:54pm -
on the topic of lurkers - i, too, had my issues with this but then i realized that we're just all wired differently. some people like to express themselves while others do not.
the crazy thing is talking to someone and them telling you how they've been reading or they bring up something from the site. makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. :)
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Comment by Biswajit Das on August 22, 2008 at 4:11am
- i like Nietzsche's line that you've flashed on your site - i think it's so relevant in this discussion
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Thank you for the shout-out. In the interest of continuing the conversation, albeit on a diverse topic, I would offer this. Blessed are the lurkers. Even though they take up bandwidth, they receive without giving, they serve no purpose other than providing the illusion of community. They still have a purpose, as passive as they are.
At one time these folks really got on my nerves. I would take the time to express a thought or a concept and instead of posting a response on the forum they would hit me up on email. These sidebar conversations became a real pain in the ass. It got so bad i was getting comments about things on AdRants being posted in my response box on MadisonAvenew.com.
Then I had a revelation. When a neighborhood goes to a softball game, not everybody plays on the field. Some people are very self conscious about speaking their mind in public. others, like myself, use the dynamics of spectacle and street theater to build there own fame and notoriety.
For the past three months I have been using the blogs on Advertising Age to build traffic to MadisonAvenew.com. Much as I used my verbose posts on Adrants to do exactly the same thing. As a result I am known to advertising practitioners all over the world. People who would never think to engage me in a one to one conversation, are cutting and pasting the crap I write on MadisonAvenew and recycling it as their own in trade interviews and blog entries. As a result not only does my name gain recognition, but so too does "Post Advertising Era", "Selective Marketing", "Adaptive Branding", and "Lean Advertising." Buzzwords that lead right back to me when fed into the random search engine.
I say all of this to say as long as there are two people on this site, willing to engage each other in meaningful dialogue, the site serves its purpose. mary Baum and I are the only to voices on the IAPIA group pages keeping the faith. And there are 46 members who are currently AWOL. Be that as it may, between the two of us, we've covered some pretty heavy ground and got Branswers.com built and almost funded.
And just this evening my business partner Angela Glenn told me she was following the exploits of Doña Ana and her two lovers and wondering where it would end up and when it would steam up. We have no idea of the impact of our interaction. But as long as the two of us get off on it, the rest of the audience is of no consequence at all. As for finding a real job, this epic may just take you farther than sending around your resume and waiting for the phone to ring. Unless there is a hiring bias against smart, yet gorgeous cartoons.