CelticWomanForum.com

Hey everyone,

I need your feedback.

I want to understand the various reasons why the forms were really active places at one point but their much less active now. On most of the forums I'm one of the few people posting there.

Why were the forums so popular before?

What things have changed?

What can we do to revive some of the forum lands, so to speak?

I'm on quite a few forums: this one Chloë's, the forums for all the current girls, the Mairead Nesbitt's forum, Lisa Lambe's forum, Lisa Kelly's forum, and Chloë's forum.

Honestly, some of the forums are just being kept going for sentimental and archival reasons. The forums cost money to run. Glen has to run 4 forums and it gets expensive and time consuming.  We love the forums but it's getting harder to justify keeping those places running if there's only 2 or 3 of us actually posting there.

The heyday of the forums was before I was actually using the forums. I was a late bloomer, I guess. So I'd love feedback from some of the more tenured members to help me understand all this.

I have a few theories about it, but I'd love your thoughts.

I'm happy to discuss here. If there are things you're not comfortable posting in the open, please feel free to message me.

I'm really excited to read your insights!

The forums are always busier when the CW tour is in progress.  (Show reviews, forum members making plans for get-togethers, more new members joining, etc.) ;)

Agreed. All the forums in general are less busier than they used to be though. We still have a small group of people here that are pretty active, but some of the other forums feel like a private chat between me and the admins sometimes.  ::)

I have a few ideas...

I don't doubt that as the group has changed, some of the fans have moved on.

Some fans had their favourites (Chloë, Lisa Kelly, Mairead Nesbitt, Méav, etc.) and when they moved on, maybe those fans still liked Celtic Woman but a bit less passionately than before.

Maybe, for some people that used to frequent the forums and be super-CWazy, the novelty (and consequently their interest) faded over time.

Maybe something changed with the forums and their environment. Maybe as people started moving on and the forums became less active, it just sort of snow-balled.

Perhaps in the days before social media, the forums provided a sense of community and a news network for fans that was difficult to get elsewhere. Social media might be fulfilling some of those needs more effectively than a forum now.

That's all just speculation though. Because I wasn't involved in the forums until recently, I lack the insight to properly understand the situation. So if anyone could help shed some light on it, I would greatly appreciate it.

Long live Forum Land!

Speaking for me, there's a number of reasons.

One, it seems like I don't have any time to look at multiple forums.  I'm kind of anti-reading-stuff-on-my-phone.  That partially comes from age (and fat fingers).

Secondly, as been mentioned before. we all know the group has changed. Do I feel the same connection to the newer members?  No.  There's probably a lot of reasons why, but I'm not going to go to as many shows as I did in the past.  Part of the reason I used forums was to see who had an extra ticket or to sell one. 

If I'm going to read a forum, I mostly want it to be about the girls.  I don't care about games or seeing how many times I can post. 

Somewhat related to the above is the question of why do we need so many forums?  Since, for example, this forum has a page for each girl, why do I need to go to another site?  Chances are pretty good the same info is being posted.  Again, I only have so many hours in the day.

Good feedback.

Thank you.

I also wonder how much of "forum death" has to do with Facebook. I'm part of a couple different FB Celtic Woman groups, but for me, there is a pull to the forum as well. While Facebook and FB groups are convenient, there's something neat about the forum experience.

I completely agree!

Facebook is a great way to socialize with other Celtic Woman fans and interact with the girls to an extent. But honestly, there's something special about the community here on the forums. Facebook groups are often a mixture of loyal fans and casual fans. It's a little different atmosphere here on the forums.

echo much that has already been said...
 in the earlier years this forum was the go to for info.  not so much anymore.
The girls can communicate more directly ( if they choose to ) through Facebook and Twitter.

I too miss the earlier fun that shared here.

Thanks everyone for your feedback so far.

Keep it coming!

It's much appreciated.

I'm not really sure what to do, folks.

The last new member we had admitted here was about a year and a half ago: 2016-10-15. We're 100% sure we've had accounts waiting for approval almost since that time, unable to get onto this forum.

We know a bunch of the boards and FAQ are outdated and while I think we've done a decent job of making due, I'm starting to get pretty worried. I haven't gotten answers to my private messages or offers to help. I obviously can't tell though if I'm getting ignored or if the people they're being sent to just aren't checking anymore.

Glen and I have tried to get people over on the forums for each of the current girls in Celtic Woman, but while there's a few posts now and then, I think Glen and I must be doing over 90% of the posts there. It just doesn't seem to make a lot of sense to keep funding those forums if Glen and I are the only people using them. Sure, there's probably people viewing the forums without logging in and enjoying the content, but forums aren't really an effective community or platform without more people posting on a regular basis.

I hope the Celtic Woman Forum stays running for a long time. I love this place and I certainly plan to be here, providing as much useful and entertaining content as I can, for as long as this place exists. But I get the feeling we should all appreciate every moment we have here on the forum, because nothing lasts forever.  :'(

   Scott Manke  and  Mike Brown are still around the  Mairead  N.   forum  and  Scott  is  still around the Lisa K. forum as well  as  Matthew Allen. The rise of the  Face Book  and twitter  media are probably to blame.   :-\

 Also-Lindsey  (Aislin)  our  only  remaining  admin seems  to be  content to  observe without  intervening. I wish she would usher in some new folks here. There are still  several  registrations  per  day. 

Im also not sure what's going to happen to this forum as my emails and PM's have all been ignored I have also tried to tweet to Lindsey and have gotten nothing. Lindsey has not logged in for over a year and there is no one else left that can make changes to the forum. I will keep the 4 forums I have running so there will always be a place to go. When I have emailed Lindsey I have asked what is the Mod she has used to use different photos on each boards because I can't find any mod that will do this. Lindsey once said what she used something 16 or 12 but I can't find that post but maybe if someone can come up with it I would love to hear what mod was used. Reason I want to know this info as I already own celticwomanforum.net and .org and I have contacted the hosting company that really owns this domain

Note: This stuff below is interesting (I think) but it's going to get a bit technical. Sorry non-tech folks...

Hey Glen,

Regarding the different photos on each board, I'm not sure, but I was wondering if it requires a mod or if it's just part of configuring the theme.

Here's a snip of the page source from the main CWF page, showing what it looks like for Susan's board:


         <tr height="64px">
            <td rowspan="2" class="windowbg2" width="83px" align="center" valign="middle"><a href="http://www.celticwomanforum.com/index.php?action=unread;board=79.0"><img src="http://www.celticwomanforum.com/Themes/CWIOH/icons/79/off.jpg" alt="No New Posts" title="No New Posts" border="0" /></a>
            </td>
            <td class="windowbg2">
               <b><a href="http://www.celticwomanforum.com/index.php?board=79.0" name="b79">Susan McFadden</a></b><br />
                  

See the part in red? That tells us tiny bit about how the board icons work here. They're located within the icons directory of a theme.

Each board has a different board id, which we can see in the URL when you access a board, and also in the page source above (see the part in teal).

So basically, the icons in CWF are organized by board ID for starters. Whether all themes can do that or just special ones, I'm not sure yet.

Now the other interesting thing about this source above is the file name.

If we tinker with the file name, we can see how that part works too, based on whether there are read/unread posts:

Here's the icon for board 79 (Sue's board) when there are no new posts:

http://www.celticwomanforum.com/Themes/CWIOH/icons/79/off.jpg
(http://www.celticwomanforum.com/Themes/CWIOH/icons/79/off.jpg)

Here's the icon for board 79 when there are new posts:

http://www.celticwomanforum.com/Themes/CWIOH/icons/79/on.jpg
(http://www.celticwomanforum.com/Themes/CWIOH/icons/79/on.jpg)


Neat, huh?

So next, we need to figure out:
- Is this capability of all themes in SMF 2.x, or do only certain themes support this?
- Is there a standard way to configure this for different themes, or does each theme have its own way?
- Specifically, are the file / folder naming conventions the same.

For giggles, I checked the page source for Tara's forum and picked the "Tara McNeill Link" board arbitrarily as an example.

It looks like the on/off naming convention is the same for the theme Tara's forum uses.

<td class="windowbg" width="6%" align="center" valign="top"><img src="http://www.taramcneillforum.com/Themes/sunset-2-0-1-5/images/off.gif" alt="No New Posts" title="No New Posts" />
      </td>
      <td class="windowbg2" align="left" width="60%">
         <a id="b4"></a>
         <strong><a href="http://www.taramcneillforum.com/index.php?board=4.0">Tara McNeill Link</a></strong><br />


http://www.taramcneillforum.com/Themes/sunset-2-0-1-5/images/off.gif

(http://www.taramcneillforum.com/Themes/sunset-2-0-1-5/images/off.gif)


http://www.taramcneillforum.com/Themes/sunset-2-0-1-5/images/on.gif

(http://www.taramcneillforum.com/Themes/sunset-2-0-1-5/images/on.gif)


An important thing to note about Tara's forum vs CWF is that Tara's forum doesn't currently use any board subdirectories in the images folder.

That "Tara McNeill Link" board happens to have ID = 4, which we can see from its URL:
http://www.taramcneillforum.com/index.php?board=4.0

So I wonder if having different icons for different boards is as simple as:
1. Adding a subdirectory for each board within the icons directory of the theme (naming each subdirectory as the board id for that board), then
2. Adding a off.gif and on.gif (black and white vs color), with a separate off/on image for each board, within each board's directory.

I got as far as being able to see the file structure in Tara's forum while logged in as an administrator. But so far, I haven't found a way to add files / directories. That may be a privilege only you have or something that has to be down outside that administrator interface within the forum. I'm not sure yet.

Sadly, I never got around to installing a test forum in a lab, but I can see if there's some documentation on this somewhere we can refer to. My initial thought is it's pretty low risk to tinker around a bit and try it with one of the boards as a test, but as always, it's best practice to back everything up before making changes.

Hopefully this helps!

I agree that FB, Twitter, and IG plays a large portion. They seem to take forums all over

Hey Tom Ya that won't work the software calls for a on or off gif and that's one for all but with a mod it will give each board a id and then you label the on off photos with that id im working with 2 mods right now and one won't install and the other has such poor instruction with it that it don't tell you how to label or where to put the photo and you can have as many boards as you want but I just can't figure it out and you say (So I wonder if having different icons for different boards is as simple as:) yes you could do that but that's a ton of coding and if you have to do that for each board you could be here for weeks coding and im not a coder I can't read PHP code I know enough to get myself into trouble.

Also you said about adding files and stuff ya you can't get there that is done via FTP

Lindsey said one time on the forum that what she uses is only for like 16 boards and then she has to write the code for each board after that and she said what the mod was called but I can't find it

So it would seem, although I still don't understand why. Maybe it's just me, but I find Facebook feeds to be a cluttered mess, especially with all the injected adds. If I want to look up anything on Facebook it's a royal pain in the backside most of the time, even using their relatively new search capabilities. Twitter is pretty good for interacting with the girls who use Twitter, but it's not a great platform for discussions like forums are.

I totally get that it's way easier to interact with the girls on social media and those social platforms are great for news (as long as you check very frequently and don't miss more than a day or two at a time).

Personally, I find that the fan community on social media doesn't feel like the same community we have here and on the other forums. There are of course some massive superfans on social media that don't post on the forums very often anymore. But there are far more people that are casual fans at best and aren't always as supportive of the group or the girls as we tend to be on the forums.

I searched around for a post that stated the mod used, but I haven't found it yet either.

I can do coding, but there would be a bit of a learning curve for PHP. I've done other scripting languages, but the work I did with PHP was pretty limited and the last time I used it was before Celtic Woman existed, so it's been a while. I suppose I could give it a shot if we could find a viable mod.

I specifically must say that the forum is great pleasure for pro celtic woman fans than basic fans. Sure maybe you can post pro on some fan pages but we don't want to do it just to receive a like.

I think the forum is fun and exciting because we get honest feedback replies, reviews and answers whereas social media like facebook just a "like"" isn't getting into connection in love, passion and desire of CW to our life.

Second is we expert fans sometimes like to share with expert fans as we will understand anything CW based more and more through all aspects of the group behind the scenes. Also it may be expert fans share passionately more expert material that would make other expert only fans very excited over basic fans who only comment on the songs or the girls names. Xxx

Do any of you expert pro fans find more useful to discuss questions with the forum pro users or no difference whether facebook or forum? :)

I greatly prefer to the forums to Facebook.

I do like Twitter a lot because I think it's the best way to interact with *most* of the girls (some of the girls are more active on Facebook or Instagram). Susan is the one that actually got me into Twitter and CWazyTom would not exist without her.

For interacting with other fans though, I prefer the Forums. A lot of the pages / groups on Facebook have a different atmosphere and people with a different level of love for the group. I find that on Facebook, people are a lot more critical and less positive. There's a lot more complaining about little things that aren't perfect than there is appreciating the girls and the team for everything they do well.

I honestly feel way more paranoid about being judged on social media than I do on the forums. I don't get the warm-fuzzies from other 'fans' on Facebook as much as I do here. I feel comfortable here expressing myself. On Facebook, I'm a lot more reserved about what I post. The forum, although it's far for private, feels more like a private fan club than a closed Facebook group, which seems irrational but nonetheless a very powerful perception.

What I do like about Facebook though is if you have to get a message out to help promote the girls or the group, there are more people active and watching on Facebook than there are on the forums.

Facebook was really designed to be a news feed. It's ok at achieving that. As far as following threads of thought and going back to follow up on those threads later, it is way more cumbersome than the forums and highly ineffective. If you miss a post and it stops being actively discussed for even a day or two, the thoughts on that thread are pretty much lost forever.

 :) Absolutely True 2 Me too!

a. The forum, although it's far for private, feels more like a private f
an club than a closed Facebook group, which seems irrational but nonetheless a very powerful perception.  

b. There is appreciating the girls and the team for everything they do well.

 c. I feel comfortable here expressing myself than on Facebook,
I'm a lot more reserved about what I post.

d. I don't get the warm-fuzzies from other 'fans' on Facebook as much as I do here.

In my opinion, forums and message boards are far superior to social media - but sadly, the latter took over. But not completely, I hope. Communication works better on forums, they feel more personal and individualist, yet at the same time you are able to keep track of what is posted more properly. Social media is fast, inorderly, and blurry, and while it can be useful as an addition, I don't think it should replace forums and messaging boards as they are.

I totally agree the most important one's own person's feedback and keeping track.
That is why the Forum's recently & Today Alert is so convenient for us.

I hope nothing has happened to any of them, ie getting hurt or sick.

The other reason I'm still here (was on here as a guest for a LONG time before I was able to make my account...) is not just because of the mix on Facebook groups, but also because I haven't really found an active CW Facebook group. We might be able to generate some forum activity if we maybe posted in the existing FB group (s) for CW "hey want to interact more? Come join us on CW forum!" or something like that.??

My personal problem right now is time. I'm a college student and it's hard to keep up on ONE forum, but multiples is almost impossible. I'm trying to log in every so often, but it's really hard time wise.

There are active CW facebook group's but the content unless we at the forum did it there too it's all sharing the love of CW.
As for us on the forum we go deeper in-to all the question's, revelations. I wonder if this forum had a Twitter page or facebook page with the contents would others share it to the girls and would it generate an awesome as response at how Devoted fans we are not based on how many shows or meet & greets experience!

Passionate FANS!!!

Possibly. That strategy has been tried with the Forum Twitter and Facebook accounts for Sue, Mairead Carlin, Eabha, and Tara (among others). The girls that check social media often appreciate it. Personally, I've found the girls react more strongly to things I send them with my own account than with forum / fan accounts (except of course for Amy Rivard, who knows I do the Candy Canadiana Fans accounts). One interpretation is that the girls prepare a 'face' to a 'forum.' Perhaps forum accounts are appreciated but seem a bit less personal to the girls.

In short, I think personal accounts tend to be better for showing appreciation to the girls.

As far as a promotional vehicle for the forums and their members (to the girls and to other fans), I've found that it's hard to get and retain the attention of other fans. It's hard to come up with interesting and original content and present it in an entertaining way post after post. I've found that I tend to just like and retweet the girls' posts sometimes with fan/forum accounts instead. That of course leads to people asking "why would I follow this fan / forum account when I can get mostly the same content from the girls?"

While most of the news on the forum these days comes from social media, I do think we have a lot of knowledge and creativity that could be interesting to other fans. Presenting it on social media in a way that's entertaining can be quite challenging and time consuming though.

I do feel as a way to promote new member's and mass fans of CW
having just a Facebook page or twitter page called the Forum could promote with a link
to our site, We may post on it only to promote out such what the unique topics, creativity is news casted, updates
on topics, etc Just to promote, what makes the forum unique from all other CW fan pages.
It will all stay remain on the forum for it be challenging to catch up stay caught up on Facebook.
Plus it's a place for mass fans to virtue to the forum to a deeper fan level than basic fan appreciation on social media!

I really appreciate that the forum is still here - if I want to talk about Celtic Woman with other fans, I'd almost rather go somewhere besides FaceBook. I like that we actually interact here - I'm in several CT groups on FB and they aren't as organized nor are they as interactive as members here. It seems that if you want to keep up with artist news, FB is the place to go, but if you want to talk with other fans, forums are the place to go. Just my thoughts.

WOW, you couldn't have said it any Way Better it is exactly that!!
 the forum is verses fb!!! :) I like that we interact here I rather go here than on facebook to get motivated uplifted, excited!
The liking feature takes away the interaction in wording edgewise.

One reason I used to frequent here was the potential to buy tickets.  Most PBS stations made you buy 2 M&G tickets.  A number of people ( myself included) would offer to sell one of the tickets to a forum member.  I traveled to a lot of shows because of this.  If Im going to spend money on traveling, I want it to be a great trip. 

For whatever reason this year, my local PBS station did not offer M&G this year.  OK, I still got 2nd row next week in Lakeland ( first show of tour)  If someone has an extra M&G they would like to sell, send me a PM.  I'm generally ok with anywhere east of the Mississippi.   Red Rocks doesn't count, but they aren't going there this year.

WOW -That's really COOL for the forum to offer M&G's when they have two
pairs!  :) I am not an expert at getting M&G's so for other member's to help fans out seems very caring
it's something we can share with each other in the form of love for the girls. If we give the chance
for our devoted fans who are fans & give them the opportunity to see meet the girls face to face will
they bring a back more about the love of the girls & Celtic Woman you may not know someone that has never done M&G's or asked questions to the ladies whereas you have been to many and think you know the girls, when another fan who never met the ladies could encourage the ladies to thank to forum members you never know with surprises a video or anything! etc ;)

Any M&G for Jacksonville, FL this year be a Dream!

Post your want in the ticket board never know you could get lucky happens all the time and may happen at the last min. when someone has something popup and now they can't go