PSF Friend Inviter? - Thoughts please

[Booth]

Hi everyone. I've just discovered a friend inviter plug-in that I can install which will allow users to invite their friends from other networks like Facebook and Myspace - and also from free email providers like Hotmail and Google.

Do you think the site will benefit from this? It's between £26-£31 for the license (depending on exchange rate). I'm in favour of it but would like to hear what other people have to say.

On another site I have a similar thing installed and it does get quite a few sign ups.

 

[Joanna]

How exactly does it work, Mike?

 

[Booth]

You just select the service that you want to contact your friends from (Hotmail/Facebook/Myspace, etc) put your username and password in (which is just used for logging into the service you selected, it's not saved on this site) and then your contacts will appear which you can pick from.

The ones that you pick get sent an email (or a pm if it's a social network) telling them that they have been invited by whoever's invited them.

 

[Joanna]

Ah right, thanks. Where exactly would we go on here to access it?

 

[Booth]

There'd be a prompt to invite friends when someone registers and for people who are already a member there would be a link to the invite friends page.

 

[Joanna]

Cheers. Well, I haven't got any first-hand experience of using something like this...but I'd say that it might well be worth just installing it and seeing how things go from there. I'd say it was worth at least a try.

 

[Strawbs]

It seems to be an extra expense when you can just tell someone about this site for free at any time and they can join if they're interested.

I gave Curtin Parloe the link to the site a good while before he joined. I'm fairly sure most people on here would simply tell people they think would be interested in the site and give them a link.

I don't think there are enough active members on the site to offset the need or expense right now. If it doesn't sound too brutal, it seems like a pointless extra.

ETA...

Was typing as Joanna posted. My post was a response to Michael's first post, not the one above.

 

[Booth]

I would think that to and did when I set it up on another site, but the weird thing is that people began registering a lot more than word of mouth sign ups.

No idea why that is, perhaps it's because you can send to lots of people at once so the potential sign up rate is higher. Far more than just sending to a couple of people.

It's one of the things that's contributed to the growth of Facebook over the years.

 

[Strawbs]

Has an increase in site activity followed?

 

[Booth]

No but it's a different kind of site - if I'm being honest the interface isn't the best. This runs on Vbulletin so it's much easier to use. Should be even better when we convert over to the Vbulletin 4 suite later on in the year

 

[Strawbs]

I'm just uber-pragmatic and frugal. I can't really see the long term benefits in relation to the cost.

Gaaah, that's just me. It's your site and money. I'm Little Miss Cautious with such things.

 

[Booth]

I'm not that bothered about costs as long as it gives users an easy way to invite their mates. Could be useful for example for when we first began doing Bar Stewards. Would have been easier for people to invite people through a system where you could do it all at once rather than sending a few emails. I know there was a few Chris fans who were contacted at that time, and the easier it is for people to do that the better for us in the long run. Even if we only manage to get a few people on-board it's better for the community.

Anyway I'm trying it out on yet another site now, will see how it goes on there. There's a few bugs that I've found and reported to the author. If they fix it, it may be worth adding after the V4 update.

 

[Strawbs]

Yeah, in fairness you'll see the results better than me. I'm just always devil's advocate.

 

[Booth]

Emphasis on the :evil: eh Strawbs

 

[Cop]

I would hold back personally, we should see how the release of Bad Lad goes and then do the friend invites, see if the the sales increase after it's installation.

 

[Booth]

I think part of it is that the V4 update has been delayed a few times and when that happens the site and forums will be restructured so there are clearly defined areas. Once that happens I want to make a decent effort to get the community up and running again. At the moment I don't want to go to the effort of getting new sign ups when the site isn't how I want it to be.

I think Bar Stewards will have a part to play in getting the community active too. Hopefully the people who were following our progress originally will get involved again when word gets out that we're coming to the end of our journey (not yet, but soon ).

I don't know if Chris has any fans left but if he does I think they'll dig Bar Stewards.

 

[Strawbs]

I don't know if Chris has any fans left but if he does I think they'll dig Bar Stewards.

Well I'm digging it. I don't know where the others have gone, though. There's only me and Joanna left.

Maybe they were only on here for superficial reasons.

Emphasis on the :evil: eh Strawbs

Ooh, you know it!

 

[Booth]

Perhaps we should get Chris to do some sort of stripper routine to run under the end credits. Maybe that will get some interest. It'll look a bit like Tales of the Unexpected too.

Where have all those folks gone? LovelyLaura still logs in from time to time. And Angie06 uses the arcade regularly. Last I heard of Fran was that she was losing her net connection so I suspect she hasn't got it back yet.

 

[Strawbs]

I love how this has gone from talking about installing a bit of technical gubbins to Chris stripping.

I know which one I'd pay £30 for. imp: