Suggestions for Apolyton's Future

[Lancer]

Suggestion... At CFC when they had the double off topic they had an entryway of sorts called 'The Colosseum'. So, a person going there could choose if they wanted a heavily moderated OT or a less moderated OT, forget what each was called.

The reason I'm suggesting this is that when you google search Apolyton you get only the one OT, the less moderated one. If instead there were an entryway from which one could choose, it would still take up only one spot on the google page. Why be taken to a place you might not want to be, then have to search around for the one you do?

Is this practical? Is there any choice in how google setup display's Poly? Google 'Apolyton' and see what I mean.

[Aeson]

Google controls what they show in the search results. The only thing reorganizing can accomplish in that regard is to lose whatever search engine authority the old OT has. Meaning the OT will probably show up less in searches ... COT will not show up any more in searches because of it ... so it means Apolyton overall loses ground.

If the COT is active and full of good info, Google will notice and rank it accordingly.

[Lancer]

How about changing the link it goes to? It must get info of some sort that Google contacts, can it be redirected to a Colosseum?

I'm thinking the new folks you mentioned will leave without ever knowing there's an alternative where they can not be...you know, the T word...ed.

[Aeson]

It will be ok the way it is. Messing with redirects just lowers Apolyton's search engine authority, and confuses people who are looking to go to specific places but end up at another. Very few people are going to land on the OT (or COT) main pages unless they've bookmarked them anyways. For example, in the last month we've had 88000 new visitors, 200 of them landed on the OT forum directly. Likely most of those were OT regulars who had just cleared their browser cache, were using a new device, or were in incognito mode. And before you say "well we scared off 200 potential customers" ... consider that the site average is 2.58 pages per visit, over 3 minutes. But those landing on the OT have 11.29 pages per visit and over 20 minutes per visit. So it's one of the areas of the site that generates the most engagement. (Though again, those 200 were probably regulars for the most part, so it's completely expected.)

It's the individual threads that are good landing pages for specific topics. Forum listings are rarely ranked high unless it's a forum structure sort of search.

[Lancer]

I wasn't going to say t h a t. Must have been on your mind? What I w a s thinking was, too bad, its nice to have a choice, and even nicer to k n o w you have a choice.

[self biased]

I wasn't going to say t h a t. Must have been on your mind? What I w a s thinking was, too bad, its nice to have a choice, and even nicer to k n o w you have a choice.

what's with the s p a c e s between some of your words?

[Lorizael]

He doesn't know how to i t a l i c i z e his words.

[Ming]

I wasn't going to say t h a t. Must have been on your mind? What I w a s thinking was, too bad, its nice to have a choice, and even nicer to k n o w you have a choice.

Gee... from the forum directory

Off Topic
Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.

Civilized Off Topic
A forum for friendly discussion of anything tasteful. Big brother will take care of the trolls.

Seems pretty clear that people have a choice... I know I have a choice

[Aeson]

I should remove the big brother thing now, forgot about that. It doesn't make any sense

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

Big Brother was problematic to begin with, being also an unrelated character in another famous work of fiction without goats.

[Aeson]

Well, technically speaking I am Big Brother in the 1984 sense.

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

Yessir. Yes you are.

[Lancer]

He doesn't know how to i t a l i c i z e his words.

This...

I've never even tried. Plus, I like the spaces better, they seem to stand out.

[AAAAAAAAH!]

Ban all mention of the Philippines.

[Lancer]

Why?