Why Dhammawheel is not growing?

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binocular
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Re: Why Dhammawheel is not growing?

Post by binocular »

Dhammarakkhito wrote: Sun Jan 28, 2018 8:21 pm no i'm not saying no skepticism, i'm saying it is rife with undue skepticism and personal opinions. valuable answers to valuable questions get lost in pages and pages of people vomiting what immediately comes to their mind without referring to the dhamma-vinaya. actually i think a merit system like on other forums would be beneficial because truly on-topic posts could be upvoted and members who contribute valuably known as such. i was just having this discussion on facebook and i dont think the dhamma is entirely subjective. there are some things that are clear and indisputable just from a cursory reading. i still dont really see why we have topics about trump or football whatever without connecting it to the path
This is a discussion forum, not a Dhamma book.
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Dhammarakkhito
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Re: Why Dhammawheel is not growing?

Post by Dhammarakkhito »

not sure what that is supposed to mean, dont care. it's a buddhist forum not a sports bar
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DNS
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Re: Why Dhammawheel is not growing?

Post by DNS »

binocular wrote: Sun Jan 28, 2018 8:27 pm
Dhammarakkhito wrote: Sun Jan 28, 2018 8:21 pm no i'm not saying no skepticism, i'm saying it is rife with undue skepticism and personal opinions.
This is a discussion forum, not a Dhamma book.
:goodpost:

Of course it is rife with personal opinions, that is one of the main points of a forum; to allow people to express their opinions. Who decides what is the correct Right View in terms of opinions on the Dhamma? It is for each of us to decide and discussion is made with people expressing their views and opinions. As binocular noted, this is not a Dhamma book.
binocular
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Re: Why Dhammawheel is not growing?

Post by binocular »

Dhammarakkhito wrote: Sun Jan 28, 2018 8:33 pmnot sure what that is supposed to mean, dont care. it's a buddhist forum not a sports bar
You don't care, eh? And you don't see a problem with that?
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User1249x
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Re: Why Dhammawheel is not growing?

Post by User1249x »

dylanj wrote: Fri Jan 26, 2018 6:31 am
Dhammarakkhito wrote: Tue Jan 23, 2018 9:39 am overloaded with skeptics and openly contradicting buddha's dhamma and also off-topic content maybe
:thumbsup:
censorship and pc culture
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No_Mind
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Re: Why Dhammawheel is not growing?

Post by No_Mind »

The point is not whether it is growing but if it is able to keep prolific and knowledgeable contributors engaged.

Spiny, Mkoll, cjmacie, reflection, dhammacoustic, clw_uk and hundred or so like them have disappeared .. not to mention many who join but do not write a word.

In any other forum this would be normal but this forum's purpose is to be an e-sangha. Loss of good writers is hard to replace.

Heavyweight discussions such as "The citta as a permanent self" or informative and educational posts such as "A Comparative Note on the Early Upaniṣads and Pāḷi Nikāyas – Nāmarupa" are not being created anymore.

One solution would be to archive the discussions so far and begin a new one (same name) and strictly make it a Buddhist/comparative religion forum with no discussion of politics or social engineering and other adjunct topics allowed anywhere. It causes too much rift .. conservatives dislike pro-transgender folk, rightists dislike leftists, Asians dislike political correctness forced down their throat, Westerners dislike Asian smugness and so on.

:namaste:
Last edited by No_Mind on Wed Jan 31, 2018 1:18 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Justsit
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Re: Why Dhammawheel is not growing?

Post by Justsit »

No_Mind wrote: Tue Jan 30, 2018 2:44 am this forum's purpose is to be an e-sangha.
Oh no, please. One E-Sangha was entirely enough. :jawdrop:
SarathW
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Re: Why Dhammawheel is not growing?

Post by SarathW »

SarathW wrote: Fri Jan 19, 2018 11:31 am I did another quick assessment of the progress of DW.
Now it is averaging 2.79% ie (350/12543*100) users online compares to 2.27% last year.
This is a good indication that DW is growing at a steady pace.
Congratulation to all admin staff not to mention the regular users and contributors.
According to my latest trend analysis, Dhamma Wheel is averaging 3.12% ie (400/12798*100) users online based on the total number of members.
“As the lamp consumes oil, the path realises Nibbana”
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Re: Why Dhammawheel is not growing?

Post by SarathW »

I have noticed that online users fell from about 420 to 160 recently.
I also note in Google research I hardly see any Dhamma Wheel link in the first page.
“As the lamp consumes oil, the path realises Nibbana”
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Kim OHara
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Re: Why Dhammawheel is not growing?

Post by Kim OHara »

SarathW wrote: Wed Sep 05, 2018 10:25 pm I also note in Google research I hardly see any Dhamma Wheel link in the first page.
I searched for buddhist discussion forum with DuckDuckGo (which doesn't bias the search results according to your previous browsing history) and got:
Buddhism Without Boundaries - Buddhist Forum
https://buddhismwithoutboundaries.com

Dhamma Wheel - Buddhism Discussion Forum
Buddhist forum about the Dhamma of Theravāda Buddhism. .
https://dhammawheel.com

Dharma Wheel - Buddhism Discussion Forum
A Buddhist discussion forum on Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism.
https://dharmawheel.net

Recent Discussions — NewBuddhist
newbuddhist.com/discussions

Discussions : Secular Buddhist Association
ecularbuddhism.org/forum/

Buddhist Discussion - The Dao Bums
https://www.thedaobums.com/forum/183-bu ... iscussion/

Buddhism Forum - Buddhism Questions & Answers, Discussions - able2know
https://able2know.org/forum/buddhism/

FreeSangha - Buddhist Forum - Index
freesangha.com/forums/index.php

Discussion Forum - SGI Buddhism (.net)
https://sgibuddhism.net/forum

Buddhism Discussion | Naruto Forums
https://www.narutoforums.org/threads/bu ... n.1099086/

Daily Buddhist Life - Dhammaloka Community
https://bswa.org/forum/forum/discussion ... dhist-life

Zen Buddhism Community Discussion Forum
zenguide.com/forum/
A slightly different choice of search words - Buddhist online forum - got me most of the same results plus
Studying Tibetan Buddhism Online - YoWangdu: Experience Tibet
https://www.yowangdu.com/tibetan-buddhi ... nline.html

Recent Discussions — NewBuddhist
newbuddhist.com
- so we're doing okay.

:coffee:
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TRobinson465
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Re: Why Dhammawheel is not growing?

Post by TRobinson465 »

NarutoForums?
"Do not have blind faith, but also no blind criticism" - the 14th Dalai Lama

"The Blessed One has set in motion the unexcelled Wheel of Dhamma that cannot be stopped by brahmins, devas, Maras, Brahmas or anyone in the cosmos." -Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta
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Kim OHara
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Re: Why Dhammawheel is not growing?

Post by Kim OHara »

TRobinson465 wrote: Thu Sep 06, 2018 3:57 am NarutoForums?
:juggling:

A couple of others are a bit odd, too, but the main thing I was looking for was whether we appear reasonably near the top, and we do.

:coffee:
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SarathW
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Re: Why Dhammawheel is not growing?

Post by SarathW »

What I am looking is the users online.
This is generally above 400.
For few weeks it is below 150.
Something unusual.
“As the lamp consumes oil, the path realises Nibbana”
TRobinson465
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Re: Why Dhammawheel is not growing?

Post by TRobinson465 »

with only a few hundred viewers i dont think seeing fluctuations is that uncommon. a small sample can have wide variations. For all you know somebody used to put DW on thier FB group and then took it down.
"Do not have blind faith, but also no blind criticism" - the 14th Dalai Lama

"The Blessed One has set in motion the unexcelled Wheel of Dhamma that cannot be stopped by brahmins, devas, Maras, Brahmas or anyone in the cosmos." -Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta
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DNS
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Re: Why Dhammawheel is not growing?

Post by DNS »

Google search rankings change frequently and often one site can have a high ranking due to good SEO, key words and not necessarily from traffic. I like the total number of posts as a good indication of how a forum is doing not just now, but also historically, all-time. The DW sites, combined are nearing 1 million posts, which will soon make it tied with the famous / infamous e-sangha, now defunct since 2009.

Another good metric is the alexa.com traffic rankings, but these also change rapidly. I checked tonight and found the following:
(the lower the number, the higher the traffic, for example google has a traffic ranking of 1; youtube has a traffic ranking of 2, etc.)

1. dharmawheel.net (DW - Mahayana) = 285,926

2. newbuddhist.com/discussions = 482,658

3. dhammawheel.com (DW - Theravada) = 544,916

4. secularbuddhism.org/forum/ = 910,450

5. buddhismwithoutboundaries.com = 1,173,382

6. dharmawheel.org (DW - Engaged) = 1,409,378

7. freesangha.com/forums/index.php = 1,707,557

8. sgibuddhism.net/forum = 4,026,106

9. zenguide.com/forum/ = 8,822,753

10. zen1.space = 12,562,545

(forums that are under the umbrella of some other larger site, for example, beliefnet, will have a misleadingly good ranking due to the overall traffic of the parent site, so those are not included above.)

DW - Theravada (this site) is doing fine at number 3. I believe we may have slipped a little due to no longer having news & politics here; but one could argue that the quality of discussion has improved due to that though.
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