For a multitude of reasons there comes a time when an Internet community needs to re-invent itself. Change is unavoidable on the Internet, and VV is no exception. When we launched the forum in 2012 it was a rebellion of sorts against changes on VB that saw that community change from a place run by a charitable owner as a public service to an openly for-profit operation. VV has stayed true to its no-ads, not-for-profit policy, relying only on member contributions, the moderators' volunteering and my idealism. We've tried to be a 'safe haven' for vegans and vegetarians across the globe.
However, we are not immune to changes on the wider Internet. First of all, Internet forums are no longer the obvious answer to all the different use-cases they were once designed for: social groups, knowledge sharing, image sharing, online community, online discussions and so on. These days we also have several major social media sites, question & answer sites, and millions of blogs, all targeting the pool of potential Internet forum users. Secondly, at the same time the number of Internet forums have also increased, reducing the pool of recruitable users further.
VV unfortunately hasn't been able to replace members lost to natural churn over the years, which is why we're now left with a relatively small, but loyal crowd of active members. So we have to ask ourselves if there's anything we could be doing differently that might help fix the problem.
This is obviously something that's been weighing heavily on my mind for a long time now. I've tried to make the forum look and feel as appealing and easy to use as possible - this is an ongoing task. However, I feel this exercise can only take us so far, and not nearly far enough.
Now there are two major changes I'm planning to make.
1) Open the forum to 'compatible and interested' non-veg*ns. This will significantly increase the pool of potential new members. It also has the added benefit of helping us become something more useful than just a support community for the already converted, and instead allow us to influence and support interested omnivores to move in the right direction. As I see it, VV has an educational mission, and we're not reaching our potential in this respect partly because of too restrictive membership rules. I do understand this needs to be balanced against our role as a 'safe haven', but I think attitudes towards veg*ns in society have improved somewhat over the years. Also, the 'compatible and interested' part will become part of our rules, replacing our current rule #1, though the exact phrasing is still being worked on. Also, there will be an indicator in the user profiles to say whether they're vegan, vegetarian or neither.
2) Being a community for vegans and vegetarians has surprisingly often resulted in problems when trying to promote VV. We're prevented from using vegan channels of communication, such as FB groups, blogs, websites, and festivals because we're not an entirely vegan forum. And there are very few explicitly vegetarian channels, as veganism is so much more popular these days. Let's face it: Almost all our recipes are vegan anyway, and I feel like veganism has basically won the philosophical argument, although we're not all practising vegans. Therefore it makes more sense to simply say we're a vegan forum, but that others who share our fundamental convictions are also welcome, especially other types of vegetarians. What would be the practical implications of this change? We'll be explicitly promoting veganism, so will remove/replace the one or two non-vegan recipes we have. We'll replace the forum subtitle - "Vegetarian and Vegan Forums @ Veggie Views". However, 'The Vegetarian Forum' will stay as is, as we recognise that vegans and vegetarians often share a lot of values, that vegetarianism can be a stepping-stone towards veganism and also that vegetarianism is a significantly more animal-friendly lifestyle than omnivorism.
However, we are not immune to changes on the wider Internet. First of all, Internet forums are no longer the obvious answer to all the different use-cases they were once designed for: social groups, knowledge sharing, image sharing, online community, online discussions and so on. These days we also have several major social media sites, question & answer sites, and millions of blogs, all targeting the pool of potential Internet forum users. Secondly, at the same time the number of Internet forums have also increased, reducing the pool of recruitable users further.
VV unfortunately hasn't been able to replace members lost to natural churn over the years, which is why we're now left with a relatively small, but loyal crowd of active members. So we have to ask ourselves if there's anything we could be doing differently that might help fix the problem.
This is obviously something that's been weighing heavily on my mind for a long time now. I've tried to make the forum look and feel as appealing and easy to use as possible - this is an ongoing task. However, I feel this exercise can only take us so far, and not nearly far enough.
Now there are two major changes I'm planning to make.
1) Open the forum to 'compatible and interested' non-veg*ns. This will significantly increase the pool of potential new members. It also has the added benefit of helping us become something more useful than just a support community for the already converted, and instead allow us to influence and support interested omnivores to move in the right direction. As I see it, VV has an educational mission, and we're not reaching our potential in this respect partly because of too restrictive membership rules. I do understand this needs to be balanced against our role as a 'safe haven', but I think attitudes towards veg*ns in society have improved somewhat over the years. Also, the 'compatible and interested' part will become part of our rules, replacing our current rule #1, though the exact phrasing is still being worked on. Also, there will be an indicator in the user profiles to say whether they're vegan, vegetarian or neither.
2) Being a community for vegans and vegetarians has surprisingly often resulted in problems when trying to promote VV. We're prevented from using vegan channels of communication, such as FB groups, blogs, websites, and festivals because we're not an entirely vegan forum. And there are very few explicitly vegetarian channels, as veganism is so much more popular these days. Let's face it: Almost all our recipes are vegan anyway, and I feel like veganism has basically won the philosophical argument, although we're not all practising vegans. Therefore it makes more sense to simply say we're a vegan forum, but that others who share our fundamental convictions are also welcome, especially other types of vegetarians. What would be the practical implications of this change? We'll be explicitly promoting veganism, so will remove/replace the one or two non-vegan recipes we have. We'll replace the forum subtitle - "Vegetarian and Vegan Forums @ Veggie Views". However, 'The Vegetarian Forum' will stay as is, as we recognise that vegans and vegetarians often share a lot of values, that vegetarianism can be a stepping-stone towards veganism and also that vegetarianism is a significantly more animal-friendly lifestyle than omnivorism.
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