In all seriousness, a week or two ago I was hopping around the websites and forums of the other major SW organizations online. Something I noticed about a few of them was this: when they have a new member signup, part of their requirements to get through their 'Academy' or whatnot is signing up for and posting on their message boards, typically in the new recruit section or the like. The VE is my default example of this activity.
Could this help us? By help, I mean to say, get more people in the GE involved with the community of the GE by getting them on the message boards. Take a look at it this way: everyone who's ever been anything in the GE has been an active member of the MBs, IRC, etc etc etc. I don't want to suggest that we are forcing people onto our message boards, but that would be in effect the plan.
Look at it this way: say 10 new cadets sign up over some short time. How many of them make it to the MBs? Maybe 1 in every 3-4 groups of 10 cadets. How many stick around to be a serious contributor to the Empire? Maybe 2 in that say 3-4 groups of 10. There is a strong correlation between getting involved with the community and being a good officer and contributing. We want to keep people involved, and getting them onto the MBs, onto IRC, onto the Ladders is a great way to do that. But I think we don't starting pushing the issue more, it won't happen.
Half the game with the GE right now is recruitment, but the other half is RETENTION, something we don't do well. I think this may help improve that.
Thoughts?
