I am utterly new at this endeavor, so I will make mistakes. Three I already see:
1) I have been editing and re-editing the first post, which leaves the archive useless.
I do not know if that will prove to be a problem, but it may.
2) I have no clear understanding of what happens when someone subscribes. If the subscription is for email, that might be one set of problems; if it involves an RSS feed, that is another set. SOLUTION: I am trying out a subscription through google reader. I am not fond of it, so far, since it shows the blog with an extra item, and I cannot tell why the extra article. Also, I am unsure what the reader DOES when something changes - does it somehow tell me?
3) Lack of planning is a problem, too: I want the first post to be always on top, but I have no clue how to arrange that. Newer always goes to the top, and that means follow-up posts come before that which they follow up. SOLUTION: assign a future date to that post, and it will be on top until the assigned date.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Why A Blog? Why THIS Blog?
Tigers Against Diabetes is in a crisis. We face this crisis not because we are not trying to win - but because we are both failing to score enough coins, and because we are not recruiting fast enough to gain on our competition.
Part of the problem lies in the realities of the IWON world: although we have about 40 really dedicated players, who max most days, and visit the team page; and perhaps 150 more who play most days, and visit the team page at times, we also have almost 700 players who NEVER visit the team page, who play infrequently, and who may not even know about the profile page, or the messages that might appear there. Many of the subject group have by now forgotten even JOINING the team, and have no contact with us, or anyone who would remind them.
We may cheer and compete - the 40 players - and even recruit - our IWON friends and chat buddies, and anyone else we meet; but we can no longer expect to WIN, unless we can do more than that.
The easiest solution would be to somehow convert all those 700 players (and even the 150) to IWON addicts, maxing every day, and recruiting everyone as a reflex. That will probably not happen, even though it would be really great for the team. Some families might object, or some employers - but do we let THAT stop us? We need some means to reach those players - and I cannot think of any at this moment. In desperation, I am working on this blog, in hopes that something will click - but the blog faces many of the same problems the team faces: how to get the attention of the people we need to reach? And how to turn THEIR efforts toward the (presumably shared) goal of garnering coins to win the checks?
Another, different, direction, involves outright recruitment, with an eye toward luring steady, daily players - those who will visit the team page for updates, read the messages on their profile pages, and contribute more coins per day, than our current average of 37,500. That actually sounds easier to me, and more likely to succeed in curing our problems. The question then becomes, how do we get them to join? Next, how do we keep them with this team? I have started recruiting players whom I "touch" in the IWON coin rankings - first, looking at the profile to check that they are not already on a charity team, then hitting the "recruit" button, and leaving a (necessarily) brief message on the profile page. That has produced some notable successes, but many more failures. Unlike chatting players whom one encounters in the games, this approach does not usually produce an answer to "why not join Tigers?". If there is any response at all, it is often terse and slightly caustic.
The advantage is that these are all quite active players, so a success is a huge gain for the team. They got that ranking by playing a lot, and until employers or family intercede, will likely continue to play a lot. Since Irankin is driving me through the rankings, I keep "touching" better players every day. And since the rankings are quite volatile, even if I stood still, there would still be 15 different players "touching" me each day.
Perhaps some of our other active players could also recruit in that fashion? It might take a month to really see results, but if we picked up even a dozen more of the core group, that would improve the team average tremendously. If the team average were to double, we would certainly be leading now, by a HUGE margin, even with the same number of players - and we would simultaneously be increasing the number of players, further increasing that lead. That is what we want - to lead clearly, and WIN! No more sweaty waits to see what the other team loses from THEIR huge lead - but a clear-cut victory and $10000 for the ADA.
Part of the problem lies in the realities of the IWON world: although we have about 40 really dedicated players, who max most days, and visit the team page; and perhaps 150 more who play most days, and visit the team page at times, we also have almost 700 players who NEVER visit the team page, who play infrequently, and who may not even know about the profile page, or the messages that might appear there. Many of the subject group have by now forgotten even JOINING the team, and have no contact with us, or anyone who would remind them.
We may cheer and compete - the 40 players - and even recruit - our IWON friends and chat buddies, and anyone else we meet; but we can no longer expect to WIN, unless we can do more than that.
The easiest solution would be to somehow convert all those 700 players (and even the 150) to IWON addicts, maxing every day, and recruiting everyone as a reflex. That will probably not happen, even though it would be really great for the team. Some families might object, or some employers - but do we let THAT stop us? We need some means to reach those players - and I cannot think of any at this moment. In desperation, I am working on this blog, in hopes that something will click - but the blog faces many of the same problems the team faces: how to get the attention of the people we need to reach? And how to turn THEIR efforts toward the (presumably shared) goal of garnering coins to win the checks?
Another, different, direction, involves outright recruitment, with an eye toward luring steady, daily players - those who will visit the team page for updates, read the messages on their profile pages, and contribute more coins per day, than our current average of 37,500. That actually sounds easier to me, and more likely to succeed in curing our problems. The question then becomes, how do we get them to join? Next, how do we keep them with this team? I have started recruiting players whom I "touch" in the IWON coin rankings - first, looking at the profile to check that they are not already on a charity team, then hitting the "recruit" button, and leaving a (necessarily) brief message on the profile page. That has produced some notable successes, but many more failures. Unlike chatting players whom one encounters in the games, this approach does not usually produce an answer to "why not join Tigers?". If there is any response at all, it is often terse and slightly caustic.
The advantage is that these are all quite active players, so a success is a huge gain for the team. They got that ranking by playing a lot, and until employers or family intercede, will likely continue to play a lot. Since Irankin is driving me through the rankings, I keep "touching" better players every day. And since the rankings are quite volatile, even if I stood still, there would still be 15 different players "touching" me each day.
Perhaps some of our other active players could also recruit in that fashion? It might take a month to really see results, but if we picked up even a dozen more of the core group, that would improve the team average tremendously. If the team average were to double, we would certainly be leading now, by a HUGE margin, even with the same number of players - and we would simultaneously be increasing the number of players, further increasing that lead. That is what we want - to lead clearly, and WIN! No more sweaty waits to see what the other team loses from THEIR huge lead - but a clear-cut victory and $10000 for the ADA.
No News ?
It seems that between the lack of any news, and the battle that has overtaken us, to regain third place, or the very last money slot, there has not been much going on here. That is true, and arises not only from the press of working for the team, but also from that lack of things to write about. Sorry, we just write what feels right.
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