Thanks for getting back to me.. but i would still maintain.. ChromePlugins.org is still getting much more visitors than all the 4 sites you listed put together.. Even earlier when the speed of the forum was quite good (not like now) then also we always witnessed lower participation.. And offlate even though the participation is a bit less still mods and senior members like you are keeping it alive. I have taken in your suggestion of making it much more speedier and i am trying very hard to achieve that now..

Now i am seriously considering of hiring a VB expert to solve a few issues including upgrading the forum software.

Originally Posted by StevePaul

These are the sites that started about the same time as yours ....

There is another one called Chrome News but you have to complete a 'very stupid' quiz to register !!

IMO Chrome Story is certainly the most professional of all the forums ....

@Chrome

I still maintain your concerns are a little misplaced ...

I would agree that this forum is far superior to any of it's competitors, either as a single entity or a combined presence ...

Registration for this site is only required if you want to post to the forum (as with most forums) so becoming a member is no longer a prerequisite of gaining information, as most of the answers you are seeking have already been asked ...

The reality is that Chrome has come a long way since we first embarked on this journey of enlightenment and the proof is in the release of version 4 to the Stable channel in January...

We have been fortunate (and spoiled) by some of the very best contributors to Chrome (as a product) by our Extension and Theme developers and a lot of people have been privileged (I include myself) to have had the opportunity to interact with these individuals ...

As I've mentioned before the major reason for inactivity amongst the 'older members' is because there are no 'challenges' left (or very few anyway), extensions and themes have 'come of age'and most other issues and problems have been resolved (unless you're a Mac or Linux user !!)...

Forum membership is not indicative of success; in a round about way the lack of registrations (hence no requirememt to post) would suggest that visitors are actually finding what they are looking for...

As for forum exposure, if you search for 'Chrome forums' on the major search engines then this site comes 'top of the pile' every time !!

To gauge popularity and success you might want to consider some kind of 'exit poll' whereby visitors answer a couple of simple questions before they leave the site ...

Have you visited the site before ...
Did someone recommend this site ...
Did you find the answer to your question ...
Did you ask your question at another site before coming here ...
Would you visit this site again ...
Would you recommend this site ...

Just a few thoughts, hope they help ;-)

Contests would help people get involved more. :]
Also maybe vamping up the blog and telling people (/making it more apparent) that posting awesome extensions here can get them featured on it! Build it up as like some kind of hall of fame in the members' minds.

EDIT: As another suggestion..I suggest a better capcha or something for registration. I can hardly tell if half of these new people are bots or English-as-a-fourth-or-so language SEO freaks with their own websites that happen to be similar to the kinds of sites forum bots link in their signatures.

Originally Posted by johndept1

i dont know where gone.

Please ban this bot. D: Sooo annoying that he keeps resurrecting threads.

Sorry, I thought I banned him two days ago but I had a network time out issue or something and spose it didn't go through.
I would have banned him ages ago but the posts where more often then not vaguely in response to the thread and so wasn't sure if I should ban him as Chrome(Admin) wont enforce any rules about adds in signatures and so Im wary of banning people that MAY be actually replying to a thread as some people from other countries can post in broken english and I don't want to just assume their bots. Which is why I wanted a hard rule on adds in signatures.

Yeah, one of those bots with contextual responses.. prolly googles keywords for a response or something I dunno.