Should the forum name be changed to something clearly related to "movie posters"?
Being off the board for a bit has given me a bit of perspective:
(1) This forum overall is doing well. It has the best - and coolest - movie poster collectors on the internet. Spend a few minutes on Expresso Beans and you'll quickly how dorky other forums are. So the core members are the prime asset of this forum.
(2) However, a "catch all" poster forum was a noble idea but, given the specialized and well-established competition, has not and cannot work in practice.
(3) ExpressoBeans dominates and will continue to dominate general art prints. Given the vast database of posters on Expresso, this forum cannot compete in that arena. Indeed, Expresso is simply technically superior to this forum.
(4) Gigposters.com will continue to dominate music posters. This forum can never compete in that arena.
(5) 95% of the posts on this forum concern movie posters. The advertising, music, and theater sections are a dead zone. Plus, I suspect there are probably very few advertising/theater poster collectors anyway.
(6) This forum is invisible on Google. Type in any "movie poster ___" query and this forum does not show up. MPF shows up #1 on virtually every query.
(7) Very few, if any, new members are finding this site on their own. Most new members are poached from MPF.
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MPF is a dead zone but will continue to exist as long as the advertisers support it.
(9) This forum is very "top heavy" - the top 20 posters are responsible for 80% of the posts. (See attachment). A broader membership base is needed to sustain growth. (Perhaps this forum and NS4 could merge?)
Would a new forum name help the situation? Or possibly a "mirror site" of this site with a movie poster related name?
How sayest the rest of you?