Alexa ranking for Ktalk has recently dropped from Position 50 in the country to now position 311 in a week. Global ranking dropped from No. 50,000 to now position 148,925?
In your opinion, what could be the course of this? Reduce SEO maybe?
Is facebook and twitter winning the fight over web forums?
What is the future of web forums?
On the other hand, the number of members in the web forum has increased to over 16,000 members. And yet active members and guests combined at one time do not exceed 300 average.
KTalk seems to be enjoying a monopoly in Kenya with alternatives and copy cats dying on the 2nd month of trying to compete for traffic.
Ktalk is not the only one facing this challenge. Nairaland, probably Africa’s biggest web-based forum has over 1.8 million members but only about 9,000 are active at any one time.
Surprisingly, Nairaland has managed to maintain the Global position 1,186 and Local position 9 for a while now. With over 500 new members daily. It’s reported as the fastest growing forum in the world.
I guess keyfactor hapa ni SEO keywords. We’re from an election period and I guess other sites such as the ones owned by media groups and the likes of mharo scored their points by using the same keywords as what most people were searching for on google. Huku the common lexicon such as ‘Babuon’ and ‘shiny eye’ are not words easily used by the common netizens. Hence when searching info for, say Uhuru, sde websites and similar ones were readily available.
Mimi nilisema hapa siku ingine…most members here have multiple handles. The site keeps attracting new members but for some reason, there’s a core group of not more than 100 members who actively contribute. There are the usual suspects you expect to comment or post threads. And anytime a renowned member disappears, a New Handle emerges with kiherehere that is not usually associated with NVs. I’d say 90% of members here are useless.
Anyway, I expect forums to continue being niche websites. In fact, that’s what attracts members to forums, the niche factor. Inside jokes like HKM, UOTP/RWNBP, meffi, radan, birrionaire vs peasants etc make this forum unique. The more people join, the more that authenticity is diluted. If this forum starts attracting members from other African countries for example, they’ll have a hard time understanding the sheng we use here. Same to Kenyans who visit Nairaland. Most of the time they’re floating when those ogas type in vernacular or pidgin English.
So the same attribute (uniqueness/authenticity) that makes a forum successful also limits it’s growth beyond a certain point.
Is there a bigger Kenyan forum? I’m ignorant. But the setup for here is similar to the biggest African American forum. Only difference is smileys here are basic. But with more publicity this place can become big
I’d preffer if this site had a few members only. And ratain its uniqueness. new members joining wawe through invites only. Call it zenophobia if one wants to. I however understand its a business for the ones who ran it and therefor,instead of having adverts kwa site kuwe na paybill number ya donations to @admin & Co. for running expenses and their daily bread