Read More →]]> Dennis, the iNET community coordinator, and I had an interesting conversation this morning regarding member conversion rates and our online communities. Conversion rate is a metric that we watch pretty closely here, being the percentage of unique non-members visitors to one of our online message board communities that become members in a one-month period.

Certainly, a lot of factors can affect conversion rate of an online community. We think there are a few key ones that are worth taking the biggest look into:

Quality of content. This one should be the easiest for a prospective member to figure out. If the content on the site is great and attractive, then people will hopefully want to come back for more. If folks find that their questions are being answered, and that the conversation in the community is deep and rich, they might be persuaded to sign up and find a home there.

Ease of registration. How hard is it to become a member? How easy is the signup form? How many mandatory questions are there? Is it a visually appealing process? Does the process seem safe and secure. I would argue that the typical vBulletin registration process we use is slightly unwieldly and in need of an UI update. That’s something we’re definitely going to address in our communities soon.

Attitude. This is the most subjective of all. What is the attitude of the community’s members and moderators? The prospective member may take a look at the spirit of the message board, and try to answer some tough questions. Does it seem like members are treated fairly? Do senior members make new members feel welcome and at home? Is the community pretty good at not feeding the trolls? Does the community stay on topic? Are the rules posted and clear? Do the moderators treat everyone with respect? If a member prospect answers any of these with a ‘no,’ they’ll likely second-guess signing up, or if they do–they might not stick around for long.

Read More →]]> Rapid development programming frameworks have been a hot topic within web developer circles recently. These handy tools set out to automate many of the repeated tasks of developing web applications. But like all trends, critics quickly poke holes in the idea. So what what can you expect from programming frameworks?

The Good:

• Much faster development time, especially for prototyping (via scaffolding)
• Less time spent on boiler-plate web application functionality (e.g. user authentication, form creation, etc)
• Easily maintainable code base a la coding standards and documentation
• Consistent code across projects translates into the elimination of the learning curve each time your developers transition to different projects
• New hires are either already familiar with the framework (and can start coding immediately) or are easily trained via online documentation and a (usually) active community

The Bad:

• Rarely will the framework do everything you want, and often it will do more than you need, this is an inherent problem with one-size-fits-all frameworks
• Bloated framework code bases try to be everything to everyone. Do you really need a garage-full of power tools to hammer a single nail?
• Since you don’t write and verify every single line of code, there is the possibility of frameworks introducing security risks of which you are unaware (however, there is probably a better chance that an open source framework is more secure, because multiple developers are constantly looking over and improving the code)
• Framework vendor lock-in can limit your flexibility. Although you can always switch frameworks for new projects, older projects are tied to the release schedule of the framework provider unless you invest the time to customize the framework yourself.

The Thought-Provoking:

Something to consider is that hardware is cheaper than manpower. In most cases, bloated code leads to slower average load times. However, this is easily overcome by upgrading your server hardware to handle the loads. Since development times are slashed and code maintenance is much easier, you don’t need to hire as many developers. Fewer developers means more cash that can be routed into infrastructure improvements. Ultimately, a few more hard drives and memory is much cheaper than a few more programmer salaries.

Implementation of a standard framework will also have the benefit of focusing your hiring methods and cutting down your new hire training time. For example, instead of searching for generic PHP developers who will need to learn your in-house coding methodologies, you can search for [insert your framework of choice] developers who can hit the ground running on day one.

The decision of whether or not to use a framework for your next project depends entirely on your needs and resources. However, there is definitely a trend in the web development world towards frameworks because of the time-saving benefits that they provide. What are your opinions on frameworks? Leave a comment and let us know!