Another Oagal Check-Up

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Hello troops,

It’s me, Oagalthorp.  I’ve noticed that we haven’t been doing as well as we had in the past. Troop numbers are very low, and we haven’t been ranked #1 in the CPA Central Top 10 in quite some time. Well, I’ve gathered some data, done some research, and found the (seemingly obvious) problem: Site views are down. Way down. Well, I’m here to help.

We need to work on 3 things:

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More Posts
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The main issue is the number of posts on this site. Up until around nine months ago, there has been a near-direct correlation between the number of posts and the number of site views. Look at this graph I made:

Some things you should notice: Views rise at the start of summer, drop at the end of summer, and go up and down as the number of posts go up and down. So I challenge the ACP Admins, Editors, and Authors to collectively make 120 posts per month. That’s  about 4 posts per day. ACP soldiers will pay more attention to the site and therefore be more active; non-ACP soldiers will see how much more active this army is and decide to join.

Making more posts won’t solve everything—as you can see, we’ve had a lot of posts recently, but fewer views. I’ll address this in the next segment of the post.

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More Battles, Fewer Events
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This is the next segment of the post. Anyway, armies are on the decline. Everyone knows it. So making more posts won’t solve everything (although it will help A LOT).  The other thing we need to do is have more battles/invasions.

Soldiers’ love actual battles more than anything. “Fun” events on CP, such as parties or tactic sessions, don’t do much to get an army active and motivated. When I led, we had tons of battles; when Boomer led, he had tons of battles. If you want more troops at battles, you need to have more battles. Simple as that. Therefore, I say the ACP should have at least 2 battles per week. That’s 8-9 battles per month.

Now I know what you’re thinking. “We don’t want to go to war,” “War is scary,” “What if we lose the war,” and possible several other similar excuses. Well tough it out, you’re an army. Also, not every fight needs to be within a war. You can have practice battles, tournaments, and ACP-vs-ACP battles if you want. But get people more engaged in CP combat.

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Better Posts
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This last one is very important. It’s the key to gaining all those views with your 120+ monthly posts. It’s the secret to getting high troop turnout during battles. It’s what attracts new soldiers and keeps old soldiers.

What makes a good post? Glad you asked.

1. Correct spelling. This one is easy AND important, so I put it first. Just do it.
2. Concise sentences/paragraphs. Get your point across in as few words as possible, it makes them easy to read and keeps the viewer’s attention.
3. Use graphics/colors. People like pictures and they like colors. They makes the posts more engaging as visually appealing. Even a boring posts like this has a few graphics and colors.
4. Don’t sticky too many posts. If people refresh the site and keep finding the same post at the top, they’ll get bored with it. Trust me. Make new posts whenever you need to, but link to the really important ones.
5. For pre-battle posts: Make the battle sound exciting. If soldiers just read “Meet at this server at this time” they have almost no incentive to go, even if you claim that it’s “mandatory.”
6. For post-battle posts: Describe the battle in detail and include LOTS of pictures. Soldiers enjoy these posts the most, so it’s important that you get really descriptive. Plus if you win, it’s fun to brag.

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Anyway, that about wraps it up. Here’s a fun poll:

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One last thing: The ACP flag kind sucks. I made this new one a while back, and I think we should consider switching to it.

Anyway, see ya!

-Oagalthorp

Until later,

March on!