SKF Quarterly Update - October 2014

[NoGi]

With around 12 weekends to go until Christmas, it's probably a good time for the next SKF quarterly update. 

 

Forum Upgrade

A fair bit of work is happening in the background by the forum software developers on the next version of forum software. A lot of enhancements are being included and the new version has been rebuilt from the ground up to be a lot more responsive for all platforms. In layman's terms, this means a much better experience for those of you that also use your iPhones/iPads or Android tablets to access the site. 

 

To better inform our community, I've created a forum dedicated to the next upgrade. In that forum I've already posted some videos and details around a test\demo site. The following threads might be of interest to you:

• Video Examples of Next Upgrade
• Demo SKF Site

SKF Marketplace

This has been a regular topic of discussion from the change to Classifieds and then to the new Marketplace. I've listened to all the feedback and have reverted the Marketplace back to the original format where you can post directly to the forums instead of needing to use the Marketplace app. I'll be decommissioning the app shortly.

 

Image Restrictions

Upload restrictions have been at 2MB for sometime now. With newer phones and cameras supporting higher resolutions, a lot of photo's being taken are over this limit causing members to have issues in uploading. I've temporally increased this limit to trial larger image uploads with a view to eventually allow this for SKF subscribers only. Larger uploads equates to requiring more space in the backend to support their storage hence limiting to subscribers only. For the moment, everyone can enjoy the additional quota.  

 

Opening up the Site

Visitor traffic to the site via organic search (e.g. Google) continues to grow. This quarter saw an increase to 38.7%, up from 20.4% from the previous period. This has translated to an increase in overseas members joining the ranks which is great to see. Traffic from social media remains low at under 5% and will be an ongoing area of focus.

 

 

Referral Program

A referral program is now in place to facilitate word-of-mouth registrations. For more information, have a read through this thread.

 

SKF Library

The library hasn't had much attention in this last quarter and I'll try to spend some time on it in the upcoming period. In the meantime, I've put a call out for anyone interested in helping out.

 

Supporting the Site

If you are interested in supporting the site consider becoming a subscription member. We currently have 3 levels of subscription:

• Premium - Access to classifieds via the SKF Marketplace, chatroom and up to 500 PMs
• Platinum - Premium benefits + up to 1,000 Pms and 5MB uploads
• Individual Sponsor - Platinum benefits + dedicated gallery album and own forum (if required) to promote personal non-commercial blogs, youtube channels etc...

 

As I bring more and more features to the site, they will generally start with the subscription members first.

 

There is also SKF Merchandise available for sale at the SKF Store.

Edited January 23, 2015 by NoGi