keyborn wrote:9807... small increase.... is this the beginning of a trend? I guess we shall see...
Actually, the recovery began on August 30th.
Dukasaur wrote:isaiah40 wrote:9696
9716. The summer doldrums may be over...
9849
A gain of 153 in just over a week. This recovery has come both sooner and faster than last year's recovery.
Granted, a lot of that is just the normal seasonal recovery, but given the fact that it has come sooner and is considerably faster than last year's, I have a lot of hope that it also reflects an underlying upward trend.
I've always said that the lack of a Global Chat is the single biggest element that other games have and CC doesn't. Now that that's been corrected, I think it will prove to make a huge difference. The guide games and guide bots and other new-member initiatives seem to be working. Conversion of visitors to members seems to be around the 5% range (and if you think that's puny, consider that historically it was in the neighbourhood of 2%).
Bugs and instabilities in the Panel interface are getting worked out, and although there's still a big hangover of pissed-off members whose patience was sorely tested with the many changes to the interface, I think the majority that are still here are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and a relatively stable and smooth new interface. The problem remains of re-attracting the three or four thousand that we probably lost as a result of those changes. Some of them are probably lost permanently, but a good percentage will probably take a shot in the dark and come check it out at some point.
Meanwhile the new activities are keeping existing member from being bored. The monthly challenges and the Special Events days and the star-chasing autotournaments are giving something new-and-different to people who are bored of their regular games and tournaments.
The area closest to my heart, the world of community-run tournaments, remains in dire straits and has declined even more in the last few years than the site as a whole. Nonetheless, even there we are seeing a bit of an upward trend in the last two weeks, and with just a bit of help I think it will continue.
Overall, it feels good to have come out of the darkest days and find that the ship, while it may have suffered a multitude of casualties, is still afloat and heading in the right direction.