membership nearing 5,000!

Interesting factoid - out of the 5,064 live registrations (not including those banned! ) only 1,802 have posted 3 or more times! This may include some who have only just joined, of course, but even so that still means that 3,262 members hardly ever come back!

Of course, we have to accept that a lot of people come to get an answer to one or two specific problems but anyone got any suggestions as to what we can do to encourage them to stay?

 

I think that's a good statistic. Don't worry about it, but keep an eye on it to see if the ratio remains constant - and improve it if you can.

You can analyse your web logs (if you have access to them, or you could use Google Analytics - although IME that slows the site down) to see what people are coming from, how long they stay, and how often they return

Making content that appeals to Google searchers might bring more here, but they are still just looking for an answer to a question.

Personally I would construct an FAQ of useful threads, but I've voiced that before.

IF most people are coming from Google to get an answer to a question then they probably won't stay long. Only people who want "community" will do that, and they will find you anyway - its a friendly site with a good reputation, and active moderators.

What are the "annoyances" that people raise? Fixing those might help keep folk, and maybe even attract new folk (picture upload, for example).

 

Perhaps folk are probably put off a bit by the dozens of sub sections, however these are important on sutch a large site.

IMO, Daisses summed it up that the majority are probably just seeking a specific answer..... nothing more.