I think it's harder to keep members than to gain members. To keep members, things just gotta keep being interesting but not too negative. People will lose their interests, especially for a website centered around a decade+ old game. Many users here also stay because of the friends they made on WC or Hive and there's not much to control that besides add more social features like Ralle / Archian / whoever has did in the past.
To gain members, we can start by encouraging users to recommend the Hive. I do this almost every time I'm on battle.net, casually, when it's relevant to the conversation going on. Hive is relevant a lot when people are talking about maps for days. Encourage map creators to put Hive in the loading screen or quests log. We could invite map makers to who've created popular maps & clan chieftains to the site; they always have followers. Many times, these guys create their own site and it fails. It isn't necessary to set up a news post or something similar to it about these encouragements, maybe a sticky thread in the map section (if possible) or other places would do it.
Affiliates! There are still many decently
semi-active sites out there. The WC3 community is no longer about competition and rivalry, we're banding together, or should be, nowadays. These are some non WC3 affiliates still getting a few posts per week / month:
ENTgaming.net,
Xenoforo.GamerIsles.org,
Fire.Vampirism.eu,
GamerTales.net,
WarlockBrawl.org,
Eeve.org,
Blizzmodding.info (and its network),
Even some YouTube channels like Azothan, WtiiWarcraft, CrotaGaming, Alphacarus, can work as affiliates.
Working closer with affiliates may also pay off, but that's unproven.
Diplomunion.com,
BrigandsShaven.net, and
MakeMeHost.com are the most active of our affiliates at the moment. We
work closely with MMH and I know a few users who jump between Diplo, Brigands, and Hive frequently like I do.
We can also market the Hive slightly differently, making it more welcome to the player / clan and tournament scene.
Nice job creating this thread
