What type of members does TalkFreelance attract?

What kind of members does Talk Freelance attract? I think we attract a lot of different types of members but mostly 13-16 year olds who are on the Internet looking for money. I am not sure what type of members Robson aims for so I can't comment on how his advertising is going.

I like Talk Freelance but I feel concerned that our General Discussion forum is the most active forum. We don't seem to have a lot of advanced PHP developers or big business men. We have a lot of designers but not a lot of them seem to want to write tutorials or that.

I guess you could call this another rant like Salathe had, but it's not... I'm just wondering what you think of this??

im 19 and i hang around here cause guys here are nice and at the same time...i can relate to noobs /(like me)

I feel that TalkFreelance is more for beginners and amateurs looking for a resource to learn how to do things and how to set up shop.

So, theres not really anything wrong. It's attracting the right sort of people. The few professionals that are here are a huge help.

James, you're spot on. The idea behind talkfreelance is to create a place where both new designers/developers can come to get help with their problems, share resources and discuss their business. Equally, it's for more experienced members to share their knowledge with others. At this moment we seem to have alot more beginners than professionals.....but i'm always trying to change that

If you're asking me what type of target audience/direction i'm looking for? I would say sitepoint is pretty much clear cut.....although alot more friendly I have been there for like a year now and still NO ONE knows me, they don't comment on my posts or anything.....it's just the "inner crowd", i'd like to feel that we will be able to provide a friendly place where people can come and ask their questions and get the answers they're looking for!

Originally Posted by Robson I challenge you to find a community where general chat isn't the most active forum (you don't have to prove me wrong on this) but as it goes...generally speaking general chat will always be the most popular because it allows the community to develop, people to get to know each other and the forum to remain active. We can't always discuss business/coding/design, it gets boring. It's because we're such a small community that the ratio looks bad. The reason people probably aren't prepared to write tutorials and such is because most of our more "experienced" members have full time jobs or have a full time education, heck some even have wifes and children. With regards to the php developers, fellow admin Patrick is one of the best PHP developers i've ever had the pleasure of doing business with, unfortunatly hes just a very busy person! We have loads of amazing coders here but I guess they're just a member of one too many communities

I agree, quite a lot of other sites have the "General Discussion" section as the most active, but I reckon today 80% of all posts will have being in the Member Introductions or the General discussion.

I agree, people have other lives and they do Freelancing full time, but that still doesn’t prevent them at least posting once or twice... You say, "we have a lot of amazing coders but they have just a member of one too many communities"?? What makes the other communities more attractive then ours?? Sure I post on other forums when I aren't doing school work, but I enjoy posting here, maybe because a lot of my posts were quite low quality and I just enjoyed communicating.

I realised why I am here, to learn coding and to associate with other coders to learn and discuss new things. I love this community, why? I don't know... I'd just simply like to be able to chat with others about coding.

I love this community, why? I don't know... I'd just simply like to be able to chat with others about coding.

I don't want to start bragging or whatever......but I honestly think out of all the communities (ones i'm apart of as well) Talkfreelance is one of the friendliest, nearly all the members here are nice people and even are younger ones are very mature for their age! It's rare that I even have to move a post let alone ban someone!

I try to make everyone feel welcome (as do the other staff) I will always have time for people if they talk to me via msn or another form of contact and I like to make everyone feel part of talkfreelance, after all...it's YOUR community. Sites like sitepoint/webhostingtalk are just so corperate now, they care more for the money than the community imo, they have so many members that new ones simply don't get noticed! Can anyone tell me the names of a few wht members? First one to stand out to me is Vito, simply because he leads some sort of inner crowd there where everyone arse licks and the like....

Eh...perhaps i'm going off topic slightly, but to respond to your comment. I think you like this place because a) You feel part of the community b) We're all nice people and c) You do learn stuff

Why don't those coders post here? Well, many reasons but i'd imagine alot of them tend to go to forums dedicated to coding, devshed etc, because they would get an answer to their question alot faster than here. Other people have been members of forums for years (we're only a year old) sitepoint has been around for nearly TEN YEARS! People are very loyal. Once talkfreelance gets bigger.....maybe in a year or so, people will really start noticing us, and hopefully when someone asks about a decent forum for web design/coding....it's not just sitepoint they mention

I agree we are a very friendly communitie and that is one of the reasons. I aren't going to type a real long post because I'm supposed to be doing my English essay, I feel I have put my views across and I am satisfied with the input I have put in

Me neither, i'm trying to type up some notes on an e-commerce system i'm going to be developing I'll bug you if I need help with php when I get round to it!

I come here for the friendly environment. I do get help here every so often. I try to lend a hand as well every so often. What I think I like the most of about TalkFreelance is the gallery. I use it for inspiration and to browse more styles of design. Another thing that attracts me is the clean and inviting skin.

As for who it attracts, I can't tell but this is who I am:

An 18 year old semi-experienced web developer. I've been around for quite some time. I was first an active member of WebHostingTalk then changed my allegiance to Namepros back when it was a small community. From there I found TalkFreelance which I believe to be the best switch so far. I have experience in multiple web development techniques from PHP coding to Flash design. I do lot's of client work locally and for some companies over the web and I am always ready to learn.

So TalkFreelance attracted me whatever I am

Originally Posted by Robson Me neither, i'm trying to type up some notes on an e-commerce system i'm going to be developing I'll bug you if I need help with php when I get round to it!

I'm typing up Romeo and Juliet, you wouldn't believe how fun it is