OurPath (formerly SSN) Open Forum / admins censoring content

**Posted by Sam (Admin)** May 20, 2023 8:39 pm

We've been averaging 1-2 new members per day ( along with 10 to 20 spammers I have to get rid of some days). Not all new members post. Spammers are pretty easy to spot, there are a couple websites that can identify them from email or IP address.

**Posted by Ellexoh_nz** May 20, 2023 10:45 pm

Sam (Admin) wrote:
We've been averaging 1-2 new members per day ( along with 10 to 20 spammers I have to get rid of some days). Not all new members post. Spammers are pretty easy to spot, there are a couple websites that can identify them from email or IP address.

Not all new members post. Not all new members may be straightspouse either. With the new welcoming/inclusive vibe the Forum may get the lgbtq community thinking they belong here too.
The number of new members don't really tell us anything anyway. Anybody can read, and join (those who aren't spammers) but I have discerned a lowered number of unregistered viewers.

**Posted by Daryl** May 21, 2023 9:42 am

The number of new members tells us that the name change does NOT have the impact on the discoverability of this form that some here insist it does.

The thought of non-straight spouses being here does not bother me. We already have had a few over the years. Some, like Sean and Diff, are still around and do make a valuable contribution that helps others figure this out. Others might learn something from a perspective that often gets overlooked.

Walls and locked doors do not help, IMHO.
Any organization with a public forum has a responsibility to moderate within well-defined posting guidelines. Anything else is reckless and potentially liable.

Probably my last comment on this topic. It's a holiday weekend where I am and the sun is out.

**Posted by lily** May 21, 2023 12:10 pm

Nobody is expecting OnePath to pay for advertising surely!

The way it was explained to me is that the search engines don't read sentences, what gets picked up first are the key words on the banner. So Our Path is what gets picked up first instead of Straight Spouse.

I was also told the number of times the key words are on the banner counts. And people will write blurbs on their banner using their key words over and over. So the use of the term straight twice in the blurb is good but would work a lot better if the term straight was in the title. Have things changed from that?

**Posted by lily** May 21, 2023 5:35 pm

thanks for the link - I've been reading it. Yes it has developed out of sight from when I was given that information - including trolling through my data to improve relevance. wow.

but as far as I understand it, the premise on which I say we lost visibility by changing the banner to Our Path from Straight Spouse Forum still stands.

If you look at our current banner Largest Type is Our Path, tiny type of straight partner imbetween but Next Largest Type is Our Path Open Forum. Which is good as it puts the site into forum-land but still ignores the content. Then you get straight twice and spouse once in the blurb. I can only assume Our Path is more interested in promoting their name than the purpose of this forum. Fine, that's their prerogative. I want to be known as myself first too. But if I remember correctly the numbers of new posters dropped off dramatically with the name change and have been improving over time. It would be interesting to see the result if the old banner or similar key wording was reinstated for a month.

**Posted by Upside** June 5, 2023 9:14 pm

I work in tech.

These banners are just images, which have no search engine readable text or alt tags. If they were changed they would have no impact on ranking. Keywords do nothing. Title tags would, but aren't focused here.

Much more important is the URL, which remains straightspouse.boardhost.com. The main page also has readable, clear, and on page, keyword-friendly, repeated text that would help people and index well. This is the best of all worlds. The people who know "straight spouse" can find this space via search. Those that are looking can find us by the new name or links.

I have shared the main site and this forum hundreds of times online. The number of times that people thought Straight Spouse Network was an anti-LBGT+ group was high. The number they have thought of OurPath: zero. It's simply smart branding that allows these resources to exist.

And I doubt OurPath cares about forum user growth. They have prioritized helping people in crisis, with resources like 1-on-1 support, in person meetings, or virtual ones. Or donating, because that helps pay people something for selflessly helping.