IWL Needs You!

[Jeannie]

In the 8+ months since the International Watch League was formed, we have been humbled and honored to have the support of such a great group of members. The site has steadily grown and evolved into a place we love to call home, and that's due to the quality of people that visit and contribute each day. Now, as we approach our one year anniversary, we are looking at ways to improve IWL and make it a better site for all of us, as well as a place that new members want to be a part of.

We have a relatively small staff, and given the convivial nature of IWL, we really don't need more moderators in the traditional sense. We catch most spammers at the door, and there are rarely any conflicts or other issues that require our involvement. What we do need are some volunteers who have the time and energy to play a direct role in some projects that we are considering. Our members are our most valuable resource, and utilizing them to help carry the load is both a good and necessary thing. Here are some needs that we have identified:

• Members who have an affinity for a specific subforum that is not well-trafficked right now. These people would be willing to take on the role of generating frequent content in that subforum, whether it's news, a poll, or just a topic to chat about. They would also promote that forum on IWL to ensure that it's seen by those who may not visit normally, and generally make the place look lived in and ensure others feel like their posts there are being noticed.
• An avid Facebook user(s) who would be willing to take on the role of running our page and making it an integral part of IWL. We don't want to flood people with posts, but we could certainly be far more visible than we are now.
• Members who are willing to help write and maintain reference materials for the site. This may include repackaging things they have written for other sites or coming up with new content. This sort of information can be excellent for search engine hits when filled with model names and numbers.
• Members who are willing to do some general housekeeping and cleanup on the site. This would include things like searching through posts and ensuring that we have things such as model numbers and other key search terms included, moving older threads and reviews from Central into subforums where they may be more easily found by people browsing our site, etc. Not glamorous work, but critical to giving us a more visible search engine presence and growing the site.
• We are interested in developing some IWL merchandise and would like the assistance of some people with graphic design skills and experience in that arena. If feasible we would like to go beyond putting our logo on some CafePress shirts and mugs, but rather to come up with some unique, watch-related items.
• Others who have a specific skill or see a particular need on the site that they can help with.

If anyone is interested, please send a PM to any moderator with your thoughts and some details about how you could contribute. In the coming weeks, we will also be putting some ideas and proposals in front of the membership at large for feedback, but right now we are more interested in finding out what resources we may have available. We have found that as a staff as well as when discussing the site in the open forum, brainstorming and coming up with ideas is the easy part. It's when we get to actually doing the work of implementing the ideas that we often fall short due to lack of time and participation. So please don't feel compelled to reply to this request if you are busy, as you will be afforded other opportunities to have a say in the future of IWL.

IWL Staff

[Henry Krinkle]

I should mention this in the Suggestion box, but I'll float it here. There should be a place, not another subforum, where we could collect restoration threads. I think it would make a great and entertaining reference source. If such a thing were to exist I would gladly volunteer to help maintain it.

[Henry Krinkle]

And i would rewrite all my restorations threads, including the ones never shown here.

[is that my watch]

yeah be great to see your's and scott restorations on the old Rado's

[popoki nui]

PM sent.

[Chicolabronse]

Pm sent

[pepperami]

Just one thought...it might seem a little contradictory but it could be better to have the FB page as a Closed, invite only group.

I'd like to post more on there but any posts or comments I make are going to appear on my page and inundate my fb friends with watch related updates.

The couple of watch pages I visit are closed and they get far more traffic than mere 'liked' groups?

[OTGabe]

Just one thought...it might seem a little contradictory but it could be better to have the FB page as a Closed, invite only group.

I'd like to post more on there but any posts or comments I make are going to appear on my page and inundate my fb friends with watch related updates.

The couple of watch pages I visit are closed and they get far more traffic than mere 'liked' groups?

The thing is, we don't really want to move discussion off the forum and onto FB. If we close it, it just becomes another place for members to hang out, and we already have one here. What we are looking to do is highlight content on IWL to get our FB followers to visit and participate in the forum more, as well as to promote our page to a wider audience to get new members. So we see it as more of a marketing arm of IWL, rather than another forum for members.

[93EXCivic]

I should mention this in the Suggestion box, but I'll float it here. There should be a place, not another subforum, where we could collect restoration threads. I think it would make a great and entertaining reference source. If such a thing were to exist I would gladly volunteer to help maintain it.

Or maybe just a general DIY sub forum for things like restoration, modifying, making straps and watch boxes, etc would be neat. Only because I wonder a restoration only forum would be able to produce enough topics be itself.

I'd gladly help with that forum since it is one of main interest in this hobby of ours.


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[pepperami]

The thing is, we don't really want to move discussion off the forum and onto FB. If we close it, it just becomes another place for members to hang out, and we already have one here. What we are looking to do is highlight content on IWL to get our FB followers to visit and participate in the forum more, as well as to promote our page to a wider audience to get new members. So we see it as more of a marketing arm of IWL, rather than another forum for members.

Yes..that's far more logical...I really need to think these things through before making suggestions