Having a place where you could see the name would really help, because to me the eCards section is kind of hidden under 'interact'. I actually don't use that way to get into the ecard section of the site, I go to my portfolio :P. Regarding the 'times sent' (and seems like not many knew one could sent it) I agree also that the form to send the card is a bit way down there, and not many scroll down that much since the e-card is on the top which is the main thing. I suggest you could put some of the info, (like the new things you added of PMing a member on theO) at the side of the eCard like we used to have before on the old theO. That way people can be aware that they CAN send them ^^.
BTW, I really like that you did added that feature to send someone on theO in a PM :) Great idea :)

~Lys

Usually it's because I don't know someone's e-mail. oO I'm sure making it more visible will help. Sending to pm's will probably help too.

~Sarah

I think it is because when VB started you took away the number of times sent and replaced them with hugs, just like wallpapers, so in theory ppl would send more ecards because they knew how many times it had been sent. If you add that feature back to the ecard section I think it would be beneficial. :D

I'd almost forgotten about the music...

In all honesty, I never think about it. o_O I'll make one every now and then, but that's it. I was never one to send e-cards even before I joined. I like sending the real thing more. >_>

I'm sure making it easier to find will help though. However, we lost the link making it easy to find the FAQ and other important worlds. Though I suppose putting it at the bottom works since I've noticed a lot of sites do that.

Also, as a suggestion, instead of adding e-cards to the top, why not put both e-cards and quizzes in the next tier right after other fandom? That would make things a little more balanced and draw attention to both the e-cards and quizzes as well.

-Sabrina

I know it took me awhile to realize the cards had been put under Interact, so putting the link to that somewhere a tad more obvious. Although, as others have pointed out, the upper bar is already rather cluttered.

Also, I tend to just directly send the links to friends rather than go through the process of emailing it.

*is astonished how many people didn't realize ecards could be sent . . .*

Well . . . duh! =.=

Anyway . . . >>

Perhaps because there's other cool new features that came with V.V. people don't notice them as much? I mean goodness I can't even remember the last time I ventured into the fanart section. I get sidetracked by chat and news nuggets and now the n00blet intros sometimes it just totally slips my mind.

Hmmm, I never really sent cards with the old version anyway, so I might not be of much help. They never sent correctly so I just gave up :/

~Colleen

ugh~ i've completely forgotten about the sending part...
<___<
>___>
i guess i got caught up by the other cool features.. n__n'
and i was also busy making the e-cards... XD
maybe if you make the priority to be 'sending'
and not the hugs and comments would help
to bust up the sending..? does that even make sense..?

The main header may be cluttered, but if you keep the cards under "Interact", it isn't really going to help that situation either.

I remember when the cards were called Greetings, and I loved that. I feel like the shift to calling them "eCards" was trite and cliche with the internet, and I've thusly refused to call 'em that. >_>;

It's difficult to say what the difference may be, though it seems that the "the cards can be sent?!" shocker is probably playing a key part. If you can somehow emphasize for people to continue scrolling after the artist's comments, which is where the sending stuff are, that also might increase send rate. It seems to get lost because no other section has that extra stuff, so why would you bother scrolling down? I remember it took me a while to notice where the sending options were after the switch to VV.

lol. "The e-cards can be ... sent?"
Many people dont seem to know!!!
alright so here's my theory- If you remove them from interact, rename them E-cards, and made an easy link to them in the PM section it would be loads better. Also, if you think about it, hugs and favorites are only encouraging people to enjoy them for the sake of making them or just browsing through. I would suggest you additionally bring back #of times it has been sent. That way, it would truly atest the popularity of it's function, and it would be a sorta clue to others that it CAN be sent.
otherwise.... You know, Ive sent 4 e-cards since VV came out, whearas before it came out I had only sent 2. Now with the PM idea, I can send them to a lot more people, so I think we are already on the right track!
*goes to send some cards*
~Wall-iE

I've noticed this as well. Remember on the old site that the "popularity" of the card and whether they were featured actually had to do with how many times it was sent! Not just views! D: So if that were changed now, it would be a sad thing to see...I suppose...

Maybe people are more about viewing them as if they're just more fun pieces of artwork, like little wallpapers, instead of actual cards? Or maybe...was it not as easy to see how many were sent because of the previous way it was set up? Maybe people didn't want to go through all the work and then have to copy/paste and email the card separately. >< Maybe now that you have it all set up like before that it will be better?

I don't think that it has to do with the music. Sure, that was a cool thing, but I wouldn't say that was the main attraction. :/ Possibly the location of cards being in interact instead of having its own category...maybe that's affecting it. I don't know. ;__; But tis a sad thing. People just aren't as social or caring anymore!! D:

Good luck, adam. You can figure it out!

Sometimes, I would go try to find the Cards and it took me awhile because I always forget it was under interact. Now, I got use to it. But I think moving it under the same section as wallpapers and fanart, etc. would be better.

Sending them, I think I've done it once or twice before Version Vibrant. After that, I've just gotten lazy with sending so I just make them instead, . . . basically what Shishou said. =P

I never look at the cards anymore because they aren't at the front page, and maybe that they aren't getting sent as much is because its different now where before sending them was easy and instead of hugs it was sends or what ever, and I am sure that people who made the cards sent them to themselves like a few members I know did that. So mostly it was all about getting the most sends and if you could send it to your self the more sends you could get and the more popular your card would be. I've noticed that wallpapers haven't been getting as many hugs too and the art has EXPLODED! :O

But now that you can send them by pm I think it will be easier to send them! :D

Edit: or what tiggerola said lol

i didnt even know you could send them...O_O

The current location is most certainly confusing. Took me a while to locate the cards.

However, I think perhaps the problem might not even be about TheO. It could be a change in users. People change, people come and go. If we have a different set of people now who are not interested in sending the cards, then perhaps it is a current wave. It might change in a year when the people who frequent TheO are also different. (I only say this based on my own sites flux of people and how that changes from year to year).

I think both the name of the Cards section as well as the fact that it's under the Interact heading contributed to the eCard decline. It might be a good idea to move it in the main header. It might also be a good idea to change the name from Cards to Greetings (the original name of the section). After all, when you search for "anime cards" on Google, theOtaku won't show up. But when you search for "anime greetings", theOtaku is the #1 search result.

I think it's also a sign of the times. With YouTube greetings and more Flash cards coming out and becoming very commonplace in th Net, image eCards might be facing a decline already.

It's also possible that it's a reflection not of the decline in eCards in theOtaku but theOtaku in general. I hate to break this to you, and I hope you'll be open to this, but when I searched for theOtaku.com in Google Zeitgeist, I noticed that viewer rate was high during the months preceding the Vibrant era. By February, it dropped significantly, possibly because theOtaku was under reconstruction at that time. When Vibrant was launched in March '08, only a slight increase in the rate of daily unique visitors occurred. On the months after the launch of the Vibrant era, the site was not able to significantly recover from the huge drop of visitors during that crucial February '08 period, and instead of reaching the same amount of visitors back in pre-Vibrant, it's slowly declining instead. And since the number of visitors in the whole theOtaku site has declined, less people would be sending eCards from the site.

Hopefully, the steps you will make soon can help recover the drop in the rate of eCards being sent.

(1) Maybe the fact that to get to Cards you have to go to Interact >> is throwing some people off.

Threw me off.

Heck, I dunno why the Quizzes are even under that header.

I got busy with school and quit sending or making cards. I do snatch the url and show funny ones off to friends though.

~Crystia

I'm guilty of only ever sending a few...eheh. ^^;

From the few responses so far, it seems like you might have found at least one of the problems.

~NGS

Well for me, I've only made eCards for people. Sending them never crossed my mind.

--
Okay, so maybe it did cross my mind...I just never felt like sending any. > >;;

it could be because of the new site, I know I sent ecards a lot more on the old, but I guess all the good ones got used up (people don't make them like they use to)? or the new layout, with those who didn't like MyO being ditched left and therefore didn't continue to send ecards? Or maybe before there was a total of times cards were sent, but they don't have that anymore do they? Maybe lots of people were sending their own cards to boost their stats? Just throwing some ideas around tho.

I dont really even know how to send an e-card, but its not like i have anyone to send it to.

I hope u find the reason.