LooseSuits

Well the issue with any site that requires participation is that:

1. Nobody likes to participate in a site that shows no activity.
2. You are lucky if you get 10% of your visitors participating studies have shown.

You might have to do the dirty work and create a couple of dummy accounts to get things moving. Maybe also give people more of a reason to participate.

Hi Trevor, well its a nice design, but its also a bit "busy", if you perhaps offer fewer, more clearly signposted things to do, you can perhaps encourage people to post more?

You have so many links and things to do on the homepage, perhaps if you try and split those down into sections a bit, but then make a bigger play of the community on the homepage?

One last suggestion; why not allow anonymous comments to start off with, so that people who just want to say a few words can do that, then as people reply and threads build up - they would be more likely to post?

A good example of what I suggest may be an unnecessary distraction is links like this: http://www.homegrownmusic.net/tracker, with the current activity it doesnt look great. One last suggestion? Have just one area for comments to start, rather than spreading so few so far? If you keep them together, people might feel its more likely to get a reply.

I launched an application today, my advertising budget is modest, I decided that things like a Blog would just be best left until I (hopefully) build a large enough critical mass to foster decent discussions and feedback via the site. But as yet, its unknown. Take a look if you like TagTicket.com.

so, in taking hints from ya'll, and a bit of my own relative ingeniousness, I went ahead and redesigned the Home Grown Music site template, and this is what I came up with...

I've still got some more tweaking to do, some more modules/functions, and will probably redesign the front page panels, but this is what I've got now...

Would love to hear what ya'll think so far, and any suggestions too.

http://www.homegrownmusic.net/

thanks!
-Trevor

Here's what instantly jumps out to me. You want more interaction and audience participation, yet the participation you are getting is hidden behind a story link, or restricted by a register or login command or placed in very small text under a comparatively big "Comment" button off to the side. Honestly, there doesn't really seem to be a big, open invite there for the user to have any incentive to put in the time to participate -- there's no open invite, no apparent ROI, no warmth, no apparent community in this "home grown" area.

If you want community participation in this, then bring that aspect of it front and center, don't hide it behind buttons and "login to post" commands.

The one thing I like to do, which might be helpful to you, is think how this website would come off if it were real. If HomeGrown Music were a festival, for instance, how would the current design and "rules" come off with actual people? If you had a session or area to discuss show reviews, how well would it come off to force willing participants to register before someone handed them a mike to express their comments to the room?

If you want participation, then show them you want their participation, and that you trust them enough, up front, to accept their thoughts to put it front and center.

Hope that was helpful.