Couple of things,
In terms of IG posting, as you can tell, we don't post there much. Don is taking his personal golf posting and doing it on his own account, which he is totally entitled to do. I'm not going to talk for him but he can share things when he sees fit.
For us, the whole idea of the lounge and for the most part, this site, was to get people away from those kinds of platforms, where conversation and idea sharing was limited to flexing with some picture and a couple of sentences. So while the instagram account was great, it was antithetical to what we wanted.
What we wanted is a small community where people can discuss and share with other like minded people.
The number of people who read but never post in the lounge is staggering, but also very much the norm for engagement based sites. It's that instagram mentality, I watch the story, like it, throw up a few fire emojis, and then feel like I'm part of something. We're not a fan of that.
Being an active part of a community takes time and effort for sure. We welcome anyone who puts in the time to craft thoughtful responses or go out their way to share thoughts and ideas. The social media creeper kids who just sit and consume content, contribute nothing, and do nothing to support the venture, well, they don't fit who we are.
We're a bunch of farts who love golf, but also things greater than golf, like to talk shit, post stuff, share info, but under no auspicions that it is anything more than a good place to do so.
In terms of features, starting next year, we will be doing one a month. No half assed equipment reviews, one full fledged feature on topics outside of what you find on typical sites. To be honest, none of us are qualified to do top shelf equipment reviews, and more importantly, it's a tremendous stress when you pen a review saying this club is the best thing ever and can't take it out of the bag out of the sense of responsibility for posting as such. I hate people who say this club is the best ever, then two weeks later, it's gone.
Most golf forums are super active with people buying, trying, and selling equipment in a vicious cycle. Our base has been down that path, and much less club ho-esque than the standard golfing population.
Of course there is seasonality, as most of us on the east coast are winding down, but I also think it's a really unique time in our society. Without getting too long-winded, if you are focused on golf right now, whether it's in terms of making money, spending money, etc, it would be a bit of a shame.
In terms of activity, this community will be a reflection of what the members want it to be. We aren't force posting content, it's a waste of bandwidth. If this community next year is simply one running thread of content, I'm cool with that, if it's tens of threads running, cool as well. But I love this place for what it is now, and forcing change or acting like it's anything other than that is of no interest to me.
In a nutshell, this place represents what essentially is the ability to keep in touch with all the friends I've made through golf in a place, a big ass group chat amongst people I'd love to keep in touch with but, without this place, otherwise wouldn't be able to in this kind of frequency.