I am honoured to have won again, I knew it would be possible, but with the other threads in contention this year I was expecting a tight race. Even after winning this vote for the 4th time in 7 years, there are still some novelties: my first back to back win, the first time I won this vote in an uneven year and more surprisingly the first time someone received a majority of the vote. With the other nominated threads this year, that does really count as something, a big shout out to
@Coelacanth18,
@Neil chace,
@pachyderm pro &
@Chlidonias is in order.
Last year I claimed I had no plans to do anything big on Zoochat in 2023 and that was indeed the plan at that time. I can however already announce that I do have some projects lined up once the Trends Thread is finished, the projects do however come with a twist. But it will be a long time before we get to that point. The Trends Thread is easily the most ambitious of my projects when it comes to the time it has taken to write. Time has caught up with me and I am hopelessly behind with writing the final mammal posts and I haven’t started writing the bird part yet.
2023 was a year where my personal life changed forever (again), as I became a father for the second time. Multiple Zoochatters have asked me where I find the time for such Zoochat projects, especially with 2 small children. But being a father comes with extra time off (at least in the Netherlands
) and this project was born on those days that the rest of the family was taking an (afternoon) nap and I had some relaxing time on the couch. Instead of watching Netflix, there is a lot one can do in those 1-2 hours. I am currently writing this post on the couch with my oldest child, who is searching for naked mole rats and trains in his atlas. Fortunately most of the work on this thread, manually going through Zootierliste and much of the writing, isn’t too difficult and doesn’t take up much headspace, otherwise it would not have been possible. Involuntary sleep deprivation is still very much a part of my life.
The idea of this thread was born in April when I was wondering who were the winners and losers in European zoos when it comes to species. I was triggered by the thread of
@TeaLovingDave on which species were lost since 2000 and quickly started with an excel list. My problem is that once I really want to know something, I will stubbornly gather the data to try to find out. Once I had an excel sheet with over 3000 rows, this pet project had already cost a significant amount of time. And I figured it was too interesting not to share (what a mistake
). Data collection for mammals and birds lasted from April to the end of May. Then I spent 2 months drafting the texts before going live in the Summer. By having most of the stuff written beforehand, the actual posting didn’t take too much time, though I regularly had to backtrack and check what I wrote. Much of the later work was actually finding the appropriate pictures. While there are plenty of great photographers on Zoochat, finding the right pictures between all the lower quality pictures, which often show only a small part of the animal, proved quite time intensive. I wasn’t looking for pictures that just had a recognizable shot of a species, but pictures that really captured the species involved and ideally also fit in the overall narrative of the thread. Currently there are around 150 pages written in Word, but I think they will nearly double before I am done. You can rest assured the thread will be finished, but there will be some more quiet moments before the birds come around.
After winning the majority of these votes, I do have something of a winner's guilt. In these years of writing popular threads I have however learned some lessons on how to make a good thread. That means not only a thread with an interesting topic, but also one that engages the rest of the forum. There are plenty of threads around with a lot of untapped potential, which often miss some low-hanging fruit. I will share some general lessons here based on what I have learned on writing big threads over the past years:
1. Match the topic with the audience
If you have something to share and invest a lot of time in writing it, you must be confident that it is something Zoochatters will like. This is the easiest and many threads get this right. Discussing zoos, exhibits and rarities generally seem to catch the audience best. For zoo reviews it is best not to just describe the zoo and list endless facts, but rather to offer a personal perspective. Personal observations (best distilled in a way to summarise a zoo) and personal experiences (including cultural peculiarities) are key. Failures, but especially success after many tries are extremely engaging reads if written well too and often most memorable, just ask
@Chlidonias. Texts in general should also be as free as possible from (grammatical) errors and sentences should be easy to read. Too many technical terms put other people off, though you always have to match the audience. An average Zoochatter doesn’t need explanation on what an aardvark is.
@Hix Zoochat is one of the few places on earth outside of Australia where echidna don't need an introduction
2. Lay-out
While you can write nice things, if the lay-out is horrible, it will be horrible to read. Think carefully about how to present what you write. Use of chapters, paragraphs, fonts, bold, Underlined, or italics text do enhance readability, as does having a clear structure. Good pictures that fit the narrative are also essential, as they are more attention grabbing than text.
@Therabu Pictures like such a cute bamboo lemur do break up a long list of points
3. Write the expected
People in general like to hear what they already know or love, just ask the average American news channel. Based on the number of likes it is clear that posts involving the most popular zoos or animals get more love than lesser known zoos or less popular animals. That often seems regardless of the actual content of the posts. People just love to read about their favourite zoos & animals, especially if it confirms their views.
@Gil People who have visited Zurich always love to hear that the Masoala hall is a great exhibit
4. Write the unexpected
An ideal thread has a mix between what people already know and what they do not know. If you only write what people already know there is no reason to follow it. You will have to grab their attention with unexpected, but logical, choices or by presenting interesting facts that seem counterintuitive. That doesn’t need to be done in every single post, but you need an element of surprise to get people to want to tune in again and again. Not only is there writing fatigue, but reading fatigue also becomes an issue if it just becomes too repetitive.
@lintworm Nobody complains when they hear of the Tierfreigelaende near Grafenau in the Bavarian Forest for the first time
5. Don’t write too much
Concentration spans of people are generally short, especially on a forum where there are dozens of snippets to be read every day. Ideally posts should be around 300-1000 words so that they are in bites long enough you can convey some information, but not so long that people start scrolling to find the end. Each post should however be able to stand on its own, so you need to have a logical structure. For trip reports / zoo reviews it will often be necessary to write longer posts, but then you have to think on how to break up the post to not lose people along the way. Lay-out is essential then, as is some interactive/surprise element. It also means long zoo reviews will need to be split up into multiple posts. Shortening posts is also a way to ensure you only write what is necessary. A bit of repetition is good to get your point across, but you generally want to write to the point. There are however instances where long posts are the preferred format (such as this one) as you otherwise don’t have a head and a tail.
@lintworm Pocket-sized like this European souslik is often best
6. Heads & tails
Not only individual posts need a head and a tail, with a predictable structure, but threads need them too. This means you need to take the necessary time to introduce the topic, which can be in multiple posts if necessary. But you also need to conclude it at the end. You should really take your time and use one or multiple posts of head before reaching the main part of the menu.
@JaxElephant Just like on widowbirds, a good tail works in storytelling
7. Expectation management
An important part of structure is expectation management at the start. As a thread starter you are more or less the content owner, so you need to make sure others understand what the aim is and how you plan to do this. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be open to advice/feedback, but it also doesn’t mean you have to follow every suggestion. By setting the stage you can avoid confusion later on and people know what to expect.
@zoo_enthusiast You need good expectation management, otherwise people will be just as disappointed as when they see how small musk oxen are in real life for the first time
8. Timing of posts
Especially with longer threads it makes sense to be patient with posting your content. Don’t dive into the deep immediately, as you need some time to introduce the topic (see above). This is also necessary as people will need to find your thread as most Zoochatters don’t read everything. You want as many members on board as possible once the real work starts. Using pictures from a large number of different forum members (and crediting them with an @...) is another way to attract people to your thread. But timing the time between posts is crucial throughout, you shouldn’t post more than once a day at the maximum and preferably slightly less. From a timing perspective 1 post per 2 days is optimal, though you also want to finish a thread, so speeding it up to 4-5 posts per week also works. If you go too quickly people can’t keep up, as not everybody lives on the forum. Patience really is a virtue here, you want people longing for your next post and if you post 7 days a week for weeks on end, there will be some fatigue. If you have some more time between posts, they will start longing for an update. This shows in the number of likes, which generally go up for the first post(s) after a longer period of silence. Timing your posts on a single day can also matter, as the forum is not always equally busy. From an European perspective, Sunday morning is the “worst” time to post as the fewest people are online. The early European evening on a weekday is however the “best” time if you want to be seen immediately. Generally people will catch up, but that can take a surprising amount of time.
@twilighter You should rather be a sloth than a cheetah when setting a posting pace
9. Try to be interactive
This is not the easiest to apply to a Zoochat thread, but the best threads are the ones where you don’t only send, but where other forum members can also engage actively. Using polls or asking other forum members questions are 2 ways to reach this. It is not always possible to be truly interactive, which means you will need to find a way that as many people as possible are engaged. This is best done then by writing experiences/information that are shared more widely with the audience or are at least recognizable to them.
@MagpieGoose Just as zoo animals are threads most fun if they are interactive
10. Be a humble expert
In the end you can apply all the tricks, but you have to be as sure as you can be that what you post is correct or in the case of subjective issues be sure to have a good explanation. All the good threads have in common that the content is of a high level, regardless of lay out. It is impossible that everyone will agree with you all the time and such disagreements are not bad, but you need to be able to stand by your choices. It is however impossible to post 100% correct information in long threads, so be honest if you don’t know or are corrected. Being wrong is part of life, but be a gentle(wo)man and admit mistakes if they are made. It is also paramount that you behave humbly and don’t pretend to know more than you do, uncertainty is very much a part of life, so it is not something to be ashamed of. It is far more annoying to see people pretending to be something they are not, you can write as eloquently as you want, the “truth” will always come out and you will meet your Dunning & Kruger.
@KevinB Being humble, but also on the top of your game can be a tightrope
11. Be prepared!
Writing is a tiresome business and mistakes creep in easily. So it is preferable to prepare posts (well) in advance so you have the luxury of rereading and adapting concept posts later on. Being prepared also means you have the time around the posting of the information that you can finetune based on discussions going on in the thread, so they fit in well.
@karoocheetah It doesn't matter if you are plotting a coup or a Zoochat thread, you better be prepared
12. Use wit (if you can)
Long Zoochat posts are often dense in information and can be a lot to process. Humour is often a good tool to lighten things up or to get a point across. There is however nothing worse than people who are forcefully funny and end up being anything but. It is relatively hard to get humour across through a screen, even more so if there is a language barrier. But if you are good at clever word jokes or puns, use them if it comes naturally. Unfortunately there are also far too many bad puns or word jokes around (on Zoochat too) and those are more cringeworthy than value adding.
@red river hog Not everyone can be as naturally funny as a penguin
While these 12 points are not a panacea, nor are they a complete overview, they are some things that I think are useful to apply if you are stupid enough to think about starting a larger thread. You can adhere to these 12 points, but if the content isn’t right, lay-out, puns, timing and pictures won’t save you. In the end writing such monster threads is not something for everybody and you should never feel forced to write such a thread. You only should start on such an endeavour if you get some personal satisfaction out of it. You will need this personal motivation to finish, so you need to be on board completely from the start. Posting and discussing your thread on Zoochat in itself is already a great motivation. The like button is indispensable as a motivation tool for yourself, as it gives you the best indication of how many people appreciate your work.
For now I wish everyone of you a pleasant and zoo filled 2024 and now I should get back to writing about mammal trends and to changing diapers
.
