Reachmahjong.com

Just some random thoughts...

In an effort to increase exposure to Reach Mahjong it helps to take a page out of Barticle's virutal book and try and get the link to the forums in more places. I went ahead and put the external link on the two main Mahjong pages over on BoardGameGeek as well as edited the three main Riichi Mahjong Wikipedia/EN pages (Japanese Mahjong, Japanese Mahjong Scoring, Japanese Mahjong Yaku) to include the Reach Mahjong forums.

Over on the Geek we have Facebook and Twitter campaigns which help bring exposure. Most of the pages over there have a little Facebook-Like Icon you can simply click and include a little 'I like such-and-such' in your Facebook feed. It lets your friends know where you enjoy spending time (maybe not a good thing?! heh!). I don't know if something like that could be added here - even a simple 'Like us on Facebook' button might go a ways to putting the site in front of others.

As an aside, I likely wouldn't have found this place if it wasn't for one of Barticles's FAQs and the link he provided.

wavemotion wrote:[...]I likely wouldn't have found this place if it wasn't for one of Barticles's FAQs and the link he provided.

It worked! That's good to know. Now, if I can just wrangle some sort of commi$$ion for each new member I get...

I think targeting your marketing is very important. BGG is a great choice since the rules and terminology of Japanese mahjong have ample potential for "getting your geek on" and should appeal to users there. I think our core demographics are going to be those curious about the game or just starting to learn (Akagi and more recently Saki had a major effect hence my suggestion of anime forums) and existing players who are seeking to learn more, develop their strategy or just find somewhere they can discuss their minority hobby (in English, as their first or second language).

Improving the search-engine rankings for this site would help too, or we can just piggyback on the popularity of others. Wikipedia is very high-profile, ranks second when you Google "japanese mahjong" and for many is the first port of call when researching a new subject. So good job on that, I just hope your edits don't get undone by overzealous moderators.

PS You're welcome to take pages out of my virtual book any time.

Barticle wrote:I just hope your edits don't get undone by overzealous moderators.

Yea. Like me! And to be honest, it's quite iffy linking a particular group/forum into a Wikipedia article, if it cannot be used as a source. On top of that, this site IS a commercial site. Heck, I bought my junk mat here. However, with the Japanese game virtually low-key and unknown to the West, I'd let it slide - until some other Wikipedian decides to remove it.

And I'll be the first to admit. The Japanese mahjong articles in Wikipedia... are... sub-par. As much as I want to write more into it, gotta take in consideration that Japanese style is a subset to the overall Mahjong game.

Kyuu wrote:Yea. Like me! And to be honest, it's quite iffy linking a particular group/forum into a Wikipedia article, if it cannot be used as a source. On top of that, this site IS a commercial site. Heck, I bought my junk mat here. However, with the Japanese game virtually low-key and unknown to the West, I'd let it slide - until some other Wikipedian decides to remove it.

But we are a reference source! Well... kinda-sorta. At a minimum you could link to Jenn's landing page for her book so long as we quoted a couple of lines. Or add some information only found on the forums here.

Anyway, it's pretty harmless linking to the forums. A moderator removing a link to the key international community of enthusiasts is kinda like the security guard at a concert taking away the beach-ball. Booo!

Maybe it will go unnoticed (by moderators, not by people searching for information on the game!).

Barticle wrote:BGG is a great choice since the rules and terminology of Japanese mahjong have ample potential for "getting your geek on" and should appeal to users there.

It's a bit of an uphill climb so far. Although Mahjong in particular has 107 'fans' on BGG and over 3100 ratings... the Japanese game is hardly known. I posted to see what interest there might be in a virtual BGG Riichi Mahjong Club and the response has been, well, somewhat underwhelming. So far anyway.

http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/847385/ ... hjong-club

On a positive note, I did manage to get a new microbadge into the system to showcase support for the game. A red Akahai tile seemed reasonably appropriate (and, well, they already had the three dragons used for more generic Mahjong fandom).