What do you think about a flier for our site?

Question

I was thinking of ways to advertise our site, and a thought occurred to me — how about the old-fashioned way of tacking fliers onto bulletin boards? In particular, we could tack fliers onto the bulletin boards of classics departments, such as those belonging to the high schools and universities in our areas.

There could be other uses for these fliers, too. Another idea would be to get the contact information of classics organizations, such as clubs and email lists affiliated with high schools or universities, and then send a flier to these clubs/organizations. In some cases, it could be as simple as attaching a flier to an email list, with a brief message explaining the purpose.

It could even be a useful document to send to magazines, whenever we find an opportunity to advertise. Or to put on a powerpoint at a presentation, with the appropriate audience.

I propose that one or more persons volunteer to create this flier. There might be some users here with experience in graphic design, or in the simple art of creating fliers. There might be some who are more enthusiastic about taking on this task. Then, others who are interested, could either print out the flier and tack it onto bulletin boards, or hang onto it for the right time.

If no one else volunteers, then I might. It's not exactly my forte, but I would consider doing so if no one else is interested.

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As with any idea like this, I think it's a good idea to use some foresight. Suppose we create a flier, and we do attract new users. Should we expect to get an influx of homework questions? Would this irritate our current base of avid users? Do we have a homework policy that could guide people on how to ask and answer homework questions?

On the other hand, there could be students taking Latin classes who want to go above and beyond the scope of the class. This could be a good stop for them. There could also be students who want another explanation for a concept that was explained in class but they still don't quite understand. As you can see, I can think of a lot of good scenarios.

I'm interested in your thoughts and enthusiasm about this idea. Judging from that, we can decide whether it's worth pursuing. At the present moment, my opinion is that it would do no harm, and could only help to attract new avid users. I think a clear homework policy would handle the potential problem of homework questions.

Answer 1

Thank you for the initiative! Making a flier or a poster is a good idea. Online announcements are transient, but if we get a poster on a wall where Latinists walk by, it can be effective for a long time.

I made a very simple poster for an event here, and here is an English translation of the text with minimal formatting:

Do you want to know something about Latin?

Can you answer others' Latin-related questions?

Or do you perhaps want to learn more about the Latin language by reading other people's questiosn and answers?

The site latin.stackexchange.com is for you.
No long conversations, no getting sidetracked, but clear questions and answers.

Example questions:

• Are ”et” and ”-que” exactly the same thing?
• Why is Latin pronounced differently in Turku than the rest of Finland?
• How to say ”every fourth year” in Latin?
• How to give and address in Latin?
• Are the preposition cum and the conjunction cum related?
• How do we know how the Romans pronounced Latin?
• Why is the language called ”Latin” instead of ”Roman”?

In addition to this text and my contact information, the poster contained a small pocket full of pieces of paper for people to take with them, containing the text:

Questions and answers about Latin
http://latin.stackexchange.com
More information:
<email redacted> or
https://latin.stackexchange.com/tour

I'm not sure how well the poster worked and if it got sufficient visibility. I hope it is of some help.

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I have spent a while thinking what a good flier for the site should contain. I ended up with this list:

• The key point should be clear and visible: Questions and answers about Latin.
• There should be example questions. I don't know how many and what to include. One option is to simply list some examples as I did. Or perhaps we could put actual questions and answers in the background?
• We should tell that we accept various kinds of questions at various levels from various kinds of people. That could be told explicitly or implicitly.
• There must not be long bodies of text. People will simply not read. The flier or poster should be structured so that it is easy to find and read what you want. (Perhaps someone just wants the address to see for themselves. Someone wants to see some example questions. Someone else wants to know if homework is allowed. They shouldn't be forced to read through the same wall of text.) Perhaps headers followed by lists would be a decent structure?
• There should be actual images of the site in action. If people see real questions and answers that they want to read the rest of, they are likely to visit us.
• In case the flier or poster is printed, it should probably contain a QR code to make it easy to go and see. But where should people be taken? The front page? The tour? Or a separate link for each example question?
• We should refrain from giving unnecessarily technical details. Our main goal is to learn and teach Latin, not to build and maintain a complicated online system, and that should be reflected in promotion material.
• The flier should do two things: (1) to make passers-by stop and see what it's all about, and (2) to be interesting to sufficiently many of those who actually read it. Neither aspect should be overlooked. A good title and some good example questions might catch the eye well.

Deciding what exactly to focus on is hard. The key message should be large and clear, and less vital information can printed in smaller font for those who stop for a closer inspection of the flier.

These are just my own ideas. I would like to see what other users think.