Lots of threads at the moment about getting people into funkypool because of the low numbers.
We all love the site and want it back to where it was in terms of the amount of users, I think a lot of the problems lie in people not having the incentives to stay on one account.
Had an idea that I think would be easy to implement and give some incentives for new players to stay and develop and also some challenges for the veterans.

Profile ribbons
Based upon the army ribbons style you would get ribbons for a lot more achievements on your profile, a lot of them linked to achievements in the ranking tables.

8 ball, 9 ball, UK and arcade types
Top 50, Top 10 and 1st in
ranking, highest ranking, tournament wins, most wins, run outs, golden beaks, seven ballings
'runout machine' written under the gametype in fancy font for 5 runouts in a day
1st, 25th, 50th and 100th tournament win, runout, gb and 7 balling.

Straight
Highest run of the day
Top 50, Top 10 and 1st in
ranking, highest ranking, tournament wins, most wins, greatest run, thirty pluses, sixty pluses, success percentage.
1st, 25th, 50th and 100th tournament win, 30 run, 60 run.

Killer
Top 50, Top 10 and 1st in
ranking, highest ranking, most wins, overall percentage, success percentage, safety percentage
1st, 25th, 50th and 100th 3 man, 5 man, 7man, 10 man

Overall
Top 50, Top 10 and 1st in ranking tables

I had an idea to make the tournapoints a bit more exciting and make people have a go at winning medals more towards the end of the day.

Either make the tournaments from say 8-midnight winner takes all (winner takes the whole pot of points, nothing for runners up or semi finalists).

Or you could even make the last 3-4 hours of the day double tournapoints. I reckon it could get people making late surges and get more people entering tournys etc. It needs a shake up either way.

I think your idea is a great idea as well mate, gives people more to aim for!

what and how would this motivate people to come on and stay

you have this already in ranking tables,, maybe with a few extras

the site needs to be promoted, new users need to be encouraged to stay

pool isnt an old game, as many have said before
its still played throughout the world
so its a world wide game with wide appeals

most of the issues are long standing with this site
abuse
slating
multiple accounts
manners

ask yourself the question
would you read forums and contribute as a newbie
its such an intimidating place even for long standing users

the chatroom most days has newbie fake accounts abusing people, its not a sociable place to hang out and chat

people say to many tournaments are the problem. i dont see it as they are the most popular rooms on this site

clans: really they are for longstanding established players, since its gone to one division and the continuous beating of the lower reams
it is hardly a great arena for newbie players getting hammered 13.2 ,, 14-1 or 15-0 most games

my solution is allow 2 divisions a stater league with maybe 6 players per team, so the better players can progress

i will get shot down as ever but what i say is fact and until its addressed this site will continue to decline

newbie none fake players need to be encouraged to stay
not look once and run away forever

business is about giving the customer what they want
and then looking after them with customer care

longevity is the key, pool has this, most computer games last 12 months, so all isnt to bad here, it needs promoting in the right ways

You dont have this with the ranking tables at all craig, no achievements are stored from there except your highest rank and the best players aren't represented by the ranking tables because people won't stay on the same accounts.
That snowballs into players not seeing the point in rank, resetting etc etc I was looking at ways to combat that.
You just dismiss it and rattle off the same speech we have heard from you a million times, for someone who tells people to stay on the topic of the thread constantly you haven't managed it very well here.

again another needless personal attack because some one disagrees lee, no surprises there i guess,

didnt take long for my above comments to be proved true
speaks volumes about my comments really

i dont see great players on this site making new accounts constantly either, a few exceptions

I agree with most points made by Craig, there is nothing here to encourage non clan members to stay, the sites pretty much clan orientated.

The fake accounts issue is the main reason this site is falling by the wayside. It has to be dealt with asap or tougher security sanctions implemented, otherwise that will unfortunately become the death of this site.

The problem also is the rivalry with other online games now, P/side 2, WofTnks etc. They are more apparent to this day and age technology wise. This site has always been set up as a hobby, sometimes less is more and this site needs to re-adapt how it first started.

The gameplays very good, scrap micro useless tournaments, Only start tournaments with a set minimum amount of players, entice players (non clan ones) to stay and play. Make the site what the name itself is,meant to represent 'funky' and clamp down of abuse more. The swear filter is too easy to get around, this sites meant to be a family site, i wouldn't want my kids to witness some of the abusive language on here.

This site still has a chance, we need Everyone involved to re-kindle their interest here and we need it asap before it's too late.

If people have achievements stored they are going to behave better to not risk losing them.
Tournaments used to be a worthwhile achievement to not risk an account but they are ten a penny now.
This along with sorting out the tournament system which admin seem to have started to do would help, as well as discouraging resetting which would make ranks worthwhile playing for again too.

I don't get how people can complain about the manners and slating on this site... have you ever played Call of Duty on Xbox Live? Like a million people playing at any one time and there are the most vulgar and abusive people on the world on there. People on here are just a bit too sensitive, tbh if you didn't get banned for having an argument with someone I bet there'd be a whole lot more people on here

tbh i dont think achievements n crap like that are any sorta reason to stay.

as for people on xbox n all that, i don't know coz ive never played em.

basically if ya like yer pool, and you've adapted to funky, then you'll stay. granted the chat room is a BIGGY as when I first came here it was thriving and there was plenty of craic.

now it's the Can't Hear A Thing Room as i call it......dead!!
there are a few who sling abuse, but with yer complaint button you can sort that, as I have lol.

none of the incentives really make it any more enticing to me, but maybe to newbies it would....trial n error, just
KEEP ER LIT!!!!!!

Back in the day you'd log in and you'd get thrown in a second chat room because the first one was too full! That's 50 people just sat in the chat room, now you cant get 50 people online most times. I think you've hit the nail on the head with what you said about people adapting to the style of funky, if the game was changed too much it'd get rid of all the regulars....

How about tournaments have a set number of tournapoints, like a guaranteed win of 300 or 450 tournapoints not just added up as people join, just a suggestion, dont shoot me hippes.

Lmao still think it's nothing to do with tournaments. To me it's totally the SOCIAL aspect of funky. Like 'gary' says, gone are the days when ya couldn't get in the chat room. Yes some big killer rooms happen n stuff, but they're mainly clan players.

To me it'll be something that comes n goes no matter what efforts are made to 'improve' the site.........watch n see xxx

Its all about advertising, unfortunatly this site has none other than the site itself, its 100% the best online pool game but doesn't match some other sites out there, like 8baller.co.uk i have seen over 200 people online and playing.

Not sure why, i don't think the name helps "funky" it sounds like a mess around of a game when actually it is a very well thoughtout game, the spin and pace is second to none, aswell as the controls, is just weird to me how more people dont stay on.

You can say what u like about tournys, medals, rasnkings etc it doesn't mater if the people don't even get to the site! ... it needs advertising with a small budget which can be done.... if 200 people visit the site u might get say 50 people stay, if 2000 people visit the site u might get 500 people staying... someone mentioned call of duty which is of course completly different but the game got huge adverts everywhere u went it was in ya face, obviously its different to a java based game but yh u get the picture, this is a decent game that u can play for free and thats part of the trouble also, u dont get call of duty free, that will cost u 40 quid which is used in so many ways none least than advertising! .... lets hope numbers inprove anyway.

I remember nick saying that the funky app has gotten quite a decent response. If he could make this game playable on phones, numbers would rapidly increase.

I say the only way to make players come back is set it to how the site was about 5 years ago by eliminating EVERYTHING but 8 ball uk, 9 ball u.s and 8 ball u.s.

I am saying everything but those because that's how it was 5 years ago. Many people can say oh what about straight?

Well. by adding in straight your just having more players play that by not entering tournaments. Since it takes long to complete a straight game or even killer at the fact they don't bother joining tournaments.

Like I said, if it was me I would take out all games except uk, 9 and 8 u.s then you would see the numbers enter in tournaments AND RANK MATCHES for that matter.

spot on

I agree, maybe best way to 'test the water' would be to set up a 'spin off site', see which one brings in the more traffic and then judge the potential from there.

Although i do think that the origional idea in this thread could be a good idea but if the achievements were for something that encouraged people to play. Some examples:

'10 game win streak' then one for 25, 50 etc.
'3 runouts in a row'