Post: #11

Strident anthem blaring: Boomers never grow old, surrender or lose their vigor. We prop it up with a stick, take shots o' Viagra and bathe in Rogaine. We are eternal--or is it infernal?--and are the hemp dudes and dudettes of the 21st century. Welcome RBT to the light!

Post: #12

(11-01-2009 11:51 PM)Gegogi Wrote:  Strident anthem blaring: Boomers never grow old, surrender or lose their vigor. We prop it up with a stick, take shots o' Viagra and bathe in Rogaine. We are eternal--or is it infernal?--and are the hemp dudes and dudettes of the 21st century. Welcome RBT to the light!

Been doin' that Maui Wowee again?


Anyway, and this is addressed to the forum in general not to anyone specific. I've been having some thoughts about the lives of forums in general.

I think one of the big problems with just about any forum is there can be far too many opportunities for it to lose it's direction, forget why it exists. Like Mt Jim was saying, they can reach a "tipping point." But I think that point is often brought on when the main goal has been lost or misplaced.

As much as we'd all like to see a totally open free uncensored forum, I really think somewhere along the line you have to have mods that keep the thing going in the right direction. I certainly don't want to see the dictators who ban right and left when members disagree on some point, especially when they disagree with the mod's point of view. There is that struggle to remain neutral. However, when things start to diverge along side paths, then the strays need to be herded back. Some posts and threads *may* have to be moved or removed or at least closed.

One thing that got me real weary at AD forums was that every time I logged on I'd face as many as 30 pages of unread posts. Daunting indeed. And so many bore so little to the real subject matter which was supposed to be pheromones. I just got too worn out.

Even though I'm also for promoting the right to ask questions, I get ever so weary of seeing the same questions being posted over and over and over again. Like it would seem *every* new user would create a new thread to ask "what's the best pheromone? In my old age I'm starting to get ornery enough to suggest that posting to at least some areas of the forums, especially in terms of creating new threads, be restricted to users who have at least achieved some level of experience. That just like they do on the good wiki's, those who edit or post need to have some "credentials," otherwise they'd be swamped by misinformation and by those with personal agendas. I'd be real tempted to somehow sorta "require" newbie types to some required reading and FAQ's before allowing free reign to post.

I can see allowing each user to post a thread say here in the "intro" section as a place to, well, intoduce themselves, to ask the questions, and allow others to respond. My intro thread would also become my personal flog (forum blog) so to speak. The Evaluations sections should be restricted to just that, evaluations, for example, not "how would this product work for me" questions.

Another thing as I blab away here... one thing I tried to do on some of the other forums was start the "What Works (for such and such a situation)?" threads. Places not where individual products were evaluated (ie Chikara does this, Primal Instinct does that), but places where users could report on what products worked best for them in that situation (ie for office meeting: Scent of Eros, or Instant Openness plus Instant Shine with a touch of a314). I know one thing I'd like to be able to find out is what products from anywhere or anybody seem to do the trick say for social gatherings, for dating, for business meetings . All products that worked well at the family dinner for example, rather than having to wade through from the other end of having to dig through each individual manufacturer's or supplier/seller's thread to pull out those products one at a time. Like going to a computer store and being shown a complete bundle that will do what you want, rather than having all the keyboards in this aisle, all the monitors in that aisle, and you're having to try to pick things out individually and hope in the end they work together.

Anyway enough rant for now. I'm supposed to be working.

And yes, a DSL connection is CONSIDERABLY faster loading this forum than my dial-up... but it's still a tad slower than other forums I visit.

Now to figure out why I can't get a signature line to "take..."

Post: #13

(11-02-2009 1:40 PM)Rbt Wrote:  I think one of the big problems with just about any forum is there can be far too many opportunities for it to lose it's direction, forget why it exists. Like Mt Jim was saying, they can reach a "tipping point." But I think that point is often brought on when the main goal has been lost or misplaced.

As much as we'd all like to see a totally open free uncensored forum, I really think somewhere along the line you have to have mods that keep the thing going in the right direction. I certainly don't want to see the dictators who ban right and left when members disagree on some point, especially when they disagree with the mod's point of view. There is that struggle to remain neutral. However, when things start to diverge along side paths, then the strays need to be herded back. Some posts and threads *may* have to be moved or removed or at least closed.

Great points! We have tried to be niche oriented enough to stay on the right path, while also offering members areas to discuss other things as well. And, we've tried to find the right number of forums and sub-forums to help keep information separated and in the right areas, while not creating so many forums as to overlap each other and/or confuse members.

We have no moderators here, but 4 admins who are all equals and have moderator powers, and anything to do with forum decisions or policies are made as a democracy. No one person makes autonomous decisions, which helps to insure that there is always at least a collective head or two in any decisions made concerning the forum, as well as differing viewpoints.

Rbt Wrote:The Evaluations sections should be restricted to just that, evaluations, for example, not "how would this product work for me" questions.

Another thing as I blab away here... one thing I tried to do on some of the other forums was start the "What Works (for such and such a situation)?" threads. Places not where individual products were evaluated (ie Chikara does this, Primal Instinct does that), but places where users could report on what products worked best for them in that situation (ie for office meeting: Scent of Eros, or Instant Openness plus Instant Shine with a touch of a314). I know one thing I'd like to be able to find out is what products from anywhere or anybody seem to do the trick say for social gatherings, for dating, for business meetings . All products that worked well at the family dinner for example, rather than having to wade through from the other end of having to dig through each individual manufacturer's or supplier/seller's thread to pull out those products one at a time. Like going to a computer store and being shown a complete bundle that will do what you want, rather than having all the keyboards in this aisle, all the monitors in that aisle, and you're having to try to pick things out individually and hope in the end they work together.

More great points! We have established Formulations forums in the Mens and Womens forums, for sharing recipes, but I do like the idea an area for listing mixes specific to social situations, I'm just not sure we we have enough members and posts at this point to justify a separate section for it.

I also like the idea of a separate area where members can ask the "what works" type of questions, then possibly moving the threads into an answered questions area at some point.

But again, I don't know that we're large enough to warrant breaking things down further than they are at this point, without making the forum to difficult to navigate, but definitely things that could be looked at as we grow, and I'll table the ideas!

Thanks!

Post: #14

Great points RBT. I also forgot in my rush to welcome you to offer condolences for the sadness you mentioned. Six funerals in one year is a lot to bear.

Post: #15

Gee, I take a day off and heeeeeere's Rbt! Welcome!








Well, we're not exactly unmoderated. We're an uncensored forum that is minimally moderated. There has to be some form of moderation in order to keep things neat and on track. We're not a dictatorship, we're a collaborative. We care about our members and want ideas. We're always ready to consider suggestions and welcome them!

One of the things we did to keep things organized in the Pheromones/Fragranges/Perfumes/Colognes Forum is to introduce a sub-forum, "Where To Buy Pheromones", with a "Product Reviews" section for each company listed.


I'm sorry to hear about your loses, Rbt. I've been on that side of the pool more times than I can count. I'm glad you're coming around.


It's nice to have you here. I hope you'll feel at home!


Bella

Post: #16

Hey Rbt, good to see ya made it, welcome aboard.
Yeah, this forum is minimally moderated, but ya gotta squash the SPAM that shows up.

Post: #17

@Bella

Well! Thank you. Finally someone figured out and acknowledged who the "Benny Kubelski" is that I refer to in my "location." w00t! 39 (or less....) forever!