Forum changes - your views please

[SizeZero]

It can but as I said there are too many using it for social only and not putting any effort in to the advice sections. I also have to question how you would call some of the moron posts we get as being social for people to join in as well and not feed the click but saying that I havn't a clue how to fix that.

I think you're doing this board a great disservice. Do you know how many people found a lifeline and support network here during the BN66 case when they thought their world was falling in? What about contractors who have been hit by non-paying agencies who then share information and help each other out? This is the serious side of the board and something I don't think can be found anywhere else.

General is general - it's a place where newcomers hit the ground running and join in (we've all done it) or they bounce like a pebble and either go back to lurking or try again. In any community it's the newcomers who need to fit in, not the community that needs to change to accomodate - it's not possible anyway, you can't please all of the people all of the time. I like general - and 'flouncygate' is only a 7 day wonder, same as chutney spoon and other 'fad' posts.

[Board Game Geek]

I'm not fussed what you do with the forum, Administrator, since it's your forum and your rules.

I'll go along with whatever.

[RichardCranium]

I'm not fussed what you do with the forum, Administrator, since it's your forum and your rules.

I'll go along with whatever.

BGG, you are completely missing the point!

[Board Game Geek]

BGG, you are completely missing the point!

Huh ?

Sorry ? What ?

In the same way that I don't feel Ford's need to consult me when they are considering revisioning a new car, I don't see how my input is important in the grand scheme of things for a new board. It's just a forum board, for heaven's sake. Which costs me nothing to use, I hasten to add.

Que sera, sera.

[northernladuk]

I think you're doing this board a great disservice. Do you know how many people found a lifeline and support network here during the BN66 case when they thought their world was falling in? What about contractors who have been hit by non-paying agencies who then share information and help each other out? This is the serious side of the board and something I don't think can be found anywhere else.

General is general - it's a place where newcomers hit the ground running and join in (we've all done it) or they bounce like a pebble and either go back to lurking or try again. In any community it's the newcomers who need to fit in, not the community that needs to change to accomodate - it's not possible anyway, you can't please all of the people all of the time. I like general - and 'flouncygate' is only a 7 day wonder, same as chutney spoon and other 'fad' posts.

I don't think I have. What we dont see is the many professional people that leave because of the stream of childish posts. Yes I agree people stay as a heaven as you say but these people ere helped out by the members that want to help. Re-read what I said about too many being social and not helping. These are the people I am talking about therefore your comments about BN66 and the like are not relative.

There are no newcomers to General. It;'s the same old dross. All the fad posts you like are posted by the same people all the time. There is no way a newcomer can join that.

[NickFitz]

Huh ?

Sorry ? What ?

I suspect that RC was joshing about the fact that you brought a degree of sanity to a thread that so many seem to regard as yet another excuse for unseemly brawling

[NickFitz]

What we dont see is the many professional people that leave because of the stream of childish posts...

There are no newcomers to General. It's the same old dross. All the fad posts you like are posted by the same people all the time. There is no way a newcomer can join that.

This is the point I was trying to make about the layout of the home page: one of the major problems with General being top of the list and having the description it has is that it is utterly misleading to those who find this place, which they probably do via a Google search which takes them to a post outside of General that doesn't quite address their question but suggests that they might find help here.

So they then click on the logo (which virtually everybody knows will be the "home page" link on any site they visit) and, glancing down the page, they see the words "affecting and of interest to contractors."

So they click on the link above that and post a question in General about a matter that is "affecting and of interest to contractors"... and get a load of abuse for it and don't come back.

The fact that there was a more appropriate place to post their question, but they didn't find it because they thought General was the appropriate place to post their question, is a failure of the site's usability, not a failure of the user.

Let's face it: for General as it currently stands, the description should be "issues affecting and of interest to people who hang out in General" - there is scarcely anything here that is relevant to people because they are contractors, rather than vicars or postmen or prostitutes.

[cojak]

Reason: Clarifying the first sentence of my response. Then another one. Can we have multiple-revision meta-comments?

Sorry, version control isn't a real requirement when people have such good memories covering a long time-span...

[shaunbhoy]

Well FWIW, I happen to like the whole place just as it is. I have been on the forum in all of its forms from very early on, and don't believe it has changed that much. General can be a bit of a bear-pit at times sure, but if that is not to your taste then there is always the likes of TPD and Light Relief for those who are inclined to be less combative.
Over the last couple of weeks it has been astonishing to see the proliferation of insecure drama queens on here. If you believe that the board has gone downhill and is too petty and irrelevant for your tastes then that is your prerogative. You have the right to go elsewhere. Do not, however, imagine for a moment that making some unbearably ostentatious announcement about your departure is going to register so much as a flicker on the Give-a-Toss meters of those of us that remain.

rant over

[northernladuk]

Sorry, version control isn't a real requirement when people have such good memories covering a long time-span...

Who said that?????

You have the right to go elsewhere. Do not, however, imagine for a moment that making some unbearably ostentatious announcement about your departure is going to register so much as a flicker on the Give-a-Toss meters of those of us that remain.

It might not to you that remain but it valuable feedback to those that want to and can make a difference. Some were worded a bit that way I will give you that but to say you are going and why would show a pattern which can then be recitified for everyones pleasure later. If we all just left in silence then the problem would never get fixed.