Poll inside: What sort of forum do you want to have? And what don't you want to see?

[michelew]

As so many of you know, I've started a zillion threads which have ranged greatly in subject and popularity. I've posted videos for review, original TZZ song and busking videos, questions and musings about gear of all sorts, hypotheticals, and a stack that are just about making a connection and I guess in my own way trying to get to know you all better.

I love this community. I love the creative energy, the talent, the drive that so many of you have to become better guitarists and just the range of different people in it.

I'm feeling reflective today. And I'm wondering whether I post too many stupid threads. Ha this may just be one of them. I wondering what the characteristics of a good thread are and similarly what are the characteristics of the sorts of threads and comments too I guess that we don't want to see. I've been doing a bunch of gardening today. So an analogy would be what are the parts of our forum that we want to encourage and feed with our positive reenforcement and what are the things we want to weed out because they just make the place ugly, messy and no fun to be around.

We have a whole bunch of subject groupings, including "off-topic", which would of course imply that the forum is a place where we can discuss anything. I've personally posted and contributed to many off-topic threads, including one that Pierre started about the sorts of hobbies we have when we're not playing music. I remember it being fun and posting some of my own artwork. Again I was amazed at the artistic talent that we have here at TG. Pierre himself is quite the artist. We've also had threads about the sorts of occupations we all have. I also found that pretty interesting; we've such a diverse community.

I was also asked recently whether a friend was posting too many performance videos. Personally, I think the more the better. Busking and student reviews are almost always inspiring. And they're always relevant.

Even spam has a way of floating old gems to the surface that we haven't seen for a while like Ness' Kiss From a Rose lesson recently.

Ok enough blabbering. For me, with the exception of true spam (which the moderators always remove anyway), the things I DON'T want to see are:

- Mean comments of any sort
- People being disrespectful
- Excessive bad language
- Intolerance of other people's political and religious beliefs or the way they live, their sexuality, anything that's racist, sexist, agist... you get the drift;well that whole set of things should speak for themselves.

If it's about music or getting to know each other better then I say it's all good.

I do find that the threads that resonate with people the most do seem to stay high on the front page as people respond to them and the author acknowledges those responses. The ones that people aren't so interested in do seem to die a natural death as the lack of responses means they gradually fall lower on the front page and then off it. So I guess the forum has a natural filtering process. The ones we like the most stay buoyant.


So:

- What do you want to see more of on the TG forum?
- What don't you want to see?

If you've got any strong views about this, here's an opportunity to air them and influence the sort of forum you'd like to have.

Thanks for listening.

Michele

[spinland]

Totally there with the respectful thing; one of the engineers I used to work for (who also plays bass in an Irish folk band) is fond of the saying, "Always be kind, for everyone is fighting a battle you know nothing about."

As a long time netizen and former moderator of many a forum with a contentious theme, I get, understand and respect topicality. You need some order or things devolve rapidly.

Here, for instance, the mods have established areas covering several different topics. That is how they tell us what is welcome here, and I, for one, take pains to stay within those boundaries. As I see it, that's how these places run smoothly. So long as we're savvy about the flavor of the sandboxes they've created for us, and we respect those flavors, it's already handled. B)

[michelew]

Hi Mark,

The problem with creating polls, is that you can't go back and refine an option or add another when you think of them later.

I should have added "other - I'll explain" and "anything that matches the menu choices".


Thanks for adding to the discussion.

Btw - you haven't seen some of my sillier threads... not that I can think of an outrageous one at the moment.

Happy weekend.

M

[TGNesh]

I'm always amazed by how well you can put stuff into written words Shel.

I agree with you 100%, couldn't have said it any better. I love it when the forum is alive and people are talking about music and all sorts of things. That's why i feel I know people, even without actually meeting.

So what I want to see is members being involved in TG and it's community. Could be about music, could be about their other hobbies or interests, it's all good as long as it's respectful.

What I don't want to see, well you pointed it all out already. (I told you, I couldn't have said it any better! )

I think in general we manage for the forums to be exactly that. (anything really unappropriate is being deleted anyway) Although I miss the old days, when way more members were active.

So nowadays i very much appreciate anybody chiming in on whatever. Personally, even though my time is limited, I try to be here as much as I can. Also, I always love your threads.

Thanks Shel, this is another nice reflecting one!

[daryl]

What I don't want to ever see on TG? Anything political.
What I'd like to see? More members participating. I loved the "3- or 4-chord song" thread. And very early on there was a sort of "game" where we created a story using song titles or lines from songs or something like that. I also liked the "challenge" threads and the TG competitions (with prizes).

[TGNesh]

daryl wrote:

I loved the "3- or 4-chord song" thread.

Yeah, that's a legendary thread for sure! I loved it too. Come to think off, maybe we should bring it back to life or create a new one. I do have one up my sleeve, with Corina. We might get to it, that'd be fun!

[daryl]

Definitely start a new "Part II" thread. Maybe I'll add a song or two as well.

[spinland]

TGVanessa wrote:

daryl wrote:

I loved the "3- or 4-chord song" thread.

Yeah, that's a legendary thread for sure! I loved it too. Come to think off, maybe we should bring it back to life or create a new one. I do have one up my sleeve, with Corina. We might get to it, that'd be fun!

Sounds interesting—and fun! :side:

[wiley]

[sandysue]

You're a great facilitator Michele. You care about the people on the forum and you want it to stay fun an relevant for all of us. I agree with your idea's about what is appropriate and not appropriate for a public forum.

Personally I really had a great time when we were all trying to write our pirate song together. It all started with one simple phrase the way only a true Aussie, (Michele) could say it, "bloody hell mate". Of course in all of the excitement, our rowdy musical think tank inadvertently hijacked someone else"s thread, which is apparently a felony on the forum :S, but all in all we had a great time, and so many people participated, shared, and had fun together.

I also love all of the busking, and sharing of original songs that people have composed. I love to hear what everyone is working on and how they've managed some of the intricacies of playing their piece of music. It also gives me some idea's on songs that I might want to work on too.

Mostly I just love having lots of music minded people to share idea's with.

Sandy