The Classic Speaker Pages .. and this forum in particular.

[administrator]

I'm catching up on some AR topics after a few weeks of being away from the website. Apparently some interesting things have been going on. For the most part, it seems like things are ok. I've noticed some threads that have nothing to do with the forum topics, and a couple flamewars, but I guess those are to be expected. I hope these things work themselves out, however, I'm always open to suggestions. Forum registrations have been steadily increasing - it is not uncommon for me to wake up and see four, five, or more new accounts.

Do we need moderators for each forum? Leave things the way they are?

On another note, I'm troubled by some areas (e.g. the KLH spreadsheet) that need correction. This is in large part my fault for not checking in regularly enough.

Anyway .. the new server is sitting on my desk at work and will be ready to go as soon as I figure out how to get the message forums operating happily on the Apache web server. The Apache book is sitting in front of me here at home.

Mark

[ninohernes]

I think a moderator for each forum, (especially this one) would be a good idea, so if things get too out of hand on a particular thread, the moderator could close it, or if it is off topic, the moderator could move it to the appropriate forum. Actually, I wouldent mind moderating this fourm. Unless, Tom or Ken wants to.

[kkantor]

Mark,

Personally, I would leave things the way they are. The amount of moderating YOU are doing seems well matched to the amount needed., ie- very little.

[kkantor]

PS- if you really want to keep a totally even keel withing the brand forums, you could start an opinion and debate forum for members, to keep the fact from the fiction.

I think the growth here is a testament to the subject matter, and to the involved discourse. CSP could become a real destination URL on the audio circuit. But you might want to keep it smaller and more focused towards us cultists. Up to you.

[Guest Bret]

> Leave things the way they are?<

I think things are fine as-is for the most part.

I suppose I'm not as excitable as a lot of people, Mark. The disagreements, no matter how heated, are fine with me until they sink to the level of name-calling. The occasional steam from a degree of misanthropic behavior is to be expected. Otherwise brilliant people are sometimes shockingly bad at public relations. The written word, by lacking inflection, sometimes mis-conveys the writer's hue, as well.

I liked Ken's suggestion for a "Debate" forum. That way if I'm taking a weird position on something or floating a trial balloon I won't "clutter" the Poly Tech discussion or disturb its chaulk dust.

It would also allow those who miff easily an easy way to avoid threads they no longer feel are up to their standards or are of no value. Hopefully we won't sink into an "AR rules!" "No, you idiot, Advent rules!" tar pit.

Where I disagree with some; If you make this the standard repository only for factual assessment of individual issues, before long a searchable library data-base can almost entirely replace the interactive forum. That would be a shame as visitations tend to diminish to only those times one needs specific information.

The opportunity to build "friendships" (even strained ones) is absent in such a place.

The only crticism I have of the last months' "style" is that we (the membership) aren't doing a very good job of controlling thread-drift. That's really not something you need to be policing (IMO) but we should be. The 901 argument could have been labelled "901 argument" and a lot of us could have avoided it without fearing we missed something related to the original thread title.

In that regard, perhaps I could suggest a small change that might make a large difference (if Apache will allow it): If a reply's title is changed it should automatically start a new thread. That way, when someone posts a reply that's off-topic they could start a new thread very easily.

Do you think that might have merit?

Bret

[kkantor]

Well said, Bret.