sewsewquilter

Admin wrote:

I'm going to make the topic titles editable in the PDA section so that a person can use them to make announcements when something major happens.


I vote Yes.

bearisgray

Me, too.

bearisgray

More questions - (I hope they will be considered on-topic)

I didn't know that forums were given ratings - I thought the reader just sort of had to figure it out on his/her own. (Although I did bump into one or two that said "must be 18 to view" - and then one had to sign in.) I backed away from those because I didn't want to leave a footprint there.

It's also scary to know that someone/technology can "track" where one has been looking.

Who rates a Forum? What are the categories? Are they similar to movie ratings?

gaigai

OK, I've been out of pocket for a while because of illness, but I've tried to keep up with things.

Here are my final thoughts on the subject. (I can hear the "thank you lords" now. Lol) You wanted concrete suggestions, not just "I think, and I wants".

Admin, first I am going to state that as a health care professional, I have learned not to call a doc in the middle if the night about a patient and say "I don't think patient x is doing well....." I had better have concrete facts, numbers and assessments to back up my concerns. Also, when presenting any decisions on why I did something, I had better have good research results to back me up.

I just went to the general chit-chat section. You said that the negatives were beginning to outweigh the positives. Many people (I thought about going back through this post and counting, but I got out of the hospital about 8 hours ago and frankly am going back to bed after this post) said that they would prefer a separate jokes area because their observation has been that jokes have taken over. On the first page of GCC today, there are 6 jokes out of 22 posts (27%) . On page 2, there are 11 jokes out of 29 posts (38%), on page three there are 6 out of 29 posts (21%). From there I just picked a couple of pages at random at least 10 pages back to be sure I got a sample from before the changes. I found on an average page with 30 posts, that 5 of them (17%) would be negative/requests for prayers/illness, etc, and 5 of them would be jokes. So while the perception may be that the negatives are taking over, the numbers I counted don't seem to bear it out.

I also am not at this time feeling up to going back through these posts to see how many people want the negatives to stay and how many want them to go to PDA, but I suspect the majority would vote for the former.

You say that you don't want to create more Stickies. People complain that they can't sift through the PDA's for important information.

Get rid of the Stickies that have recently been created that no one is posting to or looking at and make one for "Funnies". That gives you a net loss of Stickies. It's a win-win.

Take a poll of the members whether negatives should stay in GCC. You could start a thread and state that the answer should be ONE word. YES or NO. Any added discussion will cause you to automatically delete that vote. Do it for a set time period, say two weeks, to give those on vacation, out of pocket, etc. time to catch up and decide. Then announce the results and your decision based on those results.

Make the PDA sections editable by the owners. That way after a time they can go back and delete the general kind of stuff, the "Goodnight John-boy, good night Mary Ellens" and leave only the stuff that is important to them and that they really want people to see. That would cut way down on storage space, and possibly make more people stop by to at least scan.

Just my never-to-be-humble opinion and suggestions.

sandpat

Just caught up again on this thread.

First, Admin, glad you are back and decisions are being made. I vote yes for the editable titles for the PDA.

Secondly...I am one who posted a thread while you were gone. Patrice said to wait..I did it anyway...Terri slapped my hand...I'm sorry, I shouldn't have started a thread in GCC. Won't happen again.

kluedesigns

gaigai

i'm a research scientist and i enjoy stats but the one thing you're missing from your data is all the deleted threads that admin/mods had taken down because of a rule violation or whatever reasons they have.

so while its an indication of a trend it is not factual or actual data.

kwhite

My thought on that is that not everyone posting to GCC is reading this post so they don't know not to post those things now. It should not be assumed that all active members are following this thread.

kluedesigns

thats very true and an excellent point.

Cathy M

Hmmm... I'm going to weigh in on the whole humor and joke situation and give us all something to think about.
In Montana, a city board recently required that all new applicants divulge all internet sites they belong to. In addition to the list, the applicants were required to give their site names and passwords. Then the city could go in and analyze the sites their potential employees belong to. Imagine the havoc that could be caused by not having a moderator or administrator on a board. It could potentially cost you a job by virtually hanging out with someone who has a different sense of humor than yourself.
The positive side of this story is that due to the nationwide uproar this caused a small city in Montana, the city board backed off this ruling. But it could happen anywhere and could be something that could happen more in the future.
I'm in health care and my husband is in law enforcement. Our sense of humors are probably very jaded to most of the world's population, so something that would make me laugh would horrify my neighbors. So I guess you need to 'know' your audience before posting jokes. And once it's posted, it is out there for everyone and anyone to peruse.
Rules are rules are rules are rules. We all need guidelines in our lives, even when we don't like them. And rules, like life, are fluid. They change to match the needs. Let's keep the needs simple on this board to keep the rules simple.
This is an outstanding board that I would proudly list on a job application- and truth be told, there aren't that many out there on the internet that are worth participating in. We are a great group of people who have foibles and faults, but are still by far the best.

omak

Is there an issue with storage space on this site, Dear Administrator?

One of the things that I keep running into as I digest the input is: I don't know enough about the technical side of running a site to know how things are done or if I need to take better care of my responses, so as not to add to a burden.

WHen I go to a thread, depending on the topic, I may decide to give an example of something I have experienced or have heard about - - am I causing problems by doing that? The last thought in my mind would be to add a topic to the general anything - - but, am I understanding that some are doing that, rather than commenting within the thread that started their mind down a certain path?

My daddy taught me: If you are man enough to do something, you be man enough to stand there and take the flak if it doesn't go down right.

So, for the record ... If I am part of some problem, by all means ... let me know. I may not be able to control anyone else, but I can control myself.