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Your future at TBF - Poll

Your Forum Crystal Ball indicates:

  • I just joined and I love this place, goin’ no where

    Votes: 7 15.6%
  • I’m perfectly happy with the way things are right now, no complaints

    Votes: 7 15.6%
  • I’m on my way out, it’s changed too much

    Votes: 2 4.4%
  • One more major forum blowout will drive me away, can’t stand the drama

    Votes: 2 4.4%
  • I’m waiting to see who the new mods will be, and how their style will effect the forum

    Votes: 2 4.4%
  • I’m layin’ low for now, time will tell, I’m on the fence I guess…

    Votes: 11 24.4%
  • A few more stupid threads/debates/polls in General Chat will drive me away

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • I’m currently searching for some other playground to romp in

    Votes: 1 2.2%
  • I don’t understand the point of this poll. The forum is, what you make it

    Votes: 6 13.3%
  • Haven’t put much thought into any of this, most of this is normal forum life isn’t it?

    Votes: 7 15.6%

  • Total voters
    45
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Isn't self-examination the best way to detect things early, and prevent things from getting worse? To constantly question what is being done right and what is being done wrong is the best way for all of us to have the forum we want isn't it?

And Wabbit....I've done plenty of positive threads haven't I? The very first two poll picks are sweetly positive. Plus, anybody can add their own additions if they feel so inclined. the last two picks are not negative either. I think the choices are pretty balanced.

And for those of you who are tired of the self-critiquing of the forum....too bad....don't open those threads if you don't like them....

The banning of Bobbyburns has left a void. Jay is gone. Shade is absent. People are leaving. You'll notice more have left or are posting drastically less over the next few days/weeks. Some I know have privately pm'd me that they are tired of the forum and searching for other pastures.

I am concerned about the forum. So I asked a question. That's what this place is all about. You either give a shit, or you don't. I give a shit, and I intend to put up a fight if a fight is what's called for.
 
Also, the major issues of the past never gave forum members an anonymous chance to voice their thoughts.....
 
Everyone has a choice of staying or bailing. I enjoy the forum and have no problem with it. There are some members that I enjoy more than others, I think that is normal though. There are many interesting discussions on books, authors, etc.and I really enjoy reading them. I believe that, at least a few of us, get some good ideas on books to be read. Those that are dissatisfied, why not make an extra effort to make the forum as interesting as possible.

I also belong to an Auto racing forum and the chit really hits the fan there.
 
You can say 'shit' here.

And Moto, I've fought my fight, there's no denying that. And I respect you for the one you're fighting.
 
Thanks Martin. I'd rather take the issues straight on, then refuse to admit they exist. I know of three people who've told me they are tired of the place, and probably leaving. Others seem to be leaving, or posting much less.

This forum is undeniably different than it was 6-8 months ago. Some are probably happy about that and others are obviously not. Some are probably happy about the few bannings/changes and others are not. Some will welcome the new moderators and the changes they may make. Others may protest. It's evolution of forum life. Some of it may be saved, and most probably not.

But that does not mean that any attempts to save something some of us like are not worth the effort.
 
Interesting thread. Speaking as a pure outsider (and I mostly lurk here rather than post and I visit rarely too) I must say that when I first joined this forum, I got the impression that there was a lot less moderation around and it was a fairly free-for-all place... I tend to lurk *a lot* and found many of the threads here were fairly full of banter and fun...

Recently I came back here after a while and immediately found that there are issues which members have been bringing up about warnings, bannings and moderation. It gave me the impression that things have changed.

Yes, so, I agree with Motokid, things seem to have changed even from a pure outsider's perspective. I haven't really posted here much, but that was the off-hand impression that I got.
 
I haven't really been a member of TBF long, and it seems as if all the changes happened just before I got here, so I personally think that TBF is still a great place. There are a few threads on here that I find a bit spammy and dull, but I just stay away from them. Problem solved, no biggie. I would enjoy TBF a bit more if religious/political debates were allowed as I enjoy them immensely, but I can always visit other forums to fill that void, and I do understand why they would be banned, even if I may not agree with it. One of the main reasons that I like coming here is for those members - namely Ell, Novella, Stewart, Jenn, Kook and Moto - who contribute a lot to the forums, either with entertaining and/or insightful posts or just general helpfulness - I can never get over how much these people know!

I definately felt the void after Jay and Bobby left, and I feel that we lost some key members to the whole BF atmosphere, but what's left is still, IMO, great.
 
To be honest, I pretty much hate the forum now. I'm fed up with all the backlash; I'm fed up with the constant cliques that develop; I'm fed up with the talking back to the mods and the constant griping about decisions that were taken so far in the past that they should have no relevance now.

I feel as though very very few people here are on my particular wavelength and that the few that were have already gone.

I *detest* the way General Chat has become this monster in which threads have deteriorated to being used as Instant Messenger. We don't care about your flirting; we don't care about the fact you're bored because no one else has posted in the last three second; we don't care about the fact that you finally managed to use the spoiler function and feel the need to demonstrate it over the course of about seventeen pages.

I come and lurk in the monthly book discussions, which I feel is one of the only relevant places in this *BOOK* forum now.....

In another forum that I frequent a lot i.e. several times each day, there was recently a poll to decide whether they should introduce an Off Topic area. I voted No No No for that because I've seen how it has ruined the rest of this forum for everyone else......
 
Wow, interesting posts....and a surprise visit by harishankar....

Surely as the membership grows the place grows and changes. I can't help but feel that the forum is what you make it. If you are seeking something specific, and you can't find it then you should start it. If you don't like the style of posting by specific members then don't read thier posts and/or threads. With well over 4000 members (although only about 30-50 are regular posters) the landscape will be determined by those who are most active.

I find it interesting that this thread has over 400 views, but less than 30 posts at this time. Maybe that's a good thing.....
 
*sigh* I've currently got so many people on my ignore list because of stupid, inane posting that nothing truly makes sense on the forums anymore.

I am trying to only find the good bits of TBF, but they are so few and far between now that it feels hardly worth staying.
 
Motokid said:
Wow, interesting posts....
I find it interesting that this thread has over 400 views, but less than 30 posts at this time. Maybe that's a good thing.....
Moto,
Definitely yes, on both counts, but I wish the viewers would vote if they haven't already. Hint, hint to viewers!
Peder
 
Why not start your own "good bits"?

What is it exactly you would like to discuss? And what's stopping you from starting that new thread right now?

If you are looking for a specific discussion go create it. If the discussion goes off topic moderate the thread yourself.

I haven't seen the I, Lucifer discussion go off topic, nor the Life Of Pi.
Sure, general chat is not for everybody. But certainly in the other places here at TBF you can find what you are looking for.
 
I wasn't going to respond to this thread, preferring to stay away from most topics in General Discussion because they really don't interest me. Such banality is depressing; the fact people want to talk about farting, or someone really believes we'd be interested that they are drunk is just sad. The ones that really annoy me are people that announce they are back after taking two days off the forum - in all likelihood nobody even noticed. Probably because the farting conversation was so engrossing.

So, let's have a look at some of the questions...

Motokid said:
I have no idea if what I’ve witnessed is normal for a forum this size or not, and if what I’ve seen happen has been going on for years, or is unique to the time I’ve been here.

Then forum, as far as I know, was a barren area, where discussion was rare. Looking back over the posts from 2002 and 2003 I certainly get that impression. When I joined the membership seemed to be picking up, people were chatting, and the General Discussion (or Spam Forum, as I tend to think of it) was taking off with Martin and SillyWabbit (now Wabbit) posting almost neverending links to games and silly little animations. In my opinion such non-content cheapened the term discussion. Since then the membership has grown and every now and again there's the occasional tussle although little comes of it.

I’ve seen moderators quit, or be relieved from their post.

I think both were fair decisions. Ell's decision to quit the position gives her a chance, after a number of years, to get away from the bickering and just be a member. Martin's stepping down as moderator was a good decision and, after he had been restored to the role, his removal from the team was also justified due to his actions of that time.

I’ve seen longtime members get banned, and others just disappear.

The first member I've seen get banned was named Not Edna, a fun character in my opinion, but he swore once at somebody and drew a moustache on bobbyburns' avatar - a bannable offence, of course, when you consider the sheer quantity of swearing that goes on here. I don't particularly like the use of the '****' word when it has no context other than to garnish a statement. However, the vBulletin software, like other forums, offers a swear filter wherein you can censor a phrase or convert one to something more euphemistic. Darren should really consider using this to dilute the unnecessary expletives.

It's a shame that members get banned. I think the policy here, as regards the three strikes policy, is a tad extreme. Personally, I think if you are going to ban someone then it should only be for a temporary space of time - a year, perhaps. People who spam, of course, should get a permanent ban and their details reported to their internet provider. The reason I think that a one year ban is enough is that people can change over time and, given time to think about their actions or to mature (in the case of younger trolls who may, eventually, become interested in the subject matter) can become better integrated.

I’ve seen squabbles and arguments over silly things get out of control, and I’ve seen people’s feelings get hurt.
In my opinion, all of these arguments are about ego. The Book Forum, as a discussion board, is rather restrictive. There are a number of features here which aren't switched on, such as custom user titles, which limit your ability to add to your visual personality - an avatar and a signature is your whack! So since we all have a user title set for us, we all become part of the same group. Aside from those who are Senior Moderator, Site Admin, or Banned, I am a Member, you are a Member; everyone is a Member. This puts everyone on an equal basis but, to add that extra bit of personality, you have to SHOUT! Who wants to be equal with someone inferior?

Recently Darren has announced there will be new moderators.
I hope that he makes some good choices this time and invites people who hold an interest in book discussion to the role over someone who obtains a lot of posts from spamming. A moderator, in a forum sense, isn't just there to edit threads, show people how to use the forum software, and to step in when things get messy; they are also required to guide the forum's content. If the forum is about books then they should be creating topics on books in order to get people discussing that and to help grow the community. I don't see much of that.

Long time members pine for the “good old days”.

I don't believe there ever was a period definable as the good old days.

If things change too much some members simply disappear. Find another place to play.
And so they should. If they don't feel comfortable here then it's their right to find somewhere that suits them. I'm a member of Palimpsest, another book forum, and I find that the conversation there is far superior. They even talk in depth about books. Imagine that! I'm a member of six other book forums and this forum is the only one where I see a poorly balanced level of discussion between books and general banality.

My biggest grievance, I suppose, is the I just finished reading thread; people just post the titles of books without ever saying what they thought of it or, if they do offer a nugget of information, it's usually that it was good. Hardly a comment worthy of book discussion. The fact that they have read all these books, they should be encouraged to start threads on them (if one hasn't already been created) and give their real thoughts.

So, The Book Forum...

The thing I don't like about it most is that it is restrictive. I feel that the wrong approach has been taken with respect to its development. Darren has tried to guide it from the start: no custom member titles, a preference for people to use their real names, and limited discussion as regards politics and religion.

I don't fully know his reasons for this although I know he feels that people may become offended. If people are offended then it's not The Book Forum that is the offender but the forum's image could become tarnished. Fair enough, but to put such restrictions on the forum has stunted its development into a mature discussion board. So, with the heavy authoritarian hand, people can be left feeling like children (you can't talk about this, you can't talk about that) and its no surprise that it has devolved into a pit of spam and boring chat as people want to play within the rules and don't want to offend. The forum has developed now, after four years of existence, but it has been shaped from the start rather than let its members define its tone, which has left it more like a four year old forum with the mind of a two year old.

I find it interesting that this thread has over 400 views, but less than 30 posts at this time. Maybe that's a good thing.....

Don't necessarily believe that every one of these is a user. Since this site has a lot of content web spiders, such as GoogleBot, spend a lot of time indexing the site. When they view a page to index it, it counts as a view. You'll find that the different spiders crawl through the threads - they just follow links - again and again upping the count of views.
 
Thanks for that well thought out, and very intelligent post Stewart. Maybe you and magemanda can get together and start some new threads outside of general chat?

There is no doubt that in a forum of this size that not every thread will please every person. There is room for farting threads just as there is room for threads on Lolita or The Da Vinci Code.

If you want serious then start serious. Ying and yang as it were.
 
Motokid said:
Maybe you and magemanda can get together and start some new threads outside of general chat?

I've reverted to keeping myself to posting reviews of books outside of general chat. I'm here primarily for book discussions and that's what I'll participate in. It's just a shame that it's the same old people who step out to talk about books, while the rest just sit in the general discussion and chat about inane drivel.

If you want serious then start serious. Ying and yang as it were.

I do that. I started a serious thread in the site feedback forum about the ability to edit posts and, within the hour, it was filled with absolute crappy banter that didn't pertain to my initial query. That was why I asked for the thread to be closed. It was a forum for site feedback; not for chat. I tend to view that there's a place for everything, but don't ever let it boil over into other areas of the forum.
 
Well, I voted and keep viewing the thread. I didn't post, because I am rather new here, and I like to stay out of these types of things.

I am a founder and moderator of a forum. I have seen these types of things before, but thankfully on a smaller level. When we didn't have a "General Topic" forum, we had all kinds of fights. Especially after 9-11. We had all kinds of people that wanted to talk about it, but no where to do it. Sure, we gave everyone links to go talk about it on other forums. But when we expanded, we realized that it was for the best, because it gave our members somewhere to discuss things off topic. And it has worked very well. Maybe we have just been very lucky.

My overall opinion of things is these and any forum are what you make of it. You are going to run across people that bug you. You are going to run across people that think their opinion is the "correct" opinion, and they are going to jump all over you if you disagree and act as if you just killed their family. And it's pathetic for people to do that, but they do. Any forum is not the most important thing in your lives folks. If you are having problems with someone, tell the mods and then ignore them. Unfortunately it might lead to people getting banned, but you can't have members treating others like sh*t. And you don't even have to use the ignore fuction if there is a thread you don't like. Just don't click on it and/or read it. Why would anyone want to read a thread that they know will upset them? (Of course as a moderator you have to, just to make sure everyone is playing nicely together.)

Of course I can understand the desire to leave. I am a longtime member of a forum that has grown and grown like crazy over the course of five years. It got to a point that I didn't even lurk. There was so much fighting going on it was ridiculous. I was so tempted to post and tell everyone to get a life. We were only talking about music and a sub-genre at that. But I realized that I too was getting too caught up in that feeling of wanting everyone to shut the hell up. So I stepped back, and now when I see something that interests me, I post. And if I see something that might upset me, I turn away. I have tried to us that philosophy with another large forum that seems to have problems like that, too. There are a few people out there that will be incredibly rude to anyone that doesn't think like them or is outside their clique.

And speaking of cliques, sometimes those that you think have them really don't. They just become good friends. The forum that I moderate, we have met up with a good number of the members a couple of times a year. We have become real friends of each other. So it might seem like we are clique-ish, but it just because we know these particular people so well. When I am at other forums I try to remember that. It is not that people are ignoring me or not wanting me around. They just know the others much better than me.

Hopefully all of you can excuse the ramblings of a new member. Not sure any of this makes sense to anyone. Not even sure I should have posted all this. But maybe it will help.

And for the record, I have liked what I have see so far here at TBF.
 
"There is room for farting threads"???? This is the kind of thing that drives me mad.... I know there is an Off Topic section and I know that this means you will encounter off topic (i.e. off books) discussion. But why does it have to be so superficial and rubbish?

Some of the threads in General Chat have been well-thought-out and invited discussion. Others just don't need to be there.

When people write this inane rubbish, do they sit and think about the fact that what you've just submitted onto the forum takes up bandwidth that should be being used to discuss books? Moves in servers and upgrades etc can stave off problems with limited bandwidth, but not completely. The more rubbish that fills a forum, the more the problem is exacerbated. Common decency should prompt people to keep discussions relevant and, in General Chat, keep them meaningful.

There are cliques here, Scooter. If you're new, you won't have seen them. But they're here.

And the whole argument of 'well, if you want to discuss books, why don't you start a thread?' can be countered with the reaction of certain members when you dare to start a dicussion on something that has already been discussed before. Cries of 'use the search function' and 'you might find the answers you seek here' do not promote discussion. Just because some people have already covered the subject does not mean that new people shouldn't benefit from some lively discussion on it as well.

And, of course, you are always at risk of your thread being stolen away by those who do want to talk about farting and use spoilers and be generally childish. Some of you are adults with children etc. Your posts come across as someone of around twelve years of age who has just discovered a forum for the first time.
 
Stewart said:
I do that. I started a serious thread in the site feedback forum about the ability to edit posts and, within the hour, it was filled with absolute crappy banter that didn't pertain to my initial query. That was why I asked for the thread to be closed. It was a forum for site feedback; not for chat. I tend to view that there's a place for everything, but don't ever let it boil over into other areas of the forum.

The answer to your question on thread editting was completely provided in post #3 by jenngorham about 5 minutes after you started that thread....

Sorry if things then diverted off topic...but the question you asked was answered. Jenn is gone now....and I will certainly not post anything lighthearted, or with humor intended, anywhere outside of General Chat ever again. I did not realize how horribly wrong it could be taken to have a little fun with a few other forum members after a question has been fully answered, and there's no where else a thread can go.

I do understand that having this happen again and again gets old for some people. Maybe many people. I shall try my very best to never let it happen again. I am sorry. I apologize.
 
magemanda said:
"There is room for farting threads"????

Well, if you don't want, or invite censorship, then yes there is room for farting threads. There has to be.

I clearly labeled exactly what that thread was about. There was no trickery. You could not be sucked in by accident. Don't like it, don't read it. It's pretty simple.

Isn't a broad range of topics better than a very narrow focus?

By the way....there is a children's book mentioned in that thread, and discussed a bit called "The Gas We Pass", a published, real, authentic book....so it's not too off topic for a book forum....
 
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