@nimh,
My answer to the question - do I enjoy the a2k moreso now than before -
No
and I'll tell you why- it's not nearly as interesting as it used to be (to me anyway).
And I'll tell you why I think that is - in an attempt to make this thread a viable one (solution oriented instead of just a who's with and who's against kind of thing).
I have no problem with maneuvering around the new site- even though I'm not a tech savvy person by any stretch of the imagination. So I don't think that should be very much of an issue.
But it just doesn't feel that there's as much of a sense a 'real' community anymore. And I think part of that is because it seems harder to find anything that seems to be happening in 'real' time than it used to be. There used to be more of a sense of immediacy (is that spelling correct- I ALSO really miss spell check - especially playing acronyms).
I don't know if this was an intentional by-product of the change or not- in an effort to make the community seem less clique-y and more cohesive, because I think that whole community thing can be a double-edged sword (or at least it was for me).
I never fit in the larger more mainstream community on a2k (and that's fine - I made my peace and found my little niches here and there), but I somehow did used to find it easier to enter into discussions with certain people that seemed interesting to me. That seems harder to achieve somehow these days. I don't know exactly why.
I liked playing acronyms, but I also liked talking about education and politics and morality and so on and so forth...and I used to be able to find several interesting 'discussions' to comment on just by clicking on 'at a glance'. I don't know why that doesn't seem to be the case with this new set up - but it certainly doesn't. I have to really search to find stuff now - I usually look at BBB's stuff or Miller's health articles- but even things that have promising titles in terms of sparking my interest often seem misleading- they just don't seem to deliver what they promise and seem much less efficacious in terms of time spent and rewards (in terms of learning anything new) gained.
But in a way - I can understand the thought that this less delineated format might be good for the community as a whole in that less cronism (I can't spell to save my life anymore - that's supposed to be 'crony-ism' how the hell do you spell that) would engender a happier, less fractured community as a whole. There certainly seems to be a lot less drama.
But I miss what used to be a much more cohesive original writing 'community'. And I do think that's one of the real losses in this change. It just doesn't seem that there's a reason to write here as much or often as it's unclear who would read it - or if there is anyone out there reading anything at all anymore.
I think the niches used to be more clearly defined and that was probably comforting for people. Now - if you're not at home with or feel a part of the one big 'community' - you're just kind of out there at sea bobbing along on your own. Which as I say, is fine for me- kind of - because I'm used to it - but it's certainly not as much fun as it used to be.
And I think if I were a newcomer - I'd give up pretty quickly- because it's so much harder to get a sense of the myriad posters' personalities- and that makes it harder to get a sense of the personality or differing hues and shadings of the community or forum as a whole.
These aren't criticisms - just observations. I'll continue to express what I have to express no matter what the format. (But I don't think I'll do very much writing here anymore - luckily I made some friends here whom I can send stuff to independently- I'm happy for that for myself - but I do miss reading other peoples' writing. That used to be one of my favorite things to do on this forum.
