@saintlewi,
saintlewi wrote:This is the problem, RG. we did not want hundreds of new posts a day from people we dont know.
I think it might be important to remember that this "we" may not comprise the body of the droid forum. People have different desires. Some of them may prefer more activity than more intimacy.
Quote:bigger/more people does not necessarily mean better. we wanted some small, easy to use, corner of the world. we had dozens of posts on things that mattered to us, specifics, not big, sweeping generalities. which other android forum are you trying to buy (make money off of)? just a heads up, please, so i dont join that one and get a nasty surprise again.
Look, you've already told me to go to hell in an email, and now you want to portray my motivation as being financial without knowing anything about me. Let's cool off here a bit. I wonder if we can't simply want different things out of a forum without it having to be a personal thing.
Quote:every day i went to our forum, and there was ALWAYS dozens of new posts. even if, as you say, that means it was 'dying', to US, that meant it was what it was supposed to be: a small group of people that correspond to one another about an exclusive topic. this very thread has people saying that a2k is more than just our own topic; we can discuss anything. again, if we wanted that, we would have joined a2k or something similar from the start.
Whatever the situation was with the old forum, the owner was selling it and moving on. I'm sorry that you liked what he built with it and don't like what I've done with it but I'm pretty sure that he intended to make money off the forum, and absent the ability to do so there isn't always a forum.
My own goals happen not to be to make a money of this forum. I'm more interested in making community (growing). I get that you don't like the changes, and while I think that may be an initial impression that will change maybe it won't and maybe that's that. It doesn't have to be drama, it's a forum selection. Someone has to pay the bills and do the work and while I'd like to make everyone happy I can't.
Quote:i think for many of us, it was the ease of use and being part of a smaller community that speaks exclusively of one particular topic, instead of having the whole world coming in and asking what we are talking about. i guess its a snooty thing to say, but we dont want it to grow in the leaps and bounds you are speaking of; a new user here and there, sure, but our small, basic group is what we wanted, had, and lost.
No, I totally get it. That is why we are building custom groups here, that will better serve smaller niches. I personally want some of those enclaves myself. If you stick around long enough (it may be a while before they are ready) you'll be able to build whatever enclave you want.
Sometimes small, cozy and intimate is nice. I aim to build a place that can hold smaller microcosms and thereby get the best of both worlds.
But in the meantime, if you just go to the droid forum (basically where the old url redirects) you get a filtered view of able2know that just contains the droid topics, and this is essentially what the old forum was because droid hasn't been a big topic of discussion here (I'm a geek so I'd love for it to be).
If that doesn't cut it for you then I'll have to live with having failed to please you, and hopefully there's no hard feelings about that. Forums have attrition, site changes can cause some vocal unhappy users no matter how much of an improvement it is because many of them may not want change. And in this case I made several key mistakes (both social and technical) to help give you a rough landing. I'm sorry about that but it's nothing personal.
Quote:so, that is my 2 cents. sorry if i offended anyone or made anyone feel bad. not my intention AT ALL. i just wanted to express my frustrations and sadness at losing a great little place with people that seemed to be friendly and helpful. we fear change, lol. easy enough to see that...
There's no guarantee that the forum would have continued to exist at all in the way it did. I found this forum for sale and I was the only one willing to pay for it. Many people passed up on this site before I got it in a relisting (i.e. nobody bought it the first round and when it was relisted I bought it) so it doesn't sound like there are many others who are willing to put their time and money where their mouth is.
I am, and I'm willing to work very hard at this because this is what I love to do. If my vision differs from yours and this isn't your cup of tea I'm not going to fault you for that. But at the same time I'd love for you to give us more of a chance. If not, well I wish you luck anyway wherever you go and I'm sorry if things didn't work out how you would have liked.