@ebrown p,
ebrown p wrote:The idea of the tags is that intelligent discussions on interesting topics often range over a variety of areas -- it is impossible to put worthwhile intellectual discussions in tidy little boxes (or should I say 'closets').
This is actually a very good point and speaks to the one transitional issue I can't seem to get passed; this tag-based setup.
I think its a fantastic idea for situations where you're covering a vast area of related topics - as A2K seems to want to do. The downside to this is that when you try to cover everything for all people in all places, you end up being the jack of all trades and master of none. Cross referencing is great, but at a certain point it becomes overload; great for searches, overkill for a basic layout.
You're right in that virtually no discussion can
completely fit in any neat little box; nor can people. But by having various areas (not 10,000 "forums" dynamically created from what's being posted) available to users, we can navigated from the general to the specific and feel relatively confident that we know
where we're at (at any point in time), so to speak. It should be self-evident that each kind of organization has its benefits
and its drawbacks. In any case, I'm getting used to it slowly while looking around for other places to call home.
Personally, I've found (so far) that hanging out with the "New Posts" feature and voting down the "Oh my cat pooped again"-kind of threads is a good way of interacting thus far.
Thanks
<-- is this dude laughing or just showing off some upper lip skills? 
we need new emoticons, but keep that one I like.
