The Next Time A2K Absorbs A Board.........

We had 'em going for a day anyway...

With all due respects Robert, I am not a "high maintenance person", when it comes toA2K management matters, at all.

You have always said you welcome community input & I've given it. Not all that often, I might add. I think my contribution looms larger in your mind than it actually warrants.

In the case of this particular thread, all I've done is sympathize with people who suddenly lost their site & hope that such "emergency" amalgamations can be avoided in the future . I don't think that has created any extra work for you.

Sorry, but that's ridiculous.

Yes, I'm disagreeing with what you're saying, but ...

I incessantly suggest more work for you?

I'd like to agree to disagree instead of citing examples etc msolga, if that is ok. I don't mean to make you sound inordinately difficult or anything, I like you and am expressing frustration with a lot of cooks and a lot of cooking that is all.

I'm sorry, Robert, but I feel very offended by this exchange & I'd just like to leave things here.

You know, until now, I've seen myself as a pretty positive, contributing member of this community.

I honestly have no major gripe with you, but it seems you have one with me.

This is all making me feel rather crappy, so it's time to stop.

I think you are a positive, contributing member of the community msolga. You are also very concerned about the community and maybe that just results in what I am seeing as pressure at times (edit: and it's often hard to navigate a lot of toes so I may be inordinately sensitive to the pressure at certain times).

Either way, I think this is silly and want to drop it. I don't have a gripe with you. I'm sorry for bringing it up, and I agree that you did nothing of the sort in this thread. Mea culpa.

Its a question not an answer (sun smile)

And I thought the drama on philforum was bad.

Moving's stressful.

where's lol when you need one???

actually, the way this thread has been going, now i really do feel at home! thanks, A2K! maybe robert will be ready to sell the board pretty soon, this is the way it went with justin, wasnt it zeth? just before the sale i mean...

I'd sell my firstborn before I would sell a2k.

philforum WAS justin's firstborn!

It seems that in this switch, the philforum lost more members than it retained. Sure, we have only been here for a week, but based on the traffic week before and the week after the switch, it seems that many likely left or never made the switch. Sure, we seemed to have retained a good portion of a core group from the old forum, but unfortunately, it seems we lost many of our new members from the last six months, and some of the key core members of the forum.

Oh well, maybe in time they shall return. But then again, with about half of all the active philosophy threads not even being philosophy related, they may be chased away upon return.

Yeah i say don't absorb any more forums because i am really starting to regret the merger. i am on the verge of leaving since the forum is so scattered and lacks cohesion. Constant thread derailing makes it less than desirable to even read over a discussion. High member count is one thing, but quality posts are another. I would rather belong to a smaller group if the forum had higher quality posts and responses. I was willing to deal with the design lay out but the longer I am here the less I actually like this place. So if I have any advice for the future, please don't try to absorb any other forums for the sake of the members that use those forums.

I'm very surprised at this assessment, Theaetetus. To an outsider, it's looked to me that your members have been very active here. You're saying you've lost more than half your active members? How many members were there at your old site?

That's why the groups feature is so important for you guys. I'm not sure how far out it is but I know it was the top priority in new features.

We had about one hundred or so that regularly participated in the forums at least a couple times a week. Our retention of members was not all that great, but most of the people that stuck around settled in. It is not that we were a large forum, but we were an active forum with few bad seeds. And our bad seeds were nowhere near as bad as some of the members here. I am surprised how many members are going to end up on my ignore list.

Also, based on some of the messages I have received from friends from philforum, there is virtually no way that they would become active members here. Which is too bad, since they were a part of what made the Philforum what it was. The exclusivity of the forum was one of its key virtues. Only people truly interested in living the philosophical life stayed.

But of course, it is what it is. I am still here, trying to do what I can in this transition, but it is unfortunate that many members never gave it a fair shot.

Well, looks like you'll have that option fairly soon.

Also, I think you'll find you have less of what you consider intrusive posting even before that.

I think people are interested and checking you out.

I think you will also find that, via SEO, you may get more quality members that you had before.

Yes, there's more bad behaviour because there is almost no banning.

But, you need to do what you will.

What are some discussions from the old forum that you consider exemplify the best of the place?

I am seeing lots of stuff I consider pretty stale, like can we prove we exist and all that basic stuff.

Be interested to see what you liked about previous discussions.

Thanks for responding to my questions, Theaetetus.
I hope you don't think I implied any criticism. I'm just interested to know more, that's all.
But I can understand your concerns. Coming from a very committed, single purpose forum to one with such a diverse range of people & subjects covered ... well, it would cause a bit of culture shock, initially. I can see that. (Me, I prefer the diversity of people & ideas. Also the mix of serious & light. But that's just me ...)
All the same, I hope you do persist & create a cohesive forum that can accommodate your group here. I, for one, would be sorry to see members of your group leave. Especially after so short a time.
Best wishes to you.

i am doing my best to adjust, but now that i got over the nitpicking little things and trying to actually get back into the swing of posting, it just feels like the thrill is gone. i am trying to find the old conversations i was in the middle of when we switched, and i cant remember the threads i was in there.

i think the people i have seen on this board are really nice people...but that isnt what i was looking for in a forum. there are supposed to be 100.000 members here, right? but there are only between 1000-1500 online. are some of those guests?

also i wonder a lot about the guests from the old forum-we always had way more guests online than members, and i think that says something.

i cruise around and find interesting things to read, but it is all so down to earth and real...friendly and caring, but not intense i guess. i have a hard time finding a comment to make that would add anything to what is going on. we were pretty intense on the old forum, eh? i dont care whether a person is academic or not or even intelligent or not, but they have to be at a certain level of some thing that i havent been able to define yet, that thing that is missing here. you would probably laugh, but i would call it passion. even our most cerebral posters had a great deal of passion.

and you might think we could get ourselves together and continue on here, but that would be forming a little island in a big sea...kind of creepy really, sort of standoffish. i imagine pretty soon we will find out how many are staying and how many are going. if we find that most if not all the members who really did their best to give it a fair shot still wander off into the unknown...that will be an interesting thing to p[onder, wont it?

remember bonaventurian and his posts on metallica? THAT is what i mean...members like that we had, and of course even though he left there was always more coming. i think we had more wackos...made me feel like part of the group i guess. i am not saying it was a place for woo-woo stuff, we didnt have the ufo and alien threads often, but there was enough mysticism and metaphysics going on to keep me attracted, to make it more inner worldly.

i think we were a bunch of intense and passionate wackos...of course you are one of the more reserved of us, thea...

if we knew this was going to happen, i think we would have gotten together and found a way to buy the place off justin and keep it going...and if wishes were horses...