If the Answers 'forum' is a non-starter, where to next?

I've started moving my attention over to SL Universe in anticipation that this place might close...

I'm also trying to get discussion going on the neko community sight, but all the other kitties seem rather shy atm...

SLU could use an influx of new members. You could ask Cristiano for a social group sub-forum if it would help with the transition. An "RA Rejects" group or something like that.

I was hoping for a more modernized forum to come out of this. It may still happen, but the odds are not exactly good.

That sounds good. "Let's stigmatise all those emigres and put them all in one cage so we can laugh at them through the bars!"

Pep (You didn't use a sarcasm emoticon so I will assume you were serious.)

PS Someone said something about girls called Rhonda in another thread; now where was it . . . ? Ah! /327/ad/323667/2.html#post2449799

When they shook up the forums before closing all the general catagories, a slew of new independant SL forums opened. I don't know if any of them survived. You need to be able to bring new people into them.

Heya Rock,

You've got your forum PM's shut off (something I fully appreciate doing) ~ send an email my way please?

Nothing all that important but not quite appropriate for Resident Answers here. I'd catch up inworld but it's been hard between all the biz IM's and stuff I deal with. desmondshang "at" gmail "dot" com if you would?

What forum software are you using? You might find your intertubes are ferret-infested if it doesn't suck.

If you don't want these forums to close, then go to Blue Linden's office hour tomorrow, 4-5 SL time, and tell him so. See his profile picks for the location.

The topic tomorrow is "The Future of the Forums".

edit: and, since many cannot make that time I'm sure, you may want to send him a notecard if you can't make it. Hints: make the notecard short, and say what you personally like about the forums. I wouldn't cloud it up with side notes about moderation, personalities, etc.. ... these things are most effective if kept focused.
.

Third-party forums, especially SLU have double standards and mixed rule sets.

While most posters there are decent and self-restrained, there are some very emotionally disturbed posters there, who are incapable maintaining forum accounts elsewhere.

They have a free hand to derail any thread, for any reason, with impunity.

/me continues to not get why they want to close these forums. Given the number of posts & topics, the moderation effort seems pretty small.. (not to belittle the efforts of our mods at all!)

Yes, the lack of anything but 1980's formatting is pretty annoying but they mostly work and many, many people are helped by them.

I've heard LL say that they don't like the forums because they get pounced to death every time they come by here. All I can say to that is that maybe they should take the hint that their customers aren't pleased with them - removing the forums so they don't have to listen to the complaints is not the best of plans...

But the lack of consistent moderation, and the ridiculous personalities, *ARE* what I personally like about the forums.

Pep (I suppose they would be educational if you could do an effective search on them, too)

PS If they don't want to be pounced upon then don't post here; just do what they do now - use their non-Linden alts, but more.

You don't say.

Can't make the meeting but anyone who wants to, can point to my comment here.

Closing this style of forum is a bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad thing with dire, dire, dire corrosive consequences to the customer base for a platform of this size.

So bad that this style of forum *will* have to be reinstated sooner or later ~ it's inevitable. Think of this as the "XStreetSL" of community building.

Acid test:

a) restore forums with General Discussion area and a great cheer will rise up, communities will form, new users will 'get it' and connect with existing residents. Yeah it will be messy. That's just how it goes.

b) close them and watch new residents all wonder wtf SL is for, and why they need to spend as much as a monthly car payment for stuff that doesn't exist. Getting to know friends within the userbase is *everything* and skipping that part... means people will spend time hanging out and spending money elsewhere.

I can't think of a much worse body blow to the new user experience than to cut the chatter in here, in an easy format people are generally used to. New residents look in here to see what's going on all the time.

But I have a great deal of faith that sharp people will figure this out. Otherwise the chatter will continue alright... but on other platform's forums. Something to think about.

Remember this comment from June 2009; I stand by it.

Sincerely,

Des

Email sent.

Rock

I have not decided yet, I would like to wait and see what happens before I decide.

And those are what other forumites like about you, too, Pep! How symmetric!

MWA!

They have integrated PHPBB3 into the site. They are busy finishing off the site although if you look at the main www.SLapt.me page you will see what is happening. Terminals and the inworld boxes are ready and the coding team is working 20 hours a day testing and getting it ready for launch, and I am saying constantly "Is it ready yet" lol

Well done Nika! That was perceptive of you to notice my ambiguous and possibly self-deprecating humour.

Pep (If the forums weren't closed down you might "get it" in a couple of years.)

Des,
As Nika suggested, maybe put this on a notecard and send it to Blue Linden?

Perhaps you did it on purpose when you lopped off the end of Marcel's statement:It seems to me that it is your "spelling and grammar corrections" that are being called "pathetic".

As crazy as it sounds, I honestly think that posting here will do more good.

Decisionmaking people on staff scan these forums all the time, I am dead sure of it.

sings ~ Come out come out wherever you are, Linden Lurkers!

Of course there's probably a policy for them not to say too much, shy creatures that they are.

*golfclap* Well done Carl!

Pep (You'll probably get there eventually, assuming that the forums stay open long enough )

I think for a SL forum to take off, it needs some connection to a strong group already in SL, perhaps NCI or the Forum Cartel. Both those groups seem to have decent chops when it comes to organizing stuff ... well, more NCI than FC but both are competent enough, or perhaps some folks from the content creation forums.

I'd gladly kick in some one-time money for the venture.

However - I'll echo Desmond's comments. This effectively *IS* the SL community so far as I'm concerned. I know and recognize a lot more people from here an the other forums than I do from SL itself.

Bumping, with the note that "tomorrow" is now "today" : Unfortunately I won't be able to attend, and Blue's hour overlaps with Blondin's so that may interfere with others' plans, too.

I'd sure prefer not to have to move to a different forum, but the clearspace stuff they've used for the blogs has been consistently disappointing and buggy. It's pretty obvious that they don't much care whether it's usable by customers: they can't even bestir themselves to let us have profile picture avatars there, even after all this time. So I doubt they much mind the fact that a large number of would-be viewers are turned away at the door when the thing craps out altogether, even though we try to remind them of WEB-982 at every possible opportunity.

Dunno 'bout 3rd-party forums. The XstreetSL forums are just mindlessly focused on commerce, and the software is at least as crippled as here. SLU is fun for a visit now and then, there are some really funny oldbies around the joint, but somehow I find it difficult to sustain interest over there for more than an occasional drive-by post.

So I'm concerned. I'm not sure, however, what kind of argument would appeal to Blue and the bunch who are so intent on this clearspace stuff that they can't seem to recognize its huge problems. They appear to be so enamored of it that I'm afraid to raise a contrary view, lest they tune-out the comments altogether.

OK, had a look around the various forums mentioned in this thread.

The one I like most is the SL Universe forum, as it uses vBulletin (the latest version too), has all the Topics listed on one page at the start, as this forum does, has an established following, with many people I know (some regular posters from here are also there), has topics this forum does not allow (Other Grids and Virtual Worlds), has little or no rules, and has a choice of skinned look.

Pretty good, all round.

Rock

I'm going to be able to make it to the meeting this afternoon; would people mind if I cut and paste their statements from this thread onto Notecards to give to Blue?

Alternately, if you're a lurker and don't feel comfortable speaking up in public, but want to see these Forums continue, send me a PM or Notecard, and I can pass it along at the meeting.