A new home for the Forum Cartel?

actually they are not.

Why can the "Bad Girls Inc" Club have its own group forum that I can post to, and the Forum cartel cant?

SL Universe already has an active Forum that many people from here already participate on, why not move there? They would probably even give you your own category like they did Second Citizen, if you desired it.

http://www.sluniverse.com/php/vb/

we should petition Strife to get us one of those group forums.

Or ask Strife to co-opt us one of the existing ones that no one has used in over a year.

We could do it, of course. I understand Ray's desire to get a lot of the OT BS off the Resident Answers forum, and that would certainly bring RA back closer to its intended use.

But I have some concerns..

1. Creating a new site for OT discussions might not eliminate the OT discussions here. After all, we're used to a certain style of banter, and it will be hard to remember to "stick to business" here and save the humor for the "other" site. 'Specially for Trout. And me.

2. The OT discussions here, while they do clutter up the place, are what binds us together into an online community. Taking them elsewhere moves the community elsewhere, too. Is that a good thing?

3. Adding mouseclicks to navigate to another site may cut down on participation...either here, there, or both.

4. If we need a place to let our hair down, we already have one, of sorts...the Hangout in-world, and the Forum Cartel Group Chat, too. I know, it's not quite the same thing...chat doesn't persist for later arrivals to read, like forum posts, and you can't log in-world from work during the day...I can't, anyway. But still...

5. Having this active online community on THESE forums may be worth the BS in Resident Answers. A lot of the regulars cruise ALL the SL forums, and contribute to them. And I think that this is the really key issue.

I think the REAL solution would be for LL to re-establish an Off Topic/General Discussion forum here. It could have the same sort of rules as the other forums...no flaming, no naming names for Evil Purposes, etc. It would just be a way to move the pies, panties, penguins, crabs, hippos, biplanes and Matching Parts off RA and into their own bullpen.

Strife, would it be possible to take this up with The Lindens?

That is a good suggestion Colette. Like it or not the Cartel does contain some of the most knowledgeable people on the Forums, having us not around as much would be a net loss. Even though it would be less headaches for Strife.

We had one of each- they closed them on 9/11/2006.

This was posted on the Blog by Torley Linden on Sept. 19

Per previous policy, old and unused group forums have been removed, and now, new group forums won’t be created. Reasons why include: (1) most group forums didn’t see regular usage; (2) Resident-run sites are providing a lot of extra choices in the way of customization, moderation, and organization we don’t offer; and longterm (3) we’re moving further towards open SLweb integration. “Just a hyperlink away…” in addition to current Resident sites, there are lots of free forum hosting places on the Internet if you’d like to start your own.

A general forum here would be ideal. I really don't understand why we don't have one. I wasn't kidding - every single forum I have ever been involved in EVER has had a general forum. Basic guidelines apply - no flaming, porn, etc, but any topic is allowed. It wouldn't be more work to moderate than the mess we have here, and maybe new people wouldn't feel intimidated by the banter we have going on all the time.

It would hurt these forums to have a lot of the posters in here enjoying themselves elsewhere. Sure, a lot of topics go south fast, but when has anyone ever come here and asked a legitimate question and not gotten a straight answer?

So what's the deal with general forums?

Lindal - I could keep it straight if asked to, but I would post maybe once or twice a day, tops, and I wouldn't have much fun. I'm not smart enough to answer most questions and my opinions are almost routinely wrong or kept private.

SuezanneC Baskerville has her own forum in SL Groups. It doesnt get a huge amount of use, I wonder if the Cartel would be welcome there?

in other words they aren't going to give anyone new group forms because they basically wish the official forums would go away anyhow.

Yes, which is the reason why we won't be getting a General Discussion Forum either.

Read Robin's reply (number 137, scroll down) here:

http://blog.secondlife.com/2007/10/08/lights-on-at-the-lab/#more-1287



I suspect that if there was a *civil* area that was halfway between a resident's 'general' forum, and something monitored by a staff employee that only covered the 'big' issues (not 'my account has a problem help me NOW') - we'd have a winner.

Perhaps someone might want to propose something to Robin, re: communication and with proposed constraints so it doesn't get out of hand.

The old General section was driving off residents, I believe - it was *that* bad, which is how we got to where we are today.

The idea of running a board intrigues me, I think I'll give it a go. It doesn't have to be THE Official Group fFum, if we decide to migrate that's fine. I have ideas as to how I always liked to see a forum put together, so it's worth my time and effort. i'm in anexperimental mood. I'll start looking at hosting sites.

This BLOG post is LL's explanation for shutting down the General Fourums in the past.

http://blog.secondlife.com/2006/08/10/forums-take-a-new-turn/#more-200

In my opinion it was the enourmous amount of anti Linden negativity and complaining that was posted there that lead to them shutting it down. The same thing could result in them shutting down Resident Answers if the current trends continue. Resident Answers was opened up after the General Forum closure, as a bone thrown to the many Residents who complained about the closure of the General Forum.

I expect that Resident Answers will be shut down also if it continues to be used as like a General Forum.

It was? Or really mainly riving away people from participating in the forums?

If you want to give it a shot, I'll help. At least I'll show up and post, which may not be a help after all.

It's really disappointing that LL wants these forums to go away. I feel a little snubbed right now. Despite going OT all the time (which would be solved with a general forum), we provide a pretty useful service to LL by answering legit questions that would either take up the Lindens' time or would potentially cause someone to just up and walk away from SL. This is free. I said earlier that moderating forums is a PITA, but it's not THAT much of a PITA. Geesh. It doesn't even cost much money. Why backhand us like this?

I'm with ya there. But then again, I'm not the biggest on reading the "Cartel XVII" threads anyways.

Mari

If this forum was a lot more active I can see people being upset. But as it is theres not really much activity any more. I don't see the issue as much.

Exactly, they continue wittling away at the SL Forums, making them less and less useful. I expect that eventually they will all be gone.

Hey I got nothing to lose but my sanity and my dignity. watch this space for the Broadly Offensive Board? *better names will be considered*

Sooooo...shutting down forums, suppressing dialogue and trying to drive people away from a place where they can get help on issues realted to SL that LL might not be able to provide is designed to foster communication and keep it flowing?

Honestly, I've been the first one to support LL, but this is Grade-A stupid. It's dishonest. If they want to shut down the forums because they are trying to save a buck, they are lazy, or they can't handle the negative feedback which, frankly, they sometimes deserve, then sack up and say so. This namby-pamby googly-eyed BS about fostering dialogue by shutting down forums is dishonest. Maybe they are fooling themselves, but it doesn't fool me for one second. Tell me I'm unwanted to my face, but don't patronize me by trying to tell me that you're doing it for my own good.

Yes but its the same approach they took to describing age verification (BS about "trust". Their communication strategy often is transparently patronizing.

I'd like to be a part of the Black Thong Mistresses forum! I already have the necessary attire.

I don't post much, but reading RA has become a integral part of my daily goofing off and i would hate to see the forum cartel move off forum. How about petitioning strife to create a sticky thread with a title like 'Applying rasmussen gradient transformations to inverted prim rotations' to scare away the masses and create a nice safe place for penguins, pie and crabs? Then the rest of RA could be left, more or less, to its intended purpose.

hey if its open enrollment as long as some of us enroll in it - should be okay Id think