Quote:
Originally Posted by Dearth
The trick is to evolve and embrace all three of the above mentioned in new avenues keep pace with social media.
that's my ramble for today  |
All good points, and things we've been looking at. The new staff have been working on new ideas to liven things up and so far doing a good job. We've added auctions, the newsletter which turned out great (you got the vendor coupon codes I hope!) and we expect to see more features going forward.
While I'm stepping back here shortly, I have committed to manage the FB page and try to keep things active there, as we have a lot of people there that don't even come to the board. The "dearth of discussion" there is even a bit more lively and permissive, and I hope we can grow that aspect of Canreef more next year.
All forums suffer the same fate with the introduction of social media, and we are trying to remain engaging to compete with that. Feature tanks, threads, etc, things that aren't as easy to run on FB.
As for the board itself, yes, we have to contain some of the chatter, as it has gotten out of hand at times. We have a few members that are vocal in complaining when things get suppressed, but we also get lots of PMs thanking us for making it a friendlier and more welcoming environment. We have to remember that there is a lowest common denominator in pleasing as many members as we can. We have men women and kids coming here, and some topics/discussions just can't be here. Overall I think our membership is one of the best I've seen on a public forum, and almost without exception, the members conduct themselves well. Sure, we have to monitor and shut some things down, and yes, we may go too far in the other direction sometimes, but we really do try to provide balance to appeal to the most people we can.
Even within the staff team, we often disagree with where a line gets drawn, so we usually have to reach a compromise, again showing you can't make everyone completely happy all the time. We can and do try to make as many as possible as reasonably happy as we can, without chasing others away. It's never perfect, but it's the best we an do with what we have.
In the end, we all, on the team, try to make this about you guys, and while we don't always get it right, we do try and correct errors we make and find balance. It's a work in progress
