Can we get a list???

miranadobe

Sounds like you think a recent 50 page whopper of a thread (containing quite the spectrum of "differing opinions";) is down because you think Mods didn't agree with the content.  Is that what you mean by "differing opinions aren't quite so welcome"??

Nope, not even in the least.  I thought I made it pretty clear I do not assume the mods have anything to do with it.

Again, this is just my opinion.  I feel a tone in the air, and maybe I'm the only one.  Who knows?  I really don't think it's a huge deal, and I'm sorry if the mods thought I was personally blaming them, even though I tried to state otherwise.  Maybe I should have done a better job explaining myself.

miranadobe

Maybe having more to do with the advent of social networking sites that allow immediate communication with your dog friends through chat and whatnot

2nd time that's been mentioned.  While it is really cool to have a chat where you can talk live with other folks, IMO there's room for both active participation here and there.  I actually started that Facebook group by accident, to be honest.  I was messing around and whoops!  But, it's turned out to be pretty cool with the group chat.  However it's not a competing entity.  I think there's enough time in the day for folks to be active in both places.

I think frustration led to this thread.

For over a week there have been several log in issues, and no way to post to anyone about it, by chance, pure chance, someone finally got a question out there.

There should be a separate button to notify ADMIN of trouble with the forum. I personally tried to send Paige a message and was repeatedly blocked. Hard to report abuse when you can't click the button and have it sent.

Is traffic on the board is way down? Heck yeah. The recent technical episode is just one reason. You have people that were single, now married, children being born and taking up time, jobs that you have to have, so you walk the straight and narrow and do not post. Life changes and the board changes with it.

IMO, social networking is not the problem. Idog on FB has 62 members and off the top of my head I can say less than 10% are active in the chat at any one time. I have no idea how many active members this board has, but I can tell you the counter this morning showed 6 active members and 735 guests. I can remember days when there were as many as 50 active people at a given time. I miss some of them.

As for the tone of the forum, it has changed.  And mods...I don't blame you.

Legal matters aside, it does seem more hard core. There is way less debate on matters because it does seem like the censor card is being used more. IMO, locking or deleting threads is censorship. Remember those 735 guests from this morning? What if they had something important or eye opening to add?

I love this forum, there are a good deal of fantastic ladies and gents here that I enjoy talking with and debating with. I don't post as often because they don't. So it is a vicious circle. My biggest gripe is posting pictures, I love love LOVE looking at the pictures people post, but it is very time consuming to do so.

If this forum is to survive, someone needs to do something for those 735 guests, and the current active users, to come in and liven this place up. The board has or had a huge family tone, now, not so much.

ETA: What can the active forum members do to help with that??

I absolutely think FB has had an effect on how often people post here. I am an example. I post A LOT to FB and not so much here anymore. Reason? well legion but convenience is part of it, and being able to say things I could not here...and talk with people I choose to and not to those I do not. If this forum had an ignore feature I'd really post more often. Or if it had a "members only area" where one could post personal or delicate things without Joe Schmoe having a looky. LOL! 

Quite honestly I enjoy this forum and always have, but there's little I feel I can add on a given day, mostly I just like to prattle. LOL! So I prattle on FB. That and the buggy SW just makes it a bit more difficult and less convenient for me.

Now people do message me or email me and I do stop by when specific things occur that I could perhaps give input on. I hope I can always help someone, at sometime here.

Having been a mod I know how tough it is, especially with limited support and again..."this software!". You guys do a great job!

Truley

ETA: What can the active forum members do to help with that??

Obviously the last two weeks with the constant oops messages put a serious negative tone to this place - for everyone

There are many things that I wish were simpler on here especially posting of pictures

Truley

There should be a separate button to notify ADMIN of trouble with the forum. I personally tried to send Paige a message and was repeatedly blocked. Hard to report abuse when you can't click the button and have it sent.

Out of curiosity you don't have a REPORT ABUSE tag in the bottom right corner?

Truley

There is way less debate on matters because it does seem like the censor card is being used more. IMO, locking or deleting threads is censorship

I cannot recall having to red ink outside of those threads other than to remove spam or links in sigs in many moons. When I first started as a mod I was spending a fair amount of time each day red inking, there is no way that censorship has increased; no way, no how.

All of the current mods are listening and want to help make this place more of what you want but honestly I don't know what you want.  No we can't allow attacking, insulting posts, we have to consider legal issues which means that slamming a breeder isn't going to be OK, but active debate has not been squashed; unless you consider not being able to attack the poster as a barrier to your ability to debate.

Truley

IMO, social networking is not the problem. Idog on FB has 62 members and off the top of my head I can say less than 10% are active in the chat at any one time.

I love the interaction on the chat, its fun, interesting and often much more about life outside of dogs. I have no issue with it at all, its a wonderful positive to me but I am able to recognize that it has contributed to a reduction in posts here.

For the record I hope that this thread continues to discuss what things people would like to see change - we do not have any control over software (so forget about changing the picture posting LOL) but how can active debate be encouraged and why are those of you who want active debate not starting any?

kpwlee

Truley

There should be a separate button to notify ADMIN of trouble with the forum. I personally tried to send Paige a message and was repeatedly blocked. Hard to report abuse when you can't click the button and have it sent.

There is no point of an ADMIN button, they would send it to the mods. 

Out of curiosity you don't have a REPORT ABUSE tag in the bottom right corner?

I disagree, you (all of you) are here to moderate the board, and you do an excellent job. The recent issues with posting and logging in though were not what I would classify as your forte nor my expectations of you as a member of this board. That is something I associate with the site administrator. If not an Admin button, then a report technical difficulties button is warranted.

And yes, I do have a report abuse button, and not to whine, but it's real hard to report abuse when the site itself blocks posting.

ETA: sorry slight problem here that I had to attend to.

kpwlee

Truley

IMO, social networking is not the problem. Idog on FB has 62 members and off the top of my head I can say less than 10% are active in the chat at any one time.

It's not a problem but it does reduce activity here. As a member of the iDog chat I will say that there are many chats there that are discussing training, nutrition, health issues like allergies and it never comes here; at an earlier time it would have.  That's life, technology fuels progress and in 2011 chat/IM is much more a part of the culture than it was even three years ago.

I love the interaction on the chat, its fun, interesting and often much more about life outside of dogs. I have no issue with it at all, its a wonderful positive to me but I am able to recognize that it has contributed to a reduction in posts here.

The chat is recent, and I think that anyone that does go there is very very careful to not let it stream into here for obvious reasons, maybe to careful? Kind of what happens in chat stays in chat, and vice versa. And I do agree that LIFE is a big player in what happens, the ebb and flow of something is based on the people who participate.

kpwlee

All of the current mods are listening and want to help make this place more of what you want but honestly I don't know what you want.  No we can't allow attacking, insulting posts, we have to consider legal issues which means that slamming a breeder isn't going to be OK, but active debate has not been squashed; unless you consider not being able to attack the poster as a barrier to your ability to debate.

I don't know what I want either! In all honesty, it's hard to get involved when nothing is going on. I can still access the boards from work, and I do check them through out the day, but my personal interest wanes when I see the same topic, in the same order after a couple of hours. As for the rest of your statement I have no interest in all that garbage, I feel that to many people hide behind the screen and feel they can say whatever they want with no recourse. With that said, most of the older members are very straight forward shoot from the hip people.

I like Gina's suggestion of a member only section. I also see that as probably not going to happen.

Oh well, thanks for listening and responding. Hopefully it will right itself.

Truley

The recent issues with posting and logging in That is something I associate with the site administrator. If not an Admin button, then a report technical difficulties button is warranted.

I don't want to jinx it, but I've posted a few times in a row with no Oops messages. Fingers crossed!!!

rwbeagles

I absolutely think FB has had an effect on how often people post here. I am an example. I post A LOT to FB and not so much here anymore. Reason? well legion but convenience is part of it, and being able to say things I could not here...and talk with people I choose to and not to those I do not. If this forum had an ignore feature I'd really post more often. Or if it had a "members only area" where one could post personal or delicate things without Joe Schmoe having a looky. LOL! 

I agree!!  And I don't think there is anything wrong with it.  I don't think that the chat group is anything anyone should be sorry about, especially if it's enjoyed... but, I do think there is a correlation between it (Facebook) and the drop off of chat on the forum. 

I also agree, I wish the ignore feature was more user friendly... it would make things more easy for many, I do believe.  But, as it appears, everyone here knows there is only so much that can be done. 

Truley

I like Gina's suggestion of a member only section. I also see that as probably not going to happen.

I think that's a good suggestion to be brought up to Admin.... not sure it can/will happen, but it's a good suggestion and I think has a lot of potentially good aspects to it.

Truley

Hard to report abuse when you can't click the button and have it sent

There is a "GIVE US FEEDBACK" button up top under the Inbox.  That goes to admin. ... now as Karen has said, it often is routed back to us.  But, if there are technical issues, I am sure they would forward it on to Tech as that is something that we do not have the ability to do.

I'm going to be very honest.  This board has gone in many ways in the past, the longer term members will remember the days of Jaime and how she ran the board.  We've swung in many directions since then.  But, The Days of Jaime is my idea of how the board should be ran (which of course is not really up to me) .... and when I'm trying to judge a situation I have a moment of "WWJD" (fortunate initial there, eh? :) and I do my best, as I know Karen and Paige do as well, to be objective.  To remain as far outside of the problem as possible and make a decision based on what is best for the board as a whole.  We are people... human to be exact.  Humans can and do make mistakes.  But, I think all three of us are open to hearing opinions anytime you have one that differs (or not, too :) we can and do listen.

The locking function has been used in very few instances.  Personally, I think it's better to have a "time out" versus inking the place up in red.  Give it 24 hours, let tempers cool.  If by the 3rd lock it is demonstrated that things cannot remain civil, we consult and decide if the thread should be permanently locked.  With that said, I realize a few threads have gone missing, that is due to a technical problem of the locking feature not working. One in particular went 50 pages, that's a tremendous accomplishment and I think deserves to remain searchable.  I think if someone has a point they want to bring up, who's stopping them from starting a new thread?  I think this is a lot less of a censorship than red ink where you remove entire portions of a post, not to say we will not edit if need be, but, I think the locking feature gives everyone a chance to think before they post... and that is sometimes valuable time spent.

I appreciate you guys -- you make this community work.  If you want to see changes, let's make some changes!  What do you want to see different?  Let's make this conversation constructive and make this community what we want it to be.

aerial1313

I don't want to jinx it, but I've posted a few times in a row with no Oops messages. Fingers crossed!!!

I was thinking the same!! :)

I leave the forum for extended periods all the time cause some of the ladies pick on me, tease me and just plain scare me!!! 

It really worries me at times!   

...clicking   <>

Johnny&Tessy

I leave the forum for extended periods all the time cause some of the ladies pick on me, tease me and just plain scare me!!! 

It really worries me at times!   

...clicking   <>

HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

kpwlee

I think that a lot of discussion that used to be here is now on FB iDog chat

I agree.  I noticed that Heather's creation of the idog chat group seems to have drawn some forum members into it and away from here.  I understand the appeal of the instant chat premise and the fact that there is no moderation or censorhip makes it attractive to many.  I don't know if that's good or bad but it's my observation.  I don't visit the idog chat very often because I'm clumsy with that type of format.  I can't text either. lol

I know the thread you're speaking of, Heather and I don't really miss it but I was also wondering what happened to it.  It's good to know it's not a conspiracy theory type thing. 

Truley

In all honesty, it's hard to get involved when nothing is going on.

Hence the reason that 50-page thread ran so long.  It was a new topic, lots of varying opinions, new perspectives, tons of discussions and debates both on a high level and down to the nitty gritty.

I agree with Karen that there's no way in heck that we're red-inking or censoring more than ever.  If three locked threads in 2 years (or whatever) is censorship, you should see most other large forums where locking threads is extremely common to condense traffic and keep threads relevant to the original topic.  However, we are an anomoly in the way we let things just take whatever course necessary to get good interchange and debate and discussion going.  If it wanders, so be it, generally speaking.  Used to be a time that got red-inked up the wazoo! 

Truley

The chat is recent, and I think that anyone that does go there is very very careful to not let it stream into here for obvious reasons, maybe to careful? Kind of what happens in chat stays in chat, and vice versa. And I do agree that LIFE is a big player in what happens, the ebb and flow of something is based on the people who participate.

I think most of us long-time folks have debated almost every topic under the sun, yet stick around on a more regular basis because of the personal connections we have with other members.  Facebook expands that personal connection on a bigger level than this place could because of a variety of reasons.  Yes, one is instant chatting, but also the privacy, the ease of sharing photos and other aspects of our lives we wouldn't post publicly, but feel like our idog friends are real life friends.  I think it serves a real and valuable purpose, but it does affect the volume of daily activity here.

Well, I'm one who hasn't been around posting quite as much.  I am on FB, although until today did not apply to join the idog chat group - didn't even know there was one till just recently.  Gee, wonder if they will let me in - maybe not, if they have Gina's mindset about ignoring - in which case, I would not fret or hold a grudge.  I have to admit that at times, it feels better to be over on FB in some of my other groups, because I am able to converse with some like minded people on serious training issues.  It's been a great advantage for me to be connected to some of the best trainers in the country, and have them speak candidly via message, as they might not choose to do in a forum.  But, I do miss some of the good old days sometimes, and I am over here from time to time, as you can see by the fact that I was involved in the 50 pager. 

If you want a little excitement, maybe we could put the CM section back in for a week. 

miranadobe

We heart you, Johnny, you know that!  You bring the "fresh and new" to a whole different level.

***BLUSHES***