Social Media

[GaryE]

This forum is a rarity. I belong to a Canadian one that was once lively, and now gets, oh, a post a month? I don't even check. I can think of a few good forums that took that route to oblivion.

Even here, you'll notice how much chatting there is about everything but fish. I'm certain there are posters who don't even know what fish are.

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Your parents are wise grasshopper.

Nah, I mean I get where they’re coming from, but I would personally have all the social media to stay in tune with what’s current and to stay in touch with friends. Snapchat being the main thing that I would get.

 

[Back in the fold]

This forum is a rarity. I belong to a Canadian one that was once lively, and now gets, oh, a post a month? I don't even check. I can think of a few good forums that took that route to oblivion.

Even here, you'll notice how much chatting there is about everything but fish. I'm certain there are posters who don't even know what fish are.

You know what Gary ? You're right , there is an awful lot of chatter around here about everything but fish. I think I'll see what I can do on my part to fix that a little.

 

[Fishmanic]

You know what Gary ? You're right , there is an awful lot of chatter around here about everything but fish. I think I'll see what I can do on my part to fix that a little.

proven by the number of posts in general chat

 

[Deleted member 149562]

proven by the number of posts in general chat

There are ways and means around that problem

I have been known to be truly evil (I was told as such by newbies too) when in charge of discussion boards like this one

I had a rule that if you did not like, then you can just go away

"You do not gain access to the general chitty-chat until you have made 500 on-topic posts and each of those 500 on topic posts will be checked for accuracy, validity, legitimacy and truthfulness"

Unregistered and those sub 500 on topic post newbies can SEE the off topic area of the site but they only get the keys to it once registered and meet the required on topic post number.

It was mostly bored teens and those who lied about their age (as in under 13 years old/COPPA rules) who registered and who were looking for somewhere to kill time doing puzzle threads etc rather than be an active member of the actual forum itself. Wasn't anything to do with actually learning about the subject matter nor the desire to share their own experiences on the subject matter...just to sit and play games and do puzzles and other bandwith wasting "stuff".

 

[jaylach]

There are ways and means around that problem

I have been known to be truly evil (I was told as such by newbies too) when in charge of discussion boards like this one

I had a rule that if you did not like, then you can just go away

"You do not gain access to the general chitty-chat until you have made 500 on-topic posts and each of those 500 on topic posts will be checked for accuracy, validity, legitimacy and truthfulness"

Unregistered and those sub 500 on topic post newbies can SEE the off topic area of the site but they only get the keys to it once registered and meet the required on topic post number.

It was mostly bored teens and those who lied about their age (as in under 13 years old/COPPA rules) who registered and who were looking for somewhere to kill time doing puzzle threads etc rather than be an active member of the actual forum itself. Wasn't anything to do with actually learning about the subject matter nor the desire to share their own experiences on the subject matter...just to sit and play games and do puzzles and other bandwith wasting "stuff".

I understand the desire to have a forum that is specific to a subject but also think that allowing members to discuss non-related topics is also important. I would never setup a forum that did not have a 'general chat' area.

Through the general chat areas you develop a sort of pseudo family group of 'core members' which means that these members are on-line more often and this makes it more likely that a question will be answered quicker. Unless there are band-with or data base restrictions the general discussions can actually help.

 

[Deleted member 149562]

I understand the desire to have a forum that is specific to a subject but also think that allowing members to discuss non-related topics is also important. I would never setup a forum that did not have a 'general chat' area.

Through the general chat areas you develop a sort of pseudo family group of 'core members' which means that these members are on-line more often and this makes it more likely that a question will be answered quicker. Unless there are band-with or data base restrictions the general discussions can actually help.

I had general chat areas on all 22 forums but you had to play by the rules cos too often that general chat area overtakes the subject matter and that is absolutely wrong...especially when you have advertisers geared to the subject matter, they don't take it took kindly to be associated with a site where the emphasis has been allowed to shift from the subject matter to silly stuff that is essentially meaningless and doesn't reflect the subject matter that the forum was set up to be.

Do 500 meaningful and legitimate on topic posts and you can then play as much as you want in general chat sections...but if you sign up for a subject specific forum, you should take an interest in that first and foremost...time and place for the silly stuff once fully established into the forum.

When you start seeing your general chat post numbers skyrocket over the number of on topic post numbers, then you have a serious problem. No properly run forum should have more emphasis on general non topical stuff than on the core subject discussion.

 

[betta4ever!]

I have most social media but tff is the best really. . . .

 

[Alice B]

This is the only active fish forum I have found. Honeybees on the other hand have problems, I think Beesource will last forever - Barry, the founder, sold it a couple of years ago, but if you want the opinions and strategies of big beekeeping outfits or how to start out as a small one, that is the forum. Garden.org has taken out most of the competition in gardening forums, almost too big to be read, I keep a member ship and visit a couple of its forums.

 

[GaryE]

I don't mind some chat. The little word games, etc (not the aquarium ones!) are less interesting, though sometimes I get sucked in. And some of the chatters also participate positively in fish discussion, so that's great. There's one person I blocked when he was temporarily suspended a ways back, and not one thing he's posted has affected any fish thread I've read since. I see a blocked poster message, but there's no discussion after the posts made and they affect nothing happening. That was an eyeopener for me, because when I have blocked posters on other mediums, usually doing so disrupts the flow of discussion.
So we do have that option - if people think I'm writing sound and fury signifying nothing, they can block me and vice versa. It works well, as long as the person is truly saying nothing. If the person says something that affects the direction of a thread, I think you can peek without having to follow their main stream of noise permanently. The forum seems user friendly there.

When I see a string of postings from the same person, each with 2 or 3 words, yeah, that's just clutter.

 

[jaylach]

I had general chat areas on all 22 forums but you had to play by the rules cos too often that general chat area overtakes the subject matter and that is absolutely wrong...especially when you have advertisers geared to the subject matter, they don't take it took kindly to be associated with a site where the emphasis has been allowed to shift from the subject matter to silly stuff that is essentially meaningless and doesn't reflect the subject matter that the forum was set up to be.

Do 500 meaningful and legitimate on topic posts and you can then play as much as you want in general chat sections...but if you sign up for a subject specific forum, you should take an interest in that first and foremost...time and place for the silly stuff once fully established into the forum.

When you start seeing your general chat post numbers skyrocket over the number of on topic post numbers, then you have a serious problem. No properly run forum should have more emphasis on general non topical stuff than on the core subject discussion.

Fair enough but I guess I was speaking from personal perspective. I've never had a site with advertising for example.

 

[Deleted member 149562]

Fair enough but I guess I was speaking from personal perspective. I've never had a site with advertising for example.

The advertising was not my department, that was the owner's decision. He wanted that to help pay for all the licences and server costs. I was there purely to build and run the forums....not question his decisions on his finances.

 

[ClownLurch]

I have five Twitter accts, each for seperate interests. It wouldn’t be fair on followers of interest A having my musings on interest D clogging up their timeline. It’s just a shame that every other user hasn’t done the same.
Ive dipped my toe into Facebook, Instagram etc and I’m a long term regular on a couple of football forums.

 

[jaylach]

The advertising was not my department, that was the owner's decision. He wanted that to help pay for all the licences and server costs. I was there purely to build and run the forums....not question his decisions on his finances.

I think that we were/are just doing forums from different directions. None of my sites are for profit with all being totally free although I DO accept donations. Since I'm not after profit and the donations usually pretty much cover hosting costs it works for me.

I HAVE done sites for customers that were for business when I had my computer build/repair and web site business in Texas and Florida but my personal sites have never been pointed in the business direction except for my business site which I shut down in 2009. I will say that I did the business stuff right by treating myself as an employee and paying into Social Security and such. That is actually a big factor as to why I am quite comfortably retired.

A LOT of people do such stuff 'under the table' which seems cool in the short run but hurts in the long haul.

 

[Deleted member 149562]

I think that we were/are just doing forums from different directions. None of my sites are for profit with all being totally free although I DO accept donations. Since I'm not after profit and the donations usually pretty much cover hosting costs it works for me.

I HAVE done sites for customers that were for business when I had my computer build/repair and web site business in Texas and Florida but my personal sites have never been pointed in the business direction except for my business site which I shut down in 2009. I will say that I did the business stuff right by treating myself as an employee and paying into Social Security and such. That is actually a big factor as to why I am quite comfortably retired. View attachment 306638 A LOT of people do such stuff 'under the table' which seems cool in the short run but hurts in the long haul.

I built and administered the 22 forums as a volunteer (in hindsight I was stupid cos it meant being online 23 hours out of 24, sometimes more than that if issues arose since the owner lives in Houston, Texas and I am in the UK so a totally different time zone)

The forums were his "baby"...he supplied the software and licences and had the last word on everything. I only built them, sorted the moderation teams and generally watched over them.

That said, the owner did invite me to his wedding and he did pay for my flights etc. So not all bad. But if asked to do it again....it would be a "no". I might not have much of a social life (and my social media has all of 6 friends on it) but spending so much time every day in 22 places at once, was truly beyond the limit of sanity.