byUsers Forums

What would a merger with any official website achieve?

I don't really see any official website changing to take on any functions this one provides, so you may as well rephrase 'be merged with' as 'kill this forum and kick everyone off over there to'. Which doesn't make any sense, because this isn't a zero sum game; it's not like the usage of this site diminishes the quality of any official site. It's not like anyone needs to choose between the two.

The only real trade off here is the resource investment in this site against the user involvement. If it becomes more painful to maintain than is warranted by the usage, then it might make sense to change stuff.


The argument I made a while back was that the general chat side of the webby was as valuable as the help side, because it kept together a group of regulars with a set of skills that the more transient posters in the help forums could draw on. The chat side fuels the help side.

That said, I think providing a forum for people to moan about how terrible Dr Who is* is as noble an endeavour as any.

*Very.

Last edited by alphatwin (23-07-2010 15:23:25)

Whilst agreeing with the original post in sentiment, I would really miss it.

I don't support the site as much as I, perhaps, should by contributing more. But mainly that's because it doesn't have the same feel as it did all those years ago when I joined it. I mean there is less and less advice being sought and more in the way of general chit chat. What advice is asked for tends to be way above my pay grade or even interest, to be honest. And we seem to be seeing fewer and fewer newbies?

Maybe, as Alphatwin said, if the maintainability of the site is becoming a burden, then it might benefit from a general watering down? But I would hate for it to just disappear. I still visit at least 4 or 5 times a day, always in the hope that I will be able to offer my, limited, advice.

Last edited by brummydave (23-07-2010 17:23:17)

If I amuse then mission accomplished so no offence taken.

Sadly a lot of new users registering tend to be spammers.

Bengie wrote:

JR wrote:

My views don't count,

- Does it matter what position you hold, I think everyones views count.

+1

Bengie wrote:

The subscribers are all gentlemen (except ... Miqueue) but they are ladies

That's not the answer I was hoping for miqueue.  I did know what sex you are but thought we might get into a row then we could have added dozen of post slagging each other off. 
Ah well, will try with one of the others

Now about Silkie ....................

I'm an infrequent poster, but generally visit and cast my eyes around the forum.

I wouldn't want to lose the forum or it's identity, don't see any troll wars, spam is quickly dealt with, knowledgeable posters, lots still in it's favour.

A lot of forums are also considering their status, traffic rates etc that's because there are so many and so varied sites nowadays, there's a forum  for everything, the "cake" is only so big, although still growing.

Too many sites consist of a comment followed by a string of posts consisting of quotes of a post directly above and a string of smileys.

Wow - A question which if I am honest is a little bit overdue!

With no offence intended to the others, I think I am the laziest of our 3 currently active mod/admins (the other active 2 being JR and Silkie). I actually think I am being pretty delinquent in my role - as far as I'm concerned the role of a moderator is not only to move threads and delete spam, but also to start threads and encourage chat which I really have been pretty bad at.

I think the forum has suffered a drop in traffic for a number of reasons:

Blueyonder no longer exists - Our raison detre has kinda vanished...

Computers have moved on and the support offered from ISPs has improved - when we were at our "peak" Windows XP was still new, wireless was new and broadband was still basically new. Nowadays, a new Virgin connection comes with a wireless router, Windows 7 and OSX are very easy to set up and broadband is simply a fact of life.

Social Networking - I remember going to the last BY-Users "meet" - which was basically a trip to a pub in Birmingham with a few regular posters. I think I'm the only one still posting here. With the advent of Facebook et al - you don't need to find a place to meet strangers online, you can reconnect with people you did know. Is this a good or a bad thing? Who knows?

Spam - We are a difficult forum to join - well - actually we really aren't - but in order to reduce spam the process you have to go through in order to register here is pretty stringent in comparison with others. I've previously mentioned that I have not contributed to other forums because they insist on a longwinded registration process where I actually want to share a solution to a problem to help somebody. Unfortunately with the amount of spam we used to get, things had to be tightened up and we are now just as tight as other sites. I regret the need to make those changes - but I think it was the right way to go.

I would miss this forum if it died - it's kinda "our little corner" of the internet. Perhaps it's inevitable, but if we can delay that process why not!

No sugar please Taz

And Elfin

Thanks Gentlemen (and ladies!!)

I guess this post shows there's life in the old dog, - lets keep posting.
.

erm.. probably not