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What makes a REALLY GOOD forestry type Forum?

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Buzz Sawyer:
I am sure many of you have several places on the net that you enjoy more than others ...........well I am curious what you all value about the your favorite forums or chat rooms etc.

I have put some thought into it...because I have had some great experiences and some not so good with the forums. The ones I have enjoyed were places were people had a good camaraderie were glad to share helpful info and we got together in person and had fun events.......


Unfortunately, the ugly part was the little dictators and tyrants who needed to overcompensate for some other area of their life by bullying and using behind the scenes and" inner circle "slander to help keep members in check. Basically some kinda power trip  not what most of us sign up to a forum for!!!!

 I guess I could laugh off the petty behavior if I had not  formed personal friendships in some of these sites and invested thousands of posts so I felt a loss when I saw the site going down......
Now my point is what do you think a truly excellent site is like????

Frank Pender - AKA "Tail Gunner":
Well, Buzz.  One might say I am a bit onesided, but I feel we, at Sawmill and Timber Forum, are working very hard to make a site to which you are speaking.

I too, invested many hundreds of comments and dollars on a previous forum and developed, what I thought, some very close ties with folks from the forum.  Some of those folks are right here in my own area of the state, and yet they do not even see fit to make contact.  I must say that I am not going out of my way to seek them either, for fear of causing them some trouble with the forum to which they are still contributing.  I do not want to them to be ostersized.

Some of the people from the previous forum remind me of having been a teacher of 12 year olds.  Many seem to act just like some of those same aged people.  NO offense to my past students of course.

Buzz Sawyer:
Well Frank
it seems like when ever a guy gets a few people to listen to him (say a pastor, BOSS,girl scout leader or forum moderator) they often show thier worst colors I have a rather lengthy but interesting short story here that tells the sad story better than I could .......
A cautionary tale.

   So often in our life we see the evolution of a human endeavor (Start of a church, civic group, politics, fraternal order etc.), its ruff beginnings, long struggle to success and its decline from that position due to inherent human weakness.
Here is a tale of such a situation

The time is 1866 location western Colorado :
A man starts a general store, and people soon learn to gather there do to the welcome atmosphere presented by the owner….. a big ole pot belly stove to sit around and the heart felt comradery of their fellow patrons.  Often Joe would sit around the wood stove with customers when he had a few minutes and discussed the trade, inviting others to pull up a keg of nails to sit and join the friendly forum of discussion and joking. One day after some time, the owner saw that the numbers of people joining in the discussion gave him leverage and power, He decided to USE it as member of the City council, he strayed from the friendly banter and began USING the groups power to influence advertisers and board members. Now he had the numbers of people behind him to get things done. Based on the friendly and wholesome group of friends, and their group energy the store keeper saw a way to now profit from them. The store owner even lost the interest in applying himself to the common physical labor that originally tied him into the discussions and begins to lose his sense of comradery…because FEAR of LOSS of his new position motivates him to set up defensive alliances and positions of power in order to defend his aspiring career. He slowly fellowships less and begins using his friends and their combined power to get into a better position in the community, Now he sees that he can  turn the group into gain. No doubt most of the hard working creative and good folks don’t have any concern with the shop keepers aspirations, the games being played, or the tensions they bring, they are glad just to have the general store to meet in. However, a few seem to dislike some of the changes that come with the shop keeper’s increasing mania and fear of losing his newly found meal ticket; the power and income from the friends who meet at his shop. Subtly programs are generated, plans for raising funds are instituted. So he places a board of trusted directors  the “best of the loyal best” around himself, very cleverly to take the heat and defend him so it doesn’t appear that he is directly asking for things and so they will help take criticism away from him. So, out of flattery for being chosen as one of the special friends of the shop and  out of much of the goodness in their hearts and remembrance of the early beginnings of the store they begin the task of defending and collecting for their “BOSS”. They form a secret group at the boss’s direction to discuss trouble makers who don’t go along with the boss’s strategy. Now that many people congregate in the store the owner capitalizes on it by placing large ads there, secretly charging many thousands of dollars to the willing advertisers…breaking his earlier vow of keeping the store free of the corruption of commercialization….a pure group of friends ONLY. You know chances are strong that as good as the people are that meet in that store, that if the owner was upright and honest about wanting to make a living off of his community of “friends” rather than the his original trade of hard labor (that originally drew them together), that the friends would understand….but a few seeing that this was evolving into deception took exception and said something to the store owner, that   they were troubled that he no longer labored but crouched behind his inner circle of defenders to do charity drives to “KEEP THE STORE OPEN SO WE CAN MEET” and donate goods and money  and solicite from the good people who so dearly loved finding a place where like minded people share their lives and trade. The shop keep saw this as a immediate threat to his meal ticket so he branded all who questioned or disliked something in his agenda as agitators and disloyal to the general store, seeking out the means to slander them behind the scenes as he moved among the people who congregated at the store…one by one he hissed poison into their ears about their former comrades and pals whom that had joy fully broken bread with many times.He began using immoral means to track their private movements secretly documenting were they went through spies. These people so maligned were only guilty of noticing the change and not liking were thy saw it going. The new tactics at the shop changed the mood at the general store and people were less open and less likely to speak their mind fearing they would be slandered as well…and those who would not bow to the little dictator simply moved on to other friends having been ostracized. So the decline is apparent and marked, a once thriving group sharing freely ideas faith and even love for each other is stifled by fear desire for power manipulation and greed. Unfortunately this story to one degree or another is the rule NOT the acceptation in our world.
 weather pastors, civic leaders small groups of friends or large…the need for power far outstrips the need to share and allow people a place to do so freely.

Some people plod along through life, and shrug their shoulders, not really seeing these micro triumphs and tragedies, others of us seem to notice the causes and effects of these human dramas more and as a consequence, we wonder why? Why does the same  old story have to play out over and over again…weather in business church interpersonal relationships or social clubs…… why do the same mistakes need to unfold in each instance ,those that have children and observe their repetition of the mistakes every other child has made every teen rebellion every contempt for authority…and every succeeding generations of parents that redundantly says,” I cant believe these kids and what lows they are sinking to why in my day we never did that!” The predictability of the cycle from rebel to reason is the only thing that is shaking…but not really laughable, because of the real loss that so often accompanies these redundant events.
Still we long for a place a forum so to speak were we can just let down our defenses and joke chat share and learn without these ugly necessities of human invention.

joasis:
An excellent forum is one that is free, without nonsense, and promotes the free exchange of ideas and resources. No tolerance for bullying or intimidation, and no fear of harassing messages if members belong to or visit multiple sites...so what? The internet is a fantastic resource and how grown men can let anyone bully them into where they go or who they communicate with is beyond me.

As some of you know, I moderate 3 other forums, totaling over 45,000 members, and I follow the same principals on those as I do here.....no BS or intimidation allowed. No one ever judges members for belonging to multiple forums, many of which have members in common, but also unique in the information discussed....could there be anything wrong with that? I hardly see how. Woodbutcher has his own forum, and I see nothing, repeat, nothing wrong with guys belonging to his forum, and this one, or www.woodworkingtalk.com, or wherever.....For that matter, we welcome linking to other sites of interest to our members....it only helps the community.

I know many guys who were sent "threatening" messages for even associating with some of us, and to those "men" who fall for that, they only have my sympathy. I believe in a set of principals and standards far higher then the bullies can achieve, I publicly list my contact information for anyone to see, I am not intimidated, nor would I stand for the actions of cowards......a great forum is better off without the drivel who lack the character to even stand up for integrity.

The WoodButcher:
Hi All, I didn't even read all of the post on this topic yet, but I think if you run around trying to get members you will get members. However I don't want members that just lurk or stirr crap. I just try to get people that are looking for our type of information through the search engines to join, that way I have much better chances of having members that have a knowledge that can be an asset to the forum not just a member. A congregation of idiots does not make a forum and is of no use to anyone.

I agree with joasis 110% Thanks Bud

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