Ron.M -> RE: Open all forums to public read-only? (Aug. 22 2003 21:07:13)
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I would tend to agree with Tom here. Look, I am genuinely interested in Flamenco and Flamenco guitar. In fact the first thing ever I did when I first got hooked up to the internet was to type "Flamenco" into the Alta Vista search engine. We know there are loads of "casual" surfers out there, who may be moderately interested in guitar, feel a bit bitter about life in general, have had a few drinks in them, and are at a loose end and find it quite entertaining to cause a bit of disruption by posting extreme views and insulting folk just for sport. I think we have all witnessed that before. Having an automated registration system that accepts folk on any old Hotmail throw-away address and then allows them to post anything they want is no safeguard. They'll have a laugh retaliating, until they finally get banned from posting. Which is no big deal, since they never cared that much about the subject anyway. But the unpleasant mood still lingers around the Forum for a few days afterwards. Then, if it is followed up by a couple of similarly motivated "sympathisers", it leads to a general flame war and the shedding of long time regular genuine contributors, who no longer find it a pleasant place to visit. The lunatics then end up taking over, and then the whole thing eventually shuts down. This is, near enough, the history of the last few Forums. What's with the impatience these days? In the old days it was reckoned that for a business to succeed, it should double it's size in five years. Then it was three years. Then the Internet generation, reckoned that if you don't keep doubling in size every three months then you are doomed for failure. If anyone is TRUELY interested in Flamenco and wish to talk to others, they will seek this Forum out, and accept having to jump through a couple of hoops first, like register and behave in a decent manner. Even seedy late-night drinking clubs have bouncers. Sure, they like new business...but not just anybody. So my view would be to have the Public access General Forum, to carry some of the info out to the wider internet, and keep the member section separate, available to those who are interested enough to sign up. Then, regardless of however long it takes for the membership to grow, it least it will be folk with a genuine interest in talking, learning and sharing the interest. Ron
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