Re: OPEN DISCUSSION - Sub groups forums.
kenntona;348471 said:
Lemme use a real-life example. Take BoTay, who is a car lover of sorts, but not technically-inclined to post complex formulae nor share certain knowledge in the forum. But he yearns to join in. My guess is that the staunchest of the auto-purist will prefer him not to post, given that he cannot participate nor interact or share in the forum. Would you "dump" him in the social forum? If the answer is YES, then we might as well start another forum, given the segregating profiling of the forumer here. The purists wants nothing but an "organised" and "searchable" automotive forum. BoTay cannot fit in, prefers to skim that forum initially. BoTay gradually participates actively in the social forum in a more casual manner, one perceived by the purists as bantering and OTing. As time passes, given the information flows, BoTay will not need to surf the purist side. He will drop off the purist forum altogether.
And many BoTay will do the same.
End result - a split. Two meet-ups, two D&Ds, two sets of events....... worse, site sponsors will have to fork out higher fees and so on......
Is splitting the forum a solution to the problem to cluttered information? No.
Better solution - let BoTay assimilate and learn to conform to the cultures of the forum. Then the next issue will be to shape the culture of the forum, via various active forumers...... there might be more than a group with dominant sub-cultures, and there and then the sub-groupings are already formed without the admin drawing lines and enclose them in. The admin simply needs to work closer with the sub-group participants in shaping their forum cultures - which works perfectly in some sub-groups given the "infiltration" of few moderators.
This is already happening. Let it take its course.
+1
i agreed totally with kenn on the BoTay example... jokes aside...although i was laughing my ass off when i see the post for the first time..
i would say the automotive purist should not discriminate on forumers who are not experience enough about cars... and asking stupid newbie question.. because i have alot of friends who are in the forum and they never post due to the exact reason... lack of self esteem , being afraid to be labelled as newbie or idiot...
i myself was flamed , suaned or whatsoever when i first joined the forum 3 years ago asking newbie and stupid question...
my thoughts at that time : ' i am not going to post here again... if what they want is intelligent question and answers all the time'
then i start becoming active in the forum after being what kenn mentioned a social member who come to meetups and make friends..thats who i get to know people..join the sub groups and start becoming active in the forum..
ok before people start reminding me that i am going out of topic... let me go back..
the reason our forum exist is NOT to satisfy existing member...with sub groups forums.. which will be too much in my honest opinion...
the reason this forum exist is because we want to give information..be it newbie or advanced or even highly technicall details...to existing members and newbie..
with an occasional OT and jokes....
if with this open forum we are already diversified enough ( just go see the meetups) and already difficult to newbie to catch up or even asking serious question... what if we create more sub forum... its going to be more luan and u can forget about newbie appreciating our forum...
bottom line..
our forum do not need to satisfy the needs of already existing members to talk more useful/unuseful stuff between their community or sub groups.. they can do it themselves outside the forum...
lets make this forum back to what the forum was created for... for finding information about BMW mainly..and other marques are welcomed as well.. and the occasional social discussions and making friends on the lounge section..
ryan , rather than thinking of implimenting sub groups , i would rather you impliment the demerit system point... coming from someone who talks alot of OT... this should mean something if i feel that this forum is getting out of hand with our own discussion which should be done outside the forum (which i feel that by creating sub groups will make this worse... not improve the situation)
pardon me if the post gets out of point... i come from the BoTay category afterall...