Spintricity - Forums at Spintricity

Spent some time lately working on the Forums... and that leads to thinking about... What Makes a Good Forum? Well, I don\'t know. Maybe we can decide on what makes a bad forum and try to avoid those things. Things bad forums do: 1. Moderators deleting posts, more often whole threads, seemingly at random. [You all know who we are talking about. OK. Audiogon. And sometimes Audio Asylum]. Hopefully I do not have to explain WHY this is bad. 2. Prejudice for or against a part of the hobby. The Asylum hates dealers - especially dealers who do not post a lot. Audio Circle shuns the high-end. Audiogon hates anything that might offend manufacturers [but otherwise, the citizens there are pretty even handed about it all, which I like] 3. Cult of personality. Some forums have the same people dominating the discussions and point of view. Mostly I am thinking of the AS Forum $20000+ forum. 4. And last but the most. Assholes. Specifically tolerance of assholes by the moderators [sometimes the mdoerators ARE the assholes]. Tolerance of assholes is what makes the Asylum and even some topics on the AVS Forum unpleasant and stessful environments. Most people we talk to say they do not go to the forums anymore. I would guess that the overwhelimg majority of audiphiles on line used to frequenct forums but do so no longer. [Curious if other people agree with this]. The forums I like best are EchoLoft (Singapore) and Audio Circle (for low end stuff) and AVS Forum [depends on the topic and I have to close my eyes to the trolls in many cases]. What makes these, especially that last two, some of the better forums? Passion. Passion for the hobby. The Asylum is more about socializing, testosterone and oneupsmanship. Audiogon is more like a part-time school. Canuck Audio Mart is kind of a mix of these two. Steve Hoffman\'s Forums are too \'cult-of-personalty\' driven for my taste. So. Our Forums Then. Rule 1. No assholes.Rule 2. No deletion of posts or threads unless they violate rule 1Rule 3. We welcome high-end, uber high-end :-), low-end, audiophiles, newbies, dealers, press, manufacturers, and... get this, women.Rule 4. No cult of personality - no person or gang dominating the post-waves Hopefully, with the variety of people we welcome, and with no mean nasty behavior chasing them away - people will feel free to speak up. But I do not know. This last one is hard. Any ideas people? This article, like all articles and any page we choose - like the Press Releases in this CES PREVIEW issue - automatically has its own topic in the forum. Just click on the silhouette of the three people in the toolbar - and you can read and post comments to this article. Well? What are you waiting for? :-)

Spent some time lately working on

the Forums... and that leads to

thinking about...

What Makes a Good

Forum?

Well, I don't know.

Maybe we can decide

on what makes a bad

forum and try to

avoid those things.

Things bad forums do:

1. Moderators deleting posts, more

often whole threads, seemingly at

random. [You all know

who we are talking

about. OK. Audiogon.

And sometimes Audio

Asylum].

Hopefully I do not have

to explain WHY this is

bad.

2. Prejudice for or against a part of

the hobby. The Asylum hates

dealers - especially dealers who do

Forums at Spintricity

mike's 3rd post of 25 on 03 Jan 20:27

Edit

There is also the GoodSoundClub forums.

omy has an interesting idea that threads / topics should stay 'on topic'. I kind of like that idea, from an editor's standpoint, but it isn't really the way people interact.

And Romy, well, he *is* nicer to people on his forum than he is to people elsewhere.

Mike.

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