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AWGB Poor Forum support

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GBF:

--- Quote from: The Bowler Hatted Turner on June 25, 2023, 04:51:37 PM ---I must admit to stepping back slightly as in the past when making comments on facebook I have come in for a lot of stick. I try to be truthful and helpful but sometimes when some one posts a picture of their work all they want to hear is "well done, what a beautiful piece" when in actual fact quite a lot of the work on the internet is poorly designed, poorly turned and poorly finished. Now I daresay I will get it in the neck again for saying that.

--- End quote ---
Absolutely right John I have been banned from 2 Forums for speaking the truth that is why I no longer use them

Regards George

Bill21:

--- Quote from: GBF on June 28, 2023, 02:53:41 PM ---Absolutely right John I have been banned from 2 Forums for speaking the truth that is why I no longer use them

Regards George

--- End quote ---

Ha Ha, this made me laugh. The topic of banning has come up on another forum. You don’t need to break any forum rules to get a ban on some places. You just need to disagree with a moderator or one of their friends. Too much power and all that.  ;) One excellent suggestion was than moderators should only serve for a fixed term not indefinitely as is normally the case? 3 - 5 years before standing down for at least another two was suggested.

Paul Hannaby:
You could even hold elections for the moderators but that would rely on enough forum members being willing to step forward.

On a slightly different theme - one advantage of forums over social media is that whatever you post on a forum is instantly viewable by all forum members. Social media platforms apply restrictions so only a small percentage of people see what you post. This is aimed at encouraging you to pay for the post to be shown to more people. Facebook is 16% views so approx 5 people out of 6 of your friends or other group members etc. won't see your post unless you pay extra!

At the end of the day, we (or in this case the AWGB) are in control of the forum and that has benefits.

Michael Beswick:
I am a relatively new member to this forum but have been on classic car forums for over 20 years. The problems are similar as I suspect is the demographic.

I viewed this forum a few times but each time it was clear it was not particularly well supported: the latest post is often a couple of days old. I went over to the AAW forum which is frankly far more rewarding.

Part of the problem is that one has to make an effort to view a(ny) forum, whereas social media is designed to hook you in (and basically flog you stuff to make FB YT etc money). So unless the AWGB see the forum as a way to either generate new members and/or new revenue there’s not much incentive to spend money trying to outdo the experts. In addition a forum is “for the members, by the members”, with hopefully control limited to preventing people being unpleasant!

A related thread bemoans the number of forum members versus the number actually posting. This is perhaps revealing, partly for the reasons I suggest above and partly because what they have seen does not interest them enough to want to post.

In effect the forum needs to become more attractive. By that I mean the content: simply making it whizzier is unlikely, in my view, to encourage those most likely to use it. It also needs to be sufficiently interesting to hook people so they visit more regularly.

Lifting some ideas from the US site might be helpful. A monthly competition with a basic theme and simple “rules” might encourage people to show off their efforts; perhaps with a link to “how to photograph your work” and so on. (My apologies is this in existence but I’ve not found it)

From the Classic car site- What I have done today / have on my lathe at the moment. What kit I’ve bought / considering buying. Clearly the existing categories may get a bit blurred: there’s a balance between everything in together and so many categories that people turn off.

It will also need a good shove from well known committed members with an understanding of a point made earlier. As an experienced turner you had heard the (newby) question a thousand times: for the newby it’s a first. (Most people don’t search before posting!)  To the extent of “creating” threads simply to promote the forum.

Forums evolve to meet the needs of the users, as it should, and does so for existing committed users. But the questions was asked.....

Twisted Trees:
To be fair to the forum, it is for the members to use not for the admins (who are also members) so the content of the forums is down to us as users. From my experience here several regular users do give prompt and sensible answers to any questions that get asked, so the forum works well on that level.

As is common now people ask their questions on social media groups first forums are out of fashion, I also moderate another forum which is dying a death as well.

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