Does anyone?
- Thread starter c_j
- Start date
kimhollamby
Active member
Yes, they're here Chris and just to make that point I've unilaterally decided to do as I threatened a few weeks back, namely to split the motor boat side so that you'll have the opportunity of dealing with practical matters on the one side or sound off with any range of views on the other.
Some reading this may howl but I've not only been partying with regular users of Motor Boat Chat, I've also been listening carefully to those who find it is not always focused on their interests.
I'll postpone the split for 24 hours to take comments.
Associate Publisher ybw.com websites kim_hollamby@ipcmedia.com
Some reading this may howl but I've not only been partying with regular users of Motor Boat Chat, I've also been listening carefully to those who find it is not always focused on their interests.
I'll postpone the split for 24 hours to take comments.
Associate Publisher ybw.com websites kim_hollamby@ipcmedia.com
BarryD
New member
Kims Paypacket...
I reckon that Kim is paid by the number of forums he admirably supports.
Discuss...
Barry D
I reckon that Kim is paid by the number of forums he admirably supports.
Discuss...
Barry D
kimhollamby
Active member
Re: Kims Paypacket...
Negative. Kim's follicle count proportionately reduced according to the number of forums introduced.
Associate Publisher ybw.com websites kim_hollamby@ipcmedia.com
Negative. Kim's follicle count proportionately reduced according to the number of forums introduced.
Associate Publisher ybw.com websites kim_hollamby@ipcmedia.com
boatone
Well-known member
YES...........
.....a result!!!!
See all the nutters in the Boaters Lounge.... first e-round's on me
Serious note Kim.....Boaters lounge for ALL boaters - not just mobochat?
TonyR
boatone@boatsontheweb.com <P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by boatone on Wed Jan 16 09:19:30 2002 (server time).</FONT></P>
.....a result!!!!
See all the nutters in the Boaters Lounge.... first e-round's on me
Serious note Kim.....Boaters lounge for ALL boaters - not just mobochat?
TonyR
boatone@boatsontheweb.com <P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by boatone on Wed Jan 16 09:19:30 2002 (server time).</FONT></P>
kimhollamby
Active member
Re: YES...........
Given that it's good for the magazines to retain links with the forums, no that won't happen at first Tony...there's Scuttlebutt already in place on the one side and Motor Boat Chat on the other. The new motorboat forum will be associated with MBM.
No-one seems to mind cross-posting so, apart from the inconvenience of monitoring two forums, we'd like to proceed in this way for the time being.
Associate Publisher ybw.com websites kim_hollamby@ipcmedia.com
Given that it's good for the magazines to retain links with the forums, no that won't happen at first Tony...there's Scuttlebutt already in place on the one side and Motor Boat Chat on the other. The new motorboat forum will be associated with MBM.
No-one seems to mind cross-posting so, apart from the inconvenience of monitoring two forums, we'd like to proceed in this way for the time being.
Associate Publisher ybw.com websites kim_hollamby@ipcmedia.com
peterg
New member
sounds good to me, Kim
let's see how it works
let's see how it works
jfm
Well-known member
Kim, big mistake IMHO, please leave it alone
Kim, I feel very strongly you should leave as is now, please. This is a chat room and the common thread that keeps this together is that we're all motorboaters, that's what we have in common. This forum is defined by its USERS, don't try to define it by its CONTENT. Like last week, it would have been daft if Matts had said, right everyone who wants to talk about boats has to go over to that corner, while those who want to chat about other stuff must stand in this other corner, and if you want to switch you have to walk across the room.
Whatever anyone says, there is proper motorboat chat/advice/exchange of views on this BB, as well as chat. It comes from people who happen to know stuff, but they will disappear if the chat is taken away. I don't want to visit a BB that is strictly boat questions only, and if there's a separate chat board is stripped of its motorboat stuff what is the point of that?
Please, leave it alone. All IMHO of course
PS we do need better thread titles IMHO, this one being an example of how not to do it ;-)
Kim, I feel very strongly you should leave as is now, please. This is a chat room and the common thread that keeps this together is that we're all motorboaters, that's what we have in common. This forum is defined by its USERS, don't try to define it by its CONTENT. Like last week, it would have been daft if Matts had said, right everyone who wants to talk about boats has to go over to that corner, while those who want to chat about other stuff must stand in this other corner, and if you want to switch you have to walk across the room.
Whatever anyone says, there is proper motorboat chat/advice/exchange of views on this BB, as well as chat. It comes from people who happen to know stuff, but they will disappear if the chat is taken away. I don't want to visit a BB that is strictly boat questions only, and if there's a separate chat board is stripped of its motorboat stuff what is the point of that?
Please, leave it alone. All IMHO of course
PS we do need better thread titles IMHO, this one being an example of how not to do it ;-)
tcm
...
Re: Agreed, bad idea.
how the heck will this be policed? No jokes on the boating forum? Antifouling bottoms questions, fire extinguishers and so on and so on... affect big and small boats, jokers and non jokers.
how the heck will this be policed? No jokes on the boating forum? Antifouling bottoms questions, fire extinguishers and so on and so on... affect big and small boats, jokers and non jokers.
hlb
RIP
Hows the head Kim!
Not to sure splitting the forum is to wise. And who's going to decide whats practical or not. Anyway we already have PBO for all that.
Theres only about three or four practical questions to ask anyway. Antifouling, engines, dinghys and err what else. Also its the middle of winter, most folks boats are up on dry land, its cold so no one going out much and nothing else to do.
Now I suppose you could close the forum down for the winter, which would be in keeping with the rest of the boating world.
Now lets face it Kim, even DF Lightfoots question sounded quite practical at first, you even called us for laughing at him.
And whats wrong with Gludy doing an Atlantic crossing. Stupid in my oppinion, but then again I'm " Un informed " To quote, so that dont count. Dont forget this is the most popular forum you've got, even the raggies come for light relief.
PBO have loads of practical things to talk about, and this is not meant as a put down. They've got mostly small oldish boats that they tend to do all the mending on. Now I'm not on my own being 300 miles from the boat, so I dont get much chance to do the maintainance, so it just ring the mechanic, so not much to discuss. I dont think I,m on my own. Just afraid it might come to equal the fuel forum in popularity if proposed changes were made. IMHO
Haydn
Not to sure splitting the forum is to wise. And who's going to decide whats practical or not. Anyway we already have PBO for all that.
Theres only about three or four practical questions to ask anyway. Antifouling, engines, dinghys and err what else. Also its the middle of winter, most folks boats are up on dry land, its cold so no one going out much and nothing else to do.
Now I suppose you could close the forum down for the winter, which would be in keeping with the rest of the boating world.
Now lets face it Kim, even DF Lightfoots question sounded quite practical at first, you even called us for laughing at him.
And whats wrong with Gludy doing an Atlantic crossing. Stupid in my oppinion, but then again I'm " Un informed " To quote, so that dont count. Dont forget this is the most popular forum you've got, even the raggies come for light relief.
PBO have loads of practical things to talk about, and this is not meant as a put down. They've got mostly small oldish boats that they tend to do all the mending on. Now I'm not on my own being 300 miles from the boat, so I dont get much chance to do the maintainance, so it just ring the mechanic, so not much to discuss. I dont think I,m on my own. Just afraid it might come to equal the fuel forum in popularity if proposed changes were made. IMHO
Haydn
BarryD
New member
Re: Agreed, bad idea.
Jokes aside Kim - if you split the forum into a bar-lounge and workshop environment then I think both of them will fold.
For myself I can't really contribute on an engine / anti-foul thread apart from ask the inital question but I can on some newbie issues. I don't use the forum as a source of humour (all though it does make me burst out laughing LOL at times).
IMHO and FWIW this would hinder and not improve the service you offer, Fred Drift happens - you will just be increasing your "police" load and create another forum split.
Barry D
Jokes aside Kim - if you split the forum into a bar-lounge and workshop environment then I think both of them will fold.
For myself I can't really contribute on an engine / anti-foul thread apart from ask the inital question but I can on some newbie issues. I don't use the forum as a source of humour (all though it does make me burst out laughing LOL at times).
IMHO and FWIW this would hinder and not improve the service you offer, Fred Drift happens - you will just be increasing your "police" load and create another forum split.
Barry D
G
Guest
Guest
Re: Please, no change!
I support the views of jfm.
What makes this forum interesting and fun is the diversity of post .When a serious question is asked, generally it gets a serious answer insofar as the particpants can help. Indeed there is a lot goes on in the background with people helping each other directly in one way or another.
I just think that splitting the forum will result in the sum of the two new forums coming nowhere near the worth of the whole we have at present. I think that the purely technical questions forum will not be well attended by many of the present contributors whilst the chat forum will lose its focus as basically a boaters forum.
I would leave well alone.
Nick
I support the views of jfm.
What makes this forum interesting and fun is the diversity of post .When a serious question is asked, generally it gets a serious answer insofar as the particpants can help. Indeed there is a lot goes on in the background with people helping each other directly in one way or another.
I just think that splitting the forum will result in the sum of the two new forums coming nowhere near the worth of the whole we have at present. I think that the purely technical questions forum will not be well attended by many of the present contributors whilst the chat forum will lose its focus as basically a boaters forum.
I would leave well alone.
Nick
kimhollamby
Active member
Fuel forum unpopularity only recent = no-one currently filling. If it doesn't pick up again then it goes but I suspect it will generate a lot of posts again March onwards.
Associate Publisher ybw.com websites kim_hollamby@ipcmedia.com
Associate Publisher ybw.com websites kim_hollamby@ipcmedia.com
kimhollamby
Active member
yes, but...
Hopefully you all know me well enough now, perhaps too well, to understand that I have no desire to send a two-fingered salute in the general direction of the core user base here. But there are a lot more people swimming around than prepared to post and some of them are intimidated when all they want to do is ask simple questions.
There have been attempts to encourage more new users to actively participate here but also some fairly spectacular moments where irregular users got shot down by the banter of friendly fire or (as I am told on fairly regular basis) drowned out by the in-jokes (enjoyable though they often are) of Motor Boat Chat's high octane engineroom. Is that not a fair concern?
If you have alternative solutions then I'm listening.
Associate Publisher ybw.com websites kim_hollamby@ipcmedia.com
Hopefully you all know me well enough now, perhaps too well, to understand that I have no desire to send a two-fingered salute in the general direction of the core user base here. But there are a lot more people swimming around than prepared to post and some of them are intimidated when all they want to do is ask simple questions.
There have been attempts to encourage more new users to actively participate here but also some fairly spectacular moments where irregular users got shot down by the banter of friendly fire or (as I am told on fairly regular basis) drowned out by the in-jokes (enjoyable though they often are) of Motor Boat Chat's high octane engineroom. Is that not a fair concern?
If you have alternative solutions then I'm listening.
Associate Publisher ybw.com websites kim_hollamby@ipcmedia.com
Col
New member
Kim,
as a halfway house, is it not possible for the "message poster" to change the font colour of the title, say blue for general, green for more serious threads. People could still post humour, but we would have a better idea of thread content. Take the thread on sealegs for example, The original question was answered, and some ( quite funny ) humour crept in, for me it was all worth reading, but if the person posing original question only wanted to read serious answers, just pick the answers with green headers. Don't know if this is technically possible, Yes, No, Comments?
as a halfway house, is it not possible for the "message poster" to change the font colour of the title, say blue for general, green for more serious threads. People could still post humour, but we would have a better idea of thread content. Take the thread on sealegs for example, The original question was answered, and some ( quite funny ) humour crept in, for me it was all worth reading, but if the person posing original question only wanted to read serious answers, just pick the answers with green headers. Don't know if this is technically possible, Yes, No, Comments?
kimhollamby
Active member
It's a great idea and, of course, being a great idea it's one we cannot implement easily. However, we could allow the use of mark-up and smiley icons, provided of course that the less well-versed would adopt them. It's extra download time too, a reason we left them off the original build.
Associate Publisher ybw.com websites kim_hollamby@ipcmedia.com
Associate Publisher ybw.com websites kim_hollamby@ipcmedia.com
G
Guest
Guest
Re: yes, but...
For a purely technical forum to work, you have to have experienced people regularly using it and prepared to answer questions on a regular basis. IMHO you will only get those who fit that bill who are regulars here going to such a forum on a fairly infrequent basis. Bear in mind that for the subscribers to this forum this is a leisure activity and the fun and banter is a substantial part of what makes it so.
Compare the popularity of this forum to the purely technical ones. The statistics are even more compelling when you consider that there are far more yachts than motor boats in the UK. Don't fix what does not need fixing.
Why don't you look at identifying new users on the index and have voluntary regulation whereby regulars responding are committed to reasonable replies - this does not exclude humour but nor does it allow put downs and insults.
I think the changes you are suggesting will just see people gradually drift away which would be a great shame. I also do not think that it will do much to help newcomers either. At least when they are on this forum they get noticed and 9 times out of 10 get good advice.
Nick
For a purely technical forum to work, you have to have experienced people regularly using it and prepared to answer questions on a regular basis. IMHO you will only get those who fit that bill who are regulars here going to such a forum on a fairly infrequent basis. Bear in mind that for the subscribers to this forum this is a leisure activity and the fun and banter is a substantial part of what makes it so.
Compare the popularity of this forum to the purely technical ones. The statistics are even more compelling when you consider that there are far more yachts than motor boats in the UK. Don't fix what does not need fixing.
Why don't you look at identifying new users on the index and have voluntary regulation whereby regulars responding are committed to reasonable replies - this does not exclude humour but nor does it allow put downs and insults.
I think the changes you are suggesting will just see people gradually drift away which would be a great shame. I also do not think that it will do much to help newcomers either. At least when they are on this forum they get noticed and 9 times out of 10 get good advice.
Nick
bedouin
Well-known member
Re: Works well elsewhere
The YM and PBO fora are mostly the preserve of raggies - there there is a good distinction between the banter of Scuttlebutt, and the more practical approach of Reader2Reader.
The problem with trying to combine both in a single forum is that the chit-chat and banter tends to drown out the more serious posts - and often serious threads can be hijacked.
Since there is clearly enough of a community on this forum for it to survive a split - why not give it a go? After all if it doesn't work posters will vote with their mice, and gravitate back to a single forum
The YM and PBO fora are mostly the preserve of raggies - there there is a good distinction between the banter of Scuttlebutt, and the more practical approach of Reader2Reader.
The problem with trying to combine both in a single forum is that the chit-chat and banter tends to drown out the more serious posts - and often serious threads can be hijacked.
Since there is clearly enough of a community on this forum for it to survive a split - why not give it a go? After all if it doesn't work posters will vote with their mice, and gravitate back to a single forum
claymore
Well-known member
I'm with Haydn here
I browse all three forums and feel that he has the flavour/culture of each forum correct. certainly I come here for light relief and playful banter. The PBO site does reflect the magazine in that its very much practical maintenance and I'm 300 miles from my boat too so its either blitz it in the holidays or ask the yard to sort it so my involvement on that forum is sporadic. I really enjoy the Scuttlebutt site and have learned loads from reading the posts. I'd vote for no change as a user but are there technical support issues which are influencing Kim's thinking?
JohnS
I browse all three forums and feel that he has the flavour/culture of each forum correct. certainly I come here for light relief and playful banter. The PBO site does reflect the magazine in that its very much practical maintenance and I'm 300 miles from my boat too so its either blitz it in the holidays or ask the yard to sort it so my involvement on that forum is sporadic. I really enjoy the Scuttlebutt site and have learned loads from reading the posts. I'd vote for no change as a user but are there technical support issues which are influencing Kim's thinking?
JohnS
BarryD
New member
Re: Works well elsewhere
I like humour, it is useful for learning things and for examples. Witness last years posts about wearing lifejackets on pontoons, Graham Wignalls balse comment about falling in often and his appreciation for Matts suggestion that the bathing ladder should be left down. Very useful in a minor way, but a gem of wisdom that could save a life.
If the forum splits the combined posts will go down. If you post humour in the practical forum will it be removed or just moved to the chat forum. This is going to make a lot of work for Kim and his team and it may result in people going "well if they don't want my post - I shan't post" Teddies out of the pram sort of thing.
If Newbies (of which I guess I am one in some senses) are scared to post then they could PM or lets have an agreement that no-one savages or winds-up a new user until they get to 30 posts. In effect extend the new user flag from 10 to 30.
IMHO Kim it's not broke - don't fix it. Please
Barry D
I like humour, it is useful for learning things and for examples. Witness last years posts about wearing lifejackets on pontoons, Graham Wignalls balse comment about falling in often and his appreciation for Matts suggestion that the bathing ladder should be left down. Very useful in a minor way, but a gem of wisdom that could save a life.
If the forum splits the combined posts will go down. If you post humour in the practical forum will it be removed or just moved to the chat forum. This is going to make a lot of work for Kim and his team and it may result in people going "well if they don't want my post - I shan't post" Teddies out of the pram sort of thing.
If Newbies (of which I guess I am one in some senses) are scared to post then they could PM or lets have an agreement that no-one savages or winds-up a new user until they get to 30 posts. In effect extend the new user flag from 10 to 30.
IMHO Kim it's not broke - don't fix it. Please
Barry D
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