I must have really loved my high school sweetheart. He had a decrepit old Ford that we always had to push start, which was not easy wearing high heels. (Me, not him.) We'd both push it to a coast, then he'd jump in and pop the clutch and away we go.
Uh oh. I see I have once again contributed to the dreaded "Topic Drift." This must be a symptom of old age. Sorry, @Ken Anderson ! Forums need participation!!
I just noticed your name around here a couple of days ago. I'm assuming you quit coming here some time ago, spent your time on FB, but got fed up with it and came back here . . . ?
Maybe we ladies need to start a "powder puff" thread. Remember back in the day when school auto mechanics for girls was called powder puff? My dad if ask permission to take me out on a date, would say, "sure as long as you take Faye's pickup." I kept it running top-notch and it never broke down so if I was brought back past curfew, my dad knew the old broke down excuse was a lie. To return to the topic, what forums need I don't know, but what I do know is senior forums need more prayer and good thoughts for good health and long lives compared to a younger-based forum.
I agree that 'real conversions' are best, online and in real life, but admit I find that challenging in a forum format. It's easier at my diary site, where conversations can evolve naturally when Comments are set on 'private', and there's the feeling of talking to one person at a time, without the oddness of 'messaging'. Of course at Prosebox there's a limited number of older people, and while it's fun to float free of demographics and talk to other generations, it can feel a bit isolating at times. If you mention 'visions issues' they literally can't relate! So you don't mention it. Anyway, due to my earliest experiences with discussion forums twenty years ago, I still tend to be on guard for confrontation, rather than open and relaxed. Which probably makes me sound abrupt or humorless here at times. Which is definitely not what I intend!
We've all probably noticed that weekends are often slow here. I'd imagine that on forums for non-seniors, weekends might be the busiest because people are home rather than at work, but, since many of us seniors don't hold to regular working hours anyhow, weekends might be the time for visiting family members and others who would be at work on weekdays. At least, that's how I see it. For those of us who are here on weekends, there might be an inclination to check in with the forum and, seeing not much going on, looking for something else to do. Of course, inactivity builds on itself just as activity does. What forums need are posts. If you are among those who check in here to see what's going on, how about starting something rather than waiting around for someone else to? Resurrect an old thread, make an effort to contribute something to a current thread, or think of a topic for a new thread. Whatever it is that you wish was going on here, help to make it happen.
@Ken Anderson It is Friday! No excuse for my lack of posting except I feel I am running out of interesting topics. As you well know my sarcastic comic sense of humor gets me into trouble at times. I am trying to be well-behaved but I fear it is a losing battle.
I've always considered Fridays to be the beginning of the weekend. Perhaps because I've usually worked the graveyard shift, and Fridays were spent shutting down.
Faye, Faye, Faye. Sarcasm is a sign of an intelligent mind. It's scary if that mind is encased in a woman's skull, but I acknowledge that a woman might possibly be equal in intelligence to moi. ( unlikely, but possible ) I'll never run out of interesting topics. I can always talk about myself, which subject I know is. or should be, an unending source of fascination for any human being. I invented the concept of super ego in an inspired moment of super ego. I'm so cool.
Participation is key to a forum's survival, as is civil debates. I don't know of anyone who joins a forum to be ignored or just read comments.
Forums do need discussions, which seem to be replaced more and more lately with a bunch of links to other websites and never-ending videos. I'll say it again, if I want to watch videos I'll go to Youtube and not to SoC, so I scroll past most of them posted here. And yes, I also post videos, mostly on the existing music threads or in discussion topics if they apply. As for weekends, since I've retired every day is the weekend so my forum routine remains basically the same 7 days a week.
I am far less annoyed with videos than I am with links because videos are embedded in the post, so they can be viewed without leaving the thread, while links take people away. Subsequently, people are more likely to view a video than to click on a link. I'd much rather people simply say what they have to say rather than look for others to say it for them.
Totally agree about the links. As for videos, I think a few of them added to topics are fine. It just seems like we are swamped in video-land lately. Who has time to watch all these videos? << Rhetorical inquiry
. I agree! I seldom if ever watch videos, even the music ones. I also won't bother reading a link unless the poster makes a good point of why I should. If someone furnishes a link and says read this article about a baboon. I won't bother, but if they say read this link about a dancing baboon that also sings Mary Had a Little Lamb while riding a motorcycle backward, then you have my attention and I will scan the article looking for keywords or phrases.