What Do Forums Need?

Needless to say, please feel free to recommend the forum to your friends. There's always room for more.

 

We have areas where debates could take place. I don't know that I want to take an active role in encouraging them, however, because someone invariably gets angry or has his feelings hurt, and others will get upset because people are arguing. Yes, I am aware of a very clear difference between a debate and an argument but many believe that any expression of disagreement is an argument.

On another topic, things come up in the news all the time that could make good discussion topics but what I'm interested in is what the members of this forum think about the events.

 

I do not think that we need debates as any kind of a separate section. We have several sections where people often have differing opinions, and we all usually share our opinions there.
Debates seem to get heated, and then the whole thing disintegrates into insults and abusive treatment of other posters, rather than polite discussion of the topic.

If a person likes debates, there are certainly enough places on the internet to find that. Several of us on this forum are here specifically because we wanted to get away from that kind of a forum environment. It is refreshing to be able to express your views without it being a cause for a personal attack.

 

We have had a few new members in the past few days, and I welcome them. I thought I would post to this thread as well, since it contains some useful information on participating in this forum.

Things are pretty relaxed here, and I want very much to keep it that way. As with any other group of people, there are going to be disagreements from time to time, and not everyone is going to fall in love with everyone else. That's okay, since you don't have to like someone in order to have a conversation, and it's often easier to like someone once you've gotten to know them. Perhaps not everyone can do that, but I can like someone without having to agree with their opinions on issues.

As long as we can treat one another with a modicum of respect, there is room for disagreement, and I can even like those who had to look modicum up in a dictionary; and, truth be told, I had to consult a dictionary to be sure that I was using the word correctly.

This is a seniors forum, and I chose to define senior as anyone fifty or older, since that seems to be fairly standard, although I am fully aware that we don't all consider ourselves to be seniors. In some respects, it's a matter of perspective; I can remember when forty seemed awfully old, and when there was no point in living past sixty. I am sixty-three now; soon I will be sixty-four, and I am still making plans for the future, although I still haven't decided what I want to be when I grow up.

If you are fifty or older, and there is a topic that you are interested in, you can probably find a place to talk about it here. We don't just talk about "old" stuff. We have a fairly wide range of topics here, and I am open to creating new ones when necessary.

I have been involved in several other forums, so I know that some forum owners are really picky about things being posted in the right places. Certainly, I can appreciate order and ask that you look for an appropriate place to introduce a new topic, but I promise that I won't get angry over any honest efforts. If I really think that something is in the wrong place, I'll just move it. It only takes me a second to do that. If you're unsure as to where to introduce a new topic, we have a place for that near the bottom of the forum listings. As I find the time, I'll most those threads to the appropriate places. I would rather you introduce your topic than hesitate to do so for fear of posting it in the wrong place.

For the purposes of search engine optimization, I'd like threads to be on-topic, but there is still room for brief asides, as long as they don't divert from the central topic of the thread. The best way to do that, if you want to make a comment that relates to what someone else in the thread has said, but not necessarily to the topic of the opening post, is to make your comment, then follow it up with something that does relate to the opening post. In that way, you've said your piece but you haven't diverted the topic. There too, when I find that a topic has been diverted, I can split one thread into two, so that both topics can be discussed.

Some forum owners get upset when someone posts to an old thread. I don't care. If the older thread relates to what you want to say, I'd rather you post to that one than start a new thread about the same thing. there again. Conversely, other forum owners will get upset when someone starts a new thread to discuss something that has already been discussed. I won't get upset about that either. If I believe that your new thread should be merged with the old one, I'll do that, but more likely I'll just leave it alone.

Don't feel that everything you have to say has to be earth shattering. If it's worth thinking about, it might be worth talking about. I don't know what other people might be interested in, and although I may not be interested in every topic that is started here, others might be.

Frequently, forum members will post links to news stories or other sites. That's fine, if you do so as a point of reference for a conversation but if you don't have anything to say about the news story, there's no reason to post it. I'm far more interested in what you have to say than any reporter or blogger.

 

If you are going to post a link to a news story, blog entry, or any other outside site, please say something about the story. I have no problem at all with links to outside sites, but please give us an idea what it's about, why you think it's important, or why it is of interest to you. Thanks.

 

I know this was an old post, but I don't think I ever answered it. Thank you for a good post, @Richard Paradon . I advertise the forum through Twitter and, when I set up my tweets correctly, I can bring as many as a hundred people here in a few minutes. Most only stay a few seconds but others read at least the thread that I had directed them to, and every now and then someone registers for an account. But when I do it, it's advertising, which is not as effective as genuine recommendations from forum members. Yes, by all means, I encourage anyone with a Twitter account to refer people here, particularly to interesting threads that you are participating in.

 

I have a twitter account, but I don't really do much with it.
Do I just click the little "tweet" button at the bottom of a post to share it on Twitter, or do I need to be following you , or anything else besides just clicking on the tweet icon ?

Edit :
I tried it and I am pretty sure that I posted a tweet about the Megyn Kelly thread. Since a lot of people are interested in that right now, it seemed like a good thread to tweet about.

 

Yes, or you can do it directly from Twitter. Anything that includes a link to the forum or to a specific forum thread will do it. Long URLs can be shortened using bitly or one of the other URL shorteners. I have used tinyurl for years but I am getting a phishing attempt warning from it today so I won't leave the link to that.

 

Please don't misunderstand me. No one is required to advertise for the forum. Please feel free to do so if you wish, or not to if you'd rather not. Your participation here is what adds the most value to the forum.

 

Mostly, what a forum needs is conversation. When a new thread is started, or a new post is made, consider whether you have something that you might be able to add to it, and then take the time to do that. Like the rest of you, there are some topics that I have neither interest or knowledge of so I don't participate in every conversation here, and I don't expect any of you to do so. That's fine because, as in real life, we don't try to engage in every possible topic that comes up.

When you have something on your mind, whether it's a concern over something that's going on in the news, a book that you have read, something that you remember from another point in your life, or anything at all, really, please take the time to start a thread on it. Yeah, there may be times when no one will reply to your new thread but that's not very likely. While we are not a large group, we are a diverse group and if something is of interest to you, it is probably of interest to someone else here as well.

When you post a link from a news item, or a blog, please take a moment to add your own words to it. If you are posting it here, I assume that it must mean something to you, that you found it to be funny, interesting, or otherwise of use to someone, so let us know what you think about it.