I would enjoy our tireless leader making a monthly post about the state of the forum. I have read that when Ken started this forum some made doomsday predictions that it would fail. It didn't and still has several original members. I have been a member here for almost 2 years and what a ride. This is the only senior's forum where conservatives aren't silenced by a no-politics rule, but liberals can spout their parroting under the disguise of a Hot Button Topic. What brought this to mind was Mr. Alonzo Tanner's comment that the forum had gone stale. Talk of staleness brought thoughts of stagnant water and mosquitos breeding. An epidemic of virtual West Nile virus infecting the forum and it's dying a horrible death. In times past Ken has brought up interesting ideas for forum direction, my favorite being that it becomes original and not repeat postings found elsewhere on the internet. A collection of original ideas, thoughts, experiences, and commentary. The Foxfire book series was mentioned as a model. . Would anyone else like to read a monthly state of the forum post by Ken?
Tireless is a relative term. Instead of making Ken do all the work, we could all go to the bottom of the forum list on the homepage and each of us contribute one new idea that 'doesn't fit anywhere else', or, delve into all the long past postings and comment on one of them that we find interesting, to bring it to the front page for more discussion? Political discussion is interesting on this board. You can say your piece and then mutter under your breath what an idiot the other guy is and not hurt anyone's feelings.
I am not suggesting Ken do all the work, just give us updates at a certain time of the month or even quarterly as to the health of the forum. Things like internet standing, any issues he sees we might not be aware of, ideas for improvement, hacker attacks, etc. Sort of like the President giving a State of the Union speech. Ken's highlights and assessments easily found in one thread would make it easy to get an overall picture of the health of the forum.
I do that every now and then, but I am not good at doing anything on a scheduled basis. Although I may start out with good intentions, that only goes so far. Whenever I feel the need to make suggestions, which is often, I look for the proper thread in which to do that, and invariably find that I have already made that suggestion. In the past, when I had forty or fifty websites going at one time, I have obsessed over Google rankings and search engine optimization but, while I know that these things are still important, I have found that search engine placement rankings come naturally when a website is developed naturally. In this case, the website is a forum in which the structure of the forum itself is SEO-friendly, so the chief control over our successes or failures is in the things that we say here, and the way in which they are said. In that, we are at the mercy of all of you. Linking to stuff that people are saying on other websites doesn't help us at all unless it prompts others to discuss that topic but, even so, it would be more helpful if we were to discuss the topic without outside prompting. Copying stuff from other websites, particularly without attribution, has the potential of hurting us, and it doesn't matter if it's your own words that you have posted somewhere else first, such as on another forum. As far as the search engine algorithms are concerned, it has been copied from another site. So it's a balance between feeding the search engine spiders and our own forum members. If it takes linking to outside news sites or blogs in order for forum members to have something to talk about, then we have exchanged one commodity for another. Whenever we link to another website, however, we are giving something away. When these links don't result in either a useful discussion or someone linking back to us, then we have given that commodity away for nothing. Getting back to maintaining a balance between SEO needs and member needs, you guys come first. Without you, there would be nothing for the search engine spiders to index. So, while I try to maintain some semblance of order, I don't harp on spelling or grammar, although I do sometimes correct these errors in thread titles, because they are particularly important. This is also why we consolidate similar threads, delete or merge duplicate threads, and sometimes move things around. These things also make it easier for forum members to find stuff too, so there's a double benefit. I no longer buy new books on SEO, and it's been years since I have even looked at my Google Webmaster Tools area, and probably wouldn't even remember the password, but the basics of SEO haven't actually changed that much, except for those who are trying to cheat it. When someone links to us, that's good, unless the search engines suspect that I am paying for links. Some links are better than others. Links from other social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, are also good, although it takes more of them to equal one link from a static website. When someone mentions our forum by name, even without a link, that can also be helpful. Search engine spiders have to be fed, and some foods are better than others. When a thread is all over the place, it's like junk food to the search engine spider. The search engine spider won't be able to figure out what the thread is about, and it is unlikely to be added to the search engine's index or, if it is, it probably won't come up for anything that anyone is searching for. When there are too many threads about nothing in particular, the search engine spiders might quit coming to the site altogether. To a search engine spider, health food is a thread that has a title that includes some of the words that someone looking for that topic is likely to use in a search query, and subsequent posts are closely related to the topic introduced in the title and opening post. This is why we sometimes split threads up. Spelling and grammar would help with search engine optimization, but it would exclude those who aren't capable of good spelling and grammar, and it would probably discourage those who are interested in a topic but don't want to feel like they're writing a term paper. This is why I rarely mention spelling or grammar, although I have considered giving someone the title of Grammar Nazi and the ability to correct poor spelling and grammar, although Google would probably see "Nazi" and exclude us altogether. There's more but I think that's enough for now.
I'm not sure exactly what you're looking for, but if we're talking about someone else doing the work, you got my vote! But seriously, the first iteration of stats is an interesting "Gee whiz!" insight. After that, they become but so much background noise. IMHO. Ken makes a interesting point on not doing the old Copy/Paste thing. I bet we've all gone searching on a topic only to see a page of Search Results summaries that are identical text. (If you're the guy who originated those words, you gotta be ticked that people are building websites off of the original content of others and you are now lost in a crowd of thieves.) The point is that I don't go to any of those sites, because they are all copycats. I bet other people are the same way. So we don't want to be one of those "lost in a crowd" search results, or worse, come across as a repository of unoriginal thought and content. Regarding grammar...I was on "the other senior site" and there was a topic on spelling and grammar. Most of us were sharing parts of the language we struggled with. NO ONE was being called out, either directly by name or by inference, or indirectly as "people who..." The posts were strictly first person observations. Yet there were some who were highly sensitive to the topic and got the thread shut down as being too "elitist." [I'm still fuming about it.] If I were to make a suggestion in this area, it might be to show people how to turn on the Spell Check function in the various browsers. Misspelled words are more likely to bugger up a search than people saying "seen" instead of "saw."
This state of the forum post is what I am talking about. Not about making more work for Ken, but have an easy-to-find thread with discussion as is happening here. Spelling and grammar are important as many won't read a post that is filled with grammar and gross spelling mistakes. Also, it is easy to tire of those that always correct others for grammar and spelling yet make rather ignorant errors themselves repeatedly. The one that bugs me the most is the use of done instead of did, "and that is what I done." I use Grammarly, but I find it disagrees at times with the way I was taught English. It corrects a sentence and makes it sound ignorant. I mainly use it for spelling, but get aggravated because some words I cannot get close enough to even get a suggestion. I should get off Google and Grammarly and go back to Internet Explorer and its spell-check program. As we age our lives become less interesting to the younger generations or maybe stagnant is the word that better describes advanced years for many. I see this forum as a way to freshen that stagnation and add some excitement to our end years. I fully agree with Ken and all those that support originality. Finding an original topic of general interest isn't easy on this forum. It is much easier to copy and paste than think out and write something original. I see many that make the very same original posts on other forums and now understand why this isn't beneficial to the health of this forum. It may be an original post but now becomes like multiple baby ducks farting on the ocean instead of a big mama duck ripping an enormous one on a small farm pond. For all those that don't like their threads moved and consolidated, may I suggest using the diary section and starting your own thread where nothing you post is off-topic and will ever get moved. If you think Yvonne is wrong in moving your post or thread, I suggest you volunteer to be a moderator. I am sure Yvonne would love a break from the many hours of reading posts and trying to act in the forum's best interest. Being a moderator of a senior forum on a good day is like folding and stacking adult diapers by size. On moderate days washing is required and on bad days it requires dumping the poop before washing and with folding, sorting, and stacking remaining, the unpaid thankless job can be a bit much. If you think I jest as is commonly my style, then PM Ken and get signed up for this adventure known as moderation.
If yall want these changes then cough up some money for good ole @Ken Anderson .Donations to the cause very well may help.
I do not think a few mis spelled words and incorrect usuage of a sentence is worth hashing over. Coming from different areas of the US often shows how others think, and talk . People in New Jersey do not talk, like us from Texas.So they probably are going write things differently also. Just say'en
I'm still not connecting with your thoughts on this. How bout a bullet list on what the monthly State of the Forum report would say...you know, specific topics.
I'm not clear on the benefit of a state of the forum report. What would be the usefulness of knowing how many people joined and left in some period of time? Seems already apparent which topics and viewpoints dominate and which whither. Why would anyone care about how many spelling, grammar, fact errors have been made, how many links were posted, what the status of forum SEO is, or even how many posts were posted or new threads started each month? I just don't get the point.
I think the only issue with spelling is that Ken would like posts on this forum to be easily "findable" via internet searches by others. Misspelt words get in the way of that. To me, correcting spelling is less potentially offensive than correcting grammar. I don't see an issue with mods editing posts to fix spelling errors issues.
Personally, I have very few problems with people misspelling words or whatever. We are people here and moreover people who have lived a fairly long time and as such each individual has their own way of attempting to put into written form what they want to say. In so many ways, we discover who people are by the way they write. I was taught never to say yeah, but yet I write it. I was taught never to say nope, but I write it. The contraction and duality of ya’ll tells me where someone might be from and ain’t really is in the dictionary so I use it every now and then for emphasis and in a situational context. To point out a couple of extremely colorful people would be Tex and Martin. Tex has his own way of talking which is nearly impossible to put into a properly written form without bastardizing his personality and who he is. He’s a down to earth man’s man and I appreciate that and would hope others could see that too. He’s a doer and not a writer but everything he does write is interesting to me. Martin can’t spell for beans and I doubt if even spell check can help out but frankly, there are times when his errors are more in line with the truth than what he intended. He has something to say so let him write it the best way he can. Another might be Bill. He’s a tender soul, a smart man and has a lot to say and I wouldn’t change anything he writes even if I had the power to do it. For the most part, I’m more interested in What someone writes more than how they write it.
Interesting @John Brunner . Hadn't thought of that issue on misspelled words -- and I'm using the American version of that to pair with your British / Aussie use so Google can find both. I wonder if rather that making that a job for moderators, if it might be a kindness done by the next person to reply to a comment to use the word in question with the correct spelling -- not in an obnoxious way, but just use the correct spelling or grammar in the context of their own response. Perhaps that would help the "findability" as well as the tone of many threads.
I agree. That's where leaving imperfect grammar alone comes in...it's truly "the way people talk." The issue with correcting spelling was strictly in support of internet search engines and keeping us on radar screens. I don't know that it's a huge issue. I'm on a Mazda owner's forum, and the owner is hyper-vigilant on EVERYTHING because he wants the site to be a premier reference guide. I put together a couple of user guides for him. At one point he started to lean towards having folks be so exacting that I told him he was treating them like employees and there would be no imperfections because there would be no one commenting.
You know, you can edit the quote of someone's post in your own response. Notice how I changed "findability" to "fundability" in your quoted comment. Actually, I would not notice if you corrected my spelling in that manner. I wouldn't even notice if you went back and corrected the spelling in my original comment (although I do have Spell Check enabled in my browser.) Regarding "misspelt": I shall defend to the death my use of theatre, favour and colour; however, I shall never say "al_oo_MIN_ee_um foil."