Oops, sorry @Ruby Begonia She works there as one of the staff. She studied Industrial Cookery in college in 2011 after high school at home. I was offered the dishwashing job and I started on the 20th Feb, Saturday. I think the owner liked me as much as she highly commends my daughter as a hard worker. Then, she offered me Tuesdays, as well. I was very pleased but couldn't accept it because I still homeschool my two school-aged children. So, my eldest daughter has offered to look after them, because her little 1 1/2 year old son is happy whenever his 10 and 12 years old uncle and aunty are around to play with and read to him. And a little baby, son, was just born 2 weeks ago. Looks like I will be working 2 days a week. Yey!The pay is really good. Nothing formally talked about yet. I will receive it fortnightly.
Hi @Chrissy Page. My warmest regards and offer of peace and love to you about your husband's passing, Chrissy. My second daughter has had her baby girl in January. So, she will stop for a while studying Bachelor of Arts majoring in classical music, I think. My eldest daughter has had her son on two weeks ago this February. So, it's pretty exciting around here.:
@Avigail David, sorry I misunderstood about the cafe. Congratulations on the grands from me, too. Enjoy what's left of the weekend.
What do forums need? Thread headings that reflect the actual topic of the thread. On-topic posts within the thread. Longer posts are more helpful than shorter posts. Longer threads are more helpful than shorter threads. The above is what is necessary in order for the forum to do well in search engine results. Once we have that, add time and we'll do well. Of course, forums need more than a good position in the search engine results. That's where everything else that has been discussed here comes into play, as well.
Wow, Ken - I think you're really off the mark here. People have so much crap piled on them in the real world, they often come to a forum such as this one to relax, to forget about their problems, to smile and even laugh a bit. Not everyone comes to a forum to solve a specific problem - they can Google anything bothering them and find much more authoritative sources than a forum. What are the majority of problems experienced by seniors? Isn't it medical problems? Who in their right minds would take a stranger's advice on medical issues? They'd go to WebMD or MedicineNet or other authority sites. Comedy, satire and parody doesn't draw in new members? I guess I'll be leaving then, because that's the bulk of what I do. Don't bother about the deep times I experience and post - they aren't really showing what I'm like, right? There aren't really any people like that. Nobody has ever experienced an "aha!" moment from my posts. And of course, I have no friends and nobody really knows me. (Note: the above two paragraphs are "sarcasm" - add that to parody, satire and silliness) Now I'm confused - so silly threads don't bring in new members, but they keep the regulars here? You just suggested that silly threads were not useful on a forum - you can't have it both ways.
I agree with you Phil about the informative posts, I wouldn't search a forum for info. For one thing it's baised and probably incorrect. Just opinions of everyday people. Most go to forums to interact with like minded people and have some fun. A few serious discussions can happen but for the most part it's for entertainment.
Totally agree. There ARE a few forums that successfully integrate serious and silly - City-Data is one of them, but they have the advantage of being huge (1.9 million members), and of having started off as a totally serious site for information on cities. Only when their membership grew and started requesting a place to just kick back did the forum add 50 "normal" sections such as "Relationships" (most of my own posts were there LOL) and "Jokes".
There are a few too big senior sites that I've probably joined then never posted or posted only a few times. Too big isn't good either, unless you got in at the beginning and know everyone, you'll always feel like an outsider.
Never thought of that - good point. I had joined C-D when there were "only" half a mil or so people, so yeah, I was Big Man on Campus.
You're ignoring the rest of that post. My point was that these threads tend to be disjoined, and not something that is readily indexed by the search engines, or found in the search engines, not that there was no purpose for such posts, and certainly not that we shouldn't have them. Not everything in a forum is about the search engines. Most of our members come here from other means, but I don't want to ignore that source of traffic.
I ignored the rest of the post because it wasn't relevant to the point I was trying to make. Search engines - the Great God Google - are not the end-all and be-all of forums. You can get a much better crowd through word-of-mouth, they'll stay longer and be much happier than the ones you can snag through a search of "Senior Chihuahua Dementia". I've encountered this in writing - I used to try to write SEO-optimized articles. Sure, they'd rank great, but they didn't hold people. They were technically perfect but had no soul. I was writing for Google, not for my real audience. I've never owned a forum - been a mod several times - and I've always believed that you grow organically, not through slavery to Google. You care for your members, interact with them (as you appear to do quite well) and generally think about what THEY want - not some faceless group of money-grabbers that came up with a search engine and are telling you what you can and cannot do.
I understand that quite well, and I think I do these things, but there's no reason to ignore the search engines either. For a variety of reasons, people come and they go. Some stay for quite a while, but others don't stay long at all. Every forum needs an influx of new people from time to time, and it's senseless to ignore sources of traffic. I'll even advertise on Facebook from time to time, but I won't spend a lot of money on it because I don't really want a whole lot of people at one time.
Well, you know what they say in the Bible - "You can't serve both mammon and man". I've used Google - still do - but I've never trusted them. They have too much power at this point to make or break you when you own any kind of online property. On my blog I write "stronger" articles on occasion, and if Google decides they're TOO strong - oops, oh well, we won't list you. Too bad - I write what I want. The people that like it will find it by word of mouth or jut seeing something else I write online. I don't understand the "not wanting a lot of people at one time". Sure, it's a lot more complicated and a lot more work - but that's going to the next level. You can't play penny poker your entire life and moan that you don't make money like the big-dollar players - you have to be willing to take that chance and jump in with both feet. Unless you want to keep this forum small and snugly, in which case why buy adverts on FB or even worry about Google traffic?