A new off-topic Forum?

[Bonsai Nut]

I have been considering adding a new forum to the site to provide a calmer hangout for people who wish to post off-topic content but find the atmosphere in the Karaoke Bar to be too polarizing. I would probably call the new forum the "Tea House" or something similar, and unlike the Karaoke Bar, the Tea House would be heavily moderated to keep the atmosphere much less controversial and emotionally charged.

What do you think?

 

[PaulH]

Great idea!
Another forum I frequent is the UMGF or unofficial Martin Guitar forum. They strictly enforce a no politics or religion policy which I, for one appreciate.

 

[Bill S]

Probably not a bad idea.

 

[jk_lewis]

I suppose another option would be to zap the KB and replace it with the Tea House. there are a lots of places of all political. religious and nuthouse flavors for people to vent on the Internet. I've always thought a bonsai forum was an extremely odd place for those kinds of messages.

 

[Jason]

Or you could rename it (the KB) Fight Club and make Harry the moderator.

 

[Victrinia Ridgeway]

@Jason lol.... that sounds splendid.

 

[stacy allen muse]

I suppose another option would be to zap the KB and replace it with the Tea House. there are a lots of places of all political. religious and nuthouse flavors for people to vent on the Internet. I've always though a bonsai forum was an extremely odd place for those kinds of messages.

you've got my vote.

 

[Oliver Muscio]

you've got my vote.

Mine, too!

 

[Frojo]

Mine, too!

Mine 2, mine 2!

 

[donamitu]

Finally! I thought you'd never notice. A lot of the exciting bonsai chatter seems to have gone silent leaving behind a lot political vitriol. Wouldn't it be great to just talk trees?

 

[JudyB]

The only thing that bothers me about this is the idea that it would need to be "heavily moderated". Too bad that people feel the need to spew hatefulness on each other to the point where that would be necessary.

I haven't been here long, but I don't understand why there is even a place for that to happen here on a site supposedly dedicated to bonsai and it's art and culture. There are other places where that takes place, why even have it here? It just causes spillover into the other side of the forum, and people feel like they have to snipe at the folks they don't agree with. I feel that having a hate forum just drags the whole experience down, and sullies the overall purpose for a site that should be about bonsai.

As the KB has shown up now on my screen, I'm pretty repelled by the amount of these types of posts in comparison with the numbers of posts about the object of the site. I'm sure no one would miss me, but it makes me re-think being here.

 

[John Ruger]

One way to possibly do this would make the KB accessible only through the "User CP". That way members who are interested can utilize the forum in a much more private/remote way, if they see fit, and those who don't won't even have to notice it period unless they access it manually.

p.s. sort of like the idea of the "clubs" in the user cp, or use to have,...how many members even knew it was there?

 

[JudyB]

One way to possibly do this would make the KB accessible only through the "User CP". That way members who are interested can utilize the forum in a much more private/remote way, if they see fit, and those who don't won't even have to notice it period unless they access it manually.

p.s. sort of like the idea of the "clubs" in the user cp, or use to have,...how many members even knew it was there?

We ALL would, when the hate spilleth over into the "other" side...
even in my short time here, I've seen it happen a lot.

 

[Vance Wood]

The only thing that bothers me about this is the idea that it would need to be "heavily moderated". Too bad that people feel the need to spew hatefulness on each other to the point where that would be necessary.

I haven't been here long, but I don't understand why there is even a place for that to happen here on a site supposedly dedicated to bonsai and it's art and culture. There are other places where that takes place, why even have it here? It just causes spillover into the other side of the forum, and people feel like they have to snipe at the folks they don't agree with. I feel that having a hate forum just drags the whole experience down, and sullies the overall purpose for a site that should be about bonsai.

As the KB has shown up now on my screen, I'm pretty repelled by the amount of these types of posts in comparison with the numbers of posts about the object of the site. I'm sure no one would miss me, but it makes me re-think being here.

Before the site was updated/tweaked the Karaoke Bar was something you had to go looking for, there were no automatic notifications of new content or ongoing activity unless you had subscribed to a particular post. What bothers me is that there are people that don't like the content that can occur in the KB, so they want to get rid of it. I am reminded of an event that took place about 25 years ago in (I believe) Florida. A TV station accidentally aired a porno movie. They received no complaints till the movie was done and none while it was in progress. So people watched the entire program before registering a complaint. It's kind of a guilty pleasure followed up by a sense of guilt in watching such a perverted thing, trying to receive absolution by complaining about it after the fact.

The point is, if you don't like the KB don't go there. If you don't like a post's subject don't go there. If you would like to post something non political non religious do so that's what the KB is for. You might want to talk about your cat or gold fish. You might not get any followup input from anyone or you might find yourself starting something that goes 12 pages. The point is if people don't want to talk about your gold fish they wont. I am not particularly interested in growing bonsai indoors so I seldom respond to any of the post that have anything to do with tropical and or indoor bonsai. So what's the problem here? You don't like people discussing what some seem to want to talk about? It's like TV. If you don't like the program change the channel don't complain to the cable or satellite company that you don't like the program, simply don't watch it.

As a side bar, and I could be wrong, you can launch the elevated pinky finger Tea Bar and watch it go down due to lack of participation. This is like trying to make McDonalds sell vegi-burgers. It is my understanding that a function like the KB is to talk about things other than bonsai----like in a bar. Speaking of bars: I don't go to them. I am not much of a drinker and I don't care much for the BS posturing you encounter in a bar. So guess what I do. I don't demand that the bars be closed I just don't visit them.

 

[John Ruger]

We ALL would, when the hate spilleth over into the "other" side...
even in my short time here, I've seen it happen a lot.

I understand your point. Then the issue of "spill-over" will have to fall on the moderators and they would need to either remove the content completely, or move the content to a more appropriate forum, or, if necessary, revoke the membership of the guilty.

 

[Dav4]

The only thing that bothers me about this is the idea that it would need to be "heavily moderated". Too bad that people feel the need to spew hatefulness on each other to the point where that would be necessary.

I haven't been here long, but I don't understand why there is even a place for that to happen here on a site supposedly dedicated to bonsai and it's art and culture. There are other places where that takes place, why even have it here? It just causes spillover into the other side of the forum, and people feel like they have to snipe at the folks they don't agree with. I feel that having a hate forum just drags the whole experience down, and sullies the overall purpose for a site that should be about bonsai.

As the KB has shown up now on my screen, I'm pretty repelled by the amount of these types of posts in comparison with the numbers of posts about the object of the site. I'm sure no one would miss me, but it makes me re-think being here.

I honestly don't believe that "spillover" from the bar into the mainstream forums is a real issue. People are just as capable of argueing to a fault and being belligerent and rude while discussing bonsai related topics as they are discussing topics related to politics or religion. This has happenned and continues to do so at EVERY bonsai forum I frequent without exception. Eventually, Greg will fix things so that one needs to actively search out the bar to view the content, which is a good thing.


...and we would miss you, too, if you left. I enjoy all your posts, and you've got some descent trees (like the JWP you posted in another thread) that need to be highlighted in their own threads. Let's see them!!

Dave

 

[coh]

I don't post much on this forum, but from what I've seen I have to agree with JudyB...think there is spillover from the KB and it has a negative impact on the forum overall. A lot of the stuff posted on KB really has no place on bonsai forum, in my opinion. And some of the individuals who spew the most "junk" there seem to only rarely post anything useful on the other parts of the forum, so what's the point of that?

Chris

 

[Attila Soos]

Yeah, I agree with Judy. Since the KB threads started to show up on my New Posts query, it made me feel that this is a more hostile place that it used to be. It's very strange to see those threads here, because one wouldn't expect it.

As long as they are out of my sight, I don't really care whether or not they exist.

BTW, I understand the reason why some people participate in them, and I don't condemn BNut for creating a place for it (why not, if there is a need for it?) but I wish that people would have to look for it, instead of getting the threads in your face.

P.S.: I just realized that my wish already happened, and I don't see those threads. Thanks BNut.

 

[jk_lewis]

"The point is, if you don't like the KB don't go there. "

Uh uh, the POINT is, why is the KB HERE? There are other nasty places on the net.

 

[Victrinia Ridgeway]

What I would be curious to hear is the reasoning by those who think there shouldn't be a moderated conversational section... Is their no answer rooted in the idea that they think there should be no off-topic area? I think that's a little short sighted as we often get to know one another fairly well, and having a place to have public conversations of a casual nature can be nice. Or is it something else?

The community will determine how much they like having such a space... it would be interesting to see what it would be like, though doubtlessly it will not have the dubious popularity of the KB, which is the second largest forum sub-section.