Is our discussion forum redundant?

January 3, 2008

Being the new year and all, I’m doing some much-needed maintenance work on this site. The discussion forum has been very quiet the past couple of months and I’m actually wondering if it may have outlived its usefulness.

What are your thoughts? If you’d like other sub-forums or have a special interest area you’d like to moderate, let me know. If there’s no real response in the next month I’ll probably close the forums.

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Written by Lowell Cremorne · Filed Under TMJ Site News

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Apollo Case 1 year ago 1 point
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Yes, they are redundant, and I do not wish to discuss this. (Just being cheeky). I think one reason might just be time. The other reason is that the forum is not obvious. Maybe just slim down the number of forums, and maybe make them move obvious to see. I think an Aussie forum can work, you just need to find the right topics, the right target audience, and the right strategy. Ideally, it needs to be something people HAVE to read everyday - or in other words: it takes thought to post, edit, and go back to read what others say, so there has to be some value to the poster in posting and reading the forums. In other words again: make it in people's self-interest to visit and discuss.

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Seeker Esparza 1 year ago 1 point
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I must admit I often read your reports but rarely comment. I'm a member of the Second Life Educators mailing list and get 50+ emails a day to wade through so don't have a lot of time for replies. I find your site a useful source of Aus Ed news though - keep up the good work!

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Gary Hayes 1 year ago 1 point
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Lowell you really need to consider having peoples comments for posts visible and promoted strongly in the sidebar, that will encourage more comment simply because people can see discussion threads or hot topics. Tony Walsh's Clickable Culture is a good example of this working well.

I think the traditional forum will only work with a strong community of interest with large numbers. Although I think specific Australian only discussion about SL is strong there is not a threshold of users to warrant a forum. So to reiterate, I would therefore stick to raising controversial issues in the posts themselves and highlighting what is being said on the main sidebar...

HNY Gary

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Lowell Cremorne 1 year ago 1 point
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Thanks Apollo, Seeker and Gary for your considered comments - I'll take them all into consideration - Gary, good point on the recent comments in sidebar, will get that happening.

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http://www.sloz.info

Jazzman Jibilla 1 year ago 1 point
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The discussion forum is pretty quiet and I confess to not making any noises there...HOWEVER...the MetaVerse Journal must stay. I consider it an important part of my sl day even though I am across the Pacific Ocean from you.
I like Gary's idea of a more prominent position for the forums. I inhabit the Slex forums primarily and find that site simple to use...it is low on flashing graphics, the moderators are there, and it's fairly freewheeling beyond merchant issues.
The other attraction is the international (albeit English and Typonese speaking) nature of the posters. I have to repeat that question about whether Australia has the number of sl forum trolls to sustain a culture.
Anyway I'm with the Journal until my harddrive melts.

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Lowell Cremorne 1 year ago 1 point
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Jazzman, thanks also to you for your feedback and I believe you're right on the forum troll issue ;)

Here's to your hard drive never melting!

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