Happy Forum

I'll start by saying thanks for the warm welcome I received when I recently joined this site. Everyone seems to agree that this is one of the friendlier sites and I certainly wouldn't deny that.
Now I'd like to ask (please) for a little non gardening help...
Our doggie group will shortly be starting up it's own forum, so I thought it would be a help to get other peoples thoughts on 'what makes a good forum'. We would like to make it public but with member only posting, as on this site. So, apart from gardening issues (obviously)what attracts YOU to this forum? What would put you OFF using a forum. Anything and everything you can think of will be most welcome.
Thanx in advance Tom.

 

certainly it has to do with an open minded and dinamic management. I will answer later to your question, but I will...

 

Terrier, several things which collectively go to make a good forum:

1) Knowledgeable people. There may be disagreements but there are enough 'experts' so that the final answer to a question is normally right.

2) Friendly people. Even the one's you disagree with, in the main, don't take a disagreement personally. OK a few do but there's always that and on many forums people hold grudges for months.

3) The administrators and moderators don't interfere too much in discussions. It's nice to know that if someone got very abusive that a moderator would step in. But the moderators here accept that people are adults and do allow healthy argument. That is excellent.

4) Plenty of topics, and if you want to start your own - go ahead.

5) Nobody minds a joke. (One or two, I think, genuinely believe that I drink martini cocktails by the litre, but that is my private joke. I can't manage more than a pint).

Hope that helps. If I've forgotten anything I will add it later.

 

Here I am again, terrier, answering your question.

Of course the worst part must be the start.

I guess 4-5 committed friends, which are willing to discuss a common subject, daily, in front of a big unknown audience, and they have time, motivation and stamina to do it - even if nobody listens (or so it looks like) - that must be a quite essential prerequisite, even before thinking about the layout.

What the forum is about: gardening, dogs...is obviously a very important aspect of why somebody would want to participate.

Then I can imagine: when the first member shows up, by the way this person is welcomed and reacted to all along, the forum will start to take shape, whatever the shape will be!

Obviously the job of the moderators is of paramount importance in mantaining the standards.

The growing rate of the forum: that is kind of automatic, as from one plant, one gets many seeds...

I am not an expert on forums, as this is the first one I have participated to (later on I have added an Italian one), but I like it here - I just guess that I have been quite lucky!

I did have my moments of dispair and there is plenty of things on which I disagree or I am not interested in, but I do realize that in the moment when you please someone you let somebody else down, so all in all is just better to take it easy.

 

Hi, Tom

I like this forum because it has people who like the same things as I do ... VERY IMPORTANT.

At the beginning of my internet days, only June of last year, I was on an American/Canadian site, a New Zealand site and the RHS. First was interesting but too large and impersonal for the most part, second was smaller, vastly worldwise, very friendly but they wanted to know every little detail of your life barring nada (very personal), RHS ... well, let's just fall asleep.

GC is an entity on it's own ... friendly, helpful, knowledgeable. You can talk in various subjects, not necessarily gardening. I believe I started the pets section because everyone was speaking about it in the gardening section and I thought pets and gardens went together.

There is always someone there to talk to you or answer you, even if you have a personal problem and need someone unrelated to the problem to vent your frustrations on.

In my opinion, we are a cosmopolitan family with similar interests and opinions ... and if they are not ... then so be it.

We don't judge people by their values.

What puts me off with things on the forum ... nothing much actually, very rude people perhaps top of the list but we don't have many of those. :rolleyes:

Good luck with your venture if you proceed and remember, we are always here if you need help and/or advice/encouragement.

 

I have been on many forums and this one is good.
Very friendly .
I found a lot of the forums are a bit clicky and don't take to new people .
Some people on them are not very nice at all .
I can honestly say I have felt very welcome on here.
Had lots of good advise about many different things.
Thank you all very much.

 

People on this Forum come from all backgrounds, all walks of life and totally different upbringings, but here we are all equal, all with a passion for gardening. If your group can achieve just a half of that Tom you will have a very good Forum yourselves, And I, even though we only have cats, would be happy to pay it a visit. David.

 

There is no such thing as a small martini. There is no such thing as a large martini. There is only a litre of martini. (With thanks to AG).

John,

I am well and truly honoured :D

Did those olives i catapulted up your way find the jug or did they break the windows

 

Thanks for your comments,everyone. Plenty to think about now. To tell you a bit more about ourselves, the one thing we all have in common is that we're all Welsh Terrier people and the idea of the group is to organise events that we can do with the dogs (rambles,etc.) We regularly get 30 or more people with their WTs turning up, so the planned web site and forum will be aimed at a fairly local area. There are more WT sites but they are national or international, the intention of ours is to give local contacts and help to owners. Thanks again everyone.

 

Excellent, terrier, let us know how you are getting along...

 

UPDATE
Hi all, I thought it a good time to update you on what happened in Welsh Terrier land as you were so kind as to share your thoughts concerning forums.
Well, it was decided by the members to go ahead with the forum but keep it 'members only' and not a public thing. Anyone interested can join but it has the effect of focussing the forum on WT's as anyone with other dogs would probably not bother. The main focus for the public face is the website and whilst still being experimental, is evolving nicely and we've had lots of good feedback.
The idea that it was going to be a local 'northern' thing has gone a bit by the wayside as we've not only had lots of people from our area but from the southern counties as well, even several people wanting to join from other countries. The forum took off right from the start and membership is growing day by day, far faster than we anticipated. As David said 'People on this Forum come from all backgrounds, all walks of life and totally different upbringings, but here we are all equal', people just love to tell other people about their 'passion'.
So there we are, still in it's early stages but so far so good. If anyone wants to have a look at the WELTAF site, please do and any ( sensible ) comments would be welcome. Thanks again Tom.

 

Terrier, one of the good thing about this site is the delayed aproval of members stops the Brittnney spears naked and cheap viagra mob.

Hope you can copy this feature although sounds like you have.

 

Tom it's a great site and I often visit I know you do rambles in my area and one of these days I will drop in on one(probably on my bike)keep up the good work, love those terriers.