How did this awesome forum come to be? I am stunned by how much better it is than the vast majority of forums out there. Prior to this, the only one that came close was (is) Atlantic Monthly's Post & Riposte which I joined when it first started some ten years or so ago. I think I was member 12 or so, a real 'charter' member!
The place was awesome for a long time then started getting pretty bad, the quality of posting sank fast and hard. Finally it was so bad that all the originals left, or at least most of them did, and the newbies, none of 'em very nice, took over.
The years went by, and now it has regained some, but not all, of its former glory. They've cleaned up the nastiness and put in regulations that prevent future nastiness. Still, though, the forum is just too big and too frenzied, really. You can't keep up with the posting. I hope this forum doesn't get too big.
So, after a wordy intro, I would ask, what do we want from this forum? What does the administrator want? How big? How far in scope, regarding topics?
The place was awesome for a long time then started getting pretty bad, the quality of posting sank fast and hard. Finally it was so bad that all the originals left, or at least most of them did, and the newbies, none of 'em very nice, took over.
The years went by, and now it has regained some, but not all, of its former glory. They've cleaned up the nastiness and put in regulations that prevent future nastiness. Still, though, the forum is just too big and too frenzied, really. You can't keep up with the posting. I hope this forum doesn't get too big.
So, after a wordy intro, I would ask, what do we want from this forum? What does the administrator want? How big? How far in scope, regarding topics?