Firstly, thanks for giving us the opportunity to have our say openly on the board.
With regards to jokes and banter crossing a line, the problem is, ‘being offended’ is such a personal thing that it’s difficult to second guess others’ reactions (outside the obviously offensive such as sexism, racism and the use of foul language). I can tell a certain joke to my DH but wouldn’t tell the same joke to my mother, for example, but I KNOW them so am able to judge better. Here, the audience is so wide that it’s impossible to judge how everyone will react. Maybe create a SINGLE ‘café’ for joke telling and banter where of course there are still limits in place to meet the family rating of the site but that those who don’t appreciate this kind of humour can avoid – something between the chatroom and the main board. This tends to happen anyway as exchanges shift from one person’s diary page to another. Maybe if this was introduced, the diary pages would run more like bulletin boards and become more manageable.
When the PDA was introduced, I was one of the first to open my own thread. I’ve lately asked for it to be removed. It just wasn’t working for me. I felt it took too much time to check round all the threads of everyone I consider my friends – everyone seemed ‘scattered around’ and I lost that sense of community. I also feel that because most of the banter has moved to PDA, the personality of the board as a whole has changed and I don’t like the change. I do see the advantage of PDA, for example with the current machine training that Gai refers to. PDA is a tool, it’s up to us how or if we use it. But it shouldn’t be used as a ‘dumping ground’ for everything that someone thinks doesn’t ‘fit’ on the main board.
Removing GCC from Recent Topics is fine I think. It ensures the focus remains on quilting but is available to those who want to chat about other things as well. I do feel that some of the decisions regarding relevancy and what has been moved to PDA have been wrong. I LOVE to see photos of where others live, their locale, their gardens, their pets etc. It’s one of the big pluses of being such an international board. Maybe the answer is stricter guidelines about thread titles, so the content is immediately obvious eg ‘My Garden’ or ‘My Newborn Grandson’. That and the poster’s name gives everyone a clear choice as to whether they’ll find that interesting.
IMO Mare Stare should NOT be in PDA. It is the most viewed thread on the board, many friendships have been formed there, the polls have attracted lots of participants and have resulted in fabric being shared all across the world. It is FAR more than ‘one person’s horse’ as has been stated. And it’s only ONE thread ! Thank you Terri for your offer to moderate that thread in future – it’s very generous of you and I for one support that idea.
With regards to what you term ‘negative posts’ – yes I have read things on here that have made me very upset. But this is a community and we all live in the real world. Bad stuff happens to people. And a lot of people draw a lot of emotional support from their friends here on the board, support which is freely and generously given. It also soothes me enormously that I am given the opportunity to ‘do something’ when I hear of someone in need – make a block for a joint project, send a card or whatever. Isn’t that sharing and community effort one of the most wonderful features of this board ?
As for the ‘attention seekers’ – I think most of us are smart enough to spot those a mile off. And who’s to say they’re to be criticised for WANTING a little attention anyway ? The internet is the only link to the outside world and chance of friendship many people have. If the ‘bad stuff’ is moved to one section, I think this will only serve to ENCOURAGE more of this behaviour. It’s like offering a special place just for attention seeking ! I had no problem with it being in GCC. Again, maybe more accurate naming of thread titles would alleviate the problem.
As for posts being deleted – of course that will happen from time to time. The only thing I would like to say is that I trust the judgement of Admin and the moderators to remove stuff that steps over the line. I hope that if I write a post and someone complains that my post is not removed merely as a reaction to a complaint. To me that says ‘the complainant’s feelings and opinion have more value than yours’ – and that just isn’t fair or right.