An observation

[optrex]

I've noticed a decline in the input on WO over the last few weeks and can't help thinking its because the forum is too young for all the news threads.

Today for example. The seach "new posts" listed 44 threads. Only 2 of them had any human input "Crazy Illusion" and "Christmas lights".

To be honest, it seems on occasions that WO is nothing more than a news feed for Atherstone and the BBC, something both Firefox and IE7 can handle quite well on their own.

Comments please, but please don't turn it into a WO/Will bashing thread

[Shizara]

Am going to comment back to front as it were.... Constructive criticism/comments with the objective of improving something or someone is one thing, but destructive critcism/comments benefits no one, even the perpetrator, as any glory derived from such actions is generally shortlived, so I suppport the comment regarding NOT turning this into a Will or Warwickshireonline bashing.

Warwickshireonline is new and has already shown it has the potential to stand out in a crowd but to keep that status it requires effort on the part of all that are members and indeed, comments from unregistered members are welcome too. Growth generally doesn't happen of it's own accord it needs the supporting role of various other factors and in this instance it is we, the members that can help make Warwickshireonline grow. To comment is rather like watering a plant. Watering facilitates the growth of plants and in the same way, like the gardener, if we tend to our environment we will all benefit.

As for the news feeds, yes, Firefox and IE7 can handle them quite well on their own though you need to sift through to find local news and when, for whatever reasons, no comments are being made they at least provide an ongoing contribution to a few threads.

Perhaps we can all support Will and Warwickshireonline by working just a little harder to encourage new ones, and on that note, if you are a guest reading this, "Welcome to Warwickshireonline", we would love to have you join us. This community is a benefit to those living in Warwickshire but it requires input from us too. Optrex is a regular poster and his postings are of value to the community.

[optrex]

Nicely put Shiz. Interestingly the "human" posts generally get good response and do generate replies.

A couple of statistics may help, from 283 Newsbot posts 262 have not had a reply - leaving only 21 with replies (from those only 4 have had 3 replies or more).

A suggestion would be to place the newsbot threads in an admin only category. From here, admins and mods would "farm out" the useful ones and move them to the public forum. At this point they could then either edit the post with some more relevant information, or post a reply comment. This should, in turn, increase the level of interaction.

Of course, thsi is only my take on it. Feedback from other regular members might give a more balanced view though.

[Shizara]

Feedback from other regular members might give a more balanced view though.

Feedback is proactive and healthy. We don't have to agree with the thoughts of another, simply take the comments onboard and use to make a balanced decision about a matter. In this instance your point of view is very valid and certainly merits consideration. I wonder if Will has any thoughts on the matter, after all, he sees a bigger picture than we do in the future of the forum.

[Will]

Really all the news feeds are relevant to the site as they are all news stories about the area. My take on what is interesting about a story is likely to differ from that of someone else.

I don't see any harm in having them here, apart from the fact that they mess up the new posts search. I'm working to fix it so that news stories don't get included in it's search though.

[optrex]

Oh OK, if you are thinking of doing that, there is a hack on vb.org
I'll see if I can find it for you when I get 5 mins.


Edit: Found it http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showp...&postcount=388

[Will]

Thanks for that.

[Leofric]

Originally Posted by optrex

I've noticed a decline in the input on WO over the last few weeks and can't help thinking its because the forum is too young for all the news threads.

Today for example. The seach "new posts" listed 44 threads. Only 2 of them had any human input "Crazy Illusion" and "Christmas lights".

To be honest, it seems on occasions that WO is nothing more than a news feed for Atherstone and the BBC, something both Firefox and IE7 can handle quite well on their own.

Comments please, but please don't turn it into a WO/Will bashing thread

I sort of vanished because I'm busy, and also a number of threads ended up as "Coventry bashing" threads, which is just a bore... I get this at work as well... Seems common for people to bash the place (Although they're happy to accept well paid, decent jobs here!).

Aside from that, I like the forums, and they're easy to use - I just can't believe that for a region with a population of 1 million, there aren't more folk logging onto it and joining in the threads.

[optrex]

Originally Posted by Leofric

Aside from that, I like the forums, and they're easy to use - I just can't believe that for a region with a population of 1 million, there aren't more folk logging onto it and joining in the threads.

Gosh, I know that feeling and I have a 50 odd million target audience - lol. Feel free to spread the word about WO though

[Madhatter]

I haven't been on cos i got bored, I could say I haven't been on because leofric bashes North Warwickshire, the superior part o the county, but that would be a lie. I stopped going on forums and went on chat and messenger instead.