Posted by Dr. Bob on April 6, 2002, at 20:14:44
In reply to Re: More on Old Timers Board--POLL, posted by tinaboo on April 6, 2002, at 9:01:13
> I don't think the old timers would post exclusively to a board for old timers. I think it would be more of a connection for 'family' from times past. These folks would know each others histories a bit better than most and what some of us have been through without a lot of background details.
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> SharRight, that would be the idea...
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> This is a tough one. If we had added another Board the last time it was discussed, under any cutoff rule, we'd have excluded several people whom I feel very connected to and who are valuable and valued contributors. And really, my bond with them is stronger than my bond with some definite old timers who haven't been around for a long time, for whatever reason.
There's not going to be any way to take into account all personal connections. Unless old-timers could "sponsor" others, but that might be a can of worms...
> However, if the idea is to draw back into the fold people who have left, maybe it's worth at least a trial run. However would you, as Shar has suggested, create a date cut-off or require a certain length of participation as a pre-condition to joining the old timers? If the latter, would new people be added after they have been around for awhile?
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> MairWhat about basing it on degree of participation? Like a frequent flier program? That would take into account length of participation, since the longer someone's here, the more they participate. And it would be an incentive to participate. Yes, new people would be added. At least as long as there weren't too many old-timers!
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> I actually don't like the idea of an old-timers board, being something of a new-timer myself.
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> WendyBut that was then, right? :-)
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> After reading Wendy's post, I went back and looked at some of my prior statements and those of Greg on this issue, written almost a year ago. It was unclear to me whether the disatisfaction was with PB or PSB, and I guess when this issue keeps arising, I have trouble sorting out which Board we're talking about. After all people who might classify as old timers on PB might be relatively unknown to old timers on PSB. I can accept the concept of another Board more easily if I envision it as a hybrid PB/PSB Board which is not necessarily active all the time, but is there as a repository for messages that one old timer might want to post to another... Maybe it would be a way for someone who has left to reenter the group, or reconnect with people who helped them in the past. I don't know how to set something like this up or keep it to certain parameters. I'd hate to see it as a Board that certain people visited to the exclusion of the other Boards, but I think that when Greg wrote about this last June, he made some valid points about why the Board as it's currently constituted doesn't meet his needs.
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> MairI guess I was thinking about a hybrid (or general) board, too. Without topic restrictions. And about the participation criterion being total participation, including all of the boards.
As far as public, my idea was anybody could still *read* the posts there, it would only be posting that would be restricted...
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> I worry a little about the diluting of PB into too many boards
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> Shelli> I look back and see that most of the real discomfort for me started when the board was split into two and then three. I think more dilution could be detrimental.
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> tinaThink of it as diversity, not dilution? :-)
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I went and took at look at degree and length of participation, using the registration data which starts in 5/00. As far as I can tell, those on this thread have posted 461 to 1193 times, starting as long ago as 5/00 and as recently as 6/01.
Overall, degree-wise, 36 posters have posted 500 or more times, 11 starting less than a year ago, 4 of those starting less that 6 months ago. 65 posters have posted more than 300 times, 17 starting less than a year ago, 6 of those starting less than 6 months ago. Length-wise, 109 posters started posting in 5/00, the 20 most active over 300 times each, the 20 least active less than 15 times each. Not all of those posters are still active.
Bob
poster:Dr. Bob
thread:1324
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20020308/msgs/3945.html