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See here, I will argue with you and by doing so prove whatever it is you're trying to prove!
The elderly are dying, but they're hanging so desperately on to an unchanging vision of what Barbelith "is" that there's no room for new blood to bring anything fresh to the board.
So, the oldsters aren't posting on here for various reasons any more but yet at the same time 'forcing' the board to stick to 'an unchanging vision of what Barbelith is'? That was clever of us wasn't it? At this point I normally ask for proof of these allegations but I won't bother, except to note that unless you actually are modzero then puh-leaze, we're walking a line between the board being a place for people to talk about things in a safe environment and the wilderness. Urban75 is thataway if you want it.
But this response of hiding your head in the sand and pretending you can avoid growth and everything will stay the same as it always was is naive.
This merely demonstrates an ignorance of our history. Read the Knowledge FAQ. I also don't think that our actions can be characterised as 'hiding our heads in the sand and pretending we can avoid growth', on what do you base this claim?
From a financial perspective, more users will mean more money in the mid to long term.
Where are you suggesting that we charge for board access? Certainly relying on good will so far hasn't stopped Tom from having to pay the bills each month.
From a social perspective, this is a SOLVED PROBLEM.
Howso? If you charge for access to the board doesn't that mean that people are going to go to the free board down the superhighway? How are you suggesting the pricing structure works so that Tom and a staff make enough money that they don't have to work any more so they can give the time and attention that a paying subscriber would expect to managing the board?
There are thousands of viable message boards that manage to maintain their culture while still growing, and the way it's done is moderation and decent tools. Look around and learn how it's done.
Again, where do you expect the money, time and technical support for this to come from? This thread is full of people saying they don't have the time, as well as sometimes the inclination, to give the board the attention it needs.
Barbelith is hostile to both new users and new topics. If a topic has been discussed in the history of Barbelith, all the old timers will heap scorn upon it.
Now this has more value to it, though as I think has been discussed in some of those old topics people aren't always aware of the 'voice' other people give to their words, something which would go without comment in person is seen as very hostile in cold hard text. But this happens on all boards in all spaces and, for example, I read what you're saying in this case as suggesting that only Barbelith is rude to people whereas all other message boards are a land of milk and honey. Tricky innit? This sounds more like personal experience rather than something that is universal, there are those of us here who could testify that such an experience didn't happen to them.
Unsurprisingly, many people after being bullied just decide to up and leave.
And many people who join never post and many who get 'bullied' (lovely emotive language that!) don't leave. This is a claim that you can't prove, because rarely do such people say anything to note they are leaving.
It's not *that* surprising that you're not getting much new blood, even if the technical and cultural considerations went away. The series from which it draws it's name is long passed, and that means getting new users is going to be hard enough anyhow.
The Sherlock Holmes Appreciation Society seems to be doing well, despite the author's stubborn refusal to communicate from beyond. You're assuming that everyone here came because of the name in the first place, there are loads that never read or had any interest in Grant Morrison's work and we have this wonderful thing called a search engine which can be used to look for words within a page that interest you, often people have found Barbelith using that.
There's barely a single message board, mailing list, forum, whatever on the PLANET that is LESS open to new users.
I would think that if there were message boards they might be a bit more difficult to find than Barbelith. Unless there's a website somewhere of boards which don't appear on any websites, including that list?
Get dynamic. Bring in a horde of new users and learn to think on your feet. Assign moderators as needed, get stuff done as needed. It'll be chaos, but perhaps from chaos you can get some life back into this board, which otherwise will simply remain a stagnant pond.
Blue sky, red hat thinking. Dynamically. Out of the box. Know where your cheese is. America, do you know what colour your parachute is? And so on. Thanks for telling us we should think about ways to stop the rot. That just didn't occur to us. We must crown you as our new king!
This is not helped by a search function that doesn't work very well,
I wonder why no-one has brought this up before.
You should know after all.
You've defined the problem, fancy having a crack at answering it? |
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