This is not a social forum

free4440273

This IS a social forum: people are nice to each other (by and large:rolleyes:)

forumman_2

Hi, I have to say I did not expect such a passionate response on this subject and have been in hiding fearing for my life. The issue of debt diaries and 'how much will you spend today' threads being banned was never suggested by me just simply putting them in a sub-forum which gives the best of both worlds the way I see it. Responding now, I know, is ironic because it takes up the newbie space that I wanted to free up but little concerned that two regular posters can declare a thread dead and everyone follows their instruction. Democracy on the board is another subject entirely... As sombody already stated that it's up to the great man and I am not he.Kind regardsPS- I agree this IS a very sociable forum.

ZTD

forumman wrote: »

Responding now, I know, is ironic because it takes up the newbie space that I wanted to free up but little concerned that two regular posters can declare a thread dead and everyone follows their instruction. Democracy on the board is another subject entirely....

There is no democracy. In a democracy the majority make a decision and the minority must follow it.

If the board controllers want to stop a thread - it's stopped. If the majority want to stop a thread - the minority can ignore that.

Why did you ever think it was a democracy? Or was this just meant to be an emotive word used to have a go at "regular posters"? Again.

rog2

I haven't read through the whole post, but the first couple of pages seemed to sum it up for me.
In my opinion, if that is worth anything, it is often through the 'social threads' that posters, newbies or established, can 'judge the worth' of a poster and will have a better idea as to whether that poster's advice is likely to be worth taking note of.
Stop the 'socialising' and you will 'kill' DFW - many of us spend several hours a day on this forum - it's not all 'Friday Night Parties' and 'My dog's just had puppie's' but those threads do, indeed, keep us on the site - we don't spend all our time in them and do look out for 'Newbies' and the more serious thread.
What would you have us do, forumman? - sit at our computers, with our reference books at the ready? I don't think many of us would do that for long.
I'm sure, however, that there are chat forums out there that cater for your requirements, if this one doesn't.

chloebelle

As far as I'm concerned its the forum users who dictate what they want. If those using the forum want to talk social, then so be it. What is the point in forcing discussion to be about money only, it will drive users away. I often use the IMDB forums and on some boards, users are so aggressive. You post a query and get shouted at my loads of people saying 'this has been posted before! Look bakc on page 394 you moron!' Its like being policed! Some of the boards are so fanatical about what you can and can't discuss I just don't use them.

The users make the forum, I personally think the balance between genuine advice and chit chat is fine.

Snaggles

I've just posted this on the other thread but this is the 'official' word on the subject:

MSE_Forum_Manager wrote: »

Just to clarify from our point of view. Whilst we like to keep threads and posts of a certain board "on topic", the boards very greatly in terms of the way they work and the patterns they fall into and whilst some are very much by the title, others do wander off into more relaxed chat.

We would never look to kill any community or chat on a thread - it's a public forum and no one "owns" a board or thread. It is here for everyone to be a part of. That said, if people were constantly posting off topic comments, we would encourage them to stick more to the designated chat areas (MSE/DT). We like to think that somewhere in the middle there is some common ground where we can have both - the on topic comments and the community chat side that people return here for.

Remember, the reason everyone is on DFW is because they share the same interest - off topic occasional chat doesn't mean they arent DFW focussed!

pania

Everything the power of the world does is done in a circle.
The sky is round and the earth is round like a ball and so are the stars,
The wind in it's greatest power whirls,
Birds make their nests in circles,
The sun comes forth and goes down again in a circle,
The moon does the same and both are round.
Even the seasons form a great circle and come back again to where they were..........

AND SO DOES THIS BL00DY DEBATE!!!!!!!!!

Snaggles i entirely agree that the MSE Forum managers word should be the last on this. We ALL give our time freely to newbies but we all "chat" to keep the warmth and good feeling going.

and in the immortal words of forrest gump, another famous literacist, "thats all i have to say about that..."


with apologies to black elk (olga sious) for some heavy editing!!

Dithering_Dad

pania wrote: »

i entirely agree that the MSE Forum managers word should be the last on this.

No, I think this - my word - should be the last word on this subject.

(I never have the last word at home with Mrs Dither and the two Ditherettes, so I'm having it here!)

bountiful

I'm a newbie and I love the chat - everytime I post I know that my thread goes to the top of the list for a few moments - and the people who are interested in helping will catch it as it comes up. I am already familiar with the familiar names and starting to respond myself to new posts. Keep asking, keep posting and refresh your thread - participate. There are thousands of people on here.....:D

ms_london

I still think it would be a good idea to have a separate forum/sub forum for the debt diaries - not because I dont want to read them, but it would make it easier to sort through.

I have bumped a few threads because theyve ended up being 4-5 pages down, and some people crying out for help do get missed.

However, I am a fan of the debt diaries and it seems that the powers that be want to keep the forum as one, as we've been asking for this for as long as I've been away- so perhaps we have to like it or lump it.

Myself and a few others have been on the receiving end of a 'It's not a knocking shop' post telling us to stop chit chatting before, some people are just plain miserable I have to say (not aiming this at you, just the person that posted that thread all that time ago!)! BUUTTTTTTTTT, there are people coming here for help that get missed and ignored.

Ok, my 2 cents worth, I'll go now.... (replying to your email SS!) xx