Originally Posted by misspoptart (Post 1356148)

I don't feel expected to talk about my life, but the conversations about non-music stuff always feel more lively.

I've posted a bunch of reviews and tried to start discussion, and it's hard for me to tell if people are just not interested, I'm an uninspiring writer, or they are just more excited about the Lounge. All I know is I get little feedback. I'm not saying this because I'm starving for attention. I'm saying this because on the biggest, most popular music forum on the internet, one would think a review of an artist that's never been discussed would attract at least a few comments. I don't know. Like I said, this could be purely about my tastes and writing style. So it's not a big deal. I just wanted to sympathize a bit with Rostasi on that.

I've already posted about this sentiment in the thread (see pages 4-7), and I only posted again to reinforce Rostasi's point and respond to him, since everyone else passed his comment by.

Originally Posted by Arya Stark (Post 1356553)

It's simply timing, laziness, and a bunch of other factors that definitely don't have anything to do with your character!

Originally Posted by misspoptart (Post 1356481)

Hey guys, thanks for the encouragement. TH, you are also a talented writer, and I've seen you admit many times that you know your journals don't get as many comments as you'd like. I find your perseverance admirable! Keep on keepin' on!

Also, I think you and Plank's comments really respond to the point duga was originally making. I'm happy to go on providing content for MB without any validation, and I think others are, too. Yet others are here to read avidly and contribute only sometimes. duga, people get worked up about the little things on MB and in real life, and just because the bad sometimes drowns out the good content, it doesn't mean that we've got a major problem. It simply means that members' priorities are different.

If newbs don't stick around, it's not because they see the drama, get involved in it, and feel unwelcome... I bet it's because they didn't find a niche. And...I think that's okay.

Originally Posted by misspoptart (Post 1356481)

Hey guys, thanks for the encouragement. TH, you are also a talented writer, and I've seen you admit many times that you know your journals don't get as many comments as you'd like. I find your perseverance admirable! Keep on keepin' on!

Also, I think you and Plank's comments really respond to the point duga was originally making. I'm happy to go on providing content for MB without any validation, and I think others are, too. Yet others are here to read avidly and contribute only sometimes. duga, people get worked up about the little things on MB and in real life, and just because the bad sometimes drowns out the good content, it doesn't mean that we've got a major problem. It simply means that members' priorities are different.

If newbs don't stick around, it's not because they see the drama, get involved in it, and feel unwelcome... I bet it's because they didn't find a niche. And...I think that's okay.

Originally Posted by sopsych (Post 1356634)

I disagree. Sometimes it is related to the drama. I think new members who start threads (outside the Introductions section) are particularly likely to get mad and leave (I didn't get pissed about MB until I made some threads). Because this is duga's thread and he is a mod, I think he should do a statistical investigation of that, looking at 40 non-spamming members who joined in 2013 and tried to start music discussion.

Originally Posted by sopsych (Post 1356634)

Not that all of those members were worth keeping around, but certainly proactive new members is what the site needs.

Originally Posted by Urban Hat€monger ? (Post 1354423)

If it was up to me personally I would delete posts in there the moment that people start to criticise the person rather than addressing the topic in hand, and that's any post with any sort of criticism regardless of how much the topic has been discussed in it.
And that means any type of criticism, not just insults.

If people want that I'll do it.

Originally Posted by sopsych (Post 1354432)

Be very specific in posted guidelines about what will get posts deleted (for example, name-calling). But understand that if mods are actively part of that drama, deletions will be seen as unfair (mods above the law) and if moderators refrain from fighting, they'll be 'punished' less with complaints about deletions.

Originally Posted by LoathsomePete (Post 1354473)

I made this suggestion in the Mod forum but I think it's worth bringing up here given how many people are interested in doing something about the state of the Lounge.

What if it was so lounge posts didn't show up when you clicked New Posts. The people who enjoy the lounge still get to post there and all the threads remain the same, but instead they don't overshadow posts made in the music forums.

Originally Posted by Urban Hat€monger ? (Post 1354655)

I really don't think this is an appropriate thread for labelling individual members as trolls, sock puppets, or whatever, when the whole point of it in the first place was to discuss ways of getting away from that.
Would it really hurt to judge the tone of the matter being discussed and bite your tongue once in a while?

Originally Posted by VEGANGELICA (Post 1357368)

I like your idea of lounge posts not showing up when one clicks on 'New Posts' since this would focus attention on the music contributions that many people want to encourage here.

Originally Posted by djchameleon (Post 1357425)

I don't know if you read the entire thread or not but that's a technical limitation that might not be able to have happen.

Plus screw you music lovers, I want new posts from lounge posts :P

It's like you are treating members like sheep and they need to be herding over to the music section of the site so they can't see a lounge post because god forbid they don't feel like talking about music for one day or might not have something to say at this point in time and want to goof off a little bit.

Originally Posted by misspoptart (Post 1357431)

Technical implausibility aside, what's so hard about clicking on the Lounge instead of new posts?? I really don't get why it would be so detrimental to the "fun" side of the forum. :)