User-hosted forums
 

I like Sycamore's user-hosted forum, he uses it for posting insights and information about his own life. That's the ideal use... it's for anecdotes and insights which are intrinsically associated with Sycamore. Sometimes threads wander into more general discussions which could fit in other areas of the site, but tha't bound to happen... but they start as a post related to Sycamore. that's the forum you visit if you want to know what's going on with him, and what kind of guy he is*.

Not to belittle our other dear members with shiny new hosted forums, but I think that if a topic is for general consumption, and is not specifically about that member's life-and-times, it ought to go into a more appropriate place. If someone unfamiliar with the Cellar were to visit, they wouldn't know to click on "Sidhe's Think Hole" to read intersting news on poetic justice, which would fit well under "Current Events" or "Home Base;" or to click on "Lumberjim's Office" to see Cellar-related comics, which would fit nicely under "Home Base," "Quality Images," or "Cellar comments and suggestions."

I just think that if such general-consumption postings are squirreled away in a user-hosted forum, they won't do as much to contribute the Cellar community... and that's why we're all here, isn't it?

Anyone agree? Disagree? I've been wrong before. Frequently.



* Swell, by the way. He's a swell guy.

I think you make a good point, HP, and I agree with you to an extent, but I would bet that lumberjim and Sidhe probably both believe that what they use their forums for is specific to them as individuals. In fact, lumberjim happens to have specific knowledge about cars and car sales, so, he has a couple of threads dedicated to those topics.

Or I may be missing your point.

Bah Sidhe wanted a forum because she's insane and wanted it very very very very badly.

LJ is also insane and wanted a forum because Sidhe was about to get one and he didn't want to be left out.

funny you should mention that, alan. I am currently working on a thread that is about my misspent youth. I wanted to have at least half of it written before i started posting it though, so there wouldn't be weeks in between posts whiel i hurriedly wrote more of it. I agree that these forums should be specific to the person hosting it. that's why i have restricted people from posting new threads in mine.....to keep the number of threads to a minimum, thereby making organization and thread stickiness better in there. I put the car threads up first because they were easy to create, and it is my area of expertise. The cartoon thing is redundant, i admit, but i wanted to carry an ongoing comic strip about the cellar, and have the ability to maintain the thread in order to minimize chatter....i should have waited before i posted the original thread.

anyway, I appreciate your perspective on how you feel the user forums should be used, and for what it's worth, i agree with you. I will most likely loosely bind myself to the covenants you describe, too.

eat me, rusky :)

Well, I'm not saying that the user-hosted forums should go away, only that they should be used selectively. Ljim's CARS posts are pretty appropriate since that's his speciality, but I think it's a silly place for the Cellar Comics thread.

For instance, if I had a forum, I would post stuff there about events in my life, which would be appropriate usage. I would post any personal rants about strong opinions I posses, because that's a pretty good place for such things. I might post stuff about programming and web design, since those are my specialties, but that's a little iffy, because they could be more useful to people under The Internet or Technology... but that could go either way. But if I found a cool news story, I'd still stick it under Curernt Events, because it belongs there.

I'm not saying that just because I would do it that way it's the best way to do it... oh who am I kidding, yes I am. And I'm one smart motherfucker. Just ask Jimbo. :D

I'm going to have a user hosted forum.

It's going to be called "My forum is better than your forum."
Inside I will rant and rave continuesly about how my forum is superior to all other user hosted forums and how they should kneel before me in awe.

quick, toad, give alan his own forum!

oh, and alan, if i just get a hair across my ass and feel the need to post a thread about whatever, i will still be putting it in home base.

i will be limiting the amount of threads in my forum to specific topics to prevent dillution. Things like the woodshop and the cartoon strip i hope to keep as ongoing threads. the car threads for whenever someone has a question. I won;t be boring you with current sales events, rates or rebates. i won't try to sell you anything (overtly) ...it's more of an ask the editor type thing.

That would be why I voted "no" on that one.

There must be a shortage of controversial topics to discuss in the land of the Fey.

I, too, would like to have a user forum.

I want it to be so exclusive that no one (including me) is allowed to post in it.

ah, no one reads what you post anyway, beest....

I'm not trying to tell you how to run your forum, dude... I guess I just reacted to the sprouting of two new personal forums with thoughts like "What niche does this new forum fill? It will only take topics away from where they belong." So I peeked inside, and found that to a degree, it seemed to be true. Hence my post.
Yes, and please title it "Look how clever and insightful Hot Pastrami thinks he is."

For the record, I think the LJ has already begun making good use of his forum, even if he insists on posting headlines in all caps like some kind of smacked ass Newbie.

yeah, i know you weren't. your comments actually help in defining my purpose......

...if i was really organized, i might have begun with a "mission statement" and listed my intentions, but that's not very dramatic or suspenseful if you know what im plotting and planning.


by wolf
duh, wolf, i AM some kind of smacked ass newbie.....duuuuhhh.

and i like the topic to be in caps...it looks more important that way.

note to alan
 

hp,

you're an artist. i'd like to see some contributions from you in my comic strip thread......and the woodshop, too...c'mon, it'll be fun!

Re: note to alan
 

Aha! YOUR comic strip thread! You're trying to feed your ego, not the community! Hiss!

Cough.

I mean... sure, I plan to contribute to the comics. :D I'm too inexperienced and undertooled to participate in the woodshop, however.

you fucker.. i said "my" to differentiate between the one in Lumberjim's Office and the one i started in home base. i'm too busy feeding my belly to feed my ego.

eta: also, as i think about it, the one in home base was put up to collect actual artists' material, i just started it with a shot at tw in hopes to get a rise from him/her/it.

Heheh. Hey, don't get upset at me... you're the one who stumbled into my shrewd word-trap. Who's more at fault... the one who plants a landmine, or the one who steps on it? Oh shit... don't answer that. :D

I've got an idea...

You want your own User Hosted Forum, there are some wonderful tools out there that don't involve the Cellar.

Blogger
Moveable Type
WordPad

And a million more. There are even free hosts so you don't have to pay for webspace.

And there are utilities that allow you to have comments on each of your posts. Nifty, innt?

Honestly, I don't often read the User Hosted Forum posts, I do peek in on Sycamore's Manifestos from time to time, because I dig how the guy thinks, but IMNSHO, I think a forum about one person doesn't belong on a 'community'.

But ya'll run with your new forums, and have at it. I'll keep plugging away at my blog.

Dagney

But blogs are creepy. Only vain people who are delusional in thinking that the enitre world wants to hear about thier every day experience have those.

Forums are cool. It's cool to have a forum.

Blogs are like the VW Bug or the Mini. 10% of the population think it's cool, the remaning 90% laugh at them.

And you think that these User Hosted Forums are much different? They're just blogs with a different format.

For me personally, I know that there is a very small group of folks that read what I write. I could care less about my hit rate, or monitoring who comes and goes from my site.

I write there, because I'm an 'online' person, and since I'm sitting in front of my machine for the majority of my day, I thought that it would be best to move my journal 'online' instead of carting around yet another document in my briefcase.

So, no, we're not all delusional in thinking that the world is waiting for another post from us. So, be careful not to lump the wrong people into a group they don't belong in.

Or someone may lump you into one you may not like.

Dagney

Nope. I don't.

But I was feeling trollish.

I felt trollish once. She slapped me.