TM
A-List Customer
- Messages
- 309
- Location
- California Central Coast
The Lounge, I suppose, is owned by MK. He makes the rules, hopefully with the advice of the Bartenders, who then enforce the rules. The Lounge is a private venture and so complaints of “you’re trampling on my rights of free speech” don’t apply. So members can post, but must obey the rules.
But while the Lounge is a private venture, it is the member discourse that gives it value. Thus the feelings of the membership must be considered. If those feelings are not considered, members can (and have) drifted off.
I was not here in the early days, but it seems to me that then the Lounge developed a small, dedicated group of members very focused on the specific subject of the Lounge. Over time membership has grown tremendously, and this has lead to diffusion away from the original conception. This is to be expected.
The question then is how does the Lounge address the desires of a large, diverse membership, while retaining the basic focus on the “Golden Era”? We have previously seen an interest in off-topic conversations in the old “news” forum. That forum was terminated as MK and the Bartenders thought it became too off-topic. So those off-topic topics transferred to the Observation Bar where we see the same problem again today.
I don’t think this problem will go away, if anything it will grow as membership grows. Maybe we just need an “off-topic” forum. But perhaps posting should be restricted until the member posts 50 or so “golden era” related posts. That would help insure that new members become indoctrinated to the ethos of the Lounge before being allowed to go off-topic.
Tony
But while the Lounge is a private venture, it is the member discourse that gives it value. Thus the feelings of the membership must be considered. If those feelings are not considered, members can (and have) drifted off.
I was not here in the early days, but it seems to me that then the Lounge developed a small, dedicated group of members very focused on the specific subject of the Lounge. Over time membership has grown tremendously, and this has lead to diffusion away from the original conception. This is to be expected.
The question then is how does the Lounge address the desires of a large, diverse membership, while retaining the basic focus on the “Golden Era”? We have previously seen an interest in off-topic conversations in the old “news” forum. That forum was terminated as MK and the Bartenders thought it became too off-topic. So those off-topic topics transferred to the Observation Bar where we see the same problem again today.
I don’t think this problem will go away, if anything it will grow as membership grows. Maybe we just need an “off-topic” forum. But perhaps posting should be restricted until the member posts 50 or so “golden era” related posts. That would help insure that new members become indoctrinated to the ethos of the Lounge before being allowed to go off-topic.
Tony