MCJ wrote:I just logged on there, picked up a pm and sent one back.
It is my feeling that this was bound to happen after the purge of autumn 2008. I also believe that RD knows exactly what is going on and that actually, he wants rid of the forum altogether, that it is too big a monkey on his back. Let's be honest, he's not a man of the people (I'm with Mrs CJ on this one) and some of us are just not the right kind of person; intellectual snobbery always existed on the site from some parties, which is why Dawks came into being.
It's just a shame nobody there had the balls to come clean about it nor the manners to deal with people in a civilised way.
The way I see it, Richard has always posted more on the front page than in the forums, which he uses more as a resource when he wants some ideas, to ask something or to set something right. (wonder where those will fit in their pre-judged topics?) It is a bit odd to have two such separate things going on under one banner- quite often people on the front page didn't post to the forum and vice-versa. These "new" discussion boards seem to me to be in keeping with the front page way of doing things, except the content to be commented on can be added by anyone.. so long as it passes their judgement.
Sticking on topic is actually very hard, it's not the way our brains work or the way normal human conversation goes. It stifles debate because it stops new people adding new information. On very strict "on-topic" forums I have been in it often seems like people run out of things to say, because they must stick to such a narrow way of exploring the issue.
On the other hand, the front pages were always better when people were succinct and on-topic, because the comments were directly below articles I wanted to see what other people were saying about that, and not witness some silly argument between members or over things like spelling. For that very limited kind of discussion this format does work, it is easier to read and it is cleaner. It is also boring. It is also useless at building relationships between members and building discussion. It is also rampantly open to hit-and-runs and people not being taken to account for their views, because you can't challenge certain remarks and expand on them because you're "off-topic".
It's a miserable way to run a forum.
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