A Suggestion: Redux

Subject: A Suggestion: Redux
From: GutBucketeer
Date: 14 Nov 99 - 11:24 PM

It seems that the success of Mudcat as a community continues to cause growing pains. Like, any community or organism it must adapt or wither.

The large number of threads and topics from BS, to lyrics, to Folk Music (yes Folk Music) and the difficulty in sorting them out continues to surface as a topic in threads. The most recent is Art Theme's. I for one have been frustrated when I post a music question or comment and it has scrolled off into the sunset before people have a chance to see it and/or respond. Music threads may be getting only one to three responses for several reasons. First, as has been mentioned, as the data base and number of threads grow they may have already been discussed. Equally likely, however is that they may not have been seen by someone with a response. Many of the music threads are different from the BS lines (which I am a fan of too) because they are asking for/sharing some sort of specialized knowledge. Consequently, their likelyhood of being seen by a person with the knowledge drops as the number and rate of threads increases.

Anyway: as a community grows neighborhoods develop; as my research on a topic at work grows, it goes from a a pile, to several folders, to a filing cabinet; when we build a house we design rooms. Yet, each part still remains part of the whole, but the whole becomes more understandable and manageable. If the technology exists I for one, think it would be helpful to have several rooms that I could explore at Mudcat depending upon my mood: Music, Instruments, BS... or whatever.

One of the things I do feel is lately too much bandwidth has been spent in sqabbling. Art Theme made a valid point that seems to be also felt by a number of catters. The many, and widely varied topics bantered about at the "Mudcat Water Cooler" also are a very important part of our community. How do we accomodate both?

JAB

P.S. I don't post often, but I hope this makes some sense to some folks.

Subject: RE: A Suggestion: Redux
From: MMario
Date: 15 Nov 99 - 08:53 AM

I still am confused regarding the "scroll of into the sunset" paradox. Granted, I check regularly, but if I miss a day or more, the FIRST thing I do is refresh the list with ALL threads since I was last in. Nothing get's scrolled off....it's really very simple...

Subject: RE: A Suggestion: Redux
From: Les B
Date: 15 Nov 99 - 12:14 PM

I understand what JAB means by "scrolling into the sunset" - I too am sometimes disapointed that queries disapear before I've gotten complete answers from the amazing variety of experienced people out there. I know, of course, that you can go back 365 days, but when I set the thread for "1" day I feel I'm current -- in the "here and now" -- and not reading stale news. It also tells me there was not enough interest to keep the thread going, and it perhaps should die a natural death. Of course they do sometimes come back to life. The Mudcat Forum, like everything else in modern life, is just getting more complicated, and one learns to skim its increasingly rich menu and choose what you want to dine on.

Subject: RE: A Suggestion: Redux
From: MMario
Date: 15 Nov 99 - 12:40 PM

Perhaps it is that I am used to other forums, whose standard format is to show ONLY the last 25 threads which have been responded to...as the less prolific of those forums can run up to 1200 messages in a day, it can take a lot of scrolling and searching to find anything. The MudCat allows you to trace threads, search by reasonable time periods, etc. it is SO easy compared to other formats and forums.

Subject: RE: A Suggestion: Redux
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 15 Nov 99 - 12:58 PM

I Always set it to 3 days, but I wonderful if a fair number of folks just don't know to do that. There are still a million dead-simple things I can't do on the computer (cause I don't know about them). Some days my brain is just too full. Three days should get you at least a weeks worth of posts. Wouldn't want to miss Catspaw's immortal humour! (just kiding...I think)