[Jewelry making - Article 00561] - Re: [Orchid] Improve Orchid content

[Trevor F]

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>     I'm sorry if this bothers any of the other people monitoring this
>     news group but I need to make an observation. .... 

Hello Mark,

    You've brought up a good point but I'd like to offer a slightly
    different take on the subject. 

    In a previous job part of my duties included the moderation and
    management of a fairly active message board. I did it from the early
    days of the board and in the 4 years of my involvement we enrolled
    almost 6000 members who made about 150,000 posts. I mention this
    because I think an active, well moderated message board is not unlike
    our Orchid mailing list. 

    In my experience Orchid is exceptional in it's quality of posts and
    contributions.  Yes, it's true, the odd topic wanders off course now
    and again but that's just the nature of the beast IMHO.  If you want
    people to contribute you need to let them speak their mind, within
    reason of course, and that sometimes means they stray from the
    original topic.  Sometimes that's just a diversion but more often
    than not --especially on Orchid-- it becomes another subject of
    worthwhile discussion. 

    From=20what I've seen I feel compelled to point out that
    over-moderation, or overly restricted discussions, can severely
    damage the forward momentum of what is, after all, a community of
    volunteers. Despite the best intentions the end result can be a
    severe loss of participation and in that light the potential gains
    may seem pretty pale in comparison. And yes, I am speaking from
    personal experience here. 

    So what's my point you may be asking yourself. Just this: certainly
    it would be good for us to keep your suggestion in mind when we post
    to Orchid but part of the reason Orchid thrives is that we don't feel
    hampered or restricted in process of making those posts. As
    "volunteers" here that's a pretty important thing. A little wandering
    here and there is par for the course and a small inconvenience when
    you look at the unique community and treasure of information that
    Orchid has become. If it ain't broke don't fix it. 

Cheers, 
Trevor F.

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