Jumping ship?

[Guest guest]

Hey this is a great forum here! There may be some

limitations in the software, but no big problems, really. And

if the clubs are all getting transferred to

soon, perhaps we should se how that goes. Maybe

the software will be better. (Sunshine, where have

you been reading about this changeover?) As far as

inactive founders, I would assume they just mean that if

they can't get a reply from someone when they contact

them about the move. This doesn't seem like a club

that would be dropped.<br><br>If there is some kind of

move in the works, hopefully the club will migrate

smoothly and Betty will let us know about it (if she even

needs to, maybe its just something that will happen

automatically). I would hope that efforts to start another club

might hold off and see what happens first. I would hate

for Betty to think that the members here are unhappy

and want to go somewhere else. I hope she continues

to provide this forum. Also, if other groups start,

it just makes it harder to get info. Which clubs

should I read? Which clubs should I join? Does everyone

read them all? Who will see my questions if I post

them here or there? Maybe it would be cool to have

lots of Ashtanga yoga forums, but maybe it wouldn't.

Its good to have one central place. <br><br>These

recent discussions about "marking" off-topic posts just

point up again that it would be helpful for everyone to

try to stick to the subject and not use the forum as

if it were private email (you can always use email

for that) to discuss whatever. As long as everyone

just keeps that in mind, there shouldn't have to be

any big deal about having rules or getting upset with

some off-topic posts. People make friends here and

sometimes just have some friendly talk. Its been a fun and

interesting forum overall, and with a pretty good

"signal-to-noise ratio".<br><br>One thing to keep in mind on the

subject of off-topic posts is that every message is a

permament addition to the "messagebase". (although it could

all disappear anytime). It wouldn't make sense to

keep posting over and over everything that can be said

about Ashtanga yoga. When someone new finds this club

the first thing they would probably want to do (and

maybe should do) is read all the messages. There is a

tremendous wealth of info there. With over 5000 messages

that have to load one at a time, it can take forever.

Many members who read the posts regularly may check in

only every few days (or weeks) and they may have 100's

of messages to catch up on. Each off-topic post adds

to the time it takes to get through the messages. On

many peoples machines there is a wait for each message

to load. It all adds up. Also, since you don't have

to be a member to read the posts, noone knows how

many people are reading the posts and there is no

limit to how many people may find this club in the

future. Some of the more prolific "OT" posters are some

of the nicest people here. Maybe they just want to

keep some discussion going. Maybe if more people would

post messages relating to Ashtanga yoga, there would

be less OT posts. Surely people have things to say?

One thing that probably keeps some people quiet is

the meanness that sometimes happens, so that is

another factor we can control.<br><br>Anyway I think this

group has been great overall and I hope it keeps on

going. Thanks to Betty and thanks to all members.

[Guest guest]

TL, I totally agree. I enjoy this club and feel

strongly that more clubs is NOT better. But there are

definite limitations to the format, and these

limitations will not be improved upon with the change-over,

as far as I know. I checked eGroups and the

transition is already taking place, with no seach functions

to the postings.<br><br>If there was a search

function, we could find messages on any given topic in a

snap instead of haing to read through thousands. Also

it would help those who use cyber cafes, have

limited time on hand, or who have slow machines or slow

connections. Skipping over irrelevant messages would be

easy.<br><br>OT discussion is inevitable and fun. We should

encourage open exchange of ideas, even if they stray from

the strict topic of ashtanga yoga. This is a club,

after all, a gathering of like-minded folk. There

aren't that many people in the world who practice

ashtanga yoga, after all!<br><br>Let's just see how this

evolves naturally. If it proves to be more appealing to

more people to stay here, so be it. But the ezboard is

there for anyone who would prefer to post there. No

mutiny intended, just convenience.

[Guest guest]

Let's not also forget that some members

automatically receive these messages on their e-mail. Can you

imagine getting 100+ e-mail messages that are better

reserved for a few people's personal e-mail discussions?

Although I didn't select this option (on purpose) I think

I might have some voyeuristic tendencies and enjoy

the "fluff" that goes on about public radio, beer,

music, diet, etc. <br><br>Maybe we should follow

TSLADE's advice: put topics on your messages! (I admit

that I do click first on any messages from el senor

and replies to his messages...those are the juiciest

ones).

[Guest guest]

The founder of a club has the ability to delete

messages. Because Betty Lai does not frequent this club all

the fluff stays about. None of the members have the

ability to delete messages, and transfer of foundership

is not possible.<br><br>If the fluff was deleted

after a week or two, it wouldn't clutter up the board,

but it would still allow people the freedom of speech

we all want.<br><br>About putting topics on

messages: even on-topic subjects mutate into fluffy

threads. It's happened a lot here!

[Guest guest]

p.s. sorry about all this posting, but here's

another benefit of the ezboard: messages can be moved

around or deleted. If there are some off-topic messages

accumulating in the asana section, for example, we can move

them to the off-topic category.

[Guest guest]

I (generally) like the atmosphere and the

discussion that goes on here. But having to wade through

loads of stuff sequentially IS a pain. The fact that

lots of us are suddenly discussing this and trying

other things around the same time is a clear sign that

we've reached some kind of critical mass of

pain-in-the-assness. (See Trishan's second club, my index,

Sunshine's ezboard).<br><br>I agree with Terry that it would

be a shame if the energy and momentum that we have

here fragmented. But I'd just like to add a suggestion

for some very good web bulletin board software. It is

used at <a href=http://www.photo.net target=new>http://www.photo.net</a> a

photography website

that I used to frequent, and has a number of good

features:<br><br>- messages are grouped by subject, with the

original message and all responses displayed on one

page<br>- full text search<br>- ability to view messages by

author<br>- messages can be categorised. Recent messages are

all displayed together, older messages are grouped by

category<br>- can embed html (images, links) in

messages<br><br>All in all, a much better user interface than we have

here. The same software is available for other

discussion groups - I'll look into it.

[Guest guest]

Actually, now that I've checked on ezgroups (like

I should have done before I wrote my last piece of

fluff) it does seem to have most of the features that I

like about the photo.net software - except that there,

you get an index of a person's messages by default as

part of their profile. And you can sign up to receive

email notification for particular topics rather than

for everything.