@dmyhill Thank you for your feedback. I'm open to any and all feedback and criticisms. And yes, I would like to keep it open to everyone, regardless of political opinion, race, religion, gender, etc.
I've given up on RPLS.com being a profit center, partially due to my own lack of time to work on it, but also because I don't think we've found that sweet spot yet. We had it in the early days, but that software just couldn't handle the traffic, and I can't even begin to imagine how much it would struggle now. But I do think a simple forum is where we need to go at this point.
It took me a while to realise that while there is no "jump to latest post" in a thread that if I click on the date under the last persons name it jumps to the end, was a great find rather than having to scroll though to find where the latest content is.
since the format change I rarely visit the site ... back in the day I used to monitor it weekly 😔
Wow! I didn't know that either! Must've missed it somehow. Great find to help with navigation.
T. Nelson - SAM
There are some suggestions to bring back P&R. The one good thing when it was on the board was that I could block the entire section. I would say the only way I wouldn't mind seeing it return is if I could block it. I also imagine that Wendell wants nothing to do with it and I can't blame him.
SWMBO is on Facechat and it's a toxic environment. She is trying to navigate using it for family and friends, but even that will lead her down into awful chats. The last was when she defended a challenged student she taught, who apparently said something politically unapproved by the borg. Imagine attacking a young woman who is trying to make it through life with disadvantages. That's were online is today.
My sentiments, exactly. Plenty of other forums exist for people to "politely discuss" their heartfelt beliefs in the various prophets, deities and politicians.
Would this type of forum style be a welcome change? (see screenshots below)
I know there's been a lot of changes over the years, but it seems this current format was a mistake. However, it was my last great attempt at making this a profitable venture and I still feel like it was a good shot at it. However, I have given up on that premise (see previous reply above). We've been running this format for about a year and the general feedback I receive is that most everyone wants to go back to a traditional forum anyway.
The good news is the conversion back would be relatively easy. I've been experimenting with it in my copious free time (LOL) and the screenshots below are the current "beta" of that.
Personally I'm just glad this site exists in whatever format, both for what I've learnt and been able to contribute to. If it brings back some of the members who have dropped off more recently that would be awesome but I'm not sure how to reach them other than an email to address in profiles if they are not checking in so often.
Wendell, this new format looks better to me. I like that it has options to format posts and to like posts. These features are missing in the current format.
Thanks, @matt8200 for the feedback! 🙂
I agree, this current forum is pretty simplified in terms of text formatting and doesn't have reactions. I'm glad I didn't get too deep into this software (well, deep enough, but lots of stuff going on this year that kept me from spending as much time on it as I wanted).
There are some suggestions to bring back P&R. The one good thing when it was on the board was that I could block the entire section. I would say the only way I wouldn’t mind seeing it return is if I could block it.
I'm contemplating bringing it back, but you'd only see posts in P&R if you specifically elected to join the P&R forum. And I don't just mean click a button and join instantly, I would likely have a disclaimer you'd have to agree to prior to joining P&R. It would be lightly moderated, i.e. much less moderated than the rest of the forums. Still not sure I want to do this, but we'll see.
FWIW, I did have a P&R group here in this format, only available to those who specifically joined it. I believe we had around 8ish members in there. Nobody really used it. Seems that those that want to talk about politics only want to do so when everyone can see it...? Perhaps it was just the groups functionality they didn't like (nobody really used any of the groups, which is why they are gone now).
options to format posts
In the meantime, did you know that you can click the Aa button in the editor to display text formatting options? 🙂
I do like the more easily seen formatting options of the proposed new format. There is nothing in particular that I don't like about the current format. It is workable and accomplishes the tasks. But the 'dated' older format seemed, to me, more quickly navigated. If it could bring back some other posters, I would see that as beneficial.
I sincerely hope that many of the posters who disappeared and those who only post on rare occasions will rejoin the site with much higher frequency (tenor vs. bass). 😃
Point/Counterpoint discussions are especially enlightening (SNL with Dan Aykroyd and Jane Curtin ) I hope many of you remember the Pipe vs. Stone discussion that went on and on and on.......................
More participation leads to feeling as though you know someone well, yet you have never met them.
No I did not realize the Aa button shows formatting options. Thank for pointing this out.