Creating a "maturing" forum!

[freeztar]

The vB social groups are great, but they lack certain key features like notifications.

The posts in social groups are virtually featureless compared to a forum post.

 

DD's idea is interesting and I'm curious if vB would consider it? :D

[Doctordick]

Well, perhaps I have been talked out of what I originally had in mind.

I think I understand. I'm torn on the idea though. On one hand, it could improve the quality of discussion. On the other hand, it seems somewhat arrogant, or "high brow".

Yes, I suppose it does come across that way and that would not be good for any forum.

The average of all votes is shown in the forum view, to the right of the thread titles. I know its not even close to what you are requesting, but it's the closest thing Hypography has for members to quickly judge the quality of a thread. If everyone used this system, it would provide a good general indicator of discussion quality, imho.

That sounds like a pretty good idea. The problem with it is that it requires an effort by the users. My wife and I subscribe to netflix and they have an excellent rating system. You get a screen which says “rate this film” with five stars under it. All you have to do is click on the appropriate star to rate the thing. When the arrow is on a star, a pop-up specifies what is meant by that star. It is quick and easy and “quick and easy” is really the only way to get people to do anything. I will bet if such a thing were implemented on a post basis, the forum might get some powerful feedback.

A member could create an invite-only social group that I suppose could be made to function as Dr. Dick says.

Yep, it probably could and I lost all interest in doing such a thing when I read your post. I think the word “social” was the death knell. Back when I was a graduate student, the physics dept had a weekly “social” meeting in a conference room on Friday afternoon with donuts and coffee. I was told it was organized to allow researchers and/or students to talk about what they were doing in their research on an informal basis. The purpose was supposed to be to get feed back on interest or to bring up issues from a different point of view to allow people to learn.

 

It seemed like a good idea but it wasn't. Physics was one subject which was absolutely never discussed at any meeting I ever attended and, with free donuts, I went to most of them. I have just looked at the “social clubs” Hypography already has and what they talk about. I am afraid nothing very deep is being brought up there. The best one is probably the “Wildflowers” group. I suspect it boils down to the “high brow” issue. No one wants to take part in a discussion which might question their ability to think. At the bottom, I guess we are all squirrels so to speak; attention span is not our strong suite.

As for the lounge, every member with more than 25 posts can join - simply follow the instructions in the sticky post at the top of the Lounge forum.

I think you missed my point. I wasn't concerned with joining; I was just pointing out that the forum had the power to have an area which could be seen and read where access to post could be controlled.

The vB social groups are great, but they lack certain key features like notifications.

The posts in social groups are virtually featureless compared to a forum post.

 

DD's idea is interesting and I'm curious if vB would consider it?

After reading your comments, I am beginning to think that your interpretation of what I meant was perhaps more interesting than what I was originally thinking of. Giving the person starting the thread control over who can post together with editing and/or deletion privileges might yield some interesting results but it seems to me that the authority to use such powers should be tightly controlled; at least until the actual consequences were understood. I have an old quote I like to use quite often, “God save me from the guy who knows what ought to be done as he is the most dangerous man in the world!”

 

Have fun -- Dick