It's nice to see all the familiar faces posting on this thread and thanks for the sweet messages welcoming me back and letting me know my opinion is appreciated. It's always good to know that there's a home for a brokie out there
I have three thoughts in response to what's been said so far:
(1) how about having a
poll to decide what our subtitle should be? As in, three or four choices (more if they are offered) that would all somehow reflect our desire to be known as a welcoming place for people to chat that has a community feel to it. My options if I were the poll writer would be something like:
a) Chez Tremblay -- The Cyber Campsite for all Bettermost Brokies
Pull up a log and stick a boot in the fire!
b) Chez Tremblay -- Your Virtual Bettermost Diner
serving up cherry cake, coffee and coversation 24-7 [or insert Ma Twist "cherry cake" quote here]
c) Chez Tremblay -- The Cyber Cafe [the choice as it's now reading on the front page of the forums]
(2) In terms of the question of how to let people know what CT is, that it's a place with a special, though not exclusionary, history and always welcomes newcomers, how about the idea of putting a post in the Bettermost User Services forum that is always at the top and has a bit of
a guide to all the forums, maybe two or three lines each so that it's a little more info than just what is on the actual forum page where you click to enter the various forums/boards. This way we could say yes, it's been around as a community for a while and moved here en masse due to trolls at IMDb, but that it's a welcoming place for people to post as a community.
The only thing with this approach is that I wonder if people would actually see that forum much when they first come to the site. In that case, maybe there should be the equivalent of a big sign pointing people to that part of the forums when they first get here or are looking around in bewilderment. I think Phillip did, at one point, have something that said on the main forums page "come here first if you're new to Bettermost" or something. In the interest of acquainting people with the whole site, maybe there should be a larger font or more obvious welcome page that explains, in easy to read bullets, something about the history of the site, and what the various boards are, as well as a brief condensed version of posting guidelines, along with links to more detailed descriptions of them. In fact the big welcome post could have links to all the boards in that post, so people could easily go out and come back in their first jaunt around the site.
(3) Re: the threads moving issue. I'm really glad to know that Meryl and others feel the same as I do about not losing our special history through moving posts. I know that with 36,000 plus posts, some housekeeping is in order... But maybe we should come up with more criteria as a community as to what should stay here and what should be moved. If we know that we want to keep threads like the Ennis del Mar catalog of Huh and Hmmm at Chez Tremblay, what are the factors in that decision? Or in keeping Barb's thread here, for that matter.
It seems like we might have some criteria like (going from the top of my head)
--was the post re-constituted from our IMDb days?
--Is it from someone who's been a longtime member of CT?
--Is it posted here because the user wants it to be discussed here specifically?
--Does it demonstrate somehow the level of community we developed on this particular board?
--Does it have a peculiar brand of humor that has come to characterize a lot of the posts and feeling of camraderie at CT?
--Is it a particularly active thread here or was it once very active (and maybe deserves a bump)?
These are some ideas, maybe others have more. I think in any of the above cases, if it's a "yes" then the thread should be a keeper at CT for sure. But that does not really cover all the instances that threads should stay here, it's just what comes to me now as I'm getting ready for bed.
One more point. Something Ruby said in her post reminded me of what I do miss from IMDb: that everything was in one place there, and it was easier to know the immediate feel of the community in any given day by just looking at the first page of CT. It's interesting that the discussion here did grind to a halt a month ago, as David said, and part of me wonders if that had anything to do with the new boards and re-organization. In other words, are the social events forum, the chat room, and the open forum serving a lot of the needs that CT once had for us?
...I just wonder if there is a point at which too much compartmentalization could be de-unifying to Bettermost as a whole, and not just Chez Tremblay. It's something to think about.
...I remember back in February when threads at the IMDb Chez Tremblay would be like a chat, where someone (usually Chris Slayers or maybe Ray) would start off a thread by asking how people were doing today and saying good morning. I miss those days of it feeling like one big room. Of course, Chez Tremblay and the whole site has to change over time, as people come in, or others move on, or new ideas come to pass. But maybe we can bring back a little more of that kind of spirit to the CT board. Chat is great but it's so ephemeral and fast moving at times, and can only happen with whomever is there in the moment; whereas a leisurely "how is your day out there" thread could happen at Chez Tremblay, and incorporate longer reflection than chats generally do. It's just a thought.
Thanks for listening and now it's off to bed!
Jenny
