A Negative Free DR1

[rmary]

Let me get this straight. This board is to "promote" information about the DR. Just what kind of information are you promoting?

I sat back and gave my own impression of the information that is being provided, ie, trash talk. and got virtually ignored. Or rather told that a "newbie's" opinion doesn't matter.

Pick one. Either you are a board that welcomes newbies and their intersts, or you DO NOT. I can't see how you can promote this board as the primary board for information about the DR and then completely disregard the needs or opinions of those who are seeking your advice.


Being the "first" at something definitely does not make one the "best".

Rose

P.S. Let me put it this way. Given that I have not met most of you guys, and given what has been written on this board, what on earth would possess me to want to hang out with any of you. I'm not talking about how you guys may be in person, but how ou come across on this board. If you guys don't care how it comes across, so be it.

Rose

 

[rmary]

HI Robert,

QUOTE]Putting off newbie?s doesn?t worry me, because the reality is it doesn?t happen that often. The website is transient in nature, as 70%+ of the visitors are purely looking for travel/tourist related information. They couldn?t careless about the news or ?what?s a sankie? etc. [/QUOTE]

Why do you think that is? Why do you think that the "newbies" don't stick around?????? Maybe it is because the other forums other than the travel and trip reports sections are rather inhospitable places for a "newbie" to participate in. If you provde an inhospitable environment, it is not suprising that "newbies" (who never get a chance to be anything else) don't stick around.

And I would emphasize my previous point. If there were no problem here, you would not have spent the last six months contemplating actions to remedy the situation.

My comments were to provide a perspective from the point of view of one of the groups that you claim to be serving witht his board. To have it blithely disregarded and tossed aside because "I" am practially a dime a dozen does not make me feel very good as a "client". The again, who are ou "clients"?

Rose

 

[BushBaby]

You've GOT to understand rmary - the reason you didn't get any replies/response to your post is because you didn't INSULT anyone!!! Now if you had said that when you met Escott & Marco you found them to be *^**$#@ s or you had said the the DR1 board was a hotch pot of ignorami (or should that be ignoramae?) then you WOULD have got responses!!

I am sure that your comments WERE taken to heart by Robert & Dolores & that some form of desire to reduce the 'insult throwers' is in the process of being instituted - it is just not sufficiently "Newsworthy" to say what those could be yet, further than what Rob has already mentioned! I am ALSO sure that Robert did not mean to suggest that this board is not interested in "Newbies", for let's face it, "Newbies" are the lifeblood that replace the older ones that die off!!!

Stick with it girl - slap a few hands & faces here & you will soon be responded to like the rest of us!! - Grahame

 

[Robert]

Let me get this straight. This board is to "promote" information about the DR. Just what kind of information are you promoting?

This board is not just about the "General - Open" forum.
We have "Living", "Legal", "Environment", "Elections 2004" etc etc.
If your opinion of this board was based on the the "General - Open" forum, then I would agree with you. Just because you ate one bad apple, should you condemn every tree in the orchard?

I can't see how you can promote this board as the primary board for information about the DR and then completely disregard the needs or opinions of those who are seeking your advice.

Being the "first" at something definitely does not make one the "best".

Rose

We have many newbies posting, we started with just two posters (Dolores & myself) back in 1997 and now we have almost 8,000 active members. 7,998 have all been newbies. Thousands of people have been through this message board and read many, many posts. If the board didn't provide useful information, then we would have died years ago.

I don't know of another DR related message board that has more posts, more active members, more threads, more information, more activity, more linked to than DR1 or as bigger pool of DR knowledge, do you?

If you have issues with a particular poster, just add them to your ignore list. It's very simple and effective.

 

[Robert]

My comments were to provide a perspective from the point of view of one of the groups that you claim to be serving witht his board. To have it blithely disregarded and tossed aside because "I" am practially a dime a dozen does not make me feel very good as a "client". The again, who are ou "clients"?

Rose

I just ran some numbers out of curiosity.

Since Jan-May 04 we have had 1,891 new people sign up.
Of those 1,891 newbies, 284 (15%) had made 10 or more posts since they signed up.
Looks like our newbies are pretty active by message board standards.

As of May 04, 763 (40+%) of those newbies still logged in and read the board on a regular basis. 40+% retention over 5 months is VERY good for any message board.

So what does the above tell me? Newbies are posting and they are staying.
This is despite the fact that our traffic is very transiant, due to 70+% of our site visitors looking for travel/tourism related info for their upcoming vacation etc.

Sometimes the numbers surprise me...

 

[miguel]

Oh, my bad!!

The last time I looked at the DR1 photo gallery Miguel was hanging with some fairly hot chicks.

Charlie

Something positive about this thread::: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, chuckuindy, you old fart. Please tell me how does it feel to be 59 and over the hill!!!!!!, hehe.

 

[Larry]

CW, I think maybe you should take a step back and ask yourself, " what is this message board to me and what do I want to get out of it"?


I will tell you what it is to me so you can see what I am getting at. In order of least importance to greatest importance it is:

-- a source of entertainment

-- a source of information

-- a community of people of whom I have gotten to know many personally; some of which I call my closest friends.


So, what is it to you and what do you want it to be? I think you should make an attempt to come to one of the gatherings ( preferably one in the DR itself), and get to know some of us personally. Doing so might change your outlook on a few of us, ours on you, and yours on this message board in general. I know we haven't always gotten along but I would love to meet you. I know you only live a few hours away from me and my door is always open to you. To me, that's what the real DR1 is about.
Larry

 

[chuckuindy]

Birthday Boy

Something positive about this thread::: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, chuckuindy, you old fart. Please tell you how does it feel to be 59 and over the hill!!!!!!, hehe.

Thanks for the B-Day wishes. At 6:15am (local) I am alive and well.

At 59 there are a lot of things that I have to be thankful for.

I don?t weigh as much as CC (only because I am shorter)

I?m not gay like you and Robert (although I believe you should try everything at least once)

I?m not as articulate as AZB.

Less vocal than Escott.

And not as negative as CW

Also thrilled that I will be in the DR in mid June.

Charlie

 

[BushBaby]

Gosh, just 59???? I thought you were a LOT older than me Charlie!!!

Yup, at 59 we have a lot to look forward to & a HECK of a lot more to be thankful for. Keep the action going & stay fit - Grahame.

Happy Birthday youngster!!​

 

[Forbeca]

I have said everything I wanted to say in this thread. If you all want to continue to treat each other like garbage, knock yourselves out. Like Mary said, the good on this site is often drowned out by the trash talk.

I will not be coming back and reading or responding to any more posts in this thread- like one PM I got today asked, "Why waste your time trying to reason with the unreasonable?"
Carry on.Clip.

Hi Clip, I've always enjoy our debates in the Mars Venus forum, and, in my opinion, we have not crossed the line. I understand what you're trying to do, and I am in agreement with you. I believe you crossed the line when you insulted Robert on Friday. OMG, when I read that I thought, she has flipped. The mere fact that you came back and rectified the situation, only confirms to me that you are a responsible person who is willing to admit when she has done wrong. Kudos to you.

Don't worry about the posters who are still in doubt about your character. Time will tell all. I have a problem myself with a few posters who, I just naturally disliked. I don't know what it is, they just seemed to rub me the wrong way. You can't like everyone. Some people here are no gentleman and they seem to go out of their way to be nasty and vulgar. When in fact they don't have to resort to such tactics to get their point across. So be it. But you know what Clip, I don't ignore anyone. I just get right back at them. I suggest you do the same. Don't go anywhere. Stick around. Another thing, who are all those posters that won't post anymore because of the current situation here? Never mind, don't tell me, I don't believe i want to know such weaklings. Don't they know that strength is in numbers. Start posting girls, perhaps things will change if we have more women given their opinions on a daily basis. We are always here and we'll back you up, you're not alone. Start posting.

I'm still asleep but i'm in a fighting mood today. I hate Mondays.

 

[deelt]

I love this idea! I think it is a worthwhile one. However, I would suggest informing the person when they are nearing that stage.
I bet those who will be most worried are those that engage in such negative behavioral communication patterns.
Best

Over the past 6 months I have looked at a number of ways to "democratically" oust those posters that cause problems. To date I have yet to find something that does the job 100%, but I'm still looking.

One interim option is to use a modified version of "Tachy Goes to Coventry".
This will set a limit on the amount of times a user can be added to other users "ignore list".
If a limit of 10 is set, and a particular poster gets added to other users ignore lists 10 times, then their posts will not seen by ALL users except themselves.

This gives them the illusion that they are still functioning members of the forum when in reality nobody is seeing their posts.

What do ya think?