Is it just me ....

[Pluggy]

or is the new site an order of magnitude busier than the old one ?

On the old site I could go away for several hours and not much would have changed on my return. Here I come back after an hour away and theres a dozen new posts to look at. The infrastructure is a huge improvement, I don't think anyone would argue with that, but the quantity of the content has gone up a lot too, or is it just me ?

[Doc]

Having been on the site a lot over last week or two I have noticed that the site is a lot busier than on the old site with flurries of activity at various times throughout the day.

A lot of the die-hards from the old site have emerged with renewed vigour and zest, with this site starting off from a blank canvas situation, they have been busy re-establishing themselves and their favourite topics.

Also I have seen members who have recently joined, start to make serious contributions and use of the sites features.

I think the secret is to attempt to maintain this level of activity by offering a website that offers the member good, easy to use features, great content and great atmosphere within the forums.

There will always be a small trickle of newly registered members, but to attract a new type of crowd, I feel we have to spread our wings a bit in regards to capturing the attention of other members of the local community. I think the average age range for this site is currently middle aged + which is fine, but there is a whole section of the younger community still left to tap into, which raises some questions for the general membership.

1: Do we want the youth of today participating in their own forums.
2: What Features, Subjects would attract them into the site, Music, Video, Chat Rooms etc.
3: Who will moderate them, we currently have Global Moderators covering the entire board, but we would need dedicated Forum Moderators to look after specific forums.

These and a host of other questions will need some answers.

But getting back to the current site's activity - Long may it continue.

[Stanley]

I have no problem with youngsters joining and putting their own topics up and see no need for separate moderators. Let's wait and see if it happens before we start complicating things. I have a funny feeling the site is self-selecting and look at Conor, definitely the younger end! Let's not make any decisions until we see the rabbit.
As for activity, it's definitely up. As you know I tend to come on early and go through all the active posts whether they interest me or not, as a moderator I need to know what's going on. On the old site the average was about ten new posts a day and it's a lot more now, takes me longer to do my trawl.

[Nolic]

I'm not sure that by including the things Doc mentions that young people would necessarily be attracted to the site- they can get their fill of music, video , games etc. elsewhere and I think that chat rooms are a igb no go area - ideal place for paedophiles to contact youngsters and supervision would be a minefield.
I think we should just let the site find its own level for a few weeks and then perhaps admins and moderators have a get together, after getting views from members about what they want to see, and brainstorm thoughts and feelings about problems and opportunities. Nolic

[Doc]

It's not a problem, Good idea to have a get together in a few weeks time once things have settled down, then we can discuss how to go forwards.

[Tizer]

For my two-penneth, I agree with Nolic, youngsters follow fashion and will go where their pals go, not where we suggest or try to guide them. The nearest to a viable proposition would be to offer one or a group the chance to have space and do what they like with it...but what they like might not suit the moderators!

[Moh]

If some of the other chat rooms are anything to go off we would need a moderator to deal with the bad language.

[Whyperion]

I dont think its much more than before , theres around 10 topics in the General Members Area circling at 12hrly intervals roughly , plus the comments relating to the newness of the site (Suggestions / Look andFeel / Problems etc ) . The favourites are here. Local History, Family History and Name Studies , Oldies Moaning , Weather Reports , Animals Domestic and Wildly Flying By, Food and Reciepies , Politics Local and National, Barnoldswick/Pendle News, (Sport seems a bit missing but always was, in constrast to pendle today /LT where all the commented items / most read seem to be Burnley FC related ) I am trying to populate some of the Topic Subforums just to get a few things going as to examples with bits that interest me , and I am not intending to search the old archivies so if the subjects come up again in a new way so be it.

I think we do the youngsters ( whatever age ) a bit of a disservice, I in a forum where co-operation or mutual respect in confrontation is expected they can and do moderate there own expression , and the topics we have to start off with are somewhere where they can contribute or share reasonable opinions.

The sites strength and weakness is that it is a local portal / discussion , with many specifics being catered for by other dedicated sites - indeed some of the other interest sites I am registered member of ( including Old [Music] Records/ Family History / Computers and Electronics / Toys and Railways ) are going to have a richer and larger content and commentary compared to a Local Site, but such subjects get touched on and I dont often use ( does anyone ) what used to be the old Lineone Forums , where I would hang out 8 or 9 years ago.

As the small bugs get resolved and a bit of a pattern occurs then new things can be dropped in and a greater involvement of interest groups and Barnoldswick community can be invited to participate in areas they consider currently lacking.

[Bradders Bluesinger]

If it ain't broke , don't fix it .
OGFB will surely always attract those who find the site relevant to their needs ......older OR younger .

[Stanley]

My view as well Brad. As for encouraging the younger members. I remember the Barnoldswick.com website in 1984 and it was simply being used as a forum for children posting criticism (and worse) of each other. I thought about this last night as I watched the Panorama programme on Trolls and abuse on social networking sites. No problem on here of course, as long as volume was manageable we would simply warn and then ban but it was a valuable reminder of the crap there is out there. Worth thinking about.

[Nolic]

I feel strongly that we should not be looking to cater for young people in any specific way - particularly through chat rooms. If youngsters have an interest in the site by all means encourage it but I would not wish to see another platform that could be used for cyber bullying or relational bullying through forums.
As someone who trains professionals working with vulnerable children and young people I have done a significant amount of research into bullying and eSafety and it is an absolute minefield to try to monitor and manage - even though the UK leads the world in trying to improve on line safety.
We do not have the resources to be able to govern the potential antics of young people on the site which would require full time moderators at the very least.
Lets not allow the site to that add murk to these already dirty waters. Nolic

[Tizer]

Well said Nolic - but I'm naive as usual...what's `relational bullying', is it being nasty to your little brother?

Stanley, says "I remember Barnoldswick.com in 1984" - did Barlick beat Tim Berners Lee to inventing the Web? I always guessed you were ahead of the rest of us!

[Tripps]

I agree fully with what Brad and Nolic have posted above, especially having just listened to an hour phone in on the subject on Radio 5.

[Nolic]

Tizer, relational bullying is something that has recently been recognised and describes behaviour which harms others through damage or threat of damage to friendships or group inclusion. This can include manipulation, controlling, belittling, demeaning, rejecting and exclusionary behaviours in a social context. They also include damage or threat of damage to reputation but is most frequently seen in threats of exclusion from an important social group. It is much more apparent in teenage girls than in any other groups. Nolic

[Tripps]

"that has recently been recognised "

Would that be since the huge expansion of social sites such as Bebo, Facebook etc?

[Tizer]

Nolic, thanks for the explanation. The power of the Internet, it can bring a magical source of information, facts and data to people like me and you but it is also powerful in these horrible ways. Bullying went on when I was a child and I suffered some of it, but it was out in the open and you knew who were the bad ones. Now it can be anonymous, and it must be difficult to know who your friends are.

[Nolic]

One of the biggest problems is that through the technology we have bullying can now go on 24/7 whereas in the past it tended to be in school or during playing out time. Now its there constantly. Nolic

[Stanley]

Tiz, yes... 2004 of course!
Comrade, nice to have confirmation of my thoughts from an authority on the subject. I feel so sorry for anyone subject to bullying as I experienced it myself at school. Funny thing is that I didn't recognise it for what it was till I wrote me memoirs. Slow learner I suspect!

[Cathy]

I've tried every path I can think of to find a painting that Marilyn put on the site. It was put on the Bagpuss topic. I found the topic but no picture, and I could'nt enter a reply, the second time I went into the topic it said that it doesn't exist. It's not in the Gallery as a new pic either.
I really miss not having the new pics shown on the right side of the screen like they used to be...

[PanBiker]

I've tried every path I can think of to find a painting that Marilyn put on the site. It was put on the Bagpuss topic. I found the topic but no picture, and I could'nt enter a reply, the second time I went into the topic it said that it doesn't exist. It's not in the Gallery as a new pic either.
I really miss not having the new pics shown on the right side of the screen like they used to be...

Maz posted the pictures as attachments so they do not show up in the Gallery, one disadvantage of using this method of adding to the site.

If pictures are uploaded to the Gallery first they can be added to posts but will remain in the category chosen in the Gallery. Personally I prefer to do it this way and use attachment feature for files such as .doc , pdf, etc.

[Whyperion]

I prefer adding pictures as an attachment without putting too much in gallery as I think my photos should be seen in context unless useful elsewhere or to wider audience.

[Stanley]

There have always been problems associated with posting pics as an attachment and not on the OG archive. Apart from anything else it relies on the speed of the host site and sometimes pics vanish for a while and then return. The foolproof way of making sure that pics always appear in posts is to put a copy in the gallery. Takes a bit more trouble but they are then permanent and searchable. No problems with space, plenty of room in the gallery!

[PanBiker]

I find that putting them in the gallery is faster anyway and you have more control of where it is displayed on the page.

[Cathy]

Thanks, I'll ask Marilyn to email the pic to me.

[Tizer]

Ian, thanks for pointing out that pics added via the attachment feature don't show in the Gallery, I hadn't noticed that.

Stanley, are we confusing two different things here? You seem to be referring to adding pics into posts by using a link to that pic on an external site, whereas I think the others mean, as I do, adding the pic via the attachment function in the Post Reply box. In the former case the pic is never on the OG server, in the latter I assume it is on the OG server but not shown in the Gallery.