I'm for vive la difference myself.
Open Forum
Free speech
I'd like people to play nicely too. But they obviously won't, including me at times, because the forum has become an environment that's just not conducive to nice. And while it's OK for Dorian to say ‘play nicely’ (even if you saying it doesn't have any useful or lasting effect), if I say the same thing in my own way it automatically makes me a cross between the worse sort of communist dictator and a pansy liberal (an accusation levelled at me by a member of S/s' staff no less, who I wasn't getting at personally BTW, gee thanks) - go figure. Is that how it was mistakenly assumed it was me who'd emailed hassling for moderators on the forum? Taking part here hasn't been much of a picnic for me either a lot of the time, even though I can enjoy the odd bun fight, which is why I've lost my rag so often and had little compunction about kicking back. I only stuck it out so long because I kept hoping the forum might evolve into something more interesting.
Perhaps I'm mistaken, but I thought interactivity had become such an important element of S/s that that was in large part why the forum had been set up. I don't know how anybody else feels about this but, as one member of S/s' regular audience, I come to the site from the outside and see it as a whole, with the forum as much a part of S/s as any of the ongoing projects, especially as that’s the space in which people are largely supposed to contribute by commenting about S/s’ many and varied projects. Even when live events are going on, while I'm visiting I'll click in to the forum to see what's going on there too. The views expressed might be the contributors' own, but it's a bit of a fiddly intellectual technicality when they're still being expressed in a space belonging to S/s, and not everyone is going to make the separation you insist is there. I'm sure I can't be bothered, most of the time.
Anyway, I’ve already emailed Dorian a few times about stuff to do with the forum - and I hate doing it because I do know he's not responsible for content any more than Penny, and that you both have far more interesting things to do. Shit, who doesn’t? Still, I’ll be interested to see how you’re going to eliminate random observations, despite 'vive la difference', and channel content generally, all with just a funky new structure. I hope it works though, because with Chris absent I'm the forum punchbag at the moment. Or is that what you mean by vive la difference?
First, before the site launches and you are upset, I don't think the new forum will fix the problems we have here. These are socialogical, psychological and philosophical issues, not technical or design issues. We're not going to start laying down any more laws, though we do occasionally exercise our right under those laws.
All ideas of allowing forum self-moderation have been scrapped by the wayside during development, but they still may be added in future. We're going to see how this develops first. Small steps. no point in turning the world upside down just for the sake of it.
The aim with the new forum to provide some channels and topics of conversations, so people have some more predefined and specific topic areas to converse in. And an area where people can post their random observations - but this will still be all at your own risk and in your own opinion - you have the right to say what you want and so does everyone else.
The easiest way to not become a target is to not say anything, the next easiest is to think about what you say and how you say it. You can still express a view without offending people, or being pretentious, or seeming like you are trying to prove a point.
In many ways you are right F:Lux, SHOWstudio is about interaction and we want people to interact with us via the forum. Alas that's not what has happened since it's birth, and so we are buidling spaces where people can interact in a more focused way with each other.
We initially wanted to open the forum up as the main channel of communication between viewers and us, but people don't like being forced to have open conversations, so all the good communication becomes private by default. And the forum became a place where people started having conversation where there was no-one from SHOWstudio to interact, as there wasn't the knowledge, or time, or opninion to do that. We aren't a bunch of know it alls, to be held aloft on pedestal like gods. We're people with lives, emotions, limited mental space, and jobs to do.
The only way to make what I think you are imagining would be to make the forum the sole purpose and intent of SHOWstudio, with the staff set up to talk about whatever was fancied on the sujbect we decree, and to be constantly coming up with new topics of conversation to get you all involved in. So the Forum becomes a sideline of SHOWstudio.
As far as making the seperation between SHOWstudio and it's forum, I think that it's pretty hard to think of them as the same thing. To me it's like saying a pub and a gallery are the same thing. Just because they occupy the same building it doesn't mean they are the same. And we don't want this to become one of those pubs with any old piece of 'art' hung on the wall because we're focusing on creating an 'atmosphere'.
Well I'm still rooting for it, believe me! Gagging myself is out of the question though. Thanks for the patience & precisions Dorian. See you later!
