IDEAS!!!!!

[smittenkitten288]

QUOTE (Mark 2 @ Aug 30 2004, 12:31)

Could we split the Events section into "North", "Midlands" & "South"...... I would like to know who is in my "area" as such... may be then group mail lists could be set up and emailed to promote a meet-up.. Personally, i would scrap the Jokes, Smut sections, but even more radically, i would remove the General Chat... Some of the comments do get a bit harsh in there and i dont see that it really adds any value to a site that was set up to promote club meets. This is just my opinion...

Hate to Howard and Hilda it but I agree. I would dip into the board for about a year before I joined and one of the main reasons for meets in my area but that hasnt really happened.

 

would be fab idea to have members organised by region - or have some regional forums so more viable meets could be organised and members could share info on good nights, whats happening etc. Although South is huge - so South East and South West/ Wales please if poss !

 

It would definitely encourage more meets and share a bit of knowledge on whats happening outside London. I agree with Mark, its not always feasible to come down to London just for one night out - can cost its £105 on the train from me which is twice the flight to Dance Valley. However, if we got more people meeting up locally then you can start looking at group transport, staying over etc and makes it more fun.

 

 

I agree with James that you cant and shouldnt moderate peoples personas but I have to admit that some of the snide quipps some people post really did put me off joining, and the forums can end up about banter between specific people who are mates anyway or certain peeps just having a moaning. Not really productive if you ask me - you get out what you put in so a few changes here n there may not be a bad thing.

[Guest George]

i have not read all of this thread, but i'm a little confused where people see the bitchyness from. this site seems very friendly to me, but then i am only new

[Guest Jay]

 

how could you remove the chat forums, no one would want to meet up with people you couldnt chat to.

 

this is the 42124123423423 thread liek this in the last 2 years.

 

big bores baby

[James]

Mark & Smitten,

 

Thanks very much - some very good ideas in there and things which havent been mentioned or thought about before - I definitely agree that we need to focus on what this site was meant to be about and make the information on meets far more clearer in the form of specific sections. Also thanks for your input about people potentially being put off from joining - many other people seem to be saying this lately and its time to sort this out as we've gone through this phase before - evidentally without actually solving completely.

 

I agree with Jay that we need to let people chat and would be unfair to moderate the non-chat forums if they were the only ones which existed - but I believe we should defo come down harder on any member who isnt here for the same reasons as the rest of us - to form new friendships - not new enemies - believe me this will be sorted out and I've gone past caring whether or not I upset a few people on the grounds of freedom of speech...

[Jessica Rabbit]

Look at other sites (HarderFaster, Gurn etc). The reason they attract so amny people is because they have so many features that CTW does not - regular articles, proper listings and photo galleries, which are updated daily. If there is nothing of interest on this site for people other than a message board, then just how are you expecting to attract new members? Take HF for example, there are quite alot of 'industry' people on there who origianally came on to promote their night/ their DJing, but ended up staying for the boards/ community. Also, alot of the large websites have their logos on flyers - I don't know if this is in exchange for advertising on the site (I'm guessing Amanda would know!!) but has anyone thought about that?

 

And also this site is waaaay too cliquey, it is always the same people making the same in-jokes to each other all day long. And it upsets me that some really decent people have been struck down by the hand of god for daring to speak their minds.

 

Please don't delete/ moderate this post, I'm only being honest

[colin66]

QUOTE (Jessica Rabbit @ Aug 31 2004, 19:02)

because they have so many features that CTW does not - regular articles, proper listings and photo galleries, which are updated daily.

As James has pointed out in the past, he found it difficult finding people to do this (unpaid) and the people that did it do it just got fucked off by others who took it for granted. And besides that´s not the real problem anyway ...

 

QUOTE

And also this site is waaaay too cliquey, it is always the same people making the same in-jokes to each other all day long. And it upsets me that some really decent people have been struck down by the hand of god for daring to speak their minds.

 

Edited August 31, 2004 by colin66

[James]

not sure what is meant by 'the hand of god' - i've checked the moderator logs for the past few months and to be honest there have hardly been ANY posts/threads deleted - some say we are 'too' slack on moderating here.

 

only thing i'm against is personal attacks - the rest we let go these days..

 

thanks for all your comments - its good to hear what all the real members think

 

Totally agreed about content - but again we need to start small and not do too much - as Colin says we've had so many people come and go and not stick at things - I guess this will never happen but at the same time are we all that bothered about other content - so long as we have an engine to meet and arrange stuff thats all I really want out of this

 

As far as people helping out goes - the areas we need are: Event/Meet-Up Research & Organisation, and also Photographers - but to be honest I only really want photos of the members/community and not just a load of randoms - although those randoms may decide to join up after seeing their pics etc - but i want the site to have a real members feel to it first and foremost.

 

Its crucial that whoever does get involved is self sufficnet and doesnt require me to assist on a daily basis as the site is very much part time at the moment for me due to work and other projects I need to start soon. Best help you can give is to add events to the forums and calendar and try and research costs etc.. for big meets - ideally we need one every 2/3 months - believe me people will most definitely come - its just a question of getting all the info and prices together.

 

re: cliquey - the solution to this is way beyond the functionality of the board software, the moderating strategy and my brain ! Yes I think there are groups who are cliquey but I'm beginning to wonder if there is actually anything wrong with that - my dream of one large friendly & close group I have realised is actually impossible !

[Mark 2]

James, could you add some further questions to member profiles and make some fields compulsory? Im not very IT literate but does the program allow you to sort and sift this information? (Bring back the abacus!) My thought is to gather some further information from members (& new members) as to how often they would be prepared to attend a meet in their area etc? There are some other questions that i can think of adding..

Alternatively, construct a fresh survey and get some feedback from all existing and new members...would need to sell this in a positive way.

 

Happy to assist where i can.

 

It would be good to have something to work from before a disproportionate amount of effort goes in. For the board to grow and a "community spirit" to prosper, more meets need to happen and more people need to make the effort to attend even if it is only occasionally. If there are 400 members and only 100 or so are going to events then i believe we should question the other 300 motivation for joining the site (tactfully of course!)

[Guest]

AGREED !

[nuthead53]

from reading some peoples comments, i think there is some really really good ideas.

Such as the regional based events section, cus at the moment you get mostly big named events, which we all know about way in advance, but with a regional based event, we could simple have a look in our area on the friday night, then possible pop off to that event. Maybe even having a mini database of club names, which could be linked to the threads, with a star rating system n maybe feedback on the club etc.

I agree with adding more fields to the user profile for information to fill in etc, it would be nice if we took some of the things that are present in other boards profiles such as gurn etc. n put some of these into this message board.

Maybe have a drop down list, where we can pick from this weeks events, which event we are attending this week, and this would show up in your profile.

 

I like most people i feal, dont even look at the homepage anymore, and simple come straight to the forum. So just keeping the main page updated n refreshing would make it more intresting n worthwhile looking at.

 

I feal this site has features which are kinda cool but i dont feal are used that much, or people are that aware of, such as the events calender or the top site lists.

 

Some of the things i have said, i understand that they are actually very unpratical, as it would take alot of editing from someone.

but i think setting a goal for achieving some of the things mentioned in this thread by new year, would be good.

 

Also freshers week is coming up, so why not get some cards printed n handed out, i personaly wouldnt mind handing out cards around freshers, but i think it would be abit futile to do it at the moment, since the forum would be the only thing keeping the new members, and like others have said its abit clique.

[Dawn]

Here's one idea that just got alot of praise for the initial post then forgotten about.

 

Saturday 4th September

 

It wasn't even moved to events or pinned so got lost along the way.

Although in my mind even if the above had happened it wouldn't have got any interest as it's not based down South.

 

I know possibly a dozen or more members off here are going but don't say anything as there's no point.

 

I think what Mark2 suggested (re: location - regional events) is a great idea as it seems it's only the ones outside of London that travel regularly to go to different events. (That isn't a critisium just a fact as I'm sure if I lived down there I wouldn't be travelling too far afield with the nights they have down there) but if you want a more varied membership rather than just London based, this would help alot.

[Guest Jay]

 

shall we just put it down??

 

you have to be cruel to be kind sometimes.

[James]

Jay - I'm sorry but I'm not going to tolerate un-constructive comments like that - so any such posts will be deleted soon. Also as you have mentioned many times before you think the site is a failure and it will never work - in which case what exactly ARE you doing here - please read on ...

 

Everyone else - thanks for your invaluable input - totally agreed with pretty much everyone.

 

The reason people feel its all 'south' meets is because for the last year or so we've been tied into a couple of big promotions who are london based - to the point where thats all we can do due to time restrictions and not having events clash etc.. this was basically down to our attempts at promoting CTW DJs and thinking this was all good promo etc.. Well it was to a certain degree but its actually had a huuuge impact on the core concept of the site in the meantime. What we now need to do is focus on re-arranging the forums and content (ideally dedicated event sections and not forum based) so that we can encourage people to add events from all over the country and subsequently drive varied meets in varied areas again (in the early days this was ALL I was doing - travelling north and south, hardly in london at all ! - this was what built the original & healthy membership with a good spread of people who were then put off by the site becoming too hard dance focused)

 

The great thing is that we can change EVERYTHING here and although it wont ever be 'exactly' as it was (would we actually want it to anyway) I believe it can be as good as if not a hell of a lot better than before. I totally agree with Mark's comments about questioning the (say) 300 members who arent here to meet and travel about - this was precisely why I had no regrets re-starting the membership from scratch on this version of the board and forcing people to re-register - so I could get a good feeling for how many 'real' members we actually have.

 

The original intention and intention still today is to get 50+ people roaming around the country (and abroad) to go on professionally organised events together - but without being ripped off and no profit being made - I'm sure this will happen one day but we're still a long way off. In my mind though why wouldnt people want to join a free site and attend an event which has all been thought out properly for them by others and works out perhaps cheaper than doing the event on their own or in a smaller group. For me its a no-brainer and precisely why I set the site up - to meet like-minded people who want the same as me - variety, and to meet many more people. But let me be clear that this isnt a 'numbers game' - just meeting a few new faces in Amsterdam the other w/e was big enough a buzz for me - and then again the other week meeting Alasdair - the site is what you personally make it - the engine is there to use and its my best attempt as things stand today - it can be used properly or abused I have no control over that and to be honest dont want to have to control people (which is why i dont moderate at all anymore) - the site CAN be improved but it will take all the 'real' members input to make it happen and as many people keep saying the site is nothing without its members - that said its also crucial that the sites functionality backs the concept of the site and makes the mission statement clear.

 

ps. I know that there are those of you who find the term 'misssion statement' amusing but to me there is a very real goal / vision here - perhaps i need to publish it again on the main page so all is clear to new members. If you arent here for the same reasons then we will all question your intent on being here - thus by definition yes we are cliquey in the sense that we now as of today only want members who fully back the site and what it stands for.

 

God I've gone on again.

 

ps. Agreed with Nut - we need to identify owners to several areas here and allocate actions and follow up on those actions.

[Guest Jay]

QUOTE (James @ Sep 1 2004, 23:18)

Jay - I'm sorry but I'm not going to tolerate un-constructive comments like that - so any such posts will be deleted soon. Also as you have mentioned many times before you think the site is a failure and it will never work - in which case what exactly ARE you doing here - please read on ...

 

Then don't tolerate it James.

 

Ban me if you want mate, you can have the board to yourself the way things are going.

[Guest Jay]

 

because MORE moderation is what this site is begging for....