For all practical purposes, though the term hasn't been used, we are functionally in public beta on this for quite a while. As folks have noted above, there are people coming in from dozens of different boards and forums with wildly different expectations (some places you can start topics, some places you can't, etc.), and it's going to take a long time to figure out an approach that more or less works. I can guarantee that people who are looking for stuff not to like will find plenty, and hey, there are things about the current limitations that drive me nuts too.

The thing is, we'll never get to that better place if we don't experiment and find what does and doesn't work. For instance, consider what the place would be like if all comments required moderation, which was one of the options briefly considered (and, thank God, dismissed as a nonstarter pretty early on).

As izzie suggests, striking a balance between those who want a topic-starting free-for-all and those who think we've already got too many is an issue we're grappling with and one that will never have a perfect solution. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

It will never be perfect. With your constructive help, it will get better. Thank you.

Soeharto - you said you were leaving, and that you were gone. I simply wished you happiness in another online forum where you can start topics! That's a far cry from suggesting you go else where to be happy! I'm sorry the current configuration of this site isn't what you'd like it to be. but if you're not happy here...... why stay?

For each person who wants to be able to create topics as desired, we have people who think there are already too many topics and that things should be more consolidated.

so how do we quote another person's post or a part of the post to answer a question or comment on something someone else said??

it will be hard to keep thoughts together without making a direct reference or manually quoting the original post.

Mindbender,

You said: "we should be able to create new topics"

That's what I have suggested in one or two places on this forum already but a moderator (Izzie, I think) just wrote to me and suggested I go elsewhere if I'm not happy here.

Personally I have never seen a forum before (let alone been active on one) where participants aren't allowed to start new topics themselves.

Oh well. Never mind.

It's an impressive looking site.

IMO there should be fewer forums, too...not fewer posts though....theres 5 forums under administration, which could easily be 1 forum.

But I think there should be more posts, ie: we should be able to create new topics, etc...The mods here will be swarmed with requests to start topics on everything under the sun.

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