Fancy seeing you back in here, Stoney. Didn't I hear something about age wearing off on you from your corner?

You and Fea aren't the only ones with many siblings. I only have one, a younger sister whom I sometimes end up smothering with love, but Erbie (Lady Erbalwen for anyone not familiar with all the nicknames) has five younger sisters (6, 8, 10, 13, and 15, I believe) and a two-year-old brother. So she'll be able to commiserate with you both. I almost can since I'm in the habit of spending long periods of time with her.

So why do we have a predominantly 'young' membership? What sort of things would attract the older member? I hesitate to use the word 'mature'....

Sorry, Val, you should be in the Dr Who queue over there >>>>>>>>

Ask if you can borrow the TARDIS.

Seriously, what do older members want from a site like this?

You could always move to www.virumor.com for that, you know!! Heh.

Seriously, i agree with you. I don't even call 'who's next', 'person below', 'kick Russians', etc games but just mindless time wasting. *shrugs* to each its own, i guess. I just prefer Tolkien, that's all.

I'm just waiting for the post counter to start counting backwards when a post is deleted once more, and then I might accidently erase a good few of them.

Who has said anything about deleting all the games? There are many dead games no one remembers, we have some who's next clones (we hatessss them) and many games started only to boost post ratings. No one would know they are gone. What we in the Council would like to do and what we would do is two very very different things. Even a council member is allowed to speak his or her mind. It doesn't mean it is the what what he/she says is what the council would say.

We want more interesting posts, in addition to the games. This is suppose to be a Tolkien forum with games and taverns, not games and taverns with some Tolkien stuff. If you want people to buy icecream you have to show that you have icecream, not just chocolate and lollipops (which is also good). We have to show that we have discussions to get people to discuss, both new and old members. When the list of new posts so often showed practically nothing but game posts, it is natural for us who want discussions to be frustrated and a bit annoyed at the games. Doesn't mean we want them all gone.

I am guessing you mean "If You Could Change One Thing ", the only discussion we have closed in a long while as far as my quite drowsy head can recall? It will be opened again, I am not sure if Rednell has had time to do what she was going to do. And the changes in the movie are discussed all over the place, that particular thread was closed temporary, but the discussion is not.

The only banned subjects are the ones mentioned in the rules; politics, religion etc. That is with good reason, and is not up for debate.

We do, we give warnings but we have to be diplomatic as well. Everybody can loose their temper and say/post things in the heat of the moment that he/she shouldn't have, we are only humans after all. We edit or delete and give warnings, often in PM or e-mail. What do you think gives the best result: talking to the person in private or in a public area where everybody can see? Just because you don't see it, doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

No, we are not. We don't want anybody to get lost, we want a community of all ages and nationalities where you can feel welcome and at home. Where you can speak and not be laughed at, yelled at or ridiculed. But we are only human after all, nobody is perfect and neither is the Council. We do our best.
But speaking of lost, where is Nemo?

Well I'm as stumped as you here - certainly not me! But seriously, your two argumets in favour of deleting the games are incompatible. You say you only want to delete dead games, then "complain" about only games in the list of new posts. Surely deleting old games won't help that? I agree with your theme park analogy btw.
Yes, OK, but Val's post answered a wish directed to the Council and conveying clear intentions. Btw Val, Taz says the backward ticking of the post count work now, so happy "accidenting"!

I agree with that, and am not advocating a change in that policy.

"If you could..." was off course on top of my head, which is at least as drowsy as yours, althoug on a permanet basis! But not only. In some football threads there has even been pre-emptive strikes! Locking has only been possible for a short while. Many discussions has been ended with a moderators post, substituting the closing.


I talked to a CM about your idea. "We already thought of something similar - it won't happen" was pretty much the answer I got. Although in a much nicer way. I think they should have at least replyed to you...

Now regarding the latter part of Ama's quote and Vee's quote I'm going to tell you a story. It is a true story, happening in Canada I believe. You will find it in books on personell management. I don't have any books like that, so I'll try to rely on memory:

In a factory in Canada:
The management called in all the workers to a meeting. They told them that beginning next month the light in the factory hall would be turned up.

They did what they said, and productivity went up.

6 months later they called the staff in for a new meeting, telling them that beginning next month they would turn down the light in the factory hall.

So they did, and production went up.

Some months later they repeated the first meeting, and months after that again the latter. Also in both these cases productivity went up.

Moral: It's not the light level in the factory hall that is of importance, but that the management feel that their workers are important to them and tell them their plans and strategies for the future. This produces a feeling of belonging and participation in the work force, and often spurs creativity and personal initiative - ordinary staff becomes a great source of new ideas for the business to capitalize on.

When someone comes up with an idea, posts it and eagerly awaits reactions but are basically ignored they get dissapointed and disillusioned. "What's the point? No one is interested anyway! Grr!" Yes, the CM's did notice the suggestion, they did discuss it (I think), but it all happened behind closed doors and nobody saw any point in telling the ordinary members what went on. A more transparent council strategy that lets us ordinarys in on the great plans of the future is sure to create excitement and enthusiasm. Excitement and enthusiasm is translated into initiative, which in this case results in posts.

What happened to the "we don't have time to PM people that breaks the rules and hope that they might read it"? How was we to know that the procedure had changed/was not how it was said to be? May I suggest locking peoples account for a few hours, alternatively until they have read and replied to a PM from council? Instead of closing down the whole topic. If it can be made possible.

An expression: "If you try to be everybodys friend you are beeing nobodys friend." I don't agree with that, but there is some truth in it. If you want to make food that no one doesn't like, you'll probably end up with something very boring that no one get excited over. Same with a website. If PT wants to be "perfectly safe" and interesting at the same time I salute your ambitions! But it will be very, very hard to achieve!

Nemo doesn't like taxes.


Me too! I often wonder about the point in posting, as no one seem to read it.. In some of the games you have the same question posted twice on the same page! But strangely some seem to like it that way. As in the recently locked and soon-to-be-reopened-perhaps-if-someone-has-time-someday thread "if you could change..". It seemed at least some of the debaters wanted to just present their opinion/truth, and didnt like people commenting on it. Then I don't see the point. How can something interesting come out of that?

YES!! Agree with you fully!! So did Popper and all other contemporary science philosophers!

Depends who would participate in such an event, i guess...

Wow, who'd have thought all these 40 year olds would get together and spark such a discussion.

Firstly, thank you Amarie for flying the Council flag so enthusiastically since you joined our ranks, particularly as you are in the middle of your exams.



I was away pretty much all of last week at sea, Vee. I did see your sound-byte post when I got home, but did not know whether it was something that was possible. I tend to leave technical things to Taz, as only he can answer them. You are right that saying something stupid is no way to encourage participation, and that is something I don't think anyone on the Council would ever say.



I think that is part of the problem. Most of the older members have seen pretty much everything already discussed in duplicate, and no longer reply with answers to questions they have responded to in the past.



Like Amarie mentioned, Grev, even CM's have their opinions. Getting rid of some of the games was just wishful thinking, not something I'd actually put into effect. I don't mind the games, it's just the way some people use them to inflate their post count (and this does not just happen in the games). Personally I'd prefer to see the post count removed so that those people would no longer feel the need to post worthless posts. Actually things have improved a lot recently.



I think Taz has already created a site in which individual members get to have a far larger imput than they would at most sites on the web. The very fact that he has a suggestions section proves that. A lot of discussion does go on behind the scenes too, in an attempt to make this site even better, but granted there is always room for improvement. It's an old excuse, but we are all busy people. When I am at home I spend on average around three hours a day on this site doing bits and pieces. I work at sea, though, and cannot be here everyday. Grondy spends even more time here, but unfortunately has been ill recently. Taz spends stacks of time just making the site function. we all commit a lot of spare time to making this site what it is. There is room for improvement, but we are doing our best.



We don't really have a set policy on how we deal with problems of this nature. Each CM tends to respond in the best way they see fit at any time. Sometimes we edit, sometimes delete. If it's serious, or happens more frequently we tend to send them a PM or email. Rednell temporarily closed the "what would you change" thread to allow things to cool down a little. The intention is to reopen that particular thread at some stage.



It will, but it is worth striving for.




You've piqued my interest, Vee. I think I'd win the mud fight though. I spend most days thigh deep in mud.