Ok guys ... I've not chimed in because ... well ... I had a bit going on with Macworld last week. You know -- that 4 day period where I don't get to sleep, have a few hundred face to face conversations, best of show awards to decide, and other little minor things. So, I hope it came to no one's surprise that all the editorial team, all the MacTech team overall, was a bit busy and not responsive here.

In short, the moderators are both learning what's best and doing what I asked. That means that sometimes we'll make mistakes, and then try to fix them -- other times, we're doing things for the long term good.

We've not been able to do a lot in the way of long term thinking on the forums for the past couple of months. And, it's not going to get time in the next couple of weeks either until stuff starts to settle back down. That said, I'm working on some ideas for bumping up traffic ... and that means that we need the better delineation.

We will, however, be tweaking stuff periodically -- as we just did this morning on the description for the Windows/Virtualization forum.

Keep the comments coming. We will always listen.

An idea of Reboot's which I can't tell with so many threads if we were online or offline I think is a perfect solution. Or at least fits the schema of the lounge better than pulling threads quickly to their presumed proper place.

His idea is to wait a week at least on threads started in the lounge which may better in the long run be placed in a specific directory. Say I start a thread about breaking news on an SD card which I really want to use as a springboard to a conversation about the future of mobile computing. Why not let it churn in the lounge for a week until everyone is sick and tired of it and then a moderator gives it a shove to computer accessories or some other subdirectory?

Some could obviously get moved right away without a tail feather ruffled. If instead I asked why my SD card no longer mounted to my MBP. You could move that right away or I would be smart enough to know where it is supposed to go in the first place. But to make it easier for the moderators (which is my only goal in life) why not have them do an en masse move every once in a while when the wife lets them stay up at night?

The downside is that we all become very lazy starting a thread and we always post everything in the lounge. But, despite rumors to the contrary, we are trainable. Most of us have broken the habit of throwing monkeypoo at each other. We used to be be really bad in here.

I need to watch stuff a bit more closely before I come to an opinion on this. But, I hear what you are saying.

Okay, so your one post I moved back has 40 replies so far, and the other 18, don't let it go to your head, your thoughts are usually not that interesting.

Not sure about a week on posts, but until the interest wanes. I did move your posts that had died within 12 hours back to try and prove your point, which it did, but it did go against Neil's scheme for the place, and relates to the following that you mentioned;
With the current membership it's not bad, but with more members, maybe so.LOL. True, maybe the occasional dirty kleenex or something now is all, nothing that sticks anyway.

With the current activity level everything in one forum works, but it will be easier to train this small bunch of bananas than the whole plantation if it gets busy.

We also shouldn't forget that someone has taken over the expense of letting this very small group (maybe 50 active members?) still have a place to share our cookie recipes and movie reviews with each other, and I can't speak for Neil but I'm sure this all does fit into his business plan for MacTech and its future. So like he mentioned above, let's deal with it the way it's been going until he gets a chance to put plan B into action. We'll have to wait and see how the future plans turn out.

But whine away, we'll pass the suggestions along, he's listening.

Are you really sure this bunch is trainable?

fwiw, i love this idea.

All ideas are considered. I know you usually only skim so read this whole thread and you'll get an idea of where things are headed, or not. It's all pretty much covered in here.

Who ever thought I was?

I'm even giving Obama a chance. Oh hell, now this is going political again. What to do, what to do?

oooh, you've got me pegged perfectly. wow!

i'll read the whole thing today.

Eat cheesecake