Limit Q&A to questions, I would suggest

[L'Etranger]

Friends, we are having a lot of fun on these pages and interesting ideas are exchanged which I'm grateful for. It is a constant lure to see what's new!
BUT
I tried so see things from Michael Moorcock's perspective. I would guess it does take a lot of time each day to check through all the topics and postings to see which he should comment or answer. Can't we restrict ourselves to "Community Exchange" for such exchange that doesn't really demand Mike's attention? In the face of such a turnout of postings I could expect it is quite some feat to work through it all.
Also for newbies it is better structured service (yes, indeed a service) if they find questions already asked that might correspond to theirs more easily. So I suggest we take the other entrance to the playground, okay? And there are the many other sections, too.

Merci, Danke schoen, Gracias, Thank You, Grazie, Tack, amesaggenalloh
(Amharic), shukran!

L'Etranger

I see the irony that this one too isn't a Q&A, and allow Berry to plow it under once it has served its purpose. Okay, buddy :D

[VonWeiner]

Well, I guess if Berry wants to move some things around he can do so. I think the topics are pretty self-explanitory, so I am not sure if Michael would have trouble distinguishing between Q&A or otherwise. But I do agree with you that many of these could be placed elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Why how arrogant of you, Monsieur LEtranger!

Thinking on behalf of Michael, eh?
Well he is a bigger man than many of us, so
I believe he can take care of "the dilemma"
himself.

He obviously likes to have a wide range of discussions
and sometimes will over-look some questions for whatever
reasons. Sometimes questions outside of his books can be even
more interesting. Must Q&A be limited to "Where does the energy
that Stormbringer steals go to?"

We don't need another dad, some if not most of us already have one. Thanks!

Perhaps you should be more honest and say,
"I don't like like all this fun stuff that's being posted on Q&A. This isn't a forum for making friends is it?"

Will you next tell us not to enter Q&A unless we have "legitimate" questions?

If you are deemed Assistant Administrator, or become the official Anti-fun Policeman, then I will respect you as a figure of authority.

Until then, we will continue to have fun.

Love,
L.O.E. and friends :D

[L'Etranger]

Well, if that's the way you take it ...
I apologize to all who interpreted my suggestion as arrogance. I wrote just what I sincerely felt. I just worried if stickingto the categories a little more wouldn't be helpful for a man who's got so much to do.
I feel threads like becoming a dad (albeit touching, of course), posting pics (I was tempted too I admit), how to post pics etc ought to be in another box, that's all.

Sorry, if I've hurt your feelings and reminded you of your dad.

Yet the following is a little disturbing too:

If you are deemed Assistant Administrator, or become the official Anti-fun Policeman, then I will respect you as a figure of authority.

Does this mean you'd let an appointed person spoil your fun? One with a "deputy" badge on his chest?

[Anonymous]

No, problemo Mr. LEtranger.
It did come across to me as arrogant.
But to be nice, I have read most of your posts,
and I think you are a cool, caring, intelligent, and a lot
of other positive adjectives, kind of person. :)
I am finished. If you would like to have the last
word in on this subject, please do....
(I don't know French at at but how
do you write "sil-vous-plais"?)

[Anonymous]

Oops!
"I don't know French at all" I meant to write! :)

[Whiskers]

I can't tell you how happy I am that you were able to turn this thread positive.

There are two real rules here in the forum section. No hate. No porn. I take the responsibility of deleting such disgusting material. I'm not into content filtering. Surprise! I don't read every message.

Most everything is a go. VW pointed out that I can move threads all over the place. Moderators can move, delete, edit and lock threads. We can Sticky and Announce them. I rarely do any of it and to date I have manipulated maybe 10 threads. In fact, the thread that LETranger referred to was moved prior to his post.

This whole site is a Community project. We have no police. There is no real authority. If running the project makes me authoritative, then I don't feel like an authority. The idea is that The Community will police itself. But does it have to be policing? Can't we just coach one another instead?

There is one problem that is occurring since the Q&A went threaded. People have a tendency to hop onto questions asked by visitors, questions directed to MM, before Michael has a chance to reply. This is good and bad. You defuse the enjoyment of having asked one's favorite author a question. That's what newcomers do when they find the site. Imagine that 6 other members answered your first ever question to MM. Try to consider this before you pile onto an unanswered question. But we have to recognize that the community can answer many of these questions. And that saves MM time. So, I don't feel comfortable trying to devise a set of rules (that can be easily ignored) to solve this and other trivial problems. We must rely on one another, this present community, to coach the incoming, the future community.

When LE talks about newcomers, he's talking about future newcomers that are likely to inundate the site, in the event Elric hits the screen. Since that is more possible than ever, this community must consider the effects of the future community upon Mr. Moorcock's ability to communicate with us, the main draw of this site.

That's what LE was doing, coaching. I think the membership and visitors will just have to get used to people popping on and making suggestions and trying to coach the community. My interpretation of what LE was saying is what I have always felt. When Mike becomes inundated, we lose that close personal feel we get here at the site. What we are experiencing now is the main reason I didn't setup the old Q&A in a threaded forum system.

If I can influence the debate, I would like to. I'll put up a sticky message that has some guidelines on how to post in the Q&A, but most everyone should realize that that message will be the least read message on the board and we will continue to get off topic posts in the Q&A.

Many would agree that moderators in the Q&A and Community Exchange would be destructive to the atmosphere of this site.

It wouldn't hurt if every member of MWM made it a point to be as helpful as possible when one recognizes a newcomer. When the volume has increased significantly, we may need a moderator who can push such threads out of the Q&A. But I volunteer to do that for now. Let's avoid smacking one another down from now on.

[L'Etranger]

Thank you very much, Berry, for your kind intervention. It was no intention of mine to be "bossy" (or "deputy-bossy" in this case).


Right, it was exactly my observation that

There is one problem that is occurring since the Q&A went threaded. People have a tendency to hop onto questions asked by visitors, questions directed to MM, before Michael has a chance to reply. This is good and bad. You defuse the enjoyment of having asked one's favorite author a question. That's what newcomers do when they find the site. Imagine that 6 other members answered your first ever question to MM.

On the other hand, Berry also correctly states:

Try to consider this before you pile onto an unanswered question. But we have to recognize that the community can answer many of these questions. And that saves MM time!

and

We must rely on one another, this present community, to coach the incoming, the future community.
When LE talks about newcomers, he's talking about future newcomers that are likely to inundate the site, in the event Elric hits the screen. Since that is more possible than ever, this community must consider the effects of the future community upon Mr. Moorcock's ability to communicate with us, the main draw of this site.

Berry has interpreted me precisely to the dot, and I'm thankful for it.
And I ask Monsieur Le Lord of Entropy to s'il vous plait believe I wished no offense and that neither does he


Best regards from "Old Europe", beddie time here!
L'Etrrranger

[dlackey]

Guilty as charged. I put the "i'm a dad" thread here. But since this is mostly where everyone hangs out, and where Mr. M hangs out, i wanted to make sure everyone knew. I also tend to answer questions with my own opinions, even if Mr. M hasn't answered yet, I guess because in a forum setting, I feel like anything posted is fair game for free exchange of ideas. That being said, maybe we should just get Mr. M's opinion on what he wants this forum to be. If he only wants questions, and doesn't want answers until he's had a chance to answer first, I say we do that. If he's happy the way it is, I say we stay the course and deal with future volume of users on a trial and error basis.

[Whiskers]

We don't need to consult him on this. Also, your post is hardly the issue. In the future, there will be many mislaid posts. Comments and questions directed to MM go in the Q&A and that's about it. Answering repetitive questions on Mike's behalf and answering questions Mike doesn't know the answer to (and we know that already) seems like reasonable things to do.

But we have to remember readers and members go to the Q&A for the event of asking Michael, not us. This doesn't invalidate the positive responses we have gotten so far. And this by no means a direct "Stop doing that!" admonition. I don't think we have a huge problem. Just a small one that is germinating.

The time has come to discuss reasonable activities here in the Q&A without becoming imperialistic about it. LE's comments were definitely not trying to single you out to get you to step into line. It was about discussing how the community will grow and then overrun MM's time. If it feels that way to you, I'd like to make sure you understand that your volunteerism is valued and you are an important link between the readership and this site. In fact, all of you are.

You are definitely not guilty of anything. And you definitely don't need Mike's opinion or permission to post what you want, when you want. This is true for everyone. Please try your best to give Mike a shot at the question first, before it is buried in a thread that Mike may skip because it's too deep.

The Community Exchange forum is a place that is more viable for the unfettered thread crushing.

It's just a friendly request on my part, not some big rule structure. If we make a big THIS IS THE RULE structure, people will ignore the rules anyway. Then what? Suspensions? A rule like "Only post questions or comments" won't work at all.

That being said, maybe we should just get Mr. M's opinion on what he wants this forum to be. If he only wants questions, and doesn't want answers until he's had a chance to answer first, I say we do that. If he's happy the way it is, I say we stay the course and deal with future volume of users on a trial and error basis.

[dlackey]

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to come off as I was being singled out!!!

I'm just admitting that I am personally guilty of everything that LE pointed out, and am hoping we can come up with a constructive way of dealing with it.

Sorry about the misunderstanding. I don't feel targeted or anything.

:lol:

[Michael Moorcock]

Yes, the time could become a problem in future, but at the moment we seem to be working things out. Some of the threads I no longer need to answer. They might be better in the Forum, of course, but until there's a problem it's not something we need to address, I'd think. Maybe at some point certain threads could be shifted over to the Forum. The only time I lose is in looking at threads where by and large I'm no longer needed!

[Anonymous]

Is there any way of leaving an initial thread in Q&A but moving the follow up discussions into the Community Exchange? (If not technologically, then as an unspoken rule - people could post something like 'I'm taking this over to the community forum'). Doesn't seem to be an easy way to post links between threads.

[Whiskers]

Is there any way of leaving an initial thread in Q&A but moving the follow up discussions into the Community Exchange?

Yes. That's what I did with DL's announcement. I moved it, left a ghost topic here and it eventually dropped down below. It can be read over at the CE.

[McTalbayne]

Ya know what i love about this forum? The fact that ive never seen a real "Flame War". I think thats great that we all get along so well.