Not sure if anyone remembers me… I joined fairly close to the start but drifted off pretty fast. Nothing against FF; it’s a great place. I just have my own website that sucks up so much time and it’s hard for me to be active on others. But lately I’ve just been so frustrated by the fact that all anyone on my site wants to talk about is politics, if they post at all. It just passed its 4 year “birthday” and it’s still just limping along. Despite reading every article on Martin’s blog, I just can’t seem to get the hang of running a community.

When I see FF mentioned, I pop back in for a visit but then don’t stay, often don’t even log in. Part of it is lack of time and part is a bit of petty jealously, I think. Not something I’m proud of but, hey, I’m human. This time, though, I’m going to have a go at staying longer. I think I need to stop being jealous of the community and just enjoy it. Yeah, it sucks that I never managed to create it but that doesn’t mean I can’t go be a part of someone else’s.

So I’m gonna give this a shot and try to be active. We’ll see how it goes…

Michelle

Hey Michelle, nice to see you again. Apologies for not posting lately on your forum. I have had my hands full with son being very poorly lately, so I haven’t had time for much else.  I’m also running my own place which is doing ok. ! I did have a chat room but it wasn’t being used enough so I got rid of it. I’ll get it back when we have more members maybe. I do have a shoutbox though.

Anyway it’s great to have you back with us again. There are lots of new members here for you to meet and plenty of lively discussion going on. I know Martin will be pleased to see you back. Have fun. 

Hi Michelle

You must have been around before my time or….Im getting senile

I dont know your forum so I cant comment on that but of course getting it right is as much about the members as anything else.

I hope you will stay a while enjoy and let some positive vibes in….

Cass

Welcome back Michelle… I am smiling cos its so rare to hear someone being so honest… nice quality:)

@Souxi: Oh, no worries. It was nice of you to try to help out. I’m sorry to hear your son isn’t doing well. I hope whatever it is gets better soon. I followed the link in your profile and it looks like your place is is doing really well for having so few members! I don’t think I could commit to being active in another place right now but will keep it in mind if I get more free time.

@cassandra: Yeah, I joined in 2008, pretty much right after Martin announced it on his blog. But I drifted away pretty quickly and only came back sporadically after that. My forum is a local one, not likely of interest to anyone here. If anyone’s curious, it’s in my profile. I don’t link to it elsewhere on here because I don’t want to be spammy. And, yeah, it definitely is a lot about the members. I can’t seem to attract many members that share my vision of the forum. :(

@SocialGirl: Thanks. I’m just me online… No different than offline except I’m shyer offline. I prefer honesty because I have a bad memory and the truth is easier to keep track of.

Michelle

Hi Michelle
I had a look at your site ..Its really pretty.

I see you get a lot of the non-action I was talking about in my please read thread..I saw a lot of viewed 50 60 100+ but only 3 or 4 replies.
That gives me hope, it mean its not just me sending people to sleep! It seems to be the norm.

I thought for a fairly local site it was quite active , you should see our local neighbourhood website, its got tumbleweed. People only ever post to talk about lost cats its so hard to find a way to perk up something that dead.

Take comfort from the fact that at least your members post about stuff other than missing cats!

Maybe being here will re-charge your batteries a bit?

Oh, it had tumbleweed for quite a while. Then the *ahem* hit the fan. LOL! Wisconsin’s government went insane and the population soon followed. Then, while I was out of town for a week, another local forum, which is quite busy, shut down the general discussion forum because it was totally overrun with nasty posts. So all the refugees flocked to my site and it was a madhouse… While I was out of town with limited access. That was a bad time. Even when I came back, it was chaos and I didn’t do very well trying to handle it. It’s actually kind of crazy me trying to run a community considering I’m an introvert with social anxiety among other issues. Horrible fit. So, anyway, eventually one of the troublemakers got sick of the fact that I try to run a friendly forum and started his own site where anything goes and then a bunch went over there. Then one of them decided he didn’t like _that_ site, either, and started his own site. So it’s getting a bit fragmented and activity is way down on my site. But, then, so is the nastiness, so that’s ok.

At any rate, more viewers than posters is _definitely_ the norm. It’s not you! I’ve been on forums of one sort or another since around 1985 and have seen it again and again where you get a core group of active posters, a larger group of now and then posters, and a huge group of readers. Reading is easier than posting. Even when I’m active, I read more than I post. Not every topic is something where I have something to say. And sometimes I’m eating lunch or something where it’s much easier to read than to type. I may go back to a post later and comment if there’s something I _really_ want to say but, often, I never get back to it. I think, though, when I decide to be active on a forum I do make more of an effort simply because I know what it’s like to be on the other side, desperately wanting people to post and not being able to figure out why they don’t. It’s horribly frustrating to have people come and read the forum and then just leave and you don’t ever know why. Was it uninteresting? Offensive? Is there something you could change? Or is there nothing wrong and the person simply doesn’t like posting? No way to know because they don’t tell you. Drives me crazy. :(

Michelle

I’ve got friends involved in the protests going on in WI, such a sad story to listen to.

Hey, I just came back too!

Welcome back Katie